PLATE XLI.
OSAGE.
The Osages, Minetaris, Mandans, Assinaboins, and many cognate tribes, are
more or less connected with the great Sioux nation, although they are often
inveterate enemies to each other. The Osages are now chiefly found in the western
part of Arkansas, and are yet a powerful tribe. “ They are so tall and robust,” says
a late traveller, “ as almost to warrant the application of the term gigantic; few
of them appear to he under six feet, and many are above it.”* Among the Osages
who visited Boston some years ago, Dr. Warren remarked some very fine looking
men: he particularises two, of whom he says that their heads could not be
distinguished from those of Europeans-t It is said of these people, that they are
fond of war without being remarkable for bravery. They consider horse-stealing a
meritorious achievement, and at one time scarcely left a horse to turn a mill in
the town of St. Genevieve. They are credited with one virtue, however, which is
rare among savages, and that is mercy; for they rarely take the lives of those who
fall into their hands.
The annexed drawing is derived from the skull of a young warrior named
* B radbury, Trav. p. 42. t Compar. View of Nervous System, &c., p. 93.
: t Breckenridge, Views of Louisiana, p. 14 7 .-O n this subject Mr. Gallatin makes the following
remarks: « Whether erratic or agricultural, there is a marked difference between the habits and
character of all the Indians who dwelt amidst the dense forest which extends from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi, and those of the inhabitants of the western prairie. These last are every where less
ferocious than those of the eastern side of the Mississippi. Like all savages they put to death the
prisoners taken in battle; but the horrid practice of inflicting, on. them the most excruciating torture
for days together, does not appear to have prevailed anywhere beyond the Mississippi.’’- ^ - * hxolog.