The Aggressors
In January 1817 the Arkansas Cherokee began planning a retaliatory attack against the Osage and began petitioning their relatives from the east to aid them in a battle against the Osage. In July of the same year the Cherokee warned William Clark, the governor of the Missouri Territory, of the impending attack. They wrote:
"they have stolen all our best horses, and have reduced us to work with our naked hands. [W}ith the few horses we have left, we intend to go to the Osages and hunt for those horses taken; we are going to do mischief."
500 Cherokee along with a number of Choctaws, Chickasaws and whites went to the Osage village. After luring out a representative of the Southern Osage the attack began in which the invading party killed thirty-eight Osage and took one hundred and four captives. The aggressors stole what they could carry and burnt the rest.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Claremore Mound