Who Are the Osage?
The Osage (Wazhazhe, "Ones from the Middle Waters") are a Dhegihan Siouan-speaking people originally inhabiting the Missouri and Osage River valleys, today numbering approximately 20,000 enrolled members in the **Osage Nation** of Oklahoma. A powerful nation controlling trade across the lower Missouri region through the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Osage were forced to cede their vast homeland and relocate to Kansas, then Oklahoma. In a twist of fate, their Oklahoma reservation sat atop the Burbank Oil Field—making the Osage the wealthiest people per capita in the world by the 1920s. This wealth triggered the **Osage Reign of Terror**: a conspiracy of murder by whites seeking Osage oil money, documented in David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon and Martin Scorsese's 2023 film adaptation.
Warriors of the Prairie
The Osage were among the most formidable peoples of the prairie-plains borderland. Tall and powerfully built—European observers frequently noted their impressive physical stature—the Osage dominated a territory spanning present-day Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. They controlled key trade routes, extracting tribute from traders and maintaining military superiority over neighboring peoples. The Osage society divided into two moieties: **Tzi-zho** (Sky People) and **Hunkah** (Earth People), each containing clans with specific ceremonial responsibilities. The division reflected cosmic dualism: sky and earth, war and peace, summer and winter. Chiefs came from the Hunkah; peace chiefs mediated disputes while war chiefs led raids against enemies including the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache. French alliance brought guns that enhanced Osage power, while American expansion eventually forced multiple treaty cessions that reduced their vast homeland to Kansas territory, then finally to Oklahoma.
The Oil Boom and "Headrights"
When the Osage were removed to Oklahoma in 1872, they made a crucial decision: unlike other tribes whose land was allotted to individuals, the Osage purchased their reservation and maintained collective ownership of mineral rights. When oil was discovered in the early 1900s, royalties were divided among tribal members holding **"headrights"**—shares in the communal mineral estate. By the 1920s, the Osage were receiving millions of dollars annually; individual families became fabulously wealthy, owning mansions, automobiles, and luxuries that attracted nationwide attention. This wealth also attracted predators. The federal government imposed "guardians" on Osage deemed "incompetent" to manage their own money—a system rife with corruption and theft. Worse, whites married into Osage families, then murdered their spouses and in-laws to inherit headrights. The **Osage Reign of Terror** (1921-1926) killed at least 60 Osage, possibly hundreds, in a systematic conspiracy that only ended when the newly-formed FBI investigated, leading to convictions of ringleader William Hale and others.
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Osage murders remained largely forgotten until David Grann's 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon and Martin Scorsese's 2023 film brought the story to millions. The book documents how Ernest Burkhart married Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman, as part of his uncle William Hale's plot to accumulate headrights through murder. Mollie's mother and three sisters were all killed; Mollie herself was slowly poisoned. The conspiracy involved doctors, lawyers, and businessmen—an entire community complicit in murdering their wealthy Native neighbors. The case helped establish the FBI's reputation, though the Bureau's narrative centered white agents rather than Osage victims and survivors. For the Osage, the Reign of Terror represents not ancient history but living memory: virtually every Osage family lost relatives to the murders. Osage descendants served as consultants on the film, insisting their ancestors' stories be told with dignity. The film's success brought renewed attention to both historical injustice and contemporary Osage resilience.
Contemporary Osage Nation
The **Osage Nation**, headquartered in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, adopted a new constitution in 2006—the first tribe to do so under self-governance compacting—creating a three-branch government. The mineral estate remains separate, managed by the Osage Minerals Council for headright holders. Oil production has declined, but the tribe has diversified into gaming, ranching, and other enterprises. Culturally, the Osage maintain the **In-Lon-Schka** dances—ceremonial dances held in three districts each June, featuring traditional dress and songs that survived government suppression. The Osage language is critically endangered with approximately 5-20 elderly fluent speakers, though immersion programs work to teach new generations. Notable Osage include ballerinas **Maria and Marjorie Tallchief** (sisters who became prima ballerinas), astronaut **John Herrington** (first enrolled tribal member in space), and numerous artists, scholars, and leaders. The Osage experience encapsulates indigenous survival: from powerful nation to dispossession to targeted murder to cultural renaissance, the Wazhazhe persist.
References
- Grann, D. (2017). Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. Doubleday.
- Mathews, J. J. (1961). The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters. University of Oklahoma Press.
- Burns, L. F. (2004). A History of the Osage People. University of Alabama Press.
- Rollings, W. H. (1992). The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains. University of Missouri Press.