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December 26, 2022

Native Americans and Mounds in Johnson County and the State of Missouri


Missouri Indians
The Sedalia Bazoo, March 26, 1878
Indian Mounds Near the Missouri River
Indian Land Concessions, Missouri
Indian Mounds North of Warrensburg 3 miles
The sandstone quarries, two miles north of Warrensburg, are sketched more fully in the city history. Indian Mounds. An old Indian burial place has recently been discovered on the farm of Mr. H. Spiess. The present indications are three large mounds within a radius of a few rods. These mounds are supposed to have been the work of the ancient mound-builders, who inhabited all this portion of North America, long before the Indians of more recent day had made the conquest of the Mississippi valley. The mounds have been dug into, and various relics found, some of which are preserved in the collection of curiosities at the normal. 
The writer made an examination of these mounds, and found, among other things, a large molar, rib, and piece of a cranium, all of which bore unmistakable evidence of great age, and that they were the remains of an ancient Mound Builder. The largest mound is twelve yards in diameter, and six feet high. It contains a cell or vault 10 x 12 feet, built up with flat stones, brought from the creek, one half mile distant. In this narrow house the bodies of the chiefs were interred. The other two mounds are similar to the first, but smaller. Oak trees, from one to two feet in diameter, are now growing on and about the mounds. It is supposed that, at the time these mounds were built, great numbers of that race dwelt in this locality. Warrensburg may have been the center of a great settlement of Mound Builders. White Sulphur Springs, about three miles north of Warrensburg, on the farm of Mr. McFarland, boils up from the bottom lands, one-half mile west of Post Oak. The taste and odor of sulphur is very strong, and it leaves a deposit of the same mineral upon debris over which the water flows. curb has been placed in the excavation, and it is rendered easy of access for all who desire its valuable medicinal waters.
From the History of Johnson County, MO 1881 
Lewis and Clark's expedition first encountered the Missouri settlements in summer 1804, when the Missouri were away buffalo hunting and their villages were empty. The Missouri were farmer-hunters, growing and harvesting corn, beans, and squash, but also hunting bison and other game to supplement their diet. At one point, Clark lamented that the Corps might pass through the region before the Missouri returned.
For more than a hundred years the Missouri Indians lived in earth-covered homes along the river that bears their name, at the river’s junction with a tributary called the Grand River. But six years before the arrival of Lewis and Clark, the Sauk and fox Indians swept down from the northeast to defeat them. The survivors established villages south of the Platte River in what is now part of Nebraska.
But on July 28, one of the corpsmen met a Missouri Indian, who told Lewis that his band of about 20 lodges had recently joined surviving Oto. Both populations had been recently stricken with smallpox; now only about 250 people survived. Lewis and Clark sent out a party to this village, and on August 2 the men returned with a small group of Oto and Missouri.
The next day, at modern-day Council Bluffs, Iowa, Lewis and Clark held their first meeting with western Indians, setting the pattern for future such councils. Amid great pomp and ceremony the Corps marched in their full uniform regalia, demonstrating their weaponry and distributing gifts to those chiefs they felt were of sufficient rank.
Despite the success of these first meetings, Lewis still wanted to meet with the head Missouri chief, Big Horse. A search party went out and on August 18 the Corps finally met with Big Horse and Oto Chief Little Thief.
The discussions centered on trade and peace negotiations. Lewis wanted the Oto-Missouri to support peace on the Plains and to stop raiding the neighboring tribes. The Missouri and Oto were more interested in a reliable, open-trade system.
Did you know the name "Missouri" is a Siouan Indian word? It comes from the tribal name Missouria, which means "big canoe people." The Missouri Indians were not the only native people of this region, however.
The original inhabitants of the area that is now Missouri included:


Around Columbus Missouri Pleasant Rice or Nicholas Houx was the first permanent white settler in Johnson county. They both settled in what is now Columbus township in 1827. Pleasant Rice first visited this locality on a hunting expedition in 1818 and in the fall of 1819, returned on a hunting expedition in company with Dangerfield Rice, Capt. Hugh Brown, Hugh Brown, Jr., Cicero Brown and John Wallace. They got on this expedition, besides various game and fur, two hundred and sixty gallons of wild honey. Mr. Rice stated that he found twelve bee trees in one day, from which he took an average of sixteen gallons of honey each. Henceforth the little creek along which he hunted bees on that occasion was given the name of Honey creek. At that time hundreds of Indians had their wigwams along the creeks near suitable hunting grounds. Mr. Rice estimated that he saw as many as two thousand Indians within a radius of four miles of his log cabin. He settled with his family on Honey creek in section 10 township 47 on a place which is now owned by Mrs. Kelly, grandmother of Charles L. Gillilan, ex-county assessor. Part of the old building which he first erected is still standing. It is fourteen feet square and was covered with clapboards and weight poles. The logs were chinked with mud and the door swung on wooden hinges and was fastened by a wood latch, the string of which was always said to hang on the outside. The chimney was built of mud and sticks. This old hut was built by Pleasant Rice with the assistance of a negro, and the logs used in its construction. Since then the old clapboards have been dispensed with. It has a new roof, and the log walls have been covered by siding, and it is now used as a kitchen

Around Chilhowee Missouri
Indian Mounds.-The ancient mound builders left evidence of their prehistoric industry in this section of the county. On section 28, township 44, and range 27 on a hillside are some ancient earthworks and near this place have been found numerous arrowheads and a few stone axes.

