The Battle of Claremore Mound, also known as the Battle of the Strawberry Moon, or the Claremore Mound Massacre, was one of the chief battles of the war between the Osage and Cherokee Indians. It occurred in June 1817, [lower-alpha 1] when a band of Western Cherokee and their allies under Chief Spring Frog (Too-an-tuh) attacked Pasuga, an Osage village at the foot of Claremore Mound (in present-day Rogers County, Oklahoma). The village was nearly empty; only women, children, and the very sick and elderly remained there. Most of the village was currently away on a seasonal hunt that often lasted up to three or four months. The Cherokee killed or captured every remaining member of Chief Clermont's band and destroyed everything they could not carry away. Historians consider it one of the bloodiest Native American massacres in modern history. [1]
On November 10, 1808, at Fort Osage, Missouri, the Osage Nation made a treaty with the United States, ceding all of its land east of a line that ran south from Fort Clark to the Arkansas River and all of its land west of the Missouri River. [lower-alpha 2] The land reserved to the Osage Nation was further reduced by treaties signed at St. Louis (June 2, 1825, Fort Gibson (January 11, 1839) and Canville, Kansas (September 29, 1865).
According to Eaton, the Osage established two main villages about 1800, when they migrated to the area between the Verdigris and Grand rivers. These were called Pasona (near present-day Claremore, Oklahoma) and Pasuga (at the foot of Claremore Mound). [2] [lower-alpha 3]
In the early 1800s, a portion of the Cherokee people, who had been living in the Southeastern United States, had begun moving to land historically claimed by other tribes west of the Mississippi River. These were those Cherokees referred to as the Old Settlers, or western Cherokee. This produced a long period of conflict between the Cherokee migrants and the Osage. The Osage tribes had dominated the Central Plains area in today's Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, as well as Arkansas. The Osage often took captives (mostly women and children), and killing others, trying to drive out the invaders. Cherokees retaliated in kind, but were ineffective at stopping the raids. By 1817, an estimated three thousand Western Cherokees had settled in the area known as Lovely's Purchase in the Arkansaw district of the Missouri Territory. [3]
In January 1817 the Arkansas Cherokee began planning a retaliatory attack against the Osage and began asking their relatives from the east to aid them in a battle against the Osage. They also asked for help from the Choctawe, Chickasaw, Delaware, and others, including whites. [3]
The Cherokee knew that Osage men left their villages lightly guarded during the Strawberry Moon to go on a long-distance hunt for bison. [lower-alpha 4] [4] Therefore, this would be the most opportune time to attack.
The Cherokee were enraged by the treatment they had endured at the hands of the Osage, which helped offset the greater numbers of the Osage had. The Cherokee had another advantage as they had acquired more modern weapons - rifles - and were well-experienced in their use. Which finally gave them a match able force against the Osage tribe who had acquired guns in the 1600s from their trading with the French and all Warriors were well acquainted with.
Some 500 Cherokee, along with a number of Choctaw, Chickasaw and whites, convened at a place on the Arkansas River. (The modern city of Russellville, Arkansas developed here.) They traveled upriver into Indian Territory and went overland to the Osage villages. [lower-alpha 5] After luring a representative of the Southern Osage away from the village, the invading party attacked, killing thirty-eight Osage and taking one hundred and four captives. [lower-alpha 6] According to Eaton, Chief Clermont was present at the time of the attack and was killed during the fighting. He was later buried on Claremore Mound. [2] Another source indicates that Pasuga was attacked first, and that the inhabitants of Pasona had been alerted by the sounds and smells of smoke when the marauders burned the village. The Pasugans hid in a cave previously discovered and prepared as a hideout by Black Dog, who had gone on the buffalo hunt. Thus, they survived the raid on their village and could care for the few survivors from Pasuga. [5]
Most of the Osage warriors had been away on a hunt when their village was attacked. In an attempt to maintain peace with the U.S. government they did not retaliate immediately. Some time later (1820) the Cherokee followed the Osage further up the river. The Osage knew they were coming and were ready and had gathered numbers and allies. The Osage decimated Cherokee. Instead of cowing the Osage, the defeat at Claremore mound stirred them to greater fury. The bitter frontier war continued in unabated with Osage's raiding and killing indiscriminately [6] as they retreated down the river their Osage sons (Mad Buffalo) and grandsons were waiting in ambush. At every Cherokee retreat an Osage ambush party of Claremore descent was waiting to slaughter the fleeing Cherokees. For twenty years the descendants of Claremore attacked the Cherokees. The Osage who were taken captive were given to the Eastern Cherokee as payment for their contributions in the battle. In December of the same year construction began on Fort Smith between the Cherokee and Osage settlements. The following summer the U.S. forced the Osage to cede more land to the Cherokee who were settling in the area, apparently because of their victories after the Battle of Claremore Mound (Oklahoma a history of five centuries).
In December 1818 the U.S. government began construction of a fort on the Arkansas River, close to the western border of Arkansas Territory. When completed, Fort Smith was staffed with troops whose primary mission was to prevent further hostilities between the Osage and the Western Cherokee. In 1824, this function was transferred to Fort Gibson, which was built near the confluence of the Grand and Verdigris rivers in Indian Territory. Fort Smith was abandoned until a replacement was constructed several years later.
