1922] SKINNER, AN OSAGE WAR PARTY 165 



Eagle Woman had until now but one purpose in her journey down 

 the river. Now, however, she gave the command and her companions 

 bent to the paddles for the remaining eighty miles down stream to 

 Fort Bennett. 



Arrived at the fort. Eagle Woman made her way first to the com- 

 mandant, where the plight of the captives was quickly told. A relief 

 expedition, not of troops, but of seven or eight friendly Indians was 

 immediately fitted out with presents and goods and was placed in charge 

 of Swift Eagle. In the party were also such men as Little No Heart 

 and Four Bear (Mahto Topa).-- They went to the camp of White 

 Lodge and bartered for the four captives. At last, when they had given 

 everything they had, except two ponies, the deal was closed and the un- 

 fortunate women were released and conducted by the friendlies, back 

 to Fort Bennett. 



The "Little Chief" now rests in peace in the land of his forefathers, 

 so also does the brave Eagle Woman, and there now stands on the site 

 of White Lodge's camp, a shaft to commemorate this event and in 

 honor of Eagle M^oman, whose prompt action saved these four innocent 

 white captives. 



AN OSAGE WAR PARTY 



By Alanson Skinner23 



It was a hot July da}' in 1914, and from where we sat under our 

 bough arbor, we could see great clouds of sand rising, swirling, and 

 drifting along before a scorching west wind in the "bottoms" of the 

 Cimmaron river, scarcely half a mile away. A horned toad was bask- 

 ing in the Oklahoma sunshine not twenty feet from our bower, and the 

 blue flowers of the cotton looked like clustering stars above the blood 

 red clay in the fields beyond. David Towhee, the last chief of the 

 loways, stretched his enormous bulk beside me and snored peacefully, 

 but Joe Springer, the interpreter, and I, were too hot to doze. The 

 following story is reproduced verbatim in the typical Oklahoma English 

 of the interpreter: 



"I never did like those Osages, me," said Joe suddenly, apropos of 

 nothing at all. "You never can make peace with them. You know 

 every one of their clans has what they call a wahobi, a war-bundle, but 

 they don't use it just to make war and defend themselves like us loways. 



^-All these men were later awarded congressional medals for their services. 

 ^^Curator of Anthropology, Milwaukee Public Museum. 