CHAPTER II.— INDIANS. 
THE COUNTRY OF THE OSAGES— EARLY RELATIONS BETWEEN THE WHITE SETTLERS AND THE INDIANS— TREATY OF NOVEMBER. 1808— PURCHASE PRICE OP JOHNSON COUNTY— CHARACTER OF OSAGES — THE INDIANS' EARLY CIRCLE. 
Johnson county before the advent of the white man was the country of the Osage Indians. Here the Indian was complete master and hunted or roamed at will through the timber and over the prairie and raised his lodge or pitched his barbaric tent or buffalo skin. Before the nineteenth century, when the white settlements were few in number and scattered over a wide expanse of country, the question of land ownership was hardly considered. Early treaties between the French and Spanish and the Indians were in the most part merely for the purpose of establishing friendly relations with the natives, and the question of land cession rarely, if ever, entered into the negotiations. Such treaties were made by Iberville, Bienville and Cadillac as governors of the colony and also by explorers in behalf of their governments. However the British government. especially after the peace of 1763, prohibited the whites from settling on Indian lands and after the Revolution the same policy was pursued by the United States for several years. The Federal government during this time recognized the several tribes and confederacies as quasi nation, with a right to the soil, and the right to dispose of same. Following the Louisiana purchase settlers began to infringe on the lands of the Osages in portions of what is now the state of Missouri and other relations arose between the whites and the Indians. Hence a treaty was made between the Great and Little Osages and the United States in November, 1808. 
This treaty occupies an important place in the real history of Johnson county. Beginning in 1682, with France, who by reason of the explorations of La Salle, claimed all the territory drained by the Mississippi river, France, Spain and the United States, had at different times, claimed the same territory by virtue of treaties and agreements between themselves. But none of these nations either occupied by settlement or otherwise the actual territory. The actual inhabitants of that much of the territory now comprising this county were these Indians. And it was by this treaty that their right passed to the United States, and the country of the Great and Little Osages became the country of the Rices and the Houxs and the other pioneers, who came and, in the name of the United States of America, remained, and whose lineal descendants are here to this day. This treaty was entitled: 
The treaty was signed by "P. Chouteau; E. B. Clemson, Captain First Regiment Infantry; L. Lorimer, Lieutenant First Regiment Infantry; Reazen Lewis, sub-agent Indian Affairs," for the United States, and on behalf of the Indians by "Papuisea, the grand chief of the Big Osage, his (x) mark; Nichu Malli, the grand chief of the Little Osage, his (x) mark," and by one "second chief" each of the Big and Little Osage, by ten "little chiefs" of the Big Osage and seven "little chiefs" of the Little Osage, by three "war chiefs" of the Big Osage and two war chiefs of the Little Osage and by forty-two "warriors" of the Big Osage and forty-two "warriors" of the Little Osage. Thus when our children ask us who ruled over this county before "Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Fort Clark, on the right bank of the Missouri, about five miles above the fire prairie, in the territory of Louisiana, the tenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight, between Peter Chouteau, Esquire, agent for the Osage, and especially commissioned and instructed to enter into the same by his excellency Meriwether Lewis, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the territory aforesaid, in behalf of the United States of America, of the one part, and the chiefs and warriors of the Great and Little Osage, for themselves and their nations respectively, on the other part." the President and the governor of Missouri, we can tell them Pipuisea and Nichu Malli. Fort Clark was located on the Missouri River between the present city of Lexington and Independence, and by Lewis and Clark while on their expedition to the Pacific coast in 1804. It was at first named Clark in honor of one of the two leaders. After this treaty, the name was changed to Fort Osage. Later it was changed to Fort Sibley in honor of George C. Sibley, an army officer. By this treaty with the Osage Indians, a line was established beginning at Fort Clark on the Missouri, five miles above Fire Prairie, and running thence a due south course to the Arkansas River, thence down the same to the Mississippi. All east of this line was relinquished by the Osages to the United States. For some time thereafter there was some uncertainty as to just where the real line was intended to be. However, there is no question but what it was miles west of the western boundary of Johnson county, perhaps about ten miles, and thus ceded Johnson county to the United States. Other provisions of the treaty provided for a store of goods and a blacksmith to be kept at the point for the protection of the Indians' hunting grounds and for general relations between the United States and the Indians. The total purchase price for "the lands relinquished by the Great and Little Osage was $1200 in money already paid and the yearly payment at Fire Prairie of $1500 in merchandise at the first cost thereof." Thus was Johnson county bought at a cost of less than four cents a square mile cash and five cents a square mile annually in trade. After this treaty the Osages for a number of years frequently returned on hunting expeditions. Many of the old settlers now living in Johnson county often saw Indians here. They were peaceable and friendly and on these return trips were never known to do any greater wrong than to sell baskets and to beg. 
The character of the Indians was like that of the white men, the black men, the brown men and the yellow men. There were good Indians and bad Indians. Physically, Morse says, the Osages were of remarkable height, not many being less than six feet tall, and said to be athletic, well formed and robust, and it is said on good authority that they frequently walked from their villages to trading posts, a distance of sixty miles a day. They talked little, in conversation did not interrupt each other, and except when intoxicated were not noisy. They were not drunkards and were greatly and favorably distinguished from other Indians in their sobriety. Insanity was not known among them. They bore sickness and pain with great fortitude, and were more skilled in medicine than most other Indian tribes. Their chief dependence was hunting but they raised small crops of corn, beans and pumpkins. They entered upon the summer hunt in May and returned about the first of August to gather their crops which had been unattended, unfenced and uncultivated throughout the summer. Each family raised from fifteen to thirty bushels of corn and from one to two bushels of beans and a quantity of dried pumpkins. After the harvest of their crops, about September, they started on another hunting expedition which lasted until about Christmas. They then returned to villages, where they remained until February or March and during that time they would make frequent short hunting trips. In February or March the spring hunt would begin. It started with bear hunting and ended with the beaver hunt. Then the Osage returned to his primitive farm, planted his corn, beans and pumpkin seeds, and began again his yearly circle. 
The Knobs, of Knob Noster, Missouri
Knob Noster. One of the unusual physical features of the township is what is known as the Knobs, two prominent knolls located just north of the town of Knob Noster, from which the town derived its name. They both rise a considerable height above the surrounding country. Much conjecture and a great deal of unreliable tradition envelop the history of these mounds. The early settlers for many years regarded these knobs as prominent land marks. An Indian tradition is that a great battle was fought here at one time. Human bones have been exhumed from these mounds but the mystery of how they came there is still unsolved. There is also an Indian tradition that these mounds are the hiding place of valuable treasure which was buried here some time in the past. Concerning the curiosity with which these mounds were viewed as late as 1879, the following article appeared in the "Knob Noster Gem," under date of November 28, 1879: "Just north of Knob Noster are two hills known as the Knobs. For some time there has been talk of the possible contents of these Knobs but almost everybody laughed at the idea of them containing anything more than the surrounding land. However, there were a few who still thought there was a bonanza in the hill if it could only be gotten out. Last Saturday, W. L. Shockley and R. H. Carr shouldered a pick and struck out for the Knobs. After a few hours' digging they found the skeletons of several human beings, together with other curiosities, which were buried with the Indians, Mound Builders or whoever they were."
Knob(s) of Knob Noster, MO 
Knobs 
Location Johnson County, Missouri 
Latitude (lat) 38.776680° 
Longitude (long) -93.552157° 
Elevation 912 ft. 277 m. 

