Osage Nation, Oklahoma, Newspaper Article:  Boulanger History Recalled

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Sedan Times Star
Wednesday, October 25, 1972

In Connection with Osage Centennial
Boulanger History Recalled

"As long as grass grows and the river flow."

By Margo Boulanger

It was summertime near Paris, France, early in the 1830's as three 
brothers, Joseph Alfred, Georges Ernest Jean Marie, and Pierre pondered 
their future.

Shortly after the formative years, their separate paths led Pierre and 
Joseph Alfred to Canada.  Georges stayed in his native France.

General Georges Ernest Jean Marie Boulanger became the hero of France.  On 
the celeberation of Bastille Day 1886, when he rode down the Champs-Elyees 
on his great black horse, all France lay at his feet.  Indeed, on three 
occasions General Boulanger had only to stroll to Elysee Palace and the 
government of France would have been his.  Each time, mysteriously, he 
drew back.  In 1891, Boulanger shot himself over his mistress's fresh 
grave.  She was the Viscomtesse de Bonnemains.

Joseph Alfred married, settled in Canada, and many of the descendents of 
that lineage dwell there and in Derry, New Hampshire today.  Recent 
correspondence links communications between the Clement C. L. Boulanger 
descendants of this area.

Pierre, after going from France to Canada, eventually wended his way to 
the Midwest where he met and married the Osage maiden.  Augustine Celeste 
Montheague.  The Montheague family belongs to the White Hair band of the 
Osages.  Joseph William Boulanger was born on July 21, 1850, to the union 
of Pierre and Augustine Celeste Boulanger.

Father Poziglione baptized the baby Joseph, and some few years later, 
Father Schoenmaker of the Osage Mission at St. Paul taught him.  He was 
reared in the Osage heritage and traditions and in 1869 he married Sarah 
Ann Cronk of Terra Haute, Ind.

The Joseph William Boulanger family, now residents of St. Paul consisted 
of William Joseph, the eldest of 13 children.

Unlike many of Oklahoma's Indian tribes, shoved into the territory at 
gunpoint and dumped on the plains, the Osages had dominated the area of 
northeastern Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and southwest Missouri for centuries 
before the white man came.

Coming from the same racial stock as the Sioux, the Osages were a proud, 
handsome people first mentioned by whites in 1673 by Father Pierre 
Marquette.

There were described by Washington Irving in 1924 as --------- fellows, 
stern and simple in garb and respect.  They wore no ornaments; their heads 
were bare with hair cropped close except a bristling ridge on the top like 
the crest of a helmet with a long lock hanging behind…The Osages are the 
finest looking Indians I have seen in the West."

Finally, in 1972, the Osages purchased what is now Osage county…lands they 
had lived on for centuries…from the Cherokees for roughly $1.25 per acre.  
The Osages Agency was set up at Pawhuska, northwest of the sleepy village 
of Tulsa, or Tulsey Town.  The very astute and wise Osage council had their 
demands of the treaty met:  "as long as grass grows and rivers flow" in 
their demands, as well as mineral rights.

In 1872, a 160-acre homestead was allotted Jospeh W. Boulanger, some 
13 miles south of Sedan on K-99, just north and west of the Big Caney 
river bridge near the town of Boulanger that was platted by Joseph's son, 
Walter, in his honor.  Walter, father of Mrs. Lenora (Boulanger) Hills, a 
resident believes Boulanger to be the only Osage Indian in history to honor 
his father by naming a town for him.

The original homestead has remained in the Boulanger family these 100 years 
and recently was purchased from the Stephen Boulanger estate by Betty Lee, 
a great granddaughter of Joseph.

Within the Boulanger saga comes an intriguing tale.  In 1862, one Captain 
Goldie was leading a wagon train of immigrants through Osage Nation from 
the gold fields of California.  When the caravan of wagons neared the Osage 
hills near the present Pawhuska, a band of Pawnee Indians swooped down to 
attack.

Only one man succeeded in escaping the wagon train, with the $100,000 in 
gold concealed on the train.  It was Captain Goldie.

Goldie saw he was being followed, and decided to bury the gold when he 
reached a dense forest near the Caney river.  He chose two large trees that 
grew from the same trunk, and between them and the Artillery Mound, (north 
of Boulangerville), just to the north, he buried the gold.  For a final 
marker, he placed a musket rifle in a hollow tree just to the south of the 
gold burial.  He then turned his horses loose, hoping the Indians would 
follow them instead of him.  His hopes were fulfilled.

Captain Goldie reached his home in Missouri all right.  But, though the 
Pawnees had not captured him, he had contracted a deadly illness.  The 
doctor told Goldie he had little chance to survive.  The wagon master told 
his wife what had happened and drew a map of the area where he had buried 
the gold.  On the map, he marked the exact number of steps from the mound 
and trees.  In a few weeks he died.

His wife knew no one whom she could trust with the maps.  Her only child, 
a boy only six years old, she believed was too young to make the journey 
after the goldwith her.  She decided to wait.

Twenty years passed before Goldie's son attempted to find the treasure.  
It was in 1882 when …… who lived near the banks of the Caney river.  Young 
Goldie had found Artillery Mound, but south of it was no dense forest as 
his father had told.  The land was now clear and planted in grain.

