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All treaties and agreements

Treaty

Osage at St. Louis (1825)

In 1825 the Great and Little Osage ceded lands in Missouri, Arkansas Territory and the plains, keeping a reserved tract, for annuities.

Signed
June 2, 1825
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 47 million acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 1.2 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On June 2, 1825, William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, signed a treaty at St. Louis with the chiefs, head men and warriors of the Great and Little Osage. The opening line says the treaty was meant "to extend to said Tribes that protection of the Government so much desired by them."

The Osage ceded all their claims to land within Missouri and the Territory of Arkansas. They also ceded land west of those, north and west of the Red River, south of the Kansas River and east of a line drawn from the head of the Kansas through the Rock Saline. Within that country the treaty reserved a tract for the Osage "so long as they may choose to occupy the same," fifty miles wide, starting twenty-five miles west of Missouri.

The United States agreed to pay $7,000 a year for twenty years. It promised 600 cattle, 600 hogs, 1,000 domestic fowls, ten yoke of oxen, six carts, a blacksmith, and a house for each of four principal chiefs. Article 5 made reservations for people of mixed ancestry.

The Kansas Historical Society says Osage lands in what is now Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri were ceded in sections between 1825 and 1839, which left the Osage a narrow strip across southern Kansas. It says Osage territory shrank by more than 75 percent in 31 years.

Good to know. The Kansas Historical Society statement covers all Osage cessions from 1825 to 1839, not this treaty alone.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Supported by the sources below; some details rest on one source.

  1. so long as they may choose to occupy the sameTribal Treaties Database (OSU)
  2. Great and Little Osage Tribes of IndiansStatutes at Large, vol. 7 (GovInfo)
  3. In a period of 31 years, Osage territory had diminished by more than 75 percent.Osage - Treaties With the United States (Kansapedia, Kansas Historical Society)

Research notes. The Kansas Historical Society sentence covers all Osage cessions, not this treaty alone, and its mention of Council Grove negotiations concerns a separate August 1825 treaty, not this one. The treaty text states no acreage.

What the treaty did to the land

About 47 million acres given up. about 1.2 million acres recognized, kept or set aside for the nations. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

What happened next

Everything the record holds about this land and this treaty, in order: what earlier agreements said, what this one did, and what the United States, the courts and the nations did afterwards.

  1. 1825

    This treaty

    About 47 million acres ceded to the United States by the Great and Little Osage. About 1.2 million acres set aside as a reservation for the Osage

    In 1825 the Great and Little Osage ceded lands in Missouri, Arkansas Territory and the plains, keeping a reserved tract, for annuities.

  2. 1865

    Land lost

    About 1.2 million acres ceded to the United States by the Osage

    By Osage (Great and Little) at Canville Trading Post, Osage Nation, Kansas (1865)

    area 475

Who is doing the work today

The nations connected to this treaty come first, then groups returning land and defending treaty rights. Support goes directly to them.

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-osage-1825-0217reference work
    June 2, 1825. | 7 Stat., 240. / scan: 217

Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.