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HomeCultureArts & CultureCounterpublic, Osage Nation celebrate historic Sugarloaf Mound transfer

Counterpublic, Osage Nation celebrate historic Sugarloaf Mound transfer

Following three years of negotiations, the city of St. Louis plans to publicly acknowledge the sovereignty of the Osage Nation with ancestral rights to the sacred site

In 2009, then-Osage Nation Principal Chief Jim Gray made an unpopular move. He purchased a section of Sugarloaf Mound, the last remaining mound in the city of St. Louis for $235,000. It had two houses on it, a sizable chunk was missing from one side where a road had been constructed, and the woman living in one of the houses made it clear she wasn’t selling. Some members of the First Osage Nation Congress balked at the purchase and nicknamed it “Half-a-Loaf” mound and “Sugar Daddy Loaf” mound.

Meeting after meeting, Gray and his administration, along with ON Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Dr. Andrea Hunter, would make their case for the purchase, providing evidence of Osage ancestors living in the St. Louis area during the time of the mound builders.

Whether their evidence was taken seriously or not, Hunter has had to make this same argument time and again. And finally, in 2015 the National NAGPRA Review Committee ruled unanimously that the Osage people are culturally affiliated with the Late Woodland people in Missouri, Illinois and the Mississippian people. The ruling officially tied the Osage people with the mound building culture.  

Now, 15 years after that first purchase, Counterpublic, a St. Louis-based art and civic impact organization has successfully “rematriated” the entirety of the mound to the Osage Nation. Rematriation means “Returning the Sacred to the Mother,” an act of reclaiming and protecting ancestral lands, according to rematriation.com.

“Accompanying the transfer is a first-of-its-kind resolution by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen at a public event to be announced at a future date, marking the city’s first public acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the Osage Nation with ancestral rights to this sacred site,” according to a Counterpublic news release.

The accompanying Board Resolution, sponsored by Alderwoman Cara Spencer, will recognize the sovereignty of the Osage and support the Nation’s Sugarloaf Mound Preservation Plan for the first time in the city’s history.

“In 2009 … Chief Jim Gray and I spearheaded efforts for education and community support for this important preservation opportunity,” said Dr. Hunter in the release. “After many months of planning, organization, and negotiation, the Osage Nation put Sugarloaf Mound back in native hands. Now, through collaborative partnerships and the good will of the previous owner, the Osage Nation comes another step closer to restoring this sacred site as it should be preserved.”

Homeowner Joan Heckenberg stands in front of her house on Sugarloaf Mound. Photograph by Jennifer Colten. Courtesy of Counterpublic

That previous owner is Joan Heckenberg, an 86-year-old resident who has lived atop the mound for over 80 years. That leaves only one home remaining on the mound which is currently owned by the St. Louis chapter of Kappa Psi, a national pharmaceutical fraternity. The upcoming Board Resolution and a parallel public input process organized by Counterpublic is meant to support the sale or transfer of this last home for the long-term preservation of the mound and eventual construction of an Osage Interpretive Center, according to the release.

Alongside the Nation’s Historic Preservation Office, Counterpublic Artistic and Executive Director, James McAnally, stewarded the rematriation process with Heckenberg.

“Working to return and preserve Sugarloaf Mound with the Osage Nation has been a transformative experience. I have spent countless days with a constellation of property owners, lawyers, artists, politicians, preservationists, archeologists, and historians to piece together an intentional process that supports the Osage Nation’s right to self-determination of this sacred site and offers a replicable model for how art can connect with Land Back movements directly and seed lasting change,” McAnally said in the release. The transfer process was supported by the Mellon Foundation.

As part of Counterpublic 2023, which focused on reparative futures—how histories can be told, held and healed—curator Risa Puleo and artist collective New Red Order worked at the invitation of the Osage Nation to activate the mound publicly with programming for the first time, featuring artworks responding to the site, including an installation by Osage artists Anita and Nokosee Fields, as well as native artists Anna Tsouhlarakis and New Red Order throughout the three-month exhibition. 

Along with Anita and Nokosee’s installation, the Wahzhazhe Puppet Theater also performed at the base of the mound where a water and land blessing ceremony took place.

On July 16, 2023, the Wahzhazhe Puppet Theater performed at the base of Sugarloaf Mound. They performed “Sky E.Ko Tells
Stories of Way Back,” an adaptation of the Puma Clan’s version of the Osage people’s creation story as translated by the late Charles Wah-Hre-She. Before the performance, Osage/Creek artist Yatika Starr Fields and Warren Queton, Kiowa, blessed each performer and prayed for the rematriation of Sugarloaf Mound and blessings for the land. Video by SHANNON SHAW DUTY/Osage News

Taking back our history

Former Chief Gray said he bears no ill will toward those Congress members who heckled and made fun of the purchase. He said in 2009 the Nation had a lot of things going on at the same time. They had the Irby case, the Trust fund case, the opening and paying off of seven casinos, Nation-building in many diverse areas such as health, education, culture, language – and preserving the Nation’s ancient history were just some of the major initiatives they were working on in those early years of the new government.

“Dr. Hunter did the research that connected the Osage people to this mound. It was the last remaining mound in St. Louis. The city was actually known as Mound city in the days before the Louisiana Purchase. Many Osages have not been informed or educated on why tribes have a historic preservation department, but Dr. Hunter has done so much with her sponsored annual field trips to Missouri and Arkansas,” Gray said. “Exercising historic tribal sovereignty is more than an academic exercise. It’s about taking back our history, our story, our cosmology to help us understand who we are and how we got here.

“I’m so glad to hear the efforts to acquire the surrounding lots have been successful so the Nation can further protect this site for future generations to learn from and understand. This is one of the most significant exercises of tribal historic preservation in many years.”

Author

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Shannon Shaw Duty
Shannon Shaw Dutyhttps://osagenews.org

Title: Editor
Email: sshaw20@gmail.com
Twitter: @dutyshaw
Topic Expertise: Columnist, Culture, Community
Languages spoken: English, Osage (intermediate), Spanish (beginner)

Shannon Shaw Duty, Osage from the Grayhorse District, is the editor of the award-winning Osage News, the official independent media of the Osage Nation. She is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a master’s degree in Legal Studies with an emphasis in Indigenous Peoples Law. She currently sits on the Freedom of Information Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists. She has served as a board member for LION Publishers, as Vice President for the Pawhuska Public Schools Board of Education, on the Board of Directors for the Native American Journalists Association (now Indigenous Journalists Association) and served as a board member and Chairwoman for the Pawhuska Johnson O’Malley Parent Committee. She is a Chips Quinn Scholar, a former instructor for the Freedom Forum’s Native American Journalism Career Conference and the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute. She is a former reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican. She is a 2012 recipient of the Native American 40 Under 40 from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. In 2014 she helped lead the Osage News to receive NAJA's Elias Boudinot Free Press Award. The Osage News won Best Newspaper from the SPJ-Oklahoma Chapter in their division 2018-2022. Her award-winning work has been published in Indian Country Today, The Washington Post, the Center for Public Integrity, NPR, the Associated Press, Tulsa World and others. She currently resides in Pawhuska, Okla., with her husband and together they share six children, two dogs and two cats.

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