Young Goldie learned that Boulanger had cleared the land, cut down the two 
large trees that grew from the same trunk, and found the old musket in 
another.  Boulanger showed Goldie about where the trees had grown, but all 
their digging for the treasure yielded nothing.  Goldie's family gave up 
search long ago.  But if the captain's map was right, $100,000 in gold 
lies close to the Caney river, near Artillery Mound.

As late as the summer of 1971, a family of treasure hunters stopped at the 
Everett Boulanger ranch.  They were equipped with all types of metal 
detection devices and were treasure hunting for the Boulanger treasure.  
Perhaps it is still there!

The above story was told many times to Granddaughter Thursie (Boulanger) 
Uhls by her Grandmother Sarah.  Thursie made her home with her grandmother 
after the death of Grandfather Joe in 1913.

This family is just one of the illustrious families of Osage heritage that 
noted 100 years in the Osage as their final home on Saturday, Sept. 30, 
1972.  The discovery of oil in the Osage made a radical change in the 
economy and the social life of the Osages.

During the 34-year period between their removal to the Indian territory and 
the allotment of their reservation (1872-1906) the Osage people experienced 
a change from a doving, hunting, raiding life in which all shared in game 
and spoil to a settled life of individual landowners.

On Oct. 18, 1897, the first producing oil well in Osage county was made 
and this event changed the course of the life of the Osage in history 
making them the independently wealthy.

Oil has been important to the Osages since 1906, when each of the 2,229 
tribe members entitled to share in the tribal land to the mineral and 
agricultural profits therefrom, were awarded headrights.  The roll was 
closed that year, and no more allottees were numbered for payment.  Only 
the alottees or heirs receive the quarterly mineral right payments.

Through June 1971, operators had drilled 30,596 oil and 1,517 gas wells on 
Osage lands.

Cumulative production was 1,021,863,793 barrels of oil and 779,379,000,000 
cubic feet of gas.

Daily average production of oil at present is 33241 barrels.

Joseph Boulanger served as interpretor to the Osage Indian council in 1902.

There are only three copies of the original photograph showing the 1902 
Osage Council.  One hangs in the Woolaroc Museum at Bartlesville; another 
in the Osage Indian Agency at Pawhuska, and the third is owned by Mrs. 
Thursie (Boulanger) Uhls of Sedan.

Exploitation of the tribe was common, and stories of fraud, wildcat schemes 
to part the Osage and his wealth, and the famous Osage murder trials are 
still common conversation topics.

During that period in Osage history, all roads led to Pawhuska.  Many 
traveled them for varied objectives.

Thirteen children were born to Sarah (Cronk) and Joseph William Boulanger.  
Eleven survived to adulthood, but now only one son survives.  Virgil 
Boulanger, 81, and his wife, Etta, live in Independence.  Other members of 
the family were Grover, Stephen, Mrs. Frank (Effie) Potter, Mrs. Fred 
(Viola) Crum, Mrs. James (Lila) Himbury, William, Charles, Walter, Mrs. 
Will (Emma) Stotts, and Harrison Boulanger.

As descendants from all Osage families gathered to celebrate the 100th 
birthday of the move of the tribe, those descendants of "Uncle Joe" who 
paid homage to him and the bequesthment of a perpetual memorial as "long 
as grass grows and rivers flow" were his son and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Virgil 
Boulanger of Independence; Mrs. Harrison Boulanger and Miss Vada Boulanger 
of Elgin; Mrs. Chares Boulanger of Caney; Mrs. Stephen Boulanger of 
Pawsuka; Everett Boulanger, Mrs. Lenora Hill, and Mrs. Betty Lee of 
Boulanger; Cleman Boulanger of Sedan; Mr. and Mrs. Joe Boulanger of 
Moline; Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Boulanger and family of Independence; Mr. and 
Mrs. Eldridge Roach, Mr. and Mrs. John Shanhan and family, all of Tulsa; 
Mrs. Karen Kinsey and daughters of Independence; Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Herard 
of Wellington; Mr. and Mrs. Mitcher Boulanger jr. of Ponca City; Mr. and 
Mrs. Tommy Boulanger and family of Wichta; Mr. and Mrs. Louie James of 
Missouri; Randy Mathis and Billy Mathis of Pawhuska, Mr. and Mrs. Don 
Lawson and Thursie Mae of Tulsa, and Mrs. Thursie Uhls of Sedan.


Photo:  1902 OSAGE INDIAN COUNCIL - This picture can be seen at the 
Woolaroc Museum near Bartlesville.  Bob Boulanger of Independence is 
getting a glimpse of yesterday through today's memorabilia.  Bob's name 
appears on the Osage roll as an adopted member of the tribe.  Shown, l to 
r, back row, Nedawahshetunkat, John Mosier, Jim Bigheart, Pete Corn 
Dropper, Peter C. Bigheart.  Third row, Will T. Leahy, Joseph W. Boulanger, 
unknown, Claremore.  Second row, Chief Blackdog, Chief Olohewalla, unknown, 
Hesemoi.  First row, Jules Trumbly, Saucy Chief, Frank Prudom, unknown.
Staff Photo