The Osage chief Wah-Ti-An-Kah Credit 12As the commissioner tried to leave, Wah-Ti-An-Kah blocked his
path to the door and let go of his blanket. To the shock of even his
fellow Osage, he was naked, except for his breechcloth and his
moccasins, and his face was painted as if he were leading a war
party. “He stood there towering like some primitive god of the
dark forests,” Mathews wrote.
Wah-Ti-An-Kah told the interpreter, “Tell this man to sit down.”
When the commissioner complied, Wah-Ti-An-Kah said, “We have
come [a] long way to talk about this.”
The commissioner said, “Surely this man who doesn’t know how
to act—who comes to my office almost naked, with war paint on
his face, is not civilized enough to know how to use money.”
Wah-Ti-An-Kah said that he was not ashamed of his body, and