Rise and Fall of the Osage Empire - Clifton City, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 45.743 W 093° 02.456
15S E 496443 N 4290409
The Greater and Lesser Osage tribes, with others, roamed these plains...then driven to a small desolate reservation...
Waymark Code: WM124W2
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 02/28/2020
Views: 0
County of marker: Cooper County
Location of marker: MO-BB, Katy Trail State Park Trailhead, Clifton City
Marker erected: 2010
Marker erected by: Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Marker Text: Rise and Fall of the Osage Empire
This border area between the Ozarks and Osage Plains once belonged to the Osage Nation. Osage lands included southern Missouri, eastern Kansas, and northern Arkansas and Oklahoma.
The Osage maintained their stronghold for several centuries, witnesses to the coming and going of the French, Spanish and first wave of American settlers in the early 1800s.
~ Prairie Power
Spain and France governed their North American territories with small militaries, so the Osage remained the regional power. Thanks to their large population and central location in the fur trade in the 1700s, the Osage controlled the flow of firearms and dominated their Indian rivals with superior weaponry.
Missouri provided a resource-rich landscape in its prairies, rivers and woodlands. While men hunted, Osage women cultivated corn, beans, squash and pumpkins, and gathered wild foods.
~ Fort Osage and Osage Mission
Fort Osage on the Missouri River opened in 1808 as fort and trading post. The fort established an American presence in the new Louisiana Territory, and the post, run by George Sibley, encouraged the Osage to trade furs there.
Though an important early trade center, Fort Osage lost influence as other trading posts sprang up. Harmony Mission, founded in 1821 by the United Foreign Missionary Society of New York about eight miles from Osage villages in southwest Missouri, tried with limited success to steer the Osage away from their semi-nomadic communal life toward Christianity and sedentary farm life.
~ Treaties
Converging events forced the Osage into an impossible situation. American settlers coveted the natural resources of Osage lands. From the west, the Osage were harassed by Comanche, Kiowa, and others, and the tribe was severely weakened by smallpox and measles epidemics. In the 1808 Fire Prairie treaty, the Osage lost all Missouri and Arkansas lands except for a narrow strip on the western border.