The Osage continued to live in the area until they moved to the Osage Reservation in 1839. [3]
The Oklahoma Historical Society erected a marker at the site of the battle. It is on State Highway 88, about 4.2 miles (6.8 km) north of the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore. Coordinates of the marker are: 36°22.919′N95°37.972′W / 36.381983°N 95.632867°W . [7]
Rogers County is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,240, making it the sixth-most populous county in Oklahoma. The county seat is Claremore. Rogers County is included in the Tulsa, OK metropolitan statistical area.
Muskogee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 66,339. The county seat is Muskogee. The county and city were named for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The official spelling of the name was changed to Muskogee by the post office in 1900.
Claremore is a city and the county seat of Rogers County in Green Country or northeastern Oklahoma, United States. The population was 19,580 at the 2020 census, a 5.4 percent increase over the figure of 18,581 recorded in 2010. Located in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, the town is home to Rogers State University. It is best known as the home of early 20th-century entertainer Will Rogers.
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas River Valley. The headwaters derive from the snowpack in the Sawatch and Mosquito mountain ranges. It flows east into Kansas and finally through Oklahoma and Arkansas, where it meets the Mississippi River.
The Osage Nation is a Midwestern American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 B.C. along with other groups of its language family. They migrated west after the 17th century, settling near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, as a result of Iroquois expansion into the Ohio Country in the aftermath of the Beaver Wars.
Claremore Mound, an ancient earthen platform mound in present-day Rogers County, Oklahoma. The mound is located north of Sageeyah near the south bank of the Verdigris River.
White Hair (Pawhuska) is the English name of several Osage leaders in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. A tintype image of White Hair can be seen at the Osage Nation Museum in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.
The Neosho River is a tributary of the Arkansas River in eastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma in the United States. Its tributaries also drain portions of Missouri and Arkansas. The river is about 463 miles (745 km) long. Via the Arkansas, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed. Its name is an Osage word meaning "clear water." The lower section is also known as the Grand River.
The Verdigris River is a tributary of the Arkansas River in southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma in the United States. It is about 310 miles (500 km) long. Via the Arkansas, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed.
Fort Gibson is a historic military site next to the modern city of Fort Gibson, in Muskogee County Oklahoma. It guarded the American frontier in Indian Territory from 1824 to 1888. When it was constructed, the fort was farther west than any other military post in the United States. It formed part of the north–south chain of forts that was intended to maintain peace on the frontier of the American West and to protect the southwestern border of the Louisiana Purchase. The fort succeeded in its peacekeeping mission for more than 50 years, as no massacres or battles occurred there.
During the American Civil War, most of what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma was designated as the Indian Territory. It served as an unorganized region that had been set aside specifically for Native American tribes and was occupied mostly by tribes which had been removed from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. As part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater, the Indian Territory was the scene of numerous skirmishes and seven officially recognized battles involving both Native American units allied with the Confederate States of America and Native Americans loyal to the United States government, as well as other Union and Confederate troops.
Takatoka,, was the second Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation—West (1813–1817) established in the old Arkansaw Territory.
Lovely County was a county that existed from October 31, 1827, to 1828 in the Arkansas Territory.
John Thompson Drew was a mixed blood military and political leader of the Cherokee Nation. Born in 1796, there is little written about his life until he led a company of Cherokee emigrants from Georgia to Indian Territory. The Cherokee Encyclopedia states that he was a participant in the Battle of Claremore Mound in 1818. He is best known for joining the Confederate Army at the outbreak of the American Civil War, when he raised, organized and led the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles. He moved his home from the Cherokee Nation to the Chickasaw Nation near the end of the war to escape intra-tribal bloodshed.
Black Dog was a chief of the Hunkah band of the Osage Indians that lived in an area around present Baxter Springs, Kansas. In the fall of 1803, the band moved to the village of Pasuga, present day Claremore, Oklahoma. His towering height was around seven feet tall, his weight some 300 pounds, and he was blind in the left eye.
Three Forks Oklahoma is an imprecisely defined area of what is now eastern Oklahoma, around the confluence of the Arkansas, Verdigris, and Grand Rivers. The term, "Three Forks," was apparently used to designate this area as early as 1719, when the French trader Bernard de la Harpe traveled through the area, meeting and trading with members of the Wichita tribe at a place on the Arkansas River immediately south of the present city of Tulsa.
William Dutch or Tahchee was a prominent leader of the Cherokee "Old Settlers" in the American West. He was renowned as a notorious enemy of the Osage tribe, and a spokesman for the Cherokee.
Claremore is the English name of several Tsi shu Osage hereditary chiefs. Their names have been translated variously as "Arrow Going Home" and "Moving Hawk". They have been transliterated in many ways, such as Gthi Mon, Gra-mo'n, Grahmoie, Glarmore, and more. To Europeans they were commonly known as Clermont, Clairmont, Clarmont, and Clamore. They had more names as well.
Lovely's Purchase, was part of the early nineteenth century Missouri and Arkansaw territories. It was created in 1817, to give a haven to the Cherokee and other Native Americans who were being forced to leave the southeastern United States and moving west to Indian Territory through territory then inhabited by sometimes hostile White settlers and several other Indian tribes, especially members of the Osage Indian Nation. Following years of political maneuvering and sometimes conflicting treaties, the Purchase was finally split between the Cherokee and White settlers, with the larger section going solely to the Cherokee Nation.