Osage Warrior 
67. Great and Little Osage Treaty, 10 Nov 1808 (on Arkansas, Map 5; Missouri, Map 37) 
President Calvin Coolidge with four Osage Indians; the White House is in the background. The Osage, who speak a Sioux language dialect, formerly inhabited what is now Missouri and hunted in what is now northern Arkansas. On June 2, 1924, President Coolidge signed a bill granting Native Americans full citizenship. 
May//1878 
Article about the history of North American Indian art and culture in the present United States, with examples in the Warrensburg, Missouri, area of Aztec-related Indian artifacts. 
How "Wazhazhe" became "Osage" Indians
When French explorers first encountered this native people, they probably heard them call themselves. They wrote it down in French as "Ouasage." English speakers would probably have rendered it "Wasosh" or "Washoshee. Later, English speakers took over the French spelling "Ouasage," simplified it to "Osage," and sounded it out englishly. They also stressed the first syllable, because that's what English speakers often do with unfamiliar words. So now the tribe's name in English is pronounced as if one were beginning a speech to a small evergreen perennial: "Oh! sage.


MISSOURI 
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma (NOTE: tribe has members in Missouri as well as OK, office is in MO) 
FEDERALLY NON-RECOGNIZED TRIBES 
Northern Cherokee Tribe of Missouri 
Chickamauga Cherokee 
When Europeans first visited this area of Western Missouri, it was occupied by the Osage and Kansa American Indians who had moved west from the lower Ohio River Valley in the early 17th century. The Osage and Kansa peoples spoke similar languages descended from the Dhegian-Siouan linguistic family; intermarriage was common.
After initial contact with French explorers in the late 17th century, a fur trade was established between the Osage and Kansa and the French colonists in the Ohio Valley and along the Mississippi River. The American presence was not felt until the completion of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 which gave the young nation control over the immense territory drained by the Mississippi River. As the European-American population grew, its westward expansion in turn pushed tribes further west. The rich soils of Missouri attracted American settlers by the 1820s, and through a series of federal treaties between 1808 and 1825, the Osage and Kansa gave up their claims to much of the land in present day Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas and were forced to locate on reservations.
Warriors of the Woods and Prairies
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Osage Indians roamed a vast domain in the heart of North America. Although the Osage were a proud and powerful tribe, they could not withstand the pressure of European civilization. Soon after French fur trappers established contact with the Osages in the 1670s, their way of life began to change. By 1872, encroachment from American settlers forced the Osages to relinquish most of their remaining ancestral homelands and relocate to their present reservation in Oklahoma.
Children of the Middle Waters
A spiritual people, the Osage Indians were excellent hunters and fierce warriors. Their religious beliefs were based on Wah-kon-tah, the great mystery spirit or power. In one creation legend, the Osages believed that the People of the Sky (Tzi-sho) met with the People of the Land (Hun-Kah) to form one tribe, the Children of the Middle Waters (Ni-u-ko’n-ska). Living in semipermanent villages primarily along the Osage River, the Osage Indians roamed the land between three great rivers, the Missouri to the north, the Mississippi to the east, and the Arkansas to the south. Their western boundary stretched into the windswept plains where they hunted buffalo.
Osage Lifestyle
The Osage way of life depended on hunting, since deer and bison provided food , clothing, and other essentials for them. Before leaving on the summer hunt (one of three annual hunts), the Osage planted vegetables such as corn, beans and pumpkins. In August, they returned to harvest their untended crops, and then left for an autumn hunt. Although only the men hunted, the women did the work of butchering and preparing the meat, and tanning the hides.
Descriptions of the Osages
George Catlin
The famous Indian artist, George Catlin, captured several Osage Indians on canvas at Fort Gibson in 1834. He stated: “The Osages have been formerly, and until quite recently, a powerful and warlike tribe: carrying all their arms fearlessly through to all these realms; and ready to cope with foes of any kind that they were liable to meet. At present, the case is quite different; they have been repeatedly moved and jostled along, …” He noted that despite their reduction in numbers caused by every tribal move, war and smallpox, the Osages waged war on the Pawnee and Comanche. Catlin believed the Osages “ to be the tallest race of men in North America, either red or white skins; there being few indeed of the men at their full growth, who are less than six feet in stature, and very many of them six and a half, and others seven feet.”
Louis Cortambert
In 1836, Louis Cortambert, a French writer, observed that the Osage men “ carefully pull the hairs from their faces, even their eyebrows, and shave their heads, leaving on the top a tuft of hair, which terminates in back in a pigtail.”
Victor Tixier
In 1840, a young Frenchman named Victor Tixier described the Osages: “The men are tall and perfectly proportioned. They have at the same time all the physical qualities which denote skill and strength combined with graceful movements.”The Osages loved to decorate themselves, often suspending beads and bones from their ears and tattooing their bodies, Tixler observed: “Their ears, slit by knives, grow to be enormous, and they hang low under the weight of the ornaments with which they are laden.”
Osage Relocation
The ancestral home of the Osages was part of the immense Louisiana Purchase that the United States acquired in 1803. Missouri achieved statehood in 1821, and soon after over 5,000 Osages were removed west to the Indian Territory. Other Indian tribes from the eastern U.S. were also relocated west of the Missouri and Arkansas boundaries. Federal troops were stationed in this “Permanent Indian Territory” to keep the peace. After Kansas opened for settlement in 1854, many Indian tribes were again relocated. In 1872, the Osages moved to their present reservation. Like other tribes, their ancestral way of life was not compatible with the white man’s way of life.

