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John Joseph Mathews
John Joseph Mathews (November 16, 1894 – June 16, 1979) was one of the Osage Nation's most important spokespeople and writers of the mid-20th century, and served on the Osage Tribal Council from 1934 to 1942. Mathews was born into an influential Osage family, the son of William Shirley Mathews an Osage Nation tribal councilor. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, Oxford University, and the University of Geneva and served as a pilot during World War I.
Mathews' first book was a history, Wah'kon-tah: The Osage and The White Man's Road (1929), which was selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club as their first by an academic press, became a bestseller. His second book, Sundown (1934) is his most well known, an exploration of the disruption of the people and their society at the time of the oil boom, which also attracted criminal activities by leading whites in the county and state, including murder of Osage.
His third book, Talking to the Moon (1945), has been compared to Henry David Thoreau's Walden and was written while living at The Blackjacks. The work is a reflection on his time living in Osage County. In 1951 Mathews published a biography of E. W. Marland, a noted oilman, governor of Oklahoma, and friend of Mathews. His book fifth book The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters (1961) was a life work, preserving many collected stories and the oral history of the Osage.
In 1996 Mathews was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame. The Blackjacks in the Osage Hills, where he did much of his writing, was acquired in 2014 by the Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma to be incorporated into the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. He is buried in his garden near the home.
Mathews was born in Pawhuska, Indian Territory, on November 16, 1894, to William Shirley Mathews and Pauline Eugenia Girard, one of eight children. Three of his siblings died before adulthood. He had one older sister and three younger sisters who survived to adulthood. William Shirley Mathews was the son of John Allen Mathews, a blacksmith who settled among the Osage circa 1840 and later founded Oswego, Kansas, and Sara Williams. Sara was the daughter of A-Ci'n-Ga, an Osage woman, and William S. Williams. Because the Osage had a patrilineal kinship system, the Mathews descendants were excluded from belonging to one of the tribe's clans, as their Osage ancestry was through the maternal line of A-Ci'-Ga, rather than through a direct male ancestor. John Joseph Mathews' mother's family had immigrated from France. The family had an "active interest in Osage culture." The Mathews children were one-eighth Osage according to blood quantum laws. He was on 1906 Osage rolls and received one osage headright, like every member of the tribe.
Mathews grew up in Osage County playing with his dog, Spot, and his horse, Bally. He attended Mrs. Tucker's Preparatory School, a local school founded for white children, and later Pawhuska High School in May 1914 where he played on the basketball and football teams. He attended the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 1914 and played on the freshman football team, but quit the team after one season. He joined Kappa Alpha Order in February 1915. He joined the Oklushe Degataga Indian Club when it was founded in 1914 and was one of two Osage members during his tenure. He took a short break from school in March 1915 when his father was ill and arrived home before his death on March 15, 1915. In the summer of 1916 he participated in an archaeology expedition near Grove, Oklahoma alongside notable Oklahomans such as Joseph B. Thoburn, Elmer Fraker, and Lynn Riggs. Afterward he traveled through South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana. Starting in 1916 he wrote for the University Oklahoman and in 1917 he wrote for the University of Oklahoma Magazine.
His schooling was interrupted when the United States entered World War I and he enlisted in the United States Army on May 9, 1917, hoping to be a cavalryman. He was later selected for ground school in Austin, Texas and then selected for bombing training. He never saw combat and left the army in the summer of 1919 as a second lieutenant, despite an offer to join the United States Army Air Service. He returned to the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 1919 and graduated in the spring of 1920 with a degree in geology. After graduation, he visited Yellowstone National Park with his family.
He was admitted to Michaelmas term at Oxford University, but skipped his first semester to go big game hunting in the Rocky Mountains. He arrived at Oxford in April 1921 for the Trinity term. While at Oxford, he traveled to England, Scotland, and France. While at Oxford, he met and befriended the Earl of Cardigan. In 1922, he traveled to Sidi Okba in Algeria, hoping to hunt the wild barbary sheep, but failed to find one, insteading shooting a barbary leopard. Later that year he visited Germany, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia. He graduated from Oxford in June 1923.
