From Thomas Jefferson to White Hair and Others, 12 July 1804
To White Hair and Others
July 12. 1804.
My Children White hairs, Chiefs & Warriors of the Osage nation
I recieve you with great pleasure at the seat of the govmt of the 17. United nations, and tender you a sincere welcome. I thank the Great Spirit who has inspired you with a desire to visit your new friends, & who has conducted you in safety to take us this day by the hand. the journey you have come is long, the weather has been warm & wet, & I fear you have suffered on the road, not withstanding our endeavors for your accomodation. but you have come through a land of friends, all of whom I hope have looked on you kindly, & been ready to give you every aid and comfort by the way.
You are as yet fatigued with your journey. but you are under the roof of your fathers and best friends, who will spare nothing for your refreshment and comfort. repose yourselves therefore, and recruit your health and strength, and when you are rested we will open the bottoms of our hearts more fully to one another. in the mean time we will be considering how we may best secure everlasting peace, friendship & commerce between the Osage nation, and the 17. United nations in whose name I speak to you, and take you by the hand.
Th: Jefferson
MS (DLC); “My Children” in salutation inserted in margin in place of “Brother.”
White Hair (d. 1809), or Pawhuska, was head chief of the Big Osage band. Little is known of his early life, but chieftainships among the Osages were generally hereditary, and evidence suggests that he was closely related to (though not the son of) Clermont, the most significant Osage leader during the late eighteenth century. During the 1790s, White Hair developed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Chouteaus, who had been granted a monopoly of the Spanish trade with the Osages. With the help of Pierre Chouteau, he assumed leadership of the Big Osages and, unlike his predecessors, rejected the sharing of political power with another leader. White Hair’s innovation resulted in dissensions within the nation, but the Big Osages retained the concept of singular leadership, with subsequent hereditary leaders taking the name Pawhuska. In 1808, White Hair signed the first treaty between the United States and the Osages (; , 45, 47-8, 159-61, 176-8, 209).
sincere welcome: the Osage delegation arrived in Washington on 11 July; see TJ to Gallatin, 12 July.