Battle of Claremore Mound

The Battle of Claremore Mound, also known as the Battle of the Strawberry Moon, or the Claremore Mound Massacre, was one of the chief battles of the war between the Osage and Cherokee Indians. It occurred in June 1817, when a band of Western Cherokee and their allies under Chief Spring Frog (Too-an-tuh) attacked Pasuga, an Osage village at the foot of Claremore Mound (in present-day Rogers County, Oklahoma). During the two-day battle, the Cherokee killed or captured every member of Chief Clermont's band and destroyed everything they could not carry away. Historians consider it one of the bloodiest Native American massacres in modern history.

On November 19, 1808, at Fort Clark, Kansas, the Osage Nation made a treaty with the United States, ceding all of its land east of a line that ran south from Fort Clark to the Arkansas River and all of its land west of the Missouri River. The land reserved to the Osage Nation was further reduced by treaties signed at St. Louis (June 2, 1825, Fort Gibson (January 11, 1839) and Canville, Kansas (September 29, 1865).

According to Eaton, the Osage established two main villages about 1800, when they migrated to the area between the Verdigris and Grand rivers. These were called Pasona (near present-day Claremore, Oklahoma) and Pasuga (at the foot of Claremore Mound).

About 1760, a portion of the Cherokee people, who had been living in the Southeastern United States, had begun moving to land claimed by other tribes west of the Mississippi River. This produced a long period of conflict between the Western Cherokee (as the migrants had become known) and the Osage, a more warlike tribe who had dominated the Plains area in today's Kansas, southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma. Soon the Osage began raiding Cherokee towns, stealing horses, carrying off captives (usually women and children), and killing others, trying to drive out the invaders. Cherokees retaliated in kind, but were ineffective at stopping the raids. By 1817, an estimated three thousand Western Cherokees had settled in the area known as Arkansas.

In January 1817 the Arkansas Cherokee began planning a retaliatory attack against the Osage and began asking their relatives from the east to aid them in a battle against the Osage. They also asked for help from the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Delaware, and others, including whites, .

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