Hon-sah-kah

Hon Sah Kah was an Osage man of the Ne-Kah-Ke-Pah-Ne band

Osage, Ni-U-Kon-Ska, or People of the Middle Waters. There are three bands of Osage: Pahatsi or Great Osage, Utsehta or Little Osage, and Santsukhdhi or Arkansas, with sub-bands in each.

Osage Nation maintains the only remaining reservation of tribal territory in Oklahoma. Photo Credit U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau

The discovery of oil on the Osage reservation in the late 19th century and an agreement with the U.S. government by which all mineral rights on the reservation were to be retained by the tribe, with royalties divided on a per capita basis, made the Osage quite prosperous. Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 16,000 individuals of Osage descent.

Whizbang Oklahoma from the early 20th Century

Forced removal touched every tribe east of the Mississippi River and several tribes to the west of it. In total, about 100,000 American Indians were removed from their Eastern homelands to Western reservations.

But the most pernicious land grab was yet to come.

Mollie Burkhart (second from right) lost all three of her sisters under suspicious circumstances. Rita Smith (left) died in an explosion, Anna Brown (second from left) was shot in the head and Minnie Smith (right) died of what doctors referred to as a "peculiar wasting illness." The Osage National Museum/Courtesy of Doubleday

In 1871, Congress formally ended the policy of treaty-making with Indians. Then, in 1887, it passed the General Allotment Act, also known as the Dawes Act. With this law, U.S. policy toward Indians shifted from separation to assimilation — forcibly integrating Indians into the national population.

Under the original statute, the U.S. government held Indian allotments, which measured roughly 160 acres per person, in trust for 25 years before each Indian allottee could receive clear title. During this period, Indian allottees were expected to embrace agriculture, convert to Christianity and assume U.S. citizenship.

When the U.S. government imposed a foreign system of ownership on them, many Indian landowners simply sold their lands to non-Indian buyers, or found themselves subject to taxes that they were unable to pay.

In total, allotment removed 90 million acres of land from Indian control before the policy ended in the mid-1930s. This led to the destruction of Indian culture; loss of language as the federal government implemented its boarding school policy; and imposition of a myriad of regulations that affected inheritance, ownership and title disputes when an allottee passed away. All of these destructive policies were forced on the Osage people.

These lands contain many valuable resources, including oil, gas, timber and minerals. But rather than acting as a steward of Indian interests in these resources, the U.S. government has repeatedly failed in its trust obligations.

As required under the General Allotment Act, money earned from oil and gas exploration, mining and other activities on allotted Indian lands was placed in individual accounts for the benefit of Indian allottees.

But for over a century, rather than making payments to Indian landowners, the government routinely mismanaged those funds, failed to provide a court-ordered accounting of them and systematically destroyed disbursement records.

In 2011, the federal government settled for $380 million a longstanding lawsuit brought by the Osage Nation to compensate the tribe for losses to its trust funds and interest as a result of the government’s mismanagement of trust assets. In truth, that amount doesn’t come close to full reparations for the crimes committed against the Osage people by the government over two centuries.
Source:Fodder, Torivio. “The True Crime Story of the Osage Nation Would Take a Century to Tell.” Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2023, www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-10-15/killers-flower-moon-martin-scorsese-osage-tribe-murders. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.

Biography:
Born c. 1882 to osage parents Che-sho-shin-kah and Hlu-ah-to-me, Hon-Sah-Kah was known to be "incompetent" at an early age. He had a younger brother/stepbrother, the census reports are indecisive on this and bounce back and forth, in any event, younger brother Frank was living by himself as head of household by 1902-1903.

Hon-sah-kah, as he is identified in most Indian censuses, but it seems that at the Canton Asylum, he was known as Hon-sah-sah-kah.

It is not known when Hon-sah-kah was admitted to the Canton Asylum, Indian census reports have him listed through 1905, the year of his death, although it is reported that he was diagnosed with congenital epileptic idiocy on admission. (Epilepsy syndromes can affect infants and children and are likely to be congenital (present at birth) or appear during childhood. They are characterized by a variety of seizures and other symptoms such as developmental delays.)

According to the letter dated February 17, 1934, from Dr. L.L. Culp to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hon-sha-sha-kah died in the Canton Asylum on October 23, 1905, at the age of 23, and was buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery tier 4 plot 44.

