Volume 15 , Issue 34

Osage Indians & Labette County (Kansas)

It was the aftermath of the America Civil War, and the United States government forcibly relocated Osage Indians from Labette county, Kansas to a designated "Indian Territory" (what would later become Oklahoma). The land formerly occupied by the Osage was made available to non-Indian homesteaders. Labette county is in the southeast corner of Kansas.

The name Labette is from the French words "La bete," meaning "the beast." As the story goes that Labette Creek, the second largest stream in the county, was named by a group of French trappers after an encounter with a skunk. The county then took its name from the creek. Other sources state the stream and the county were named for Pierre Bete (also spelled Baete or Beatte), a French-Canadian trapper and trader who married into the Osage tribe and lived along the Neosho River in the 1830's and 1840's. Pierre Bete served as a guide for Washington Irving during the author's tour across the prairie in 1832.

Labette county, Kansas was originally part of Dorn (later Neosho) county, which was part of the Osage ceded lands. The land was set aside for the Osage Nation when they were forced out of their traditional homelands in Missouri and Arkansas. The Osage eventually ceded these lands to the US government in 1867. The earliest settlers, most of who settled in the area illegally as it still belonged to the Osage, were traders who established trading posts.

In order to obtain legal permission to settle in the county, settlers had to obtain written permission from the Osage Indian Agent, A. J. Dorn.

Settlement in the Labette County area (then the southern part of Dorn County, named after Osage agent A.J. Dorn) was sparse during the Civil War, with most of the population living further north. Most of the residents in the county area sided with the Union. However, John Matthews supported the Confederacy and formed a small Confederate guerrilla band. Throughout the war, Matthews and his guerrillas terrorized other citizens who were Union supporters.

The Labette County area received its first rush of settlers in 1866, most of who were first time settlers to the area. These included: J.C. Rexford, C.C. and D.M. Clover, A.P. Elsbee, C.E. and B.F. Simmons, Norris Harrar, Grant Reaves, William White and his sons, John Modesitt, and Calvin Watkins.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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