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John Joseph Mathews
John Joseph Mathews (November 16, 1894 – June 16, 1979) was one of the Osage Nation's most important spokespeople and writers of the mid-20th century, and served on the Osage Tribal Council from 1934 to 1942. Mathews was born into an influential Osage family, the son of William Shirley Mathews an Osage Nation tribal councilor. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, Oxford University, and the University of Geneva and served as a pilot during World War I.
Mathews' first book was a history, Wah'kon-tah: The Osage and The White Man's Road (1929), which was selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club as their first by an academic press, became a bestseller. His second book, Sundown (1934) is his most well known, an exploration of the disruption of the people and their society at the time of the oil boom, which also attracted criminal activities by leading whites in the county and state, including murder of Osage.
His third book, Talking to the Moon (1945), has been compared to Henry David Thoreau's Walden and was written while living at The Blackjacks. The work is a reflection on his time living in Osage County. In 1951 Mathews published a biography of E. W. Marland, a noted oilman, governor of Oklahoma, and friend of Mathews. His book fifth book The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters (1961) was a life work, preserving many collected stories and the oral history of the Osage.
In 1996 Mathews was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame. The Blackjacks in the Osage Hills, where he did much of his writing, was acquired in 2014 by the Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma to be incorporated into the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. He is buried in his garden near the home.
Mathews was born in Pawhuska, Indian Territory, on November 16, 1894, to William Shirley Mathews and Pauline Eugenia Girard, one of eight children. Three of his siblings died before adulthood. He had one older sister and three younger sisters who survived to adulthood. William Shirley Mathews was the son of John Allen Mathews, a blacksmith who settled among the Osage circa 1840 and later founded Oswego, Kansas, and Sara Williams. Sara was the daughter of A-Ci'n-Ga, an Osage woman, and William S. Williams. Because the Osage had a patrilineal kinship system, the Mathews descendants were excluded from belonging to one of the tribe's clans, as their Osage ancestry was through the maternal line of A-Ci'-Ga, rather than through a direct male ancestor. John Joseph Mathews' mother's family had immigrated from France. The family had an "active interest in Osage culture." The Mathews children were one-eighth Osage according to blood quantum laws. He was on 1906 Osage rolls and received one osage headright, like every member of the tribe.
Mathews grew up in Osage County playing with his dog, Spot, and his horse, Bally. He attended Mrs. Tucker's Preparatory School, a local school founded for white children, and later Pawhuska High School in May 1914 where he played on the basketball and football teams. He attended the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 1914 and played on the freshman football team, but quit the team after one season. He joined Kappa Alpha Order in February 1915. He joined the Oklushe Degataga Indian Club when it was founded in 1914 and was one of two Osage members during his tenure. He took a short break from school in March 1915 when his father was ill and arrived home before his death on March 15, 1915. In the summer of 1916 he participated in an archaeology expedition near Grove, Oklahoma alongside notable Oklahomans such as Joseph B. Thoburn, Elmer Fraker, and Lynn Riggs. Afterward he traveled through South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana. Starting in 1916 he wrote for the University Oklahoman and in 1917 he wrote for the University of Oklahoma Magazine.
His schooling was interrupted when the United States entered World War I and he enlisted in the United States Army on May 9, 1917, hoping to be a cavalryman. He was later selected for ground school in Austin, Texas and then selected for bombing training. He never saw combat and left the army in the summer of 1919 as a second lieutenant, despite an offer to join the United States Army Air Service. He returned to the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 1919 and graduated in the spring of 1920 with a degree in geology. After graduation, he visited Yellowstone National Park with his family.
He was admitted to Michaelmas term at Oxford University, but skipped his first semester to go big game hunting in the Rocky Mountains. He arrived at Oxford in April 1921 for the Trinity term. While at Oxford, he traveled to England, Scotland, and France. While at Oxford, he met and befriended the Earl of Cardigan. In 1922, he traveled to Sidi Okba in Algeria, hoping to hunt the wild barbary sheep, but failed to find one, insteading shooting a barbary leopard. Later that year he visited Germany, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia. He graduated from Oxford in June 1923.