Origins: mixed-blood (1/8 Osage). father= 1/4 Osage and French stock, mother=non-Indian. Father established trading post and later a bank in Pawhuska. Mathews was born in family house on Agency Hill overlooking reservation. Family one of the more prosperous in Osage nation. Mixed blood family was respected by fullbloods. Father spoke Osage fluently and served tribe in various capacities. Ethos of traditional Osage culture permeated family life but family also stood figuratively and literally apart (mixed blood, upper class, education). JJM's Osage identity always suspect in the minds of some, although later in life he was elected to tribal council and was devoted to promoting the tribe's interests.
Travels & Returns: studied at U of OK, served as aviator in WWI, returned to university and received degree in geology, turned down a Rhodes Scholarship and paid his own way at Oxford, graduating with degree in Natural Science, enrolled at U of Geneva School of International Relations and served as correspondent to League of Nations for US paper, traveled around Europe, British Isles, and North Africa (hunting and aimless wandering), has epiphany in N. Africa when surrounded by wild tribe of Arabs shooting off their rifles (joy shooting) as Osages had when JJM was a little boy. Homesickness and desire to learn more about Osage culture. Returns home in 1929 (to end of the Great Frenzy of oil production and disintegration of traditional Osage culture). Mission= "culture rescue" to chronicle Osage way of life that he saw disappearing.
Mathews' Writings
Sundown was his only published novel. First book Wah'Kon-Tah (1932) based on the diary of an early agent to the Osage was an historical account of the cultural upheaval of the tribe during turn of century. After novel published in 1934, JJM elected to tribal council, opened an Osage Museum, and built a home in the Blackjacks where he lived for 10 years in semi-seclusion. Account of these years and his reconnection to tribal history and natural world in his autobio Talking to the Moon (1945). Mathews' degree in geology helped in his work to maintain tribe's interests in oil production. Wrote a biography of one of the oil barons and a friend of his, E.W. Marland (1951). His last book was a massive (800 pages) ethnohistory of Osage tribe from its beginnings up to period of novel, using oral history and stories as well as written documents (1961). A second novel was never submitted to publishers and an autobiographical manuscript working on at time of his death.
Osage Culture
for over 100 years the Osage were the most powerful tribe west of the Miss. (held balance of power between Spanish in south and French in north and English in east). culture effected by inter-tribal warfare. begin as aggressor then military power destroyed by invasion of Eastern tribes removed by white settlement. Forced onto reservations where forces of acculturation led to dramatic cultural changes.
Turn of century= period of cultural upheaval as traditional culture and religion lost. 4 major factors: 1) population decline (among full-bloods=blanket Indians and increase of mixed-bloods=Progressives and bicultural mediators used influence to won economic advantage), 2) economic changes (financial independence of individuals severs tribal ties), 3) pressure from agents (forced Western models of political and social organization on tribe, including constitution and tribal council then abolished by US govt when did not accede to demands for allotment), 4) adoption of Peyote religion called for abandoning old religion and customs
Osage History
18th C: functioned as hunters and middlemen for trade in Indian slaves (sent to work on plantations in West Indies and LA), beaver, deer, buffalo. warfare between French, Spanish, English over hunting and trapping territories.
1803 Louisiana Purchase (need land to settle dislocated Eastern tribes), Osage cedes territory to US for settlement
1830 Indian Removal Bill forced 60,000 Eastern Indians to settle West of Miss, great number in Osage territory forcing Osage west towards plains
1839 Osage sign treaty agreeing to remove to reservation in Kansas
1869 Osage lands in Kansas ceded to US and sold to white farmers who had been continually encroaching on reservation. $ held in trust to purchase lands in OK and to earn interest for tribe ($120-160/yr in 1880s).
1871-74 Removal to OK Indian Territory. Leasing of lands to white tenant farmers and annuity payments made Osage financially independent.
1906 Allotment. non-Indians could also inherit shares (led to schemes to marry and murder Osages for their headrights=Osage Reign of Terror alluded to in novel), tribe retained all their land (no opening of reservation to white homeseekers), all subsurface minerals belonged to tribe rather than individuals (gave them a history unlike that of any other Nat Am group and earned them reputation as the richest tribe in the world because of wealth from discovery of oil beneath reservation in 1897)
1920s Great Frenzy (demand for oil escalates because of WWI and automobile boom). oil royalties peaked in 1925 at $13,200/year/headright (over half of US Ind pop incomes less than $200/yr, only 2% more than $500/yr). Conspicuous consumption by Osages and exploitation of Osages by whites (declared incompetent and assigned guardians to manage and misappropriate funds or declared competent and tricked into selling their lands)
1930s Depression. economic and social changes. decline of headrights to $585 in 1932. over 1/3 of the 1.5 million acres on the res no longer belonged to tribal members. Sundown published 1934.