Osage Monument Blessed, Mural Unveiled Saturday

Johnny Williams said he was confused when he received a phone call several years ago from Dennis Rodemeier, then the president of the Cuba Development Group.

“I wondered how in the world he got my number,” said Williams, executive advisor of the Osage Nation, on Saturday.

Williams took the call. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Rodemeier was calling to tell him about a project the city wanted to explore — a monument to the Osage Nation, some of the first inhabitants of Missouri.

Williams said they spoke multiple times and he took it to Chief Geoffrey M. Standing Bear and determined they needed to meet.

On Saturday, a delegation of the Osage Nation from Pawhuska, Okla., gathered with Crawford County community members to bless the monument, dubbed “The Osage Legacy.” It is the largest monument recognizing the Osage people and depicts a family traveling west on the Osage Trail — a wolf, a girl, a mother and a father.

The final piece — the Osage father — was erected Aug. 28 at the Cuba Visitor’s Center.

The project was a vision of local artist Glen Tutterow. Tutterow told the Independent News in January when the Osage mother was erected that the idea came to him in a dream. Tutterow always had an interest in the Osage Nation and he’s spent the past two-plus years sculpting the monument.

“This is important for us to see where our ancestors walked,” Standing Bear said. “We are here as friends. Our people are few, but talented.”

Williams expressed gratitude to the community. Through donations, the community paid for the monument.

“This project belongs to this community and it’s our honor to be part of it,” he said.

Last year, the Osage Nation gifted ancestral vegetable seeds to Cuba. Cuba Mayor Ray Mortimeyer said they planted the seeds, the first seeds to be planted by the ancient Osage in Missouri in more than 200 years.

Mortimeyer presented the vegetables from those seeds to the Osage Nation.

Mural

Later on, the ceremony moved to Buchanan Street where a mural titled “Meeting in Missouri” was unveiled.

Osage Nation artist Norman Akers spent the last month depicting a mural with Osage Nation members meeting French settlers led by Auguste Chouteau and Jean Pierre Chouteau.

“There’s nothing greater than doing this in your homeland,” Akers said. “The people in Cuba are kind and generous. They are interested in our history and well-being. They are a giving people. This is a gift to the people of Cuba and future generations.”