Acknowledging Native History in
Missouri
By Molly Tovar and Chris Leiker
Take what you please for my Grand
Father since you ask me for it.… I have done all that you have asked … I give
almost all my land to my Great Father.
—Pawhuska, Chief of the Great Osages, November 10, 1808
On an autumn day in 1808, elders of the Osage Nation gathered at Fort
Clark, a new outpost overlooking the Missouri River near what is now Sibley,
Missouri. The council assembled to consider a treaty with the young American
republic, a treaty requiring them to give up over 52 million acres of Osage
land east of the fort.
The treaty was proffered with a threat: sign or become enemies of the
United States.
Earlier in 1808, Osage interactions with encroaching settlers prompted Meriwether
Lewis to act. Then the governor of the Louisiana Territory, Lewis encouraged
neighboring nations to “wage war against [the Osage] … to cut them off
completely or drive them from their country.” The prospect of war certainly
colored the council’s deliberations on the treaty.
Over 100 elders signed it, ceding most of what is now Missouri and half
of what would become Arkansas. In exchange, the Osage received the promise of
the republic’s protection, $1,200 in cash, and merchandise of similar value.
The compensation amounted to .005 cents per acre. In accepting the terms, the
Osage evaded annihilation by consenting to removal. Similar treaties were
presented to the Missouria, the Oto, and other peoples, with the same result.
Acknowledging
History, Acknowledging Loss
In the Canada, Australia, and
elsewhere, institutions routinely open public events with indigenous
acknowledgment statements. “The purpose of these statements,” wrote Delilah
Friedler in Teen Vogue, “is to show
respect for indigenous peoples and recognize their enduring relationship to the
land. Practicing acknowledgment can also raise awareness about histories that
are often suppressed or forgotten.” The
Australian Parliament starts each workday with an acknowledgment. Northwestern
University, the University of Washington, and Arizona State University have
issued formal acknowledgments.
This fall, some 202 years after the 1808 Osage treaty, the Brown School
at Washington University began encouraging organizers to open public events
by reading a short acknowledgement. The campus sits on land ceded in the
treaty, and the effort recognizes that the university community, as the
beneficiary of land acquisition, bears responsibility for preserving this
history and acknowledging harms. The effort
is designed to familiarize the community and visitors with Missouri’s
indigenous peoples, their cultures, and a history that reaches ten millennia
into the past.
Although organizers are free to
craft their own language or to forgo acknowledgment, sample statements are
available. The school has asked the university’s chancellor to encourage such
statements at the start of all on-campus events.
[Begin Text Box]
Sample Statements for Native Acknowledgment
Molly Tovar, Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian
Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
1. [Organization name]
acknowledges that it is located on the ancestral lands of Native peoples who
were removed unjustly, and that this community is the beneficiary. We honor our
heritage of Native peoples and what they teach us about stewardship of the
earth.
2.
We would like to acknowledge that [organization name] is located on the
traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Illini Confederacy. We thank the Illini people for their hospitality
and support of our work.
3. The
process of knowing and acknowledging the ground beneath our feet is a way of
honoring and expressing gratitude for the people on this land before us. It
familiarizes visitors
with the cultures and histories of Missouri’s indigenous tribes, as well as
with their ties in the St. Louis region.
4. “I’d like to get started by acknowledging the
indigenous culture of Missouri.”
5. “We acknowledge that we are on the traditional lands of
the Illini people.”
6. “I would like to acknowledge that this meeting is being
held on the traditional lands of the Illini people, and pay my respect to
elders both past and present.”
7. “I want to respectfully acknowledge the Illini people,
who have stewarded this land throughout the generations.”
8. “We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land
on which we gather is the occupied/unceded/seized territory of the Illini people.”
9. “I would like to begin by acknowledging that we are in St.
Louis, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Illini people.”
[End Text Box]
History’s Weight
Histories typically
omit or downplay the seizure of Native lands and attending harms, but ancestral
ties persist, and the losses remain vivid in the hearts of Native peoples.
In 2009, the Osage
Nation purchased the last of the once numerous prehistoric Native structures
that gave St. Louis the nickname Mound City. Captured by Osage News, the comments of then Chief John Gray illustrate the
impetus for acknowledging Native history in Missouri: “Hundreds
of years of the Osage people’s past have simply been erased from the
landscape.… There is nothing we can do to bring back what was destroyed … but
the Nation can impact what happens to Sugarloaf Mound today and can help educate
Osages and the citizens of St. Louis about us and where they live.”
