Film director Martin Scorsese, left, met with Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear in Oklahoma in July. Scorsese is directing an upcoming adaptation of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” by David Grann, about the 1920s slayings of wealthy Osage tribal members after the discovery of oil on their land. Osage News via AP Cody Hammer
This Associated Press photo of director Martin Scorsese with Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear (who is more than head and shoulders taller than Scorsese) brought to mind the observations of many European and American explorers impressed by the carriage and size of members of the Osage Nation. All agreed: the Osages are tall, with a commanding presence. Our research for our chapter “Wah-Zha-Zhe” in Damming the Osage revealed a number of early observations.
(page 41) Left to right: Shon’-ton-ca-be (Black Dog II); Ogese Capton (Augustus Captain), a half-Osage, half French former Confederate who became a successful businessman and tribal leader; Pa-thin-non-pa-zhi (Not Afraid of Pawnees); and Indian trader Joseph Florer, “Johnny Shinkah” as the Osages called him, encouraged the tribe to develop its oil resources.
Tál-lee, a Warrior of Distinction, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Artist George Catlin believed the Osages “to be the tallest race of men in North America, either red or white skins; there being few indeed of the men at their full growth, who are less than six feet in stature, and very many of them six and a half, and others seven feet.” In 1834, Catlin painted portraits of several Osages including the son of Claremore I and “Tál-lee, a Warrior of Distinction” whom Catlin described as a “handsome and high-minded gentleman of the wild woods and prairies.” Equipped with a lance in his hand, a shield on his arm, and a bow and quiver on his back, Tál-lee presented a “fair specimen of the Osage figure and dress.”
Victor Tixier, whose 1844 book Travels on the Osage Prairies is described by the Oklahoma Historical Society as “detailed and comprehensive as a trained ethnologist’s report, Tixier’s description of Osage life remains an invaluable portrait of the people at that moment in their history.” Among his many observations, the young Frenchman noted: “The men are tall and perfectly proportioned. They have at the same time all the physical qualities which denote skill and strength combined with graceful movements.”
A great military power of 18th and 19th centuries, the Osage were judicious in confrontations. They used military force consistently when it was feasible, against competing tribes, but they were one of the few tribes that didn’t declare war on the US – didn’t pick fights they couldn’t win. Instead, with great diplomatic acumen, Osage leaders negotiated agreements with the government that did reduce their land holdings, but were paid for with cash.
When forced off the Osage Diminished Reserve in southeast Kansas, they bought their own land in Oklahoma. In that transaction, they stipulated maintaining ownership of the mineral rights to their new land. And that land was underlain with oil. In the 1920s, the Osage were among the richest people per capita in the world. Money brings predators and in 1921 the killings, known as the Reign of Terror, the story of Killers of the Flower Moon, began.
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