Fred Lookout

Fred Lookout (ca. 1861 – 1949) was an Osage Nation politician who served several terms as the principal chief of the nation. Lookout served as principal chief three times: 1913–1914, 1916–1918, and from 1924 until his death in 1949.

Born near Independence, Kansas in Osage territory, he attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and was removed with his tribe to present-day Osage County, Oklahoma. He became active in tribal politics in the 1900s, serving as the assistant chief of the Osage Nation between 1908 and 1910 and on the Osage Nation tribal council between 1920 and 1922. He died in office while serving as the principal chief of the nation in 1949.

Early life Fred Lookout was born into an Osage family in 1861 or November 1865 near present-day Independence, Kansas. His father, Eagle-that-Dreams, was a member of the Eagle Clan.

The United States Indian Agent to the Osage Nation selected Lookout at about age 18 in 1879 to attend the newly founded Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. He attended Carlisle until 1884; that year his father died and he returned home to his people. He refused to return to the school. Fred Lookout died on August 28, 1949. He holds the record for longest serving chief in the history of the tribe.