Joseph James is the name of two Kansa-

Osage The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the United States, is the source of most other terms containing the word "osage". Osage can also refer to: * Osage language, a Dhaegin language traditionally spoken by the Osage Nation * Osage (Unicode b ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

interpreters on the Kansas and Indian Territory frontier in the 19th century. Both were usually called "Joe Jim" or "Jojim".

Joe Jim

Joe Jim Sr. was probably born in the 1790s at the

town in Vernon County, Missouri. He was probably the son of a

trader and an Osage woman. By about 1815, Joe Jim was living among the Kaw tribe along the Kansas River in what would become the state of Kansas. Joe Jim married Wyhesee (b. 1802), a daughter of Kaw chieftain

White Plume White Plume (ca. 1765—1838), also known as Nom-pa-wa-rah, Manshenscaw, and Monchousia, was a chief of the Kaw (Kansa, Kanza) Indigenous American tribe. He signed a treaty in 1825 ceding millions of acres of Kaw land to the United States. Most p ...

, and thereafter became an important member of the tribe. Joe Jim was a signatory to an 1825 treaty ceding Kaw land to the United States government under the name of Ky-he-ga-shin-ga (Little Chief). Fluent in English,

, Kaw ( Kanza), and Osage (nearly identical with Kaw); he became an interpreter for the U.S. government about 1829. In 1830, he served as a guide for a surveying expedition to western Kansas by missionary Isaac McCoy. McCoy, critical of most of his associates, was laudatory of Joe Jim. The last record of Joe Jim is 1837, when he was still employed by the U.S. government as an interpreter. Joseph James is listed in the 1843 census of the Kaw, but whether this refers to Joe Jim Sr. or Joe Jim Jr. is unclear.

Joe Jim Jr.

Joe Jim Jr. was born about 1820 and his place of birth was given as "Big Bottom", a place along the Kansas River. (Joe Jim Jr.'s birth date on his tombstone is given as 1814, but that date is inconsistent with other statements concerning his age.) He was apparently illiterate. In 1846 and 1847, during the Mexican–American War, Peter Revard, a mixed blood Osage, and he drove a herd of cattle from Kansas to New Mexico to feed American soldiers. He worked as a teamster during a military campaign against the

Navajos The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

. While returning to Kansas in a wagon train, he survived a

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

attack that resulted in the death of two American soldiers. In the 1850s, Joe Jim had an arm amputated due to "poisoning", which ended his active life. He became an interpreter for the U.S. government in 1858, and thereafter was a principal point of contact between Whites and the Kaw tribe, living in both worlds and not accepted fully in either. One of the Indian agents for whom Joe Jim worked was

Hiram Warner Farnsworth Hiram Warner Farnsworth (born October 13, 1816, in Brattleboro, VT and died 26 July 1899 in Topeka, KS) was an abolitionist, Kansas pioneer, educator, Indian agent and community leader. Early life Hiram Warner Farnsworth (H. W.)''H.W.'' is u ...

. In 1859, he was an informant for pioneering ethnologist Lewis Henry Morgan. Morgan said of him, Joe Jim’s wife was Margaret Curley, a full-blooded

Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

Indian. The Potawatomi had been forced by the U.S. to move to Kansas from the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

valley in the 1830s. Joe Jim has been credited with naming Topeka, Kansas. Asked by White settlers what the name of the place was, he answered, "Topeka", stating that it meant "a good place to grow potatoes", probably meaning the

prairie turnip ''Psoralea esculenta'', common name prairie turnip or timpsula, is an herbaceous perennial plant native to prairies and dry woodlands of central North America, which bears a starchy tuberous root edible as a root vegetable. The plant is als ...

rather than the common potato. In 1867, Joe Jim accompanied a Kaw delegation headed by Chief Al-le-ga-wa-ho to Washington. The Kaw were disappearing rapidly as a tribe, their lands being occupied by White settlers. They sought a new reservation free of white squatters in the Indian Territory (later

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

). Joe Jim was involved in one of the most colorful and public Indian battles in the West. On June 1, 1868, about 100 Cheyenne warriors descended upon the Kaw reservation near Council Grove, Kansas. The Kaw men sallied forth to meet them, and for four hours, the tribes staged a military pageant described as a "battle royal". The Cheyenne then retired from the field, taking with them a few stolen horses and a peace offering of coffee and sugar donated by the merchants of Council Grove. Nobody was seriously hurt on either side. During the battle, Joe Jim galloped 60 miles (97 km) on horseback to Topeka to inform the governor that the Cheyenne were attacking and to request assistance. With him on the ride to Topeka was an eight-year-old nephew called "Indian Charley". This was Charles Curtis, who later became Vice President of the United States. On June 4, 1873, the Kaws, by this time diminished by disease, alcoholism, and warfare, to only 500 people from their earlier population of 1,500, packed their possessions and left for a new reservation in what became Kay County, Oklahoma. Their numbers continued to decline, reaching a low of about 200 in 1890.Unrau, 104; Kaw Census, National Archives Joe Jim and his wife Margaret established a homestead on the east bank of the Arkansas River just south of the border with Kansas. He died September 21, 1898, the oldest of the Kaw Indians. He was buried in the Washunga cemetery now located in Newkirk, Oklahoma.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Joseph And Joseph James Jr. Native American leaders Kaw people Osage people American frontier People of the American Old West