Missouri Native American History ~ Missouri Indian History
Indian Tribes of Missouri and the Arcadia Valley Region and the Black River Recreation Area
Missouri Native American history in the Arcadia Valley Region, Black River Recreation Area of Missouri goes back to the Paleo-Indians, the ancient peoples of the Americas who were present at the end of the last ice age. They camped and hunted along Ozark rivers, perhaps as long as 12,000 to 14,000 years ago. These early inhabitants were big-game hunters. The mastodon (for meat) and the giant ground sloth (for fur), still roamed the area. After the ice age arrived, circa 8000 B.C., the disappearance of the large mammals caused the people to hunt smaller game and rely more heavily on gathering and foraging. They crafted fluted points for hunting, needles for making clothing, hand-woven nets for fishing, and mortars for crunching seeds. Fish and vegetables became an important part of their diet.
During the Woodland Period (1,000 to 500 B.C.) The Hopewell tribe inhabited the region now known as Missouri. They learned how to fire clay pots and tools, engaged in trade, and created large ceremonial earthworks. They cultivated corn and hunted deer and wild turkey.
From A.D. 900 to 1700, the Mississipian Period, the Native Americans became highly dependent on the rivers, eating river dwelling animals and growing crops in the fertile soil of the riverbeds. Corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and gourds were grown. These were the Native Americans that De Soto and his men encountered in 1541, when they crossed the Mississippi River into Calpista and Palisema (present day Arcadia Valley Region and Black River Recreation Area) **"Another eye-witness describes the army's journey, ---We traveled for five days (from Kaskaskia) and reached the province of Palisema (which extended from Lesterville to the Current River). The house of the chief was found (probably near the mountain refuge of Centerville) with coverings of colored deerskins drawn over with designs, and the floor of the house was covered with the same material in the manner of carpets. The chief left it so, in order that the governor might lodge in it as a sign that he was desirous of peace and his friendship, but he did not dare remain. The governor upon seeing that he was away, sent a captain with horse and foot (soldiers) to look for him. The captain found many people, but because of the roughness of the land (the highest mountains in Missouri) they captured only some women and young persons. It was a small and scattered settlement and had very little corn (there's nowhere to grow it). On that account, the governor left it immediately (choosing to camp farther down the trail on Bunker's Plateau)."


Missouri Indian Trails and Warpaths

Indian Era - Trails Pettis and Johnson County, Missouri
In the late 1700s counties had not been organized.  Sedalia, originally platted in 1957 as Sedville, would be near the intersection of two Indian trails in the the lower right section. Clusters indicate Indian settlements.
Potawatomi Trail of Death March 1838, from Indiana to Kansas



Indian Trails of Missouri

Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, Missouri Included
The Historic Period, beginning in 1700, is the last classified era of Native American development. These were the Indians the European explorers and settlers of our region would come into contact with. Our region was the hunting ground of several tribes including the Osage, Delaware, Kickapoo, Shawnee, Piankashaw and perhaps others. The Osage tribe was master of the area. (The Osage Indians were first recorded in 1673 by the French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette). Only the Osage Indians seemed to be native to Missouri and the Ozark region. All the other tribes had been driven from east of the Mississippi River to our region as the white man made his gradual advance across the eastern portion of North America. 


The Osage empire covered roughly a portion of four states: Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. How many people this represented is not known, but the war-like Osage had the numbers to rule this area preeminently against the other tribes that flanked them on every side. As quoted from History of Early Reynolds County Missouri, by James E. Bell, "Due to their marriage customs, the Osage were tall, physically strong, and possessed unquestionable courage. The smaller, weaker males often were denied marriage and the mightiest warriors got the girl plus all her sisters. In this way they had a form of selective breeding, which undoubtedly accounts for most of the tribe being over six feet tall." When the first white settlers came to our region in the early 1800's, it is estimated that there were about 20,000 Indians in Missouri. Early maps verify the presence of a village of Delaware Indians along the Black River. 
The Osage Indians gave up their claim to most of the Ozark Plateau in a treaty with the federal government in 1808. As paraphrased from Mr. Bell's book, the Osage always considered this treaty not to exclude their right to use the Ozarks for their frequent hunting trips. This often caused many problems for the first white settlers even though the Indians were mostly friendly and often hunted and traded with the white man. The ever increasing white population in conjunction with the various treaties that relocated the many tribes that were common to this area, made it rare to see a Native American in this locale after 1830. Sadly, the Trail of Tears passed through our region.

Indians in Missouri
Missouri has been the home of many nations of Indians. The Missouri, Osage, Delaware, Kickapoo, Shawnee, and Cherokee are the major nations. Wea and Piankashaw, divisions of the Miami, lived in the state for a while as well. The Sauk and Fox made frequent incursions into northern Missouri, but most of those two nations did not live in the state.
The Missouri (or Missouria as they are sometimes known) gave their name to the state and the major river that runs through it, but they were almost exterminated by the Sauk and Fox in 1798. The Missouri were traveling by canoe on the Missouri River toward St. Louis on a trading trip when there were attacked and almost wiped out by the Sauk and Fox. Lewis and Clark met with a few of the Missouri during their trip west. Most of the Missouri had joined with either the Osage who were a related nation or the Oto for protections. The Oto had joined with the Pawnee in Nebraska for protection as well.

