42 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



OSAGE, OR WA SAW -SEE. 



[Osages, great and little bands. Laws of United States and Indian Bureau, 



June, 1885.] 



A tribe in their primitive state, inhabiting the headwaters of the Arkansas and 

 Neosho or Grand Rivers, 700 miles west of the Mississippi. Present number of the tribe 

 [in 1834] 5,200, residing in three villages; wigwams built of barks and flags, or 

 reeds. The Osages are the tallest men on the continent, the most of them being over 

 six feet in stature, and many of them seven. This tribe shave the head, leaving a 

 small tuft on the top, called the " scalp-lock." — G. C. 



Mr. Oatlin visited the Osages, near Fort Gibson, as above, in 1834, 

 accompanying the First Eegiment United States Dragoons, Colonel 

 Henry Dodge, in their tour on the prairies. 



29. Cler-mont, ; first chief of the tribe; with his war-club in his hand 



and his leggings fringed with scalp-locks taken from his enemies' heads. 

 Painted in 1834. 



(Plate No. 150, page 41, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 

 This man is a son of the old and celebrated chief of that name, who died a few years 

 since. Painted in 1834. 



30. Wah-chee-te, ; woman and child; wife of Cler-mdnt. Painted in 



1836. 



(Plate No. 151, page 41, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 

 She was richly dressed in costly clothes of civilized manufacture which is almost a 

 solitary instance amongst the Osages. 



31. Tchong-tas-sab-bee, the Black Dog; second chief of the Osages; with his pipe 



in one hand and tomahawk in the other; head shaved, and ornamented 

 with a crest made of the deer's tail, colored red. Painted in 1834. 

 This is the largest man in the Osage Nation, and blind in his left eye. 



(Plate No. 152, page 42, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 

 Among the chiefs of the Osages, and probably the next in authority and respect in 

 the tribe, is Tchong-tas-s^b-bee (the Black Dog), Plate No. 152 (No. 31), whom 1 

 painted at full length, and with his pipe in one hand and his tomahawk in the other; 

 his head shaved, and ornamented with a beautiful crest of deer's hair, and his body 

 wrapped in a huge Mackinaw blanket. This dignitary, who is blind in the left eye, 

 is one of the most conspicuous characters in all this country, rendered so by his large 

 size (standing in height and girth above all of his tribe), as well as by his extraordi- 

 nary life. His height, I think, is seven feet, and his limbs full and rather fat, 

 weighing perhaps some 250 or 300 pounds. — 1836, George Catlin, page 42, vol. 2, Cat- 

 lin's Eight Years. 



J. M. Stanley visited the Osages in 1843. They were then living ad- 

 joining the Cherokees, and about where Mr. Oatlin found them in 1831. 

 He painted Black Dog. In his catalogue, Smithsonian Institution, 1852, 

 Part No. 53, on page 42, is the following description of this chief: 



Techong-ta-saba, or Black Dog (painted 1843). — Principal chief of the Osages. A 

 man 6 feet 6 inches in height and well proportioned, weighing some 250 pounds, 

 aud rather inclined to corpulency. He is blind of one eye. He is celebrated 

 more for his feats in war than as a counselor; his opinions are, however, sought 

 in ail matters of importance appertaining to the welfare of his people. The name 

 Black Dog was given to him from a circumstance which happened some years since, 



