Fort scott oklahoma

Ft scott national historic site kansas Representing a military fort of the s, much of Fort Scott's story focuses on the role of the U. Army on the frontier. The site interprets the s era with interpretive exhibits, period furnishings, and living history programs that include soldiers drilling on horseback and artillery demonstrations. The site preserves 20 historic structures, eleven of which are original buildings, the others are reconstructions built on the original foundations. The site is furnished to the s era, but the story told here encompasses three decades of American history.

Warriors of the Woods and Prairies

Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Osage Indians roamed a vast domain in the heart of North America (Ancestral Lands Map). Although the Osage were a proud and powerful tribe, they could not withstand the pressure of European civilization.

Soon after French fur trappers established contact with the Osages in the s, their way of life began to change.

Children of the Middle Waters

A spiritual people, the Osage Indians were excellent hunters and fierce warriors. Their religious beliefs were based on Wah-kon-tah, the great mystery spirit or power.

In one creation legend, the Osages believed that the People of the Sky (Tzi-sho) met with the People of the Earth (Hun-Kah) to form one tribe, the Children of the Middle Waters (Nee Oh-kah-shkahn). Living in semipermanent villages primarily along the Osage River, the Osage Indians roamed the land between three great rivers, the Missouri to the north, the Mississippi to the east, and the Arkansas to the south.

Their western boundary stretched into the windswept plains where they hunted buffalo.

Osage Lifestyle

Before Europeans came to the Americas, Osages obtained food by hunting, gathering, and farming.

Ft scott national historic site kansas city Named after General Winfield Scott , who achieved renown during the Mexican—American War , during the middle of the 19th century the fort served as a military base for US Army action in what was the edge of settlement in For the next quarter century, it was used as a supply base and to provide security in turbulent areas during the opening of the West to settlement, a period which included Bleeding Kansas and the American Civil War. The current national historic site protects 20 historic structures, a parade ground, and five acres 20, m 2 of restored tallgrass prairie , inside the city of Fort Scott. It is open to visitors most days of the year. It was established to provide protection to the rapidly increasing number of settlers, who were migrating from the Eastern United States.

Osages hunted wild game such as bison, elk and deer. There were two bison hunts a year, one in the summer and one in the fall. The goal of the summer hunt was to obtain meat and fat. The purpose of the fall hunt was to obtain food, but also to get the thick winter coats of the bison for making robes, moccasins, leggings, breechcloths, and dresses.

Although only the men hunted, the women did the work of butchering and preparing the meat, and tanning the hides.

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Descriptions of the Osages

George Catlin

The famous Indian artist, George Catlin, captured several Osage Indians on canvas at Fort Gibson in He stated: “The Osages have been formerly, and until quite recently, a powerful and warlike tribe: carrying all their arms fearlessly through to all these realms; and ready to cope with foes of any kind that they were liable to meet.

Ft scott national historic site kansas state

Promises made and broken! Who deserves to be free? The fight for freedom! Soldiers fighting settlers! Each of these stories is a link in the chain of events that encircled Fort Scott from

At present, the case is quite different; they have been repeatedly moved and jostled along, …” He noted that despite their reduction in numbers caused by every tribal move, war and smallpox, the Osages waged war on the Pawnee and Comanche. Catlin believed the Osages “ to be the tallest race of men in North America, either red or white skins; there being few indeed of the men at their full growth, who are less than six feet in stature, and very many of them six and a half, and others seven feet.”

Louis Cortambert

In , Louis Cortambert, a French writer, observed that the Osage men “ carefully pull the hairs from their faces, even their eyebrows, and shave their heads, leaving on the top a tuft of hair, which terminates in back in a pigtail.”

Victor Tixier

In , a young Frenchman named Victor Tixier described the Osages: “The men are tall and perfectly proportioned.

They have at the same time all the physical qualities which denote skill and strength combined with graceful movements.”The Osages loved to decorate themselves, often suspending beads and bones from their ears and tattooing their bodies, Tixler observed: “Their ears, slit by knives, grow to be enormous, and they hang low under the weight of the ornaments with which they are laden.”

Osage Relocation

The ancestral home of the Osage was part of the immense Louisiana Purchase that the United States acquired in Missouri achieved statehood in , and soon after over 5, Osage were removed west to the 'Indian Territory'.

Other Native American tribes from the eastern U.S. were also relocated west of the Missouri and Arkansas boundaries.

National memorial It was among nine forts originally planned to line the area between the Great Lakes and New Orleans to separate proposed Indian lands and white settlements. When the fort was established in , the nation was still young and mainly confined to the area east of the Mississippi River. As a young America grew, settlers hungry for land forced American Indians west of the Mississippi River. When they arrived in this area, tribes were guaranteed land where white settlement would be forbidden. The fort was home to infantry soldiers and the dragoons, an elite unit of troops trained to fight on horseback and foot.

Federal troops were stationed in this “Permanent Indian Territory” to keep the peace. After Kansas opened for settlement in , many Native American Tribes were again relocated. Like other tribes, their ancestral way of life was not compatible with the white man’s way of life. By , encroachment from American settlers forced the Osage Tribe to relinquish most of their remaining ancestral homelands and relocate to their present reservation in Oklahoma (Ceded Lands Map).

Suggested Reading

  • A History of the Osage People, by Louis F.

    Burns.

  • The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters, by John Joseph Matthews.
  • Osage Life and Legends, by Robert Liebert North American Indians (Vols. 1 and 2), by George Catlin
  • Tixler's Travels on the Osage Prairies, by John Francis McDermott
  • The Imperial Osages, by Gilbert C. Din and A.B.

    Nasatir.

  • Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann.

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