Osage Nation

Background

Osage leaders kept control of the subsurface mineral estate when the land was allotted in 1906. The Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office traces the ancestral Dhegiha peoples to the Ohio River valley and places the Osage in central and western Missouri by about A.D. 1300. At the start of the historic period, large Osage groups lived along the Missouri and Osage rivers. The office counts Osage ancestral lands in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and in parts of Texas, Louisiana, Colorado, Iowa, and Wisconsin. With money from the sale of their Kansas lands, Osage leaders bought land from the Cherokee Nation in northeast Oklahoma. The reservation, which is also Osage County, was set by 1872.

Visit and learn

Osage Nation's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Gateway Arch National Park

The Osage were the most powerful tribe in the lower Midwest when Lewis and Clark came through in 1804, ruling western Missouri, northern Arkansas and eastern Kansas on the strength of their ties with the Chouteau fur traders. NPS records that councils with Pierre Chouteau and Meriwether Lewis at St. Louis in early 1804 began the Americans' arrival, and that the Osage called themselves Ni-U-Ko'n-Ska, children of the middle waters. Source

Hot Springs National Park

The Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office records that the Illinois tribes called the earlier Dhegiha occupants of the Ohio River valley the Arkansa, and that the Osage were the last of the Dhegiha peoples to separate, the Kaw leaving them between A.D. 1200 and 1250. Source

Programs

• Osage Language Department

  Founded in 2003, the department teaches the Osage language through classes, a dictionary, an orthography and sound guide, a font and keyboard, and mobile apps.

  https://www.osageculture.com/language·language

• Osage Nation K-12 Lessons

  Lesson units made by the Osage Nation for teachers and students, on Osage life in the past and the Osage Nation today, including lands, homes, food, boarding schools, and language.

  https://www.osageculture.com/culture/education/k-12-lessons·education

• Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office

  Works with government agencies on tribal consultation and protects historic sites on the reservation and across Osage ancestral lands.

  https://www.osageculture.com/culture/historic-preservation-office·preservation

Sources

• https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-01-30/html/2026-01899.htm
• https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/historic-preservation/osage-cultural-history
• https://www.osageculture.com/culture/historic-preservation-office
• https://www.osageculture.com/visitors/about-osage-reservation

Checked September 2026.

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