46 



THE OSAGE TRIBE 



lETlI. ANN. 36 



associatoil with the Osage, but the Poncas did not have friendly 

 intercourse witli tliem until their removal from Nebraska to the 

 Indian Territory in the late seventies, and it is only within the last 

 five or six years that the Omahas came into close touch with them. 

 Owing to the similarity of the languages the Omaha, Ponca, and 

 Osagos liutl little chfllcidty in understanding each other. 



The Osage tribp is rapidly approaching extinction, not by death 

 but by absorption into the white race. The census taken by the 



"Shlctock 



Tuka 



KiG. 1.— Map of Osage county, Oklahoma (1920), showing locations of the villages of the Pa-?iu'-gthi° 

 Co"-dse-u'-gthi», and the Wa-xa'-ga-u-gthio in tho present Osage reservation. In EngUsh these names 

 are: Dwellers-on-the-Hilltop, Dwellers-in-the-Forcst, and Dwellers-in-tlie-Tliorn5--Thickct. 



agent in 1910 shows that out of the 2,100 pereons enrolled as Osages 

 only 825 are full-bloods, l)ut it is stated by rehable authority that 

 many of those counted as full-bloods are mixed-bloods. The Census 

 Bureau in its rei)ort on tlie Indian P()j)ulation in the United States 

 and Alaska for 1910 (p. 145) gives the entire population of the Osage 

 tribe as 1,373 and that of the full-bloods as 591. Along with the 

 j)rocess of absorption is also carried the gradual obsolescence of the 

 language. Most of the people can speak English, but in their con- 

 versation they prefer to use the native language. Tliis, however, 

 offers only a feeble resistance and will in time pass away. Many of 



