Poster – Camp Independence

Description

The Art

Created mid January 2020, this painting depicts Pike’s encampment from August 20 through 31, 1806 south of Butler, Missouri. He called it Camp Independence.

• Medium: Ink
• Surface: Card Stock
• Size: 11″ x 14″
• 1 poster

The Artist

Ed French is a former Disney artist, who has brought his enormous talent to depict extraordinary moments in American history, through the eyes of Zebulon Pike.

The Setting

The setting of this painting is in Vernon County, Missouri 37.98333, -94.29166, southeast of the confluence of the Marmaton and Osage Rivers. It was located between the Little Osage and Grand Osage villages.

Pike returned 51 Osage Indians (captured by the Pottawattamie) to their homes then in SW Missouri.. Hence the use of the term Independence. Needless to say- joy prevailed with the Osage.

Pike’s Journal – “Our reception by the Osage was flattering, and particularly by White Hair and our fellow-travelers.”

He quotes Sans Oreille, an Osage chief, “Osage, you now see your wife, your brothers, your daughters, your sons redeemed from captivity. Who did this? Wasn’t the Spanish? The French? NO. None of these people’s governors of those countries acted, and your relatives might have rotted in captivity, and you never would have seen them; but the Americans stretched forth their hands, and they are returned you!”

This is the location where Pike exchanged boats for horses as his mode of travel, horses he purchased from the Osage.