The Osage were longtime residents of the regions in Missouri south of the Missouri and in northern Arkansas. They had also lived north of the Missouri River, but were forced out by the Sauk and Fox nations by the late 1790s. The Osage were divided into three bands. On band, the Great Osage, lived in what is now southeast Bates County in Missouri, the Little Osage that lived near the mouth of the Osage River, and the Arkansas band on the Verdigris River, a tributary of the Arkansas. In 1803, the Little Osage had a village on the Missouri River near where Fort Osage was built later, but attacks from the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo nations forced them to move near the Grand Osage for more protection.
The Grand Osage made much use of the Ozarks region for hunting. They would build temporary lodges that looked like an inverted bird’s nest. The lodge was built by sticking slender green poles, sharpened at both ends, into the ground and crossing at the top. Small twigs would be woven between the poles and filled in with a mixture of mud, grass, and cane. These temporary lodges would be abandoned when the game they hunted became less abundant. The Osage would then move on and repeat the process in a more favorable hunting area.
In 1808, the Grand and Little Osage bands signed a treaty with the United States at Fort Osage. The Osage gave up any claim to the land east of a line form Fort Osage south to the Arkansas River, north of the Arkansas to its mouth, west of the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Missouri, and south of the Missouri back to Fort Osage. This was practically all of southern Missouri. In return, the Osage received $1200 in cash and $1500 in merchandise. In 1825, the Osage gave up claim to their remaining land in Missouri and Arkansas and part of their land in Kansas in return for $7000 annually for seven years.
By 1837, with their annuities being paid in goods of little or no value, the Osage were in a state or poverty and near starvation. They made hunting excursions into Missouri and Arkansas and those hunting trips so alarmed residents of Missouri that the residents called for the state militia. A large number of Osage had gathered near Sarcoxie where they were met by Missouri militia and sent back across the state line to their reservation in Kansas. During the winter of 1836-37, Osage hunters again entered Missouri to visit one of their favorite hunting grounds. Three officers of the militia were sent to tell the Osage to go back to their reservation. The officers were accompanied by Charley, an African-American who had been raised among the Delaware, whose function was to act as interpreter. They came across a great number of Osage gathered near a sawmill about 35 miles southwest of Springfield. The officers decided on strong action and gathered over a hundred men at Ozark. The Osage began moving back toward their reservation, but the militia overtook them. The warriors were forced to give up their arms, mostly bows and arrows, but a few guns were included, to provide against any hostilities breaking out. The guns were rendered unusable by removing the flints from the locks and ramming a ball down the barrel to jam it. The guns were then returned and the Osage moved back to the reservation. These incidents came to be known as the “Sarcoxie Wars.” The Osage caused no further problems in southwest Missouri.
About 650 Shawnee arrived in Missouri in 1770 and settled in southeast Missouri. Delaware first moved to Missouri in 1784 and settled near Ste. Genevieve in eastern Missouri where the Spanish found them useful as a buffer against the Americans and as protection against Osage horse thieves. The Spanish governor invited other Delaware and Shawnee to emigrate from Ohio in 1788 and in 1793, the governor granted twenty-five square miles of land to the Delaware and Shawnee near Cape Girardeau. By 1800, three of the five bands of Shawnee were in Missouri and more Shawnee were living in Missouri than in Ohio. The Shawnee and Delaware maintained close ties to protect each other from the Osage who liked to steal horses and with the Kaskaskia Indians in Illinois who remembered earlier wars with the Shawnee and Delaware. By 1815, several hundred of these Delaware and Shawnee had moved to Texas where Spanish authorities used them as a buffer against the Comanche. In 1825, the 1400 Shawnee in Missouri signed a treaty in St. Louis with William Clark exchanging their land near Cape Girardeau for 2500 square miles in eastern Kansas, $14,000 in moving expenses, and $11,000 to pay debts owed to white traders.
In 1818, the Delaware remaining in Indiana signed the St. Mary’s Treaty ceding all their land in Indiana and agreed to move west of the Mississippi. The Wea and Piankashaw divisions of the Miami were also parties to that treaty and eventually about 500 from those divisions settled with the Delaware in Missouri. They were given land in southwest Missouri and moved to the James River in that area between 1820 and 1822. A town was established on the James about ten miles southwest of Springfield, but other villages were scattered up and down the James and on the banks of Wilson’s Creek. Many of the homes were built of logs with wood floors and some even had two or three rooms. One of the white settlers already in the area went to St. Louis to confirm the Delaware’s claim to the land. In St. Louis, he discovered that the Delaware were telling the truth and that the settlers would have to leave.
Even though the Osage had ceded the land to the government in 1808, they still used the land for hunting and saw the Delaware as intruders. The Osage were exceptional horse thieves and “acquired” many Delaware horses. The Osage attacked a Delaware hunting party in 1824 and made a horse-stealing raid in 1826. These events caused the Delaware and Kickapoo to unite against the Osage. Government intervention was required to prevent a war and a treaty was signed in St. Louis by all the partied in 1826. Like many treaties, this one did not stop the bad feeling. The real problem was that the area was over-hunted and there was not enough game to feed everyone anymore.
In 1829, the Delaware still in Ohio ceded their land to the government and agreed to move west and join the Delaware already in Missouri. The Delaware on the James River did not know how they could feed another 100 mouths, so they agreed to give up their Missouri lands and move to a reserve in Kansas just north of the Shawnee.
Some of the Kickapoo got an early start in Missouri. In 1763, a group of Kickapoo moved across the Mississippi River from Illinois and established a village just north of St. Louis. This village was used a base to attack the Osage villages in central Missouri. In one raid in 1800, the Kickapoo destroyed a village of the Little Osage on the Missouri River and killed 50 Osage warriors.
In 1819, following the War of 1812, the Kickapoo signed treaties with the United States at Edwardsville, Illinois and Fort Harrison, Indiana ceding all their land in Illinois and Indiana and agreed to move to Missouri. The government had given the Kickapoo land in southwestern Missouri adjacent to that of the Osage who the Kickapoo had been fighting for over a century. This caused many Kickapoo to resist moving to Missouri. Eventually, Federal troops and state militia were needed to evict the Kickapoo from Illinois and Indiana. Between 1819 and 1824, most Kickapoo were sent to Missouri.
About 1812, a band of Kickapoo who had left Illinois or Indiana built a village near the site of present day Springfield and it was called “Kickapoo settlement.” It was believed to be near what is now Phelps Grove Park. It had about 100 lodges and they farmed to the southwest what came to be known as Kickapoo prairie. Another Kickapoo village was located just north of Strafford in 1828. In 1832, the Kickapoo ceded their lands in southwest Missouri and moved to a reservation in Kansas near Fort Leavenworth.
Author: Greg Snider

Missouri Indians (‘great muddy,’ referring to Missouri river). A tribe of the Chiwere group of the Siouan family. Their name for themselves is Niútachi. According to Gale the early form of the word Missouri is Algonquian, of the Illinois dialect. The most closely allied tribes are the Iowa and the Oto.
According to tradition, after having parted from the Winnebago at Green bay, the Iowa, Missouri, and Oto moved westward to Iowa river, where the Iowa stopped. The rest continued westward, reaching the Missouri at the mouth of Grand river. Here, on account of some dispute, the Oto withdrew and moved farther up Missouri river. Marquette’s autograph map of 1673, which is perhaps the earliest authentic notice of the tribe, locates the Semesssrit on Missouri river, apparently as far north as the Platte. Joutel (1687) appears to have been the first writer to use the name Missouri in this form. It is stated that Tonti met the tribe a day and half’s journey from the Village of the Tamaroa, which was on the Mississippi, 6 leagues below Illinois river. About the beginning of the 18th century the French found them on the left bank of the Missouri, near the mouth of Grand river, and built a fort on an island near them. They continued to dwell in this locality until about 1800.
According to Bourgmont their village in 1723 was 30 leagues below Kansas river and 60 leagues below the principal Kansa village. About 1798 they were conquered and dispersed by the Sauk andFox tribes and their allies. Five or six lodges joined the Osage, two or three took refuge with the Kansa, and some amalgamated with the Oto, but they soon recovered, as in 1805 Lewis and Clark found them in villages south of Platte river, having abandoned their settlements on Grand river some time previously on account of smallpox.
They were visited again by an epidemic in 1823. Although their number was estimated in 1702 at 200 families and in 1805 by Lewis and Clark at 300 souls, in 1829, when they were found with the Oto, they numbered only 80. Having been unfortunate in a war with the Osage, part of them joined the Iowa, and the others went to tho Oto previous to the migration of the latter to Big Platte river. In 1842 their Village stood on the bank of Platte river, Nebr. They accompanied the Oto when that tribe removed in 1882 to Indian Territory. There were only 40 individuals of the tribe remaining in 1885. They are now officially classed with the Oto, together numbering 368 in 1905 under the Oto school superintendent in Oklahoma.

