Osage Indian Treaty, about Kansas - 1868

Native American, Osage

First Edition

[Native American] [Americana] Osage Indian Treaty. [Wahsington, D.C.]: Ordered to be printed by the House of Representatives, 40th Congress, 2nd Session, June 18 1868. Rare: only four copies in any library or institution nationwide, per OCLC Worldcat, as of April 2022. Measures 5.5” x 9.5” inches. 23 pages. Looseleaf, with no evidence of binding. “This treaty, in substance, relinquishes by the said Osage Indians an exceedingly valuable tract of land lying in Southern Kansas, amounting to 8,000,000 acres [...] there are also charges before your committee that the Osages were improperly influenced to consent to the signing of said treaty; that they were very reluctant to execute it, and that at no time, before or since its execution, were they satisfied to sell their lands at such a price or upon such securities…” A fascinating record of how the United States expanded into indigenous lands. The Osage people resided at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers; by the early 19th century, the Osage had become the dominant power in the region, feared by neighboring tribes. The missionary Isaac McCoy described the Osage as an "uncommonly fierce, courageous, warlike nation" and said they were the "finest looking Indians I have ever seen in the West.” US treaties throughout the 1860s such as this one, however, reduced the lands of the Osage in Kansas and caused widespread resource strain. Pages clean. In very good condition and rare.

Item #17971

Price: $175.00