Product Code Database
Fort Osage (also known as Fort Clark or Fort Sibley) was an early 19th-century factory trading post run by the United States Government in western Missouri on the American frontier; it was located in present-day Sibley, Missouri. The Treaty of Fort Clark, signed with certain members of the Osage Nation in 1808, called for the United States to establish Fort Osage as a trading post and to protect the Osage from tribal enemies.
It was one of three forts established by the U.S. Army to establish control over the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase territories west of the Mississippi River. Fort Madison in SE Iowa was built to control trade and pacify Native Americans in the Upper Mississippi River region. Fort Belle Fontaine, near St. Louis, controlled the mouth of the Missouri at the Mississippi.Prucha, Francis P. (1964) A Guide to the Military Posts of the United States 1789–1895. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison.; also Prucha, Francis P. (1969) The Sword of the Republic: The United States Army on the Frontier 1783–1846. Macmillan, New York.
Fort Osage ceased operations in the 1820s as the Osage in subsequent treaties had ceded the rest of their land in Missouri to the US. A replica of the fort was constructed on the site between 1948 and 1961. The Fort Osage school district (including Fort Osage High School), which serves northeast Independence and the surrounding area, was named after it.
high commanding position, more than 70 feet above high-water mark, and overlooking the river, which is here but of little depth... Fort Osage – National Park Service. Cr.nps.gov. Retrieved on 2013-08-28.
In the same year Pierre Chouteau, part of the Chouteau fur trading family and an agent for the Osage, took Osage chiefs to Washington, DC to meet President Thomas Jefferson who promised to build them a trading post. Previously Jefferson promoted his plan of expanding Federal trading posts on the frontier as means to remove the harmful influence of individual merchants by "underselling private traders" to make them withdraw from borderlands and "earn the good will of the Indians". Jefferson, Thomas, "Trade," 18 Jan. 1803, American State Papers: Indian Affairs (Washington, D.C., 1832), Vol. 1: 684.
The United States being anxious to promote peace, friendship and intercourse with the Osage tribes, to afford them every assistance in their power, and to protect them from the insults and injuries of other tribes of Indians, situated near the settlements of the white people, have thought proper to build a fort on the right bank of the Missouri, a few miles above the Fishing River, and do agree to garrison the same with as many regular troops as the President of the United States may, from time to time, deem necessary for the protection of all orderly, friendly and well disposed Indians of the Great and Little Osage nations, who reside at this place, and who do strictly conform to, and pursue the counsels or admonitions of the President of the United States through his subordinate officers.
In exchange for access to the trading post, the attending Osage agreed to cede all of their lands east of the fort in Louisiana Territory to the US. This effectively left them with a small band of territory on the extreme western border of what is now the state of Missouri. The Great Osage were to receive $1,000 and the Little Osage were to get $500.
The government trading post was established in 1808 and removed to Arrow Rock in 1813.Wesley, Edgar Bruce (1935). Guarding the Frontier. University of Minnesota Press, p. 40.
Fort Osage was abandoned in June 1813 during the War of 1812 because it was not considered to be under threat. Since most of the war's fighting was further east and north, the soldiers there were transferred to different locations. After the war the fort was reoccupied in 1815.Rodriguez, Junius P. (2002) The Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia, Clio, Santa Barbara, CA, p. 270, . Fort Osage was for many years a productive trading location, with the first Factor George C. Sibley reporting prosperous trade with the Osage due to goods being sold "at prices less than half what the traders extort from them..."Isenberg, Andrew C. " The Market Revolution in the Borderlands: George Champlin Sibley in Missouri and New Mexico, 1808-1826." Journal of the Early Republic 21, No. 3 (2001), pp. 445-465.
Fort Osage formally was closed in 1822, but remained a landmark on the Santa Fe Trail and a transit point for supplies going north. By 1836 it had been obliterated; local settlers took its pre-cut wood to use for building houses and barns. The factory house was the last remaining structure, but it burned to the ground, leaving only the rock foundation.
The rebuilt post has been designated as Fort Osage National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is owned and operated by Jackson County Parks and Recreation of Missouri. It is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 9:00am to 4:30pm year round.
The Fort Osage Education Center, opened in November 2007, contains exhibits about the site's geology, 19th century natural history, the Hopewell and Osage Nation native cultures, Lewis and Clark, Fort Osage, and the Missouri River. In addition, the location has living history demonstrations about early 19th-century military and civilian life.
|
|