His profile is part of the The Canton Asylum One Place Study.

Research Notes:
-The 1897 census lists Hon-sah-kah and his brother Hun-kah-wah-tsa as stepsons of Che-sho-shin-kah, therefore sons of Hlu-ah-to-me and an unknown 1st husband
-Neither Hon-sah-kah nor his brother Hun-kah-wah-tsa was listed as a student in the Osage School in 1897

Recommended Reading:
1. Shaw, Shannon. “Committee to Consider Repatriation of Osage Man Buried in Infamous Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians Cemetery.” Osage News, 23 Oct. 2015, osagenews.org/committee-to-consider-repatriation-of-osage-man-buried-in-infamous-hiawatha-asylum-for-insane-indians-cemetery/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
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Sources:

1897 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7V8J-QV6Z : Thu Oct 05 21:31:46 UTC 2023), Entry for Hon-Sah-Kah, from 1900 to 1909, pg. 39/742, line 744 (age 19 referred to as stepson), census of the Osage Tribe of Indians, Osage Agency, Oklahoma

1898 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7V8J-QV6Z : Thu Oct 05 21:31:46 UTC 2023), Entry for Hon-Sah-Kah, from 1900 to 1909, pg. 171/742, line 744 (age 20 referred to as stepson), census of the Osage Tribe of Indians, Osage Agency, Oklahoma

1899 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7V8J-QV6Z : Thu Oct 05 21:31:46 UTC 2023), Entry for Hon-Sah-Kah, from 1900 to 1909, pg. 256/742, line 726 (age 21 referred to as son!), census of the Osage Tribe of Indians, Osage Agency, Oklahoma Territory

1900 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7V8J-QV6Z : Thu Oct 05 21:31:46 UTC 2023), Entry for Hon-Sah-Kah, from 1900 to 1909, pg. 343/742, line 705 (age 22, incompetent),census of the Osage Tribe of Indians, Osage Agency, Oklahoma Territory

1901 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7V8J-QV6Z : Thu Oct 05 21:31:46 UTC 2023), Entry for Hon-Sah-Kah, from 1900 to 1909, pg. 416/742, line 691 (age 23, incompetent), census of the Osage Indians, Osage Agency, Pahuska, Okla.

1902 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7V8J-QV6Z : Thu Oct 05 21:31:46 UTC 2023), Entry for Hon-Sah-Kah, from 1900 to 1909, pg. 477/742, line 688 (age 24, incompetent), census of the Osage Indians, Osage Agency, Pahuska, Okla.

1903 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7V8J-QV6Z : Thu Oct 05 21:31:46 UTC 2023), Entry for Hon-Sah-Kah, from 1900 to 1909, pg. 560/742, line 679 (age 25, insane), census of the Osage Indians, Osage Agency, Oklahoma.

1904 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7V8J-QV6Z : Thu Oct 05 21:31:46 UTC 2023), Entry for Hon-Sah-Kah, from 1900 to 1909, pg.609/742, line 679 (age 26, crazy), census of the Osage Indians, Osage Agency, Oklahoma.

1905 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7V8J-QV6Z : Thu Oct 05 21:31:46 UTC 2023), Entry for Hon-Sah-Kah, from 1900 to 1909, pg.687/742, line 666 (age 27, crazy), census of the Osage Indians, Osage Agency, Oklahoma Territory

1905 Oct 23 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14493806/hon_sah_sah-kah: accessed March 3, 2024), memorial page for Hon Sah Sah Kah (unknown–23 Oct 1905), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14493806, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400).

Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) · Wed, Oct 25, 1905

1905 Oct 23 - Hilton, M. (Ed.). (2023, July 10). Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians Historical Marker. Historical Marker. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=183486 Photo by Ruth VanSteenwyk, July 10, 2023, courtesy of HMdb.org

Trucha 11-17-05 · Hon-Sah-Sah-Kah 10-23-05 · Big Day 7-3-05

1910 Aug 12 - Camp Verde School: 1910-27; Canton Insane Asylum: 1910-22, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155854182?objectPage=674, line 2, Table 7 Form of mental disease of those admitted since opening of Asylum