Osage (Wahzhazhe) Research Readings and Resources

Are you interested in learning more about Osage history, language, and culture? The Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office has provided a list of recommended beginning research readings into Osage history and culture. The list includes readings surrounding the Osage Murders, also known as the Reign of Terror, including Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann.

While this is not an exhaustive list, nor does the Historic Preservation Office endorse every publication detail, these are recognized as helpful sources for a deeper understanding of the Osage past. For in-depth research on a specific aspect of Osage history, please get in touch with the Historic Preservation Office directly and consult our Research Protocol. Media Requests: Wahzhazhe Communications is Osage Nation's first touchpoint for any/all media inquiries. To fill out a media request, click here.  

Osage Research Readings and Resources

Bailey, Garrick A.

1973 | Changes in Osage Social Organization 1673-1906. Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene.

2001 | The Osage. In Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 13, part 1, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie, pp. 476-496. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Bailey, Garrick A., Dan Swan, and John W. Nunley

2004 | Art of the Osage. St. Louis Art Museum in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington.

Burns, Louis

1980 | The Osage Annuity Rolls of 1978. Ciga Press, Fallbrook, California.

1984 | Osage Indian Bands and Clans. Ciga Press, Fallbrook, California.

1986 | Osage Mission Baptisms, Marriages, and Internments 1820-1886. Ciga Press, Fallbrook, California.

1994 | Symbolic and Decorative Art of the Osage People. Ciga Press, Fallbrook, California.

2004 | A History of the Osage People. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

2005 | Osage Indian Customs and Myths. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Callahan, Alice Ann

1990 | The Osage Ceremonial Dance I’n-Lon-schka. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

Chapman, Carl

1974 | The Origin of the Osage Indian Tribe. Garland Pub. Inc., New York.

Chapman, Carl, and Eleanor F. Chapman

1964 |Indians and Archaeology of Missouri. University of Missouri Press for the College of Arts and Sciences, Columbia.

Diaz-Granados, Carol, James R. Duncan, and F. Kent Reilly III

2015 | Picture Cave: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Mississippian Cosmos. University of Texas Press, Austin. Din, Gilbert C., and Abraham P. Nasatir

1983 | The Imperial Osage: Spanish-Indian Diplomacy in the Mississippi Valley. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

Grann, David

2017 | Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. Doubleday, New York.

Hogan, Lawrence J.

1998 | The Osage Indian Murders: The True Story of a Multiple Murder Plot to Acquire the Estates of Wealthy Osage Tribe Members. Amlex, Frederick, Maryland. Hunter, Andrea A.

1984 | An Ethnoarchaeological Analysis of Women’s Role in Osage Society. Master’s thesis. Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia.

McAuliffe, Dennis Jr. 

1994 | The Deaths of Sybil Bolton: An American History. Chicago Review Press

Red Corn, Charles H.

2002 | A Pipe for February. University of Oklahoma Press. A fictional novel. 

Rollings, Willard H.

1992 | The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains. University of Missouri Press, Columbia.

2004 | Unaffected by the Gospel: Osage Resistance to the Christian Invasion (1673-1906): A Cultural Victory. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. Updated June 2018

Talbott, Wallace T.

1989 | The Osages, Dominant Power of Louisiana Territory. Carlton Press, New York, New York.

White, James D.

1997 | Getting Sense: The Osages and their Missionaries. Sarto Press, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Wilson, Terry

1985 | Bibliography of the Osage. Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey.