Date of Award
4-2005
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
First Advisor
Judith G. Shaw
Keywords
Indians of North America, Great Plains Indians, Native Americans, Osage Indians, Cultural Assimilation, Osage Indians History
Abstract
The Osage Indians are not often thought of when the fur trade is mentioned. However, this powerful tribe lived near the Missouri River from the beginning of the North American fur trade in the 1600s until its end in the 1840s. They were the tribe that the French, Spanish, and Americans were forced to deal with and appease in order to reach their goal of dominating the fur trade. Each country dealt differently with the tribe. The French adopted a friendly policy of assimilating with the tribe and making them partners in the fur trade business. The Spanish kept many of the French policy but they chose not to assimilate with the tribe and tried unsuccessfully to control the tribe. The British were completely unsuccessful with gaining strong fur trading ties with the Osage. They met French and Spanish opposition which kept them away from the tribe. However, the British were successful in their dealing with the other tribes in the fur trade. After the colonist won their Independence from England, America would inherit the problems of dealing with the American Indians. In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase would include the Osage Indians homelands. America acquired the fertile land that was rich in fur bearing animals. The Corps of Discovery resulted in expanding American trading posts on the Missouri River and meeting the American Indian tribes living on the land purchased by the United States. However, their friendly attitude shifted when co-existence between whites and American Indians became difficult. Instead, a policy of forced removal and treaties resulted. The Americans would be responsible for gaining all of their land through treaties and pushing them onto reservations, first in Kansas and finally in Oklahoma.
The once strong and sovereign Osage tribe would live under the rule of three different flags. At times they benefited from their positional advantage and competing imperial rivals in the form of gifts and escaping punishment for their misdeeds. Other times, they would be on the losing side when a stronger nation desired their land. Each decade of contact with foreign nations brought in a new wave of cultural destruction of the tribe. The decrease in tribal population and loss of their traditional lifestyle and culture resulted. From the early rise of the fur trade, Europeans exposed the tribe to trade goods, horses, guns, alcohol, religion, and disease. The European struggle for dominance in the fur trade put the Osages in direct contact with an alien culture that would change their way of life forever.
Recommended Citation
Hess, Heather R., "WAVES OF DESTRUCTION: THE FRENCH, SPANISH, AND AMERICANS STRUGGLE TO DOMINATE THE FUR TRADE IN THE OSAGE INDIANS HOMELAND AND THE IMPACT ON THE TRIBE, 1673-1873" (2005). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 526.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/526
Comments
Pages 56 and 68 are missing from this thesis.