Osage Village State Historic Site
Encyclopedia
Osage Village State Historic Site in Vernon County, Missouri
, is maintained by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources
as a state historic site
. It was once the site of around 200 lodges and the home of 2,000 to 3,000 people.
At its height, the village contained 2,000 to 3,000 people and about 200 lodges. Pottery, weapons and tools excavated from the site have provided information about the daily lives of the villagers, who hunted, planted crops, processed hides and were very successful traders with the Europeans. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Osage Indians accounted for more than half of the total trade in furs along the Missouri River.
After the United States government took control of the Louisiana Purchase territory in 1804, the Osage Indians were gradually forced to retreat to Oklahoma. Through excavations they obtained information that demonstrated the shape of the house, which was rectangular.
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, is maintained by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Missouri Department of Natural Resources
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources of the government of the U.S. state of Missouri consists of the Division of Environmental Quality, the Division of Geology and Land Survey, the Division of State Parks, the Environmental and Energy Resources Authority, and the Field Services Division....
as a state historic site
Historic site
A historic site is an official location where pieces of political, military or social history have been preserved. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have recognized with the official national historic site status...
. It was once the site of around 200 lodges and the home of 2,000 to 3,000 people.
History
The Osage Indians were first recorded in 1673 by explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette. The territory claimed by the Osage at its greatest influence was vast and consisted of what is now southern Missouri, Arkansas, eastern Kansas and Oklahoma. Between 1700 and 1775, a group of the Osage lived on a high, open hilltop near the Osage River valley that today has been preserved as Osage Village State Historic Site.At its height, the village contained 2,000 to 3,000 people and about 200 lodges. Pottery, weapons and tools excavated from the site have provided information about the daily lives of the villagers, who hunted, planted crops, processed hides and were very successful traders with the Europeans. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Osage Indians accounted for more than half of the total trade in furs along the Missouri River.
After the United States government took control of the Louisiana Purchase territory in 1804, the Osage Indians were gradually forced to retreat to Oklahoma. Through excavations they obtained information that demonstrated the shape of the house, which was rectangular.
See also
- Osage NationOsage NationThe Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
- List of Missouri state park and historic sites