Joseph Pawnee-no-pashe (1836/1837 – January 18, 1883) was a chief of the Big Hills band of the Osage Indians. He won the first election of Principal Chief of the Osage Nation in 1882. In official documents he was also known as Joseph Paw-ne-no-Pa-sheThe story of the trip of John V. Farwell, Jr. aged 11 years to Kansas, in August 1870, with his father and John D. Lang and Vincent Colyer, of the Board of Indian Commissioners, ordered by President Grant, 1936 typescript, Page 20. and Joseph Pre-ne-pro-pah-she.The story of the trip of John V. Farwell, Jr. aged 11 years to Kansas, in August 1870, with his father and John D. Lang and Vincent Colyer, of the Board of Indian Commissioners, ordered by President Grant, 1936 typescript, Page 17. His Osage language name translates to "Not Afraid of Longhairs" or "Not Afraid of Pawnee", and he was informally known to whites as Big Hill Joe.
Early life Joseph Pawnee-no-pashe was born in 1836 or 1837 and was named Watchie-cha-hiche at birth. During his early years, the Osage mostly lived on the large Osage Reservation in present-day southeastern Kansas, often encamping along the upper Neosho River.See the yellow shaded portion of the map. They often hunted bison and other game in other parts of Kansas and present-day Oklahoma, as well. The Osage had been considered a partially civilized tribe for several decades by this time, having signed several treaties with the United States and other Indian tribes and only occasionally fighting battles.
Joseph's father was a well-respected Osage war chief, also named Paw-ne-no-pash-she, who enrolled his son in the Catholic mission school in Kansas at age 11 in 1848. He was educated under the school run by Father John Schoenmakers at the Osage Mission's post. A Jesuit priest there, Father Paul Mary Ponziglione, said that the father's name meant "Pawnees – Two I Killed." In Ponziglione's telling of the story, this name could only be acquired by the Osage youth, named Joseph Watchie-cha-hiche at the time, by performing the same deed as his father:
Watchie-cha-hiche had been christened Joseph in 1848 during his baptism by the Reverend Father Bax, while the scalping had occurred around 1860 on the cusp of the Civil War. Joseph had attended the Osage Manual Labor School for about 12 years when he graduated, with his former teacher remembering him as "a good student" and "quick to learn."
Joseph Pawnee-no-pashe had a brother named Ne-kah-wah-she-tun-kah. After Joseph became governor, his brother became a hereditary chief of the Big Hill band by around the time of the Fort Smith Council.Some History of the Osages, Part 1, George S. Fly, The Osage Chief, Fairfax, Oklahoma, Fri, July 28, 1922, Page 1. When he died in 1923, Ne-kah-wah-she-tun-kah was given a traditional Osage burial, including the use of a human scalp.See the legend of the Wichita chief scalp.
Joseph became an articulate and literate but refused to assimilate the Western European culture when it did not benefit him or the people whom he led. Joseph Paw-ne-no-pashe "returned to the blanket" later in life and rejected his earlier Catholic indoctrination. His popularity with the Osage would lead to easy election victories to the office of Governor later in life.
Father Ponziglione reported that the Civil War had apparently given Joseph a form of atavism, inducing him to forgo many Western habits, return to the staff of life (buffalo hunting), return to the blanket for dress, and take four wives.
Treaties and leadership Joseph Paw-ne-no-pashe was a late signatory of the Canville Treaty that sprang out of the Fort Smith Council. It was originally signed by other Osage leaders in 1865, but during ratification by the U.S. Government from 1865 to 1866, it was returned to the Osages with amendments that Joseph witnessed as an English-speaking Osage. This treaty established an Osage Diminished Reserve in southern Kansas and provided for the sale of a large amount of land at $1.25 per acre to U.S. settlers. The Canville Treaty decreased the land holdings of the Osage enormously, leading to disgruntlement of the Osage half-breeds who had cabins and cultivated lands on the banks of the Neosho River. Settlers continued to encroach upon their lands, a process accelerated by the end of the Civil War.
In 1868, the U.S. Indian Commissioner appointed Joseph Governor of the Great and Little Osage Nation of Indians. This led to disagreement with the old-timer White Hair VI, then the Principal Chief of the Osage, who would not negotiate with the United States over land. The appointment of a governor had no immediate effect in breaking the hereditary nature of the principal chief. But when White Hair VI died on December 24, 1869, it left Joseph the de facto supreme chief of the nation and the one who would serve as the leader of treaty negotiations.
The encroachment of settlers in Osage lands in Kansas became a huge problem by 1867. In 1868, a sketchy land deal was developed by a railroad company to acquire the Osage Diminished Reserve lands in southern Kansas by using the Indian Commissioners led by Nathaniel Green Taylor to secure a new treaty. The treaty was shot down repeatedly by Osage leaders, including Joseph. Through threats and several strong-arm tactics, the commissioners forced the Osages to sign the first Drum Creek Treaty on May 27, 1868.
The tribe reluctantly approved him as governor in spring 1870, breaking the hereditary rule of the principal chiefs of the Osage that ended with White Hair. This marked the transition to balloting for the election of tribal leaders.
