Whenever I travel to the ancestral Osage territories of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, I ask what it is that we did there, generally, as well as my own ancestors. In Kansas, the answers I’m provided are mainly that this was historically bison hunting territory. As well, the southern strip of Kansas was our first reservation after expulsion from Missouri. I have family history in the Osage Mission in Kansas, where my ancestors were trained to be blacksmiths and farmers. These ancestors also fought hard not to leave and set fire to many settler homes during the Civil War, but ultimately by 1873 they joined the rest of the Osages in Oklahoma. None of this history falls as far north as Matfield Green, and so I am left with questions in regards to the land and questions of the present.

In Osage County, Oklahoma, we are plagued with water infrastructure and quality issues. West Pawhuska has been on boil water orders for nearly a year. Hominy infrastructure regularly fails in storms. Abandoned oil wells pollute the waterways and emerging marijuana grows increase the agricultural runoff. So I came here and asked if this similar place had similar water issues. I was told on my first day at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Kansas that in recent floods (that we experienced in northeast Oklahoma as well) it took a few days before nearby towns flooded because of the protection of the deep roots of the local prairie. I was also told that the tap water was safe to drink.

Visiting the Kansas prairie for a week was like visiting a relative, a mirror image to the Osage hills in Oklahoma I now call home. Different history, different land management, different population, but the land itself is similar in many ways. Closer to him, the rocks turn redder the further south you go. There are more hills, and there have been more bandits who hide in them, historically as well as now. And many of the bandits don’t hide anymore, but purport to “give back” after their families stole cattle and then stole land, and now are major donors to conservation efforts. However, we do not have many big donors for the arts here. Osage people ourselves spend much of our time and money dedicated to the arts, which can be seen in the clothes we wear every June, as well as more widely recognized forms like painting, writing, and jewelry. The art we share can be seen at our Osage Museum in Pawhuska and our Visitor’s Center. We do not have, however, an artist residency program and a cohort of visitors and locals who engage in conversations about this place, across cultures and histories. Coming to a place so similar and yet so different had me asking why we do not have much institutional support for the arts.

Spaces like the Tallgrass Residency program make me hopeful that people of all backgrounds are willing to engage in conversations about place, history, and community. I was heartened at my public program writing workshop where I challenged people to ask questions about where they and their families come from, how they got there, and hold the honesty and complexity of it without avoidance. For example, one of my Osage ancestors was instrumental in the founding of the Indian Market in Santa Fe, which was a result of Osages and other tribes allowing passage of settlers along the Santa Fe trail. This happened after our removal from Kansas. My family’s Osage history is not one divided between what is settler history and what is Osage history. As Osages continued to live and travel, we have been intertwined with the history of the U.S. I think about what a thriving arts community for Osages might look like with more engagement from other artists who are willing to come together being who they are, and engaging in respectful, open conversation. I look forward to what my own rooting in the prairie as an artist may look like in the years to come.  

Aimee Inglis is a citizen of the Osage Nation. She is WahZhaZhe from the Pawhuska District and Tzisho Washtake clan (Gentle Peacemaker), is a descendant of Ogeese Captain, Susanna Captain, Francis Marion Whiles Sr. and Jr., and the daughter of Mary Inglis. She was born and raised in Anaheim, California near the Santa Ana (Wanaawna) River and currently lives in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. She worked in social movement organizations for housing and climate justice for fifteen years and has been active with California Osage diaspora groups. She has an MFA in Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts and is a fellow with Indigenous Nations Poets. Her work has appeared in Under a Warm Green Linden, Anaheim Poetry Review, Poetry Northwest, About Place, Forging, and is forthcoming in a Two-spirit / Indigiqueer volume of poetry by Litmus Press.