The Osage Indians thought so much of the French Explorer, Pierre Chouteau, as a fur trader, that on March 19, 1792 they gave him land along the Lamine River including what is now Blackwater township, Pilot Grove township and of course, the once famous summer resort, Chouteau Springs.
This Indian represents the Osage chieftain with a staff in his left hand and in his right, a scroll, or "deed" which he presented to Chouteau with the promise that if the Osage Indian "offspring" gave him any trouble as land owner of said tract of land, he need only to show them the scroll. Opposition to the land ownership came not from the Indians but from the U.S. Government which seemed to think the land was theirs. Chouteau didn't agree and the case went to court and was in litigation until 1837, when the grant got acknowledgment. Chouteau sold it to Gov. William Ashley and when Ashley died in 1839 he was buried on a spot that he had chosen as his final resting place, an ancient Indian mound on a high bluff overlooking the Missouri river near the junction of the Lamine [sic] river north of what we know as the town of Lamine.
Stacey Robinson carved this Indian with a chain saw in just a few hours with only a picture to go by. He is from Montgomery City, MO. Sculptor donated by the Blackwater Preservation Society.
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