Joseph Pawnee-no-pashe

Ritual killings in 1873 On January 28, 1873, Colonel Gould Hyde Norton of the Kansas militia, a white man who had founded the nearby town of Arkansas City and ran a store, was taking shelter during a snowstorm at the Osage's "Big Hill camp of the Salt Plains." He had arrived at the end of treaty negotiations between the Osage and Pawnee, their longtime enemies. Norton was enlisted to pen the words of the treaty: "We pledge ourselves and good will at all time and to live together as loving brethren henceforth forever." The treaty also stipulated that they "agree to abstain from molesting each other by acts of murder, theft, or any other unfriendliness or violence." Norton encountered Bill Conner, who stated that a copy of the signed treaty was to be sent to Superintendent Enoch Hoag for archival. The Pawnee left, but mentioned that there was a straggler Pawnee warrior hunting nearby. The Pawnee Nation had told the Osage about the warrior to protect him, not to make him the target of a scalping. Seventy armed men, painted black, mounted their horses and rode north to take the lone Pawnee man. They returned the following day with his scalp on a lance in a triumphant show of their prize. The scalp was to be given to the son-in-law of White Swan, chief counselor to Chief Che-to-pah. The mourner was several months into the Osage mourning ritual, which could last months. The Wichita were a peaceful tribe living on a nearby reservation; they were not at war with the Osage.

Wah-sah-she-wah-tain-kah, naked and painted black, found the chief unprepared for the unprovoked attack; however, Chief Esadowa was reportedly able to get an arrow ready to attempt to defend himself. While the chief fled on horseback, Wah-sah-she-wah-tain-kah shot him in the back with a gun. He and his companions decapitated the fallen chief, scalped him, and returned to the Osage reservation with the scalp. the governor decided to conduct a trial based on Indian rules.

In August 1874, a party of self-appointed militiamen encountered a small band of Osage on a hunting party in southern Kansas. They began to disarm some of the men, but several escaped and were shot. The remainder fled to the Indian reservation and reported the incident. The white men scalped two of the Osage they killed. Osborn appoints Colonel Gould Hyde Norton of Arkansas City the local militia leader to try and stop the Osage, supposedly on the warpath. The militia organizations asked for guns, ammunition, and rations— perhaps a bit too conveniently due to the drought, grasshoppers, and cost of food at that time. The Osage would have to adapt to a more sedentary life, the kind of life the U.S. government had always wanted them to lead.

Later life and death After several tenures as governor, the Osage Nation's first self-governing system and constitution were established, with Governor Joe and 14 other chiefs signing the document. Pawnee-no-pashe then became the first elected principal chief of the Osage Nation in February 1882, a title vacant since White Hair had died in 1869. Principal Chief Joseph died a few months before the final deed was transferred from the Cherokee Nation to the Osage Nation on June 14, 1883.