The Indians were dressed in their finest attire. Different-colored stripes were painted on their grease-coated bodies and faces. Their hair was cut and combed into tufts. Rings were in their noses and lips. They wore headdresses, bracelets, earrings, and animal skin robes. They were the chiefs of the Osage nation. They had gone in 1820 to St. Louis to see the “Chief of the Black Robes,” Louis DuBourg. They wanted a mission established.
