BULL. SO] 



OSAGE 



157 



eastward. Beginning at this entrance 

 the arrangement of gentes is as follows: 

 Tsishu gentes (from e. to w. ): 1, Tsishu- 

 sintsakdln'; 2, Tsedtukaindtse; 3, Minkin; 

 4, Tsishuwashtake; 5, Haninihkashina; 

 6, Tsetduka; 7, Kdhnn. Hangka gentes 

 (from E. to w. ): 8, Washashewanun; 9, 

 Hangkautadhantsi; 10, Panhkawashtake; 

 11, Hangkaahutun; 12, Wasapetun; 13, 

 Upkhan; 14, Kanse. 



The gentile organization appears to 

 have been very similar to that of the 

 Omaha and other southern tribes of this 

 division, involving paternal descent, pro- 

 hibition of marriage in the gentes of both 

 father and mother, and probably gentile 

 taboos. The functions of the various 

 gentes were also differentiated to a cer- 

 tain extent. Matters connected with war 

 were usually undertaken by the war 

 gentes and peace-making by the peace 

 gentes, while it was the duty of the chief 

 of the Tsishuwashtake gens to defend 

 any foeman who might slip into the 

 camp-circle and appeal to him for protec- 

 tion. The Tsishu gentes are also said to 

 have had the care and naming of chil- 

 dren. Heralds were chosen from certain 

 special gentes, and certain others monopo- 

 lized the manufacture of moccasins, war 

 standards, and war pipes. On the death 

 of a head-chief the leading man called a 

 council and named four candidates, from 

 whom the final selection was made. 

 Seven appears as a sacred number in the 

 social organization of the Osage, but from 

 the war and other customs of the tribe it 

 appears that the sacred ceremonial num- 

 ber was usually four (Dorsey in Am. Nat., 

 Feb. 1884). 



The first historical notice of the Osage 

 appears to be on Marquette's autograph 

 map of 1673, which locates tliem aj)- 

 parently on Osage r., and there they are 

 plat-ed by all subsequent writers until 

 their removal westward in the 19th cen- 

 tury. Douay (1686) assigns them 17 

 villages, but these must have been notic- 

 ing more than hunting camps, for Father 

 Jacques Gravier, in a letter written in 

 1694 from the Illinois mission, speaks of 

 but one, and later writers agree with 

 his statement, though it must l>e under- 

 stood as applying only to the Great 

 Osage. Gravier interviewed two Osage 

 and two Missouri chiefs who had come 

 to make an alliance with the Illinois, 

 and says of them: "The O.sage and 

 Missouri do not appear to be so quick- 

 witted as the Illinois; their language 

 does not seem very difficult. The former 

 do not open their lips and the latter 

 speak still more from the throat than 

 they" (Jes. Rel., lxiv, 171, 1900). 

 Iberville in 1701 (Margry, Dec, iv, 599, 

 1880) mentions a tribe of 1,200 to 1,500 

 families living in the region of Arkansas 

 r., near the Kansa and the Missouri, 



and, like these, speaking a language that 

 he took to be Quapaw. The name of 

 this tribe through errors in copying and 

 printing became Crevas, but the descrip- 

 tion indicates the Osage. In 1714 they 

 assisted the French in defeating the 

 Foxes at Detroit. Although visits of 

 traders were evidently quite common be- 

 fore 1719, the first official French visit 

 appears to have been in that year by Du 

 Tisne, who learned that their village on 

 Osage r. then contained 100 cabins and 

 200 warriors. The village of the Missouri 

 was higher up, and a short distance s. w. 

 of the latter was another Osage village 

 which from later maps is shown to have 

 heenoccn]iied by the Little Osage. Then, 



OSAGE MA\ 



as always, the tribe was at war with most 

 of the surrounding peoples, and La Harpe 

 witnesses to the terror in which they were 

 held by the Caddoan tribes. The Illinois 

 were also inveterate enemies, though at 

 one time, when driven w. of the INlissis- 

 sippi by the Iroquois, they fled to the 

 Osage for protection. Charlevoix met a 

 party of Osage at the Kaskaskia village 

 on Oct. 20, 1721. Regarding them he 

 wrote: ' ' They depute some of their people 

 once or twice every year to sing the calu- 

 met among the Kaskasquias, and they are 

 now actually here at present." The 

 French officer Bossu met some Osage at 

 Cahokia (q. v.) in 1756. About 1802, 

 according to Lewis and Clark, nearly half 



