Unaffected by the Gospel: Osage Resistance to the Christian Invasion, 1673-1906: A Cultural Victory

9. Ga-ni-tha—“Move to a New Country”

j Ga-ni-tha— “Move to a New Country” The Osage gave but little heed to the story [Ghost Dance], perhaps from the fact that,as they are the wealthiest tribe in the country, they feel no such urgent need of a redeemer as their less fortunate brethren. —James Mooney, The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of  1 I use the peoti bean in my religious ceremonies. We use it in our meetings same as you white people worship God in your churches. It does not make us crazy or cause us to do any harm and I can see nothing wrong in it. When I eat it I feel happy and good and thank God for his many gifts. As we use peoti in our meetings we realize that we have to die and it aids us to do right. It helps us to live better lives and enjoy happier experiences and we trust you will allow us to retain this channel through which so many gifts flow. —Testimony of Chief Black Dog before the Committee of House of Representatives of the State of Oklahoma, January 21, 1908 2 By 1872 all the Osage had moved to their new reservation . Most had arrived in 1871 upon completion of the winter hunt.Others,uneasy about the Kansas lands but unsure of the new lands, had remained in the west for another season. Some mixed-bloods had remained in Kansas,because the“treaty”gave 171 them title to their individual farms. They soon joined their kin on the reservation, however, when they were attacked by Kansas settlers who beat them, burned their homes, killed their stock, and drove them from their lands. 3 The four thousand Osage congregated in five groups on their reservation . The Iu-dse-ta moved to the region between the Caney River and Sand Creek just north of where the Non-dse-wa-cpe, who had merged with the Wa-xa-ga-u-gthin, settled along Bird Creek where Gibson had constructed the agency headquarters. The Pa-ciu-gthin settled in the southwest portion of the reservation along the Arkansas near Salt Creek, not far from the villages established by the Con-dseugthin on Hominy Creek. The mixed-bloods established a community of farms in the north near the Kansas border along the Caney River. The Catholics did not abandon them; Fathers Schoenmakers and Ponziglione continued to care for the Osage despite the move south. Father Schoenmakers continued to lobby for the Osage. He defended the rights of the mixed-bloods in Kansas,to no avail,as they were being driven from their lands, but he later successfully lobbied to have portions of the Osage trust fund distributed to the Osage. 4 While Father Schoenmakers campaigned for Osage rights, Father Ponziglione visited the Osage on their reservation, where he administered baptisms to infants, extreme unction to the dying, and marriage vows to those who were living together. He of course celebrated Mass and preached the gospel of the Roman Catholic Church. At the Osage agency Father Ponziglione celebrated Mass for those Osage interested and visited the government school to teach the children boarded there. He solicited students for his Kansas school, and generally irritated the Osage agent and the agency teachers.He attacked the agents for not sending all of the students to the Jesuit school and not agreeing to tuition increases for those Osage attending. He also attacked the agency staff’s religion, which by the 1870s was Quakerism. PresidentGrant,asapartof hisPeacePolicy,hadbeguntosendQuakers to Indian reservations to promote peace and to ensure honest dealings with the Indian people. This combination of peace and Quaker Christianity greatly offended Father Ponziglione. He charged the Quaker teachers with teaching heresy, and annoyed them when he told the children that if they listened to Quaker teachings they would burn in hell. 5 “We have listened from time to time to his abusive discourses, describing us as heretic,& etc.When he publicly denounced the system 172 ❙ Chapter Nine of civilization adopted by the Government for the Osage, he was not molested, because he evidently desires to be made a martyr.” 6 He had little to fear, for the Osage paid little attention to the religious teachings of the Quakers.Agent Gibson had established a boarding school at the agency in 1874 and brought in Quaker teachers to teach the Osage children English literacy and other basic skills...