MISSOURI GENTES
The gentes, as given by Dorsey were: 
Tunanpin ( Black bear), 
Hotachi (Elk), and 
Cheghita (Eagle) or Wakanta (Thunder-bird). 

MISSOURI TREATIES
The Missouri joined in the following treaties with the United States: 
Peace treaty of June 24, 1817; 
Ft Atkinson, ,Ia., Sept. 26, 1825, regulating trade and relations with the United States; 
Prairie du Chien, Wis. July 15, 1830, ceding lands in Iowa Ad Missouri; 
Oto Village, Nebr., Sept. 21, 1833, ceding certain lands; 
Bellevue, upper Missouri r., Oct. 15, 1836, ceding certain lauds; 
Washington, Mar. 15, 1854, ceding lands, with certain reservation; 
Nebraska City, Nebr., Dec. 9, 1854, changing boundary of reservation. 
Morgan used the term Missouri Indians to include the Ponca, Omaha, Kansa, Quapaw, Iowa, Oto, and Missouri. These are the Southern tribes of Hale, and the Dhegiha and Chiwere groups of J. O. Dorsey. Link

Missouri Indians
For more than a hundred years the Missouri Indians lived in earth-covered homes along the river that bears their name, at the river's junction with a tributary called the Grand River. But six years before the arrival of Lewis and Clark, the Sauk and Fox Indians swept down from the northeast to defeat them. The survivors established villages south of the Platte River in what is now part of Nebraska. 
Lewis and Clark's expedition first encountered the Missouri settlements in summer 1804, when the Missouri were away buffalo hunting and their villages were empty. The Missouri were farmer-hunters, growing and harvesting corn, beans, and squash, but also hunting bison and other game to supplement their diet. At one point, Clark lamented that the Corps might pass through the region before the Missouri returned. 
But on July 28, one of the corpsmen met a Missouri Indian, who told Lewis that his band of about 20 lodges had recently joined surviving Oto. Both populations had been recently stricken with smallpox; now only about 250 people survived. Lewis and Clark sent out a party to this village, and on August 2 the men returned with a small group of Oto and Missouri. 
The next day, at modern-day Council Bluffs, Iowa, Lewis and Clark held their first meeting with western Indians, setting the pattern for future such councils. Amid great pomp and ceremony the Corps marched in their full uniform regalia, demonstrating their weaponry and distributing gifts to those chiefs they felt were of sufficient rank.
Despite the success of these first meetings, Lewis still wanted to meet with the head Missouri chief, Big Horse. A search party went out and on August 18 the Corps finally met with Big Horse and Oto Chief Little Thief. 
The discussions centered on trade and peace negotiations. Lewis wanted the Oto-Missouri to support peace on the Plains and to stop raiding the neighboring tribes. The Missouri and Oto were more interested in a reliable, open-trade system. 
Disappointed in the seemingly paltry gifts of beads, paint, and tobacco from the huge supply on the keelboat, both the Oto and the Missouri were unhappy with the exchange. This first Indian council ended on a flat note and nothing was really accomplished. 
By the mid-1860s there were about 400 Oto-Missouri remaining, and they settled on a reservation on the Big Blue River between Kansas and Nebraska. In 1881 this combined tribe moved to Indian Territory in modern Oklahoma. The 1991 census listed about 1,350 Oto-Missouri still living near Pawnee, Oklahoma.
Ancient history 
Thousands of years ago another civilization inhabited Missouri. All that's left today are the mounds. 
By MATTHEW GRAHAM
April 14, 2007 
On one of many pinnacles along the bluffs lining the Missouri River southwest of Columbia, atop the steep face of jagged rock plunging to the landing, there is an inconspicuous 10-foot lump of earth. What appears to be a natural point in the landscape insignificant in the swath of hills and valleys is a burial mound, formed by human hands thousands of years ago. 
American Indian burial mounds abound in mid-Missouri, especially along the blufftops of the river. Many date back 2,000 years or more to what is called the Woodland Period, from about 500 B.C. to about A.D. 900. With developer Jose Lindner's purchase of the former W.B. Smith Feed Mill and Hatchery property 1,024 acres between the city and the
river government officials say city annexation is inevitable. And others say if planning doesn't precede development, the future of the burial mounds along the blufftops is uncertain at best. Few protections exist for the prehistoric sites. The federal legislation meant to protect them only applies to development projects that are on federal land or use federal money. State protection only applies to "known" prehistoric sites. But without an official database, many sites only become known when construction runs into them, at which point archaeologists say the damage is generally already extensive. 
Layers of history 
While some city and county officials seek ways to protect the burial mounds, development creeps steadily southwest toward the water. Boone County is home to more recorded burial mounds and other archaeological sites than any other Missouri county, with 1,300 known sites as of Aug 31. 
There are 37,000 known sites in the state, but that's probably a small fraction of the total, said Judith Deel, an officer with the State Historic Preservation Office. 
Burial mounds were typically built on blufftops overlooking rivers or streams. In some cases, mound builders saved the bones of their tribe's dead for years until they camped in one area long enough to build a mound. As a result, some mounds contain bones and cremations from different years. 
Many of these mounds have been excavated in the past, and the information gleaned from their contents has given archaeologists a picture of Missouri that dates back at least 12,000 years to the Woodland Period and earlier. 
Some recent discoveries were accidental. In 1989, during a construction project along Forum Boulevard, a mound was hit. Because it was already damaged and partly exposed, archaeologists decided to excavate its contents. They found the remains of 11 people from the Late Woodland Period, about A.D. 700 to A.D. 900. They also found a female who was about 20 years old when she died, sealed in a limestone tomb and buried in the mound. Carbon dating showed she had lived in the Early Woodland Period, between 850 B.C. and 450 B.C. 
Much of what is known about the historical and archaeological record of Missouri is owed to Carl Chapman, the first person to graduate from MU with experience in American archaeology. Chapman dedicated his life to discovering Missouri's history and prehistory. In 1986, Chapman was researching the Rogers Shelter area in the Osage River Basin when he established what he estimated to be an 11,000-year timeline from about 10,000 B.C. to about A.D. 1,000 for one civilization in
Missouri. The discovery is one of the longest cultural sequences found in the state. 
He also uncovered a mastodon tusk near Miami, Mo., in the 1970s. Even more significant was the "flake knife" found next to it, suggesting people may have lived in Missouri at the same time as the mastodon about 18,000 years ago. 
Chapman discerned that the people of the Woodland Period were hunters and gatherers, made ornate pottery and lived in campsites near the mounds but probably didn't grow their own food. Religious rights MU anthropology professor Todd Vanpool said that when excavations were conducted through most of the 20th century, American Indian religious rights weren't really considered. "With Native Americans the unmarked graves were treated as basically abandoned property with no clear ancestry present," he said. "And therefore, as abandoned property, archaeologists could take the bodies and do with them what they wanted to, because there was no clear ownership." 
To some American Indians, the excavations intentional or otherwise were sacrilegious. 
"Mostly (it was) federally subsidized grave desecration," said Lynda Means, who teaches American Indian history at Lindenwood University in St. Charles and is an elder in the Thunderbird Society, a nonprofit organization that promotes American Indian culture. "We understand that people wanted to know, but the idea is  why don't they dig up white people's cemeteries?" she said. Jane Livingston, president of the
Columbia-Jefferson City area Red Fox Lodge, one of the Thunderbird Society's four lodges, said that while some American Indians share Means' view, others try to see the historical benefits of excavations. 
"The views of the full-blood traditionalists is very harsh," Livingston said. "They see it as an insult the lack of caring, the lack of understanding, the way people dismissed their (religious) views as unimportant." 
However, she said, "Some people recognize it was done for educational purposes, to try to further the knowledge of the prehistory of the United States." 
But if archaeologists once considered the sites "abandoned property,"
Vanpool illustrates the more recent appreciation of Indian burials.
