Chouteau

The Osage Massacre

When the treaty council with the Osage at Fort Gibson broke up in disagreement on April 2, 1833, three hundred Osage warriors under the leadership of Clermont departed for the west to attack the Kiowa. It was Clermont’s boast that he never made war on the whites and never made peace with his Indian enemies. At the Salt Plains where the Indians obtained their salt, within what is now Woodward County, Oklahoma, they fell upon the trail of a large party of Kiowa warriors going northeast toward the Osage towns above Clermont’s. The Osage immediately adapted their course to that pursued by their enemies following it back to what they knew would be the defenseless village of women, children, and old men left behind by the warriors. The objects of their cruel vengeance were camped at the mouth of Rainy-Mountain Creek, a southern tributary of the Washita, within the present limits of the reservation at Fort Sill.

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Governor Houston’s Life Among the Indians

The year following his failure to secure the contract, Houston spent writing letters defending his acts and denouncing the officials who had been discharged. In addition to the Indian officials, he poured his wrath and denunciation on Colonel Hugh Love, a trader on the Verdigris whom Houston accused of being in league with the Indian Agent to rob the Creeks; Love replied to Houston with some spirited charges against the latter. Stung by the contents of an article appearing in a Nashville paper, in a burst of passion Houston gave to the press of Nashville a most intemperate letter, July 13, 1831, beginning:

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Governor Houston at His Trading Post on the Verdigris

In February, 1828, the vanguard of Creek immigrants arrived at the Creek Agency on the Verdigris, in charge of Colonel Brearley, and they and the following members of the McIntosh party were located on a section of land that the Government promised in the treaty of 1826 to purchase for them. By the treaty of May 6, 1828, the Government assigned the Cherokee a great tract of land, to which they at once began to remove from their homes in Arkansas. The movement had been under way for some months when there appeared among the Indians the remarkable figure of Samuel Houston. The biographers of Houston have told the world next to nothing of his sojourn of three or four years in the Indian country, an interesting period when he was changing the entire course of his life and preparing for the part he was to play in the drama of Texas.

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Treaty of October 11, 1842

1842, October 11. Treaty with the Confederated tribes of Sauk and Fox at the agency of the Sauk and Fox Indians in the Territory of Iowa. Schedule of debts annexed. Resolution of Senate, February 15, 1843. Ratification of President, March 23, 1843. The confederated tribes of Sacs and Foxes cede to the U. S. all the lands W. of the Mississippi river to which they have any claim or title. The Indians reserve a right to occupy for three years from the signing of this treaty all that part of the land above ceded which lies W. of a line running due N. and S. from the painted or red rocks on the White Breast fork of the Des Moines river, which rocks will be found about 8 miles in a straight line from the junction of the White Breast with the Des Moines. Upon ratification of this treaty the U. S. agree to assign a tract of land suitable and convenient for Indian purposes to the Sacs and Foxes for a permanent home for them and their descendants, which tract shall be upon the Missouri river or some of its waters.

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Western Garrison Life

Grant Foreman describes the early life in a Western Garrison; providing insights on some of the traders in the region, the deaths of Seaton, Armstrong, Wheelock and Izard, all soldiers obviously familiar to him. But he also shares the story of the elopement of Miss Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of General Taylor, to Lieutenant Jefferson Davis… yes, THAT Jefferson Davis.

An interesting section of the chapter are the references to the punishments inflicted upon the soldiers in the event of their disobedience.

Painted by Catlin in 1834, the picture attached is of Clermont, chief of the Osage Tribe. Clermont is painted in full length, wearing a fanciful dress, his leggings fringed with scalp-locks, and in his hand his favorite and valued war-club.

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Treaty of August 24, 1835

Treaty with the Comanche and Witchetaw Indians and their associated Bands. For the purpose of establishing and perpetuating peace and friendship between the United States of America and the Comanche and Witchetaw nations, and their associated bands or tribes of Indians, and between these nations or tribes, and the Cherokee, Muscogee, Choctaw, Osage, Seneca and

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