The National NAGPRA Review Committee ruled unanimously the Osage people are culturally affiliated with the Late Woodland people in Missouri, Illinois and the Mississippian people. The ruling ties the Osage people with the mound building culture.
“This is huge,” said Dr. Andrea Hunter, ON Historic Preservation Office director and Osage tribal member, in an email. “Some folks here [at the Osage Nation] have publically doubted our connection to Sugarloaf Mound and Cahokia. An expert panel ruled that we are.”
The ONHPO presented its case to the NAGPRA committee on Nov. 18 in Norman, Okla., after questions arose about the tribal affiliation of human remains and funerary objects found in Clarksville, Mo. Hunter, her staff, Morgan Currey from the ON Attorney General’s office and three members of the Traditional Cultural Advisors committee attended the NAGPRA meeting.
“The remains discussed were prehistoric, before European contact,” said George Shannon, chairman of the Tribal Cultural Advisors Committee. “The Sac and Fox, who also claimed the remains, were not in that area of the United States in prehistoric times. They were only there after European contact. I think Dr. Hunter did a good job in presenting our case and it appeared the national committee was impressed. It looks likely that we will be given custody of the remains.”
The ONHPO claims the individuals from the Clarksville Mound site date to a prehistoric period that pre-dates Sac and Fox occupancy of the area and correlates to the ancestral Osage occupation of Missouri, according to the presentation. The NAGPRA committee agreed.
Presented to the committee were multiple lines of evidence that included geographical, archaeological, linguistic, oral traditions, historic, kinship, anthropological, biological and folklore. The archeological evidence also included ceramics, tools, additional artifacts, historic trade items, mortuary practice and petroglyphs and iconography.
Clarksville Mound Group
The Clarksville Mound Group is a site in Clarksville, Mo., that at one time had 10 mounds from the Late Woodland to Mississippian period, according to the ONHPO presentation. However, all but one mound was destroyed when a “skylift” tourist attraction was constructed in 1962. In 1995 and 1996, the City of Clarksville and the Missouri SPHO removed, at a minimum, 22 individuals and two associated funerary objects from the last remaining mound, according to the presentation.
In 2002 and 2006 the individuals and funerary objects were exhumed and transferred to the Missouri SHPO from private collectors and the University of Missouri, according to the presentation. At final count, there are a minimum of 29 individuals and two associated funerary items awaiting final transferal.
Ancient Osage
According to the presentation, the geography of the Osage is derived from archeological data, oral traditions, historical and linguistic evidence. The Osage, Omaha, Kaw, Ponca and Quapaw originated in the Ohio River valley where they thrived in A.D. 200 to A.D. 400. Over time, toward the latter part of the Middle Woodland period, they migrated westward along the Ohio River valley, according to the presentation. They reached where the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers converge at approximately A.D. 400 to A.D. 500.
“During the Late Woodland period, A.D. 500 to A.D. 900, the ancestral Osage migrated up the central Mississippi River valley and branched outward from the valley, following tributaries and drainages to inhabit what is now Missouri and western Illinois,” according to the presentation. “By the end of the Late Woodland period and during the Emergent Mississippian period, A.D. 900 to A.D. 1000, the ancestral Osage focused their settlements primarily in the Cahokia and modern St. Louis area. Following the end of the fluorescence of the urban area of Cahokia, A.D. 1300-1400, the Osage shifted their settlements into the central and western portions of Missouri.”
By the time there was European contact, large groups of Osages were living along the Missouri and Osage rivers, with long-established hunting territories in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Other historic Osage territories included hunting grounds and recorded trails in portions of Colorado, Texas, and Louisiana, according to the presentation.
Sugarloaf Mound
Much has been said over the years and disputed about the Osages participation in the Mound Building culture. The Jim Gray administration caught flak from the First Osage Nation Congress when the Nation purchased Sugarloaf Mound in 2009, located just outside St. Louis, Mo.
Congressman William “Kugee” Supernaw poked fun at the mound and called it “Sugardaddy Half-a-Loaf Mound” in his email newsletter “Notes to the Nation” at the time of the purchase. The Red Eagle Administration did not support Hunter’s findings of the Osage’s cultural affiliation to Sugarloaf mound. Hunter was terminated from her position at ONHPO twice under the Red Eagle administration, once in 2012 and a second time in 2014, she appealed both times and won her job back.
The Osage Nation still owns Sugarloaf Mound and the ONHPO takes Osages on yearly trips to the mound and other historical sites. The ruling by the national NAGPRA Review committee has set the stage for a meeting between the ONHPO, the Sac and Fox and the Missouri SHPO.
“To me we accomplished half of what we wanted and the other half we will accomplish after we have this meeting with the Sac and Fox and the Missouri group,” said Jerry Shaw, member of the ON Traditional Cultural Advisors Committee who attended the presentation in Norman. “Dr. Andrea Hunter and Sarah O’Donnell (ONHPO staff) did a wonderful, wonderful job of putting together that presentation. Everybody, from the beginning to the end, complimented the presentation from that committee. They had their facts down really, really well.”
By
Shannon Shaw Duty
Original Publish Date: 2015-12-04 00:00:00
