The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1926-04-15
Romance Of the
0sa9es and Oil
Rx ELMo scoTT WATSON

p s1111P~ Ii b N ALEXANDER
!. !: !. !. :. J: ! ! !
POPE; some two hum
dred years ago, wrote
N ~ the lines 10, the poor
MW W indiana whose untu-
TIA tored mind sees God
in clouds. or hears him
= in the wind; he little
realized that he was
giving to the English language an ex-
preston which was to become clas-
sic Characterization of a whole race
of men. For American sentimentality
has made "Poor Lo" and Indian"
synonymous terms, seemingly uncon-
scious of the ironical fact that it has
been the American people-the white
usurpers of the land occupied by the
original Americans-who are princi-
pally responsible for the poor half
Of the expression.
SO Poor Lo" became a part of our
currency of speech until the modern
history of the Usage Indians seeming
ly proved the falsity of this as of
many of our other ''rubber-stamp"
expressions. But recent developments
down in the Usage country in Okla
hOma, where oil wells have been pour
ing a golden stream of material
wealth into the laps of these Indians,
now suggest that perhaps the Poor
10" designation is not so inappropri-
ate after all. For the Osages' mil
lions have brought death to some of
them and sorrow to the others in the
realization that they have yet much
to learn of the bitter lesson of the
white mans greed.
The Dosage MURDERS" which have
occupied so much space in the news
papers lately, have APPLY been called
lone of the blacklist chapters in the
history of the white mans dealings
with the American Indian They are
the result of what appears to be the
effort of a well-organized band of men
to destroy with bullet, poison and
bomb the heirs to some of the Osages'
rich oil lands. This effort already has
resulted in nearly score of murders,
and government officials who are in
vestigating the case predict even more
sensational disclosures as their case
against the men already indicted for
the crime develops
In thus centering the attention of
the nation upon this tribe of Indians,
whose sudden rise to wealth within
the last decade has kept them con-
stantly in the limelight, these muir
ders serve to recall some of the early
history of the Osages which, in con-
trast to their later peaceful record,
was one of much war and bloodshed.
The naple Usage is a corruption by
the French of Wazhazhe, their name
for themselves. The Wazhazhe, or
Osages, were the most important
southern Siouan tribe of the western
division, and their original home was
along the Ohio river. But In the con-
slant shifting of Indian population on
account of tribal wars and the no
madic traits of the red men, they
eventually crossed the Mississippi
probably about 1900 A. d.
The first mention of the Osages in
written history is in Father Mar
quettes map Of 1673 which shows
them located along the Usage river in
Kansas and Missouri. In 1901 her
vile, another French explorer, found
them living near the Arkansas river,
and he numbers them at 1900 to l.
500. In 1714 they were helping the
French defeat the Foxe Indians at
Detroit, and three years later the tribe
received its first official visit from the
French. Du Tisne, a French officer,
visited part of the tribe which was
then living along the Usage river, and
records the fact that this village had
100 cabins and 200 warriors.
All of the early French travellers
comment upon the warlike qualities of
the Osages who were the inyeterate
enemies of the great Illini confed-
eracy and who were held in terror
by the Caddoan tribes of the south
west. Although they were constantly