"These resources are valuable," he said. "It's a limited resource; there is no way to get back a mound once it's been destroyed, or any archaeological site once it's been destroyed. And the preservation of these and the mitigation of damage that might occur to them needs to be thought about before the development occurs." 
Changing ownership 
Just a few miles up Smith Hatchery Road, there is another mound a pile of concrete and debris piled long and high where the W.B. Smith feed mill stood just months ago. 
The land on which the debris is piled was bought by Lindner last year and is already being cleared. Attempts to reach the Lindner family for this story were unsuccessful. But Stan Shawver, director of Boone County's Planning and Development Department, said he expects Lindner to request a planned development designation once he annexes into the city, which would allow for a mixture of residential, recreational and commercial areas on the purchased land. 
Having already acquired 1,024 acres just outside Columbia city limits, the developer has expressed a desire to buy land all the way to the river. Though he has faced resistance, some, like city Planning and Zoning Commissioner Jeff Barrow, think it's only a matter of time before Columbia annexes the land lining the river. So far, some of the burial mounds near the river have been protected by those who own the property, such as Carl and Anne Orazio. They said they have turned down Lindner's
offers to buy their property. The Orazios say they believe in preserving the artifacts in the area, as does Clifton Duval, who also lives on the riverfront and is a member of the Missouri Archaeological Society. "I think they should be left alone," Duval said. "There's surely enough earth that they don't have to disturb their graves." Duval has spent countless hours walking the bluffs and searching for artifacts. He said he worries about developers pushing to the river, which he says would ruin the area and threaten the mounds. "It's something that we ought to guard against," he said. "Any kind of destruction of the mounds is destroying our history." Carl Orazio said he believes the development at the old W.B. Smith site is already causing damage. 
"I just see dirt work being done. I haven't seen the actual machines working on it, but I see the aftermath," he said. The property Lindner bought is farther from the river than many of the known burials. But there's only one more property between it and the river. The law says construction must stop when human remains or funerary objects are discovered. But even if a developer stops upon hitting a mound, he or she may have already caused extensive damage. In Missouri, it would be difficult for a developer to find out if sites exist on a specific property because there is no official database of known sites.
The location of known sites is generally kept secret for fear of
vandals. 
Toward the river 
It would take a minimum of four property annexations for Columbia to become a river city. 
The majority of that land is Lindner's. He can't join the city yet
because two small properties stand between his land and the city boundary; any voluntary annexation must be contiguous. The fourth property is the 139-acre riverfront piece owned by the Orazios, who have turned down offers from Lindner. 
Lindner could bypass that land by acquiring a set of five plots that border the Orazios' land on the east. 
Either way, it's close enough to have Duval worried. "I didn't think (development) was ever coming that far that quick," he said. "It shocked me and everyone else around here." Barrow, the city planning and zoning commissioner, said the importance of protecting burial mounds is part of the reason for well-planned, low-impact development. To ensure the
protection of the blufftops, Barrow said the city and county should employ more zoning tools to protect the mounds and the whole area beyond what the state regulations offer. 
"We're now in a position to fix it, and it's easier to do it before it's broken," he said. "It would be wise for the city and county to start planning" before development reaches the river. Preserving history 
Without adequate federal and state protections for the mounds on the blufftops along the Missouri River, some in the city and county planning and zoning commissions think something should be done to preserve them. The thinking is that if the county and city worked together, protections could be implemented. "I would like to have the commissions work together to come up with what should the area outside the city look like, what should our plan be," said Mike Holden of the city Planning and Zoning Commission. Barrow said overlay zoning along the river bluffs could be used, which "wouldn't allow for clearing of trees, would limit the height of houses, maybe have a setback from the bluffs." Barrow points to the Les Bourgeois winery at Rocheport as an example of obtrusive and nonobtrusive development. The restaurant goes up three stories and "sticks out like a sore thumb," he said. "But the winery the A-frame that's not obtrusive at all, it blends in with the bluffs." 
Barrow said that if the city and county worked together to enact a zoning overlay, the regulations could be implemented before any development took place. But Jerry Wade, the former chairman of the city planning commission, said the City Council stopped joint planning efforts with the county in
2003. And the City Council and its planning department won't work outside a "fringe area" about a mile outside city limits as of 2000 and 2001 designated in the Metro 2020 Plan. Meanwhile, the county planning department decided not to implement at least one attempt by a county Planning and Zoning Commission member to protect the mounds, saying that city annexation is inevitable. State law doesn't allow for
dual jurisdiction, so county regulations would be void if the area is annexed by the city. Shawver, the county Planning Department director, also said it wasn't a priority because state protections already exist. Both federal and state laws lay out protections for unmarked burial mounds and other cultural resources. But there are problems with these regulations: They rarely apply practically to private developments, and the limited budget for people charged with watching over such sites makes it difficult for them to do so effectively. Blanket protection of historic or prehistoric sites is not allowed under state law, said Deel, the State Historic Preservation officer, and general oversight and monitoring is simply not an option because of budget constraints. According to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, for any
development using federal funds, a survey must be conducted to assess the potential damage or disruption to historic and prehistoric sites.
The national Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed in 1990, reinforced this requirement and added stipulations about giving already excavated bones back to American Indian tribes. But some in the American Indian community say the intended protections are still
too difficult to enforce. The grave protection act "was passed, and it's still almost impossible to enforce some of this stuff unless there's lots of people pushing and shoving," said Means, of the Thunderbird Society. And the state law is even less concrete, Deel said. According to State Chapter 194, a developer must work with the Historic Preservation Office to avoid a site or arrange for proper excavation and reburial, but only if the site is known. The legal catch "The catch there is, that if it's not known for a fact, if or if not (that) there's burials, they may not come talk to us until they've already got into it and exposed human remains," Deel said. The definition of "known" is also problematic. There are many maps, some
dating back hundreds of years, detailing burial mounds and other American Indian sites. But the state has no official and publicly accessible database of them. So even if the location of sites along the river is known by those who live there now or if there are maps of them in MU's anthropology department, it could be difficult to accuse a developer of negligence. 
It also makes it difficult for developers to know when they might be encroaching on a site.  "In most instances, especially if it's not a recorded site, we don't hear anything about it until either a neighbor calls or the developer themselves realize what they've gotten into," Deel said. Minnesota also faced problems protecting burial mounds but has set up a system to
preserve them. 
In 1976, a private developer started building a bridge on an American Indian site. In response, lawmakers extended greater protections. Now an online database of known burial sites has been created to help avoid site destruction without direct oversight. Many developers and public bodies utilize the database to check for sites beforehand because the cost of delaying construction is so high if a site is found. Out in the open  Russ Duker, of the Boone County Planning and Zoning Commission, argues that the debate of site accessibility shouldn't be as black-and-white as whether to develop and surrender the sanctity of the sites or mark off the entire area. 

