Tribal, Osage Nation

OSAGE NATION TRIBE - The Osage Nation was originally named Ni-u-kon-ska (“People of the Middle Waters”), is a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Great Plains who historically ruled much of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.

The tribe formerly lived in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys around 700 BC before migrating west as a result of wars with the invading Iroquois.  The term "Osage" is a French version of the tribe's name, which can be roughly translated as "warlike".  Descendants of indigenous peoples who had been in North America for thousands of years, the Osage traditions and linguistic data show they were part of a group of Dhegian-Siouan speaking people who lived in the Ohio River valley area, extending into present-day Kentucky.  The Osage people refer to themselves in their indigenous Dhegihan Siouan language as "Wazhazhe", or "Mid-waters".  

At the height of their power in the early 19th century, the Osage had become the dominant power in the region, feared by neighboring tribes. The tribe controlled the area between the Missouri and Red Rivers, the Ozarks to the east and the foothills of the Wichita Mountains to the south, being dependent on nomadic buffalo hunting and agriculture.

The Osage originally lived among speakers of the same Dhegihan stock, such as the Kansa, Ponca, Omaha, and Quapaw in the Ohio Valley. Researchers believed that the tribes likely became differentiated in languages and cultures after leaving the lower Ohio country. The Omaha and Ponca settled in what is now Nebraska, the Kansa in Kansas, and the Quapaw in Arkansas.

The Osage are a federally recognized tribe; they were forced to remove to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in the 19th century, and have been based in Oklahoma in 3 sovereign groups.  There are 10,000 descendants, 6,780 of which reside in the jurisdictional area.  Members live both on the nation's tribal land in Oklahoma and in other states around the country, including Kansas.