Deep Ford

Deep Ford. (Pawhuska). By 1760 the Osage of Missouri had increased their range to include present day Osage County. In 1835 the area was included in the "perpetual outlet west" guaranteed to the Cherokee Nation under the Treaty of New Echota. In 1870, under the Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866, the Osage began the process of purchasing approximately 1,500,000 acres in the Cherokee Outlet from the Cherokee Nation., The Osage returned from Kansas to Indian territory in 1871. Their proposed reservation was bordered on the east by the 96th meridian and comprised only about one-third as many acres as the present reservation. Agent Isaac Gibson located a new agency near the center of the proposed reservation on Rice Creek near Silver Lake, south of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The Cherokee tribe objected, but nevertheless perhaps six hundred Osage moved to Silver Lake, mistakenly led to believe by a special survey that it was west of the 96th meridian. The Cherokee fought for a new survey and it confirmed the 96th meridian was actually 3.5 miles west of the location set by the earlier survey., Many Osages had camped on Pond Creek in the present reserve. These were primarily the three independent Little Osage bands under Strike Axe. Isaac Gibson, Mahlon Stubbs (the Kaw Agent), and George Howland met with the Osages encamped on Pond Creek. They arranged for a general Osage meeting to be held at the Silver Lake Agency to determine a final home for the Osage., Seventy-five Osage leaders met with three commissioners from Washington in the afternoon of March 1, 1871. On the evening of March 4, the Osages requested a convening of the council. The council assembled and Governor Joe presented the commissioners with a document the Osages had prepared, saying in part that the Osages agreed to accept land west of the 96th meridian. A major purpose was the request to provide an outlet to the buffalo hunting grounds. Although the request was not granted, the purpose was achieved. The Osages were given the right of passage and the right to hunt buffalo as long as there were buffalo to hunt. Agreement was reached the next day and the Osages had their new reserve assured., In May of 1872, the Osages relocated to their new agency. The site was selected by the chiefs near Bird Creek (originally named Deep Ford but later changed to Pawhuska). Much like the Silver Lake village, Pawhuska was centrally located in the reservation. The Osage reservation boundary was finalized in 1875 when the Kaw, or Kansa, acquired approximately one hundred thousand acres in the reservation's northwest corner. Osage Reservation was part of Oklahoma Territory under the Organic Act of 1890 and was made a semiautonomous district by the Enabling Act of 1906., Captions , (Photo #1) Osage Delegation 1873 , Standing L-R: Sam Bevenue (Osage), White Hair (Osage), Saucy Chief (Osage), No-pa-wala (Osage), Enoch Hoag (Superintendent of Indian Affairs), Che-to-pa (Osage), Big Elk (Osage), Isaac Gibson (U.S. Indian Agent), Sitting middle row L-R: Taw-wan-ge-he (Osage), Ke-neu-in-ka (Osage), Kon-se-ah-le (Osage), Ne-kah-ke-ka-ne (Osage), George Beaver (Osage), Sitting front row L-R: Augustus Captain (Osage/French), Strike Axe (Osage), Mo-Shon-Ko-She (Osage), Lame Doctor (Osage), Burns, L. (2004). The Osage Empire. In A History of The Osage People (New ed., p. 576). Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press.