Patrick Brophy

From book: When the French explorers Marquette and Joiiet reached the middle Mississippi valley, in 1673, they asked the Indians they met about the country farther west. They were told that a large, warlike tribe lived there, on the headwaters of a large river that flowed into the "Pekitanoui" ( the Missouri) from the southwest. They were called the Wah-sha-she. Marquette, then was soon telling the civilized world of the existence of the Ouazhagi, or Ouchage, as he Gallicized the name. English speakers would further corrupt it to Osage (pronounced OH-sage).… (mehr)