News Release No. 404

OSAGE INDIAN EXHIBIT FEATURED AT
VAN METER STATE PARK THROUGH FEBRUARY

Volume 32-404

Contact: Sue Holst

(For immediate release)

573-751-6510

JEFFERSON CITY, MO, DEC. 28, 2004 -- "Breaking up the Land -- Photographs of the Osage after Allotment" is the title of an exhibit that will be on display through February at Van Meter State Park in Miami, Mo. Sponsored by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, this temporary exhibit is being provided by the Osage Tribal Museum in Pawhuska, Okla., and will be on display inside the park's visitor center.

The Osage once lived in Missouri but were moved to Kansas and then a reservation in Oklahoma. To resolve an issue over land ownership, the federal government allotted, or assigned, private ownership of what had been tribally owned reservation land to individual Osage tribe members. This was the result of the Osage Allotment Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1906. Photographs shown in the exhibit are part of the 1,035 photographs of the allottees in the Osage Tribal Museum's collection. The exhibit presents the allottees as children, soldiers, elegant ladies, and families on vacation and at work. Some artifacts, including shawls, beaded moccasins, dance rattles and an Osage Indian dice game, are included with the exhibit.

Van Meter State Park's visitor center is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Van Meter State Park is located 12 miles northwest of Marshall on Highway 122 in Saline County. For more information, contact the park directly at 660-886-7537 or the Missouri Department of Natural Resources toll free at 800-334-6946 (voice) or 800-379-2419 (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf). For more information on Missouri state parks and historic sites, visit the Web at www.mostateparks.com.

For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/oac/calendar.

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