Osage Mural Meeting in Missouri

Osage Meeting in Missouri
108 S Buchanan St
Cuba, MO

The Osage Mural Meeting in Missouri portrays the Osage meeting French settlers led by Auguste Chouteau and Jean Pierre Chouteau. The mural’s artist, Norman Akers, stated, “The underlying principles that inform my art include tribal oral histories, maps, art historical references, and nature.” These principles are evident in Mr. Akers’ mural by his blending of Osage ribbon work, Osage Nation members, French traders, and topographyof the area.

The mural depicts traditional Osage homes, a dome-shaped structure called wickiups (WIK-ee-ups). The Osage made the frame to the wickiups from willow or hickory saplings. They tied the saplings together with cloth strips. They then covered the frame with animal skins or canvas.

Portrayed above the wickiups are Auguste Chouteau and Jean Pierre Chouteau. Auguste Chouteau helped his step-father, Pierre Laclède Liguest, found the city of St. Louis. Auguste and his half-brother, Jean Pierre Chouteau, were successful fur traders, businessmen, and government officials. During their lifetime, the Chouteaus were the most prominent, powerful family in St. Louis.

Much of the early success of the Chouteau brothers derived from their lucrative fur trade with the Osage. Historians estimate that each year the Osage sold as much as 9,000 pounds of fur from bear, beaver, deer, and other animals native to the region depicted in the mural. The furs or “pelts” taken from these animals and prized for their warmth. Pelts from beaver’s wool made fine hats, which was an expensive status symbol in Europe during the time.

The Artist

Norman Akers, an Osage artist with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art institute in Missouri, painted the mural Meeting in Missouri. Additionally, Mr. Akers holds a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Currently, he is an Associate Professor for the University of Kansas. Isaiah Stewart assisted Akers.

For more Osage art in Cuba, MO, view the information about the Osage Legacy Monument.

The Meeting in Missouri mural, on Buchanan Street in Cuba, MO, is just off Route 66/W. Washington. It is between the Civil War Murals and the A.J. Barnett/Model T mural, both also on Buchanan.