Joseph was elected in 1872 to succeed himself, and again in 1876 and 1878, gaining the endearing term "Governor Joe".
He was the best-educated Osage Indian signatory at the 1870 signing of the Drum Creek Treaty in Kansas.The story of the trip of John V. Farwell, Jr. aged 11 years to Kansas, in August 1870, with his father and John D. Lang and Vincent Colyer, of the Board of Indian Commissioners, ordered by President Grant, 1936 typescript, Page 7.
The treaty was not entirely popular with the Osage, but it was an inevitable end to the conflict with white Americans. During negotiations, an Osage chief who, suspicious of the intentions of the American delegation, spoke against the signing of the treaty that would send thousands of them to a reservation:
Chief Joseph demanded the right to hunt buffalo outside the borders of the new reservation and they be given the right to set up their own laws of trespass. He also wanted tribal ownership instead of individual land ownership.
However, the Americans convinced the Osage to ratify it and on September 10, 1870, it was signed by Chief Joseph who could speak and write English and several other languages. He was one of very few Indians and half-breeds who signed the treaty with his own handwriting.The story of the trip of John V. Farwell, Jr. aged 11 years to Kansas, in August 1870, with his father and John D. Lang and Vincent Colyer, of the Board of Indian Commissioners, ordered by President Grant, 1936 typescript, Page 19.
The signing was attended by Chicago dry goods merchant John V. Farwell, the founder of John V. Farwell & Co., as an Indian commissioner.The story of the trip of John V. Farwell, Jr. aged 11 years to Kansas, in August 1870, with his father and John D. Lang and Vincent Colyer, of the Board of Indian Commissioners, ordered by President Grant, 1936 typescript, Page 2. In 1936, his son named John V. Farwell, Jr. would write of his experience at the treaty signing. Other attendees to the treaty were his brother Ne-ka-wah-shin too-kah, a Quaker missionary named John D. Lang, and the Quaker artist Vincent Colyer.
The treaty provided that the remainder of Osage lands in Kansas be sold, and the proceeds used to relocate the tribe to Indian Territory in the Cherokee Outlet. They sold their lands to the "peace" administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, for which they received $1.25 per acre.
Chief Joseph addressed the Indian Commissioners and agent Isaac T. Gibson and wished it be transcribed and sent to Washington:
Osage Nation reservation This trust was not well-placed, as rumors spread by newspapers soon led to bloodshed on the Kansas-Indian Territory border. After negotiations by Joseph with Cherokee Chief Dennis Bushyhead and the U.S. government,Joseph Paw-Ne-No-Pa-She Monument, The Ponca City News, Ponca City, Oklahoma, Sun, September 25, 1960, Page 6. the Osage moved onto their reservation and began to settle in late 1870. However, their food crops did not provide all of their sustenance, and so many of them were dependent on the dwindling buffalo herds for food.
Ritual killings in 1873 On January 28, 1873, Colonel Gould Hyde Norton of the Kansas militia, a white man who had founded the nearby town of Arkansas City and ran a store, was taking shelter during a snowstorm at the Osage's "Big Hill camp of the Salt Plains."Gould Hyde Norton, founder and first postmaster of Arkansas City, Kansas, built home/store in 1870, Winfield Courier, Winfield, Kansas, Thu, January 6, 1876, Page 2.See Norton Brothers: Gould Hyde Norton was the "correspondent" to the newspaper of the town he started, Arkansas City's The Commonwealth, which originates one 1873 and two 1874 articles about the Osage Indians during Norton's travels. Researchers of Bill Conner, a half-breed Osage accused of scalping, have recently discovered that Professor Henry Brace Norton knew Bill Conner and was the likely correspondent to The Commonwealth annotated as "N." This may be so for the 1874 articles, but there is an earlier story in 1873 with G.H.N. initials, which has us lean toward the Colonel and merchant, Gould Hyde Norton, Henry's brother. See Bill Conner, Osage Indian and the history of Arkansas, Kansas Pilgrim Congregational Church. He had arrived at the end of treaty negotiations between the Osage and Pawnee, their longtime enemies. Norton was enlisted to pen the words of the treaty: "We pledge ourselves and good will at all time and to live together as loving brethren henceforth forever." The treaty also stipulated that they "agree to abstain from molesting each other by acts of murder, theft, or any other unfriendliness or violence." Norton encountered Bill Conner, who stated that a copy of the signed treaty was to be sent to Superintendent Enoch Hoag for archival.Osage Indian Scalp Dance Ritual, Chetopa, Bill Connor, Che-she-wa-ta-in-ka, Isadawa, Montihe, Scalping of Pawnee warrior, The Weekly Eagle, Wichita, Kansas, Thu, April 9, 1874, Page 1. Note that there is a missing line of copy and thus a missing date (i.e. January) in this edition, but it exists at the original article's source, Topeka, Kansas version, The Commonwealth, April 1, 1874. Author assumed to be Col. Gould Hyde Norton, who is a frequent correspondent to The Commonwealth and resident of Arkansas City. The Pawnee left, but mentioned that there was a straggler Pawnee warrior hunting nearby.