Osage Nation

The Osage are a Midwestern Native American Siouan-speaking tribe of the Great Plains who originated in the Ohio River valley in the area of present-day Arkansas and Missouri . The term "Osage" is considered an ancient name which roughly translates into "mid-waters".

After years of war with the invading Iroquois, by the mid-17th century, the Osage migrated from the Ohio valley with other Siouan tribes, settling west on their historic lands in present-day Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas . At the height of their power in the early 18th century, the Osage had become the dominant power in their region, controlling the area between the Missouri and Red River to the South.

The 19th-century painter George Catlin described the Osage as

The missionary Isaac McCoy described the Osage as an "uncommonly fierce, courageous, warlike nation", and Washington Irving said they were the "finest looking Indians I have ever seen in the West."

The Osage language is part of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan stock of Native American languages. They originally lived among speakers of the same Dhegihan stock, such as the Kansa, Ponca, Omaha, and Quapaw in the Ohio Valley. Researchers believed that the tribes likely became differentiated in languages and cultures after leaving the lower Ohio country. The Omaha and Ponca settled in the present-day area of Nebraska, the Kansa in Kansas, and the Quapaw in Arkansas.