"There needs to be an allowance for some interaction with these resources," Duker said. "We don't want to protect them to where no one can use them. The whole reason that we have resources is so that people can access them.

"I'd like to find a way, if we could, to utilize them to a community benefit, and part of a community benefit might be having a commercial spot that we could go to on the river and enjoy the river." Duker added:
"I would love to see a riverfront. I would love to see us exploit, if you will, the presence of this interstate highway that used to be the Missouri River, where the Indians used to come and they've got the burial mounds, the different archaeological sites we've got here in Boone County." 
Duker said that a recently passed city stream water ordinance and a similar measure proposed in the county would unintentionally but effectively eliminate the possibility of any sort of riverfront
district. He said he agrees with the ordinance in principle but thinks it's too broad. 
"All along the river or all along the stream or all along the creek should you allow commercial development? By no means," he said. "But there needs to be some type of allowance for interaction with these resources." 
He agreed that exposing sensitive sites, such as burial mounds, to the public can increase the potential for damage to the areas, but, he said, it could also galvanize the community to protect them. "Interaction with the resources has the potential of saying, 'Hey, this is a great natural resource. We need to protect it.' So somehow or another we need to allow that interaction with these resources while monitoring it, not just prohibiting it," he said. Van Meter State Park in Saline County illustrates Duker's suggestion. The park contains part of the Utz site, which is a former village of Missouri Indians. The park had been primarily a recreation area, its history mostly ignored. But in the late 1980s, officials decided to build a visitor center and to dedicate the park to the Missouri Indians. The Utz site had been home to as many as 6,000 Missouris when Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet discovered it in 1673. The visitor center contains a mural depicting the lifestyle of the Missouris as well as interactive informational exhibits, and the park contains what is called the "Old Fort" and multiple burial mounds.
Connie Grisier, the park's site administrator who lives on the premises, said a gate leading to the main burial mound is locked at night. But, she said, having the sites public probably helps protect them. "Actually having people around and then having them protected at night seems to help," she said. "If they were secluded and people knew about them, I could see people vandalizing them." 
No native voices
Because the tribes that once inhabited Missouri were forced west to Kansas and Oklahoma, no American Indian tribes speak for the burials near the river as religious ancestral sites. David Golden of the Otoe-Missouria tribe, now based in Oklahoma, said that without the ability to watch over the burial mounds effectively, the tribe's efforts are now primarily focused on retrieving the remains of excavated ancestors. 
"What we have done is try to (get back) the objects that have already been dug up" from previous excavations, he said. "Of course, by that time it would pretty well be destroyed. We would rather see it preserved, left alone. If the developer is gung-ho to get it developed, there should be some concern given to those (burial mounds)." Golden said that if the whole area is to be developed, the portion of land with burials on it could be made into a park or otherwise protected to avoid or minimize damage. 
"The Otoe-Missouria tribe is not against any kind of development, road building, et cetera. We're not trying to stop anything," he said. But "if you're going to send out a bunch of bulldozers, everything's going to get chewed up in the process. The position of the tribe, is we don't want that stuff just destroyed with a backhoe, and if you send in a builder, that's what's going to happen because they're building a building or a road."  Barrow also said he isn't absolutely against development along the river; he just wants it done in a way that's not overly disruptive to the environment. "One of my main concerns is that the whole river bluff area ... be protected along the river so that people traveling down the river have the same view that Lewis and Clark had," he said.