Indian Memorial Cairn - Blackwater, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 58.765 W 092° 59.614
15S E 500557 N 4314492
This cairn was constructed to mount the chainsaw Indian as a monument to a land transfer .....
Waymark Code: WM1217R
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 01/30/2020
Views: 3
County of art: Cooper County
Location of art: Main St., E. of Dodderidge Ave., Blackwater
Artist: Stacey Robinson
This wooden Indian statue & cairn, are located on Main St., next to an area that looks like a should be a park...with a gazebo and veterans memorial...but the statue is covered in dried out weeds (I was there in December) from the overgrowth than must have covered it in summer.
That clue says it is not cared for nor any effort to maintain it.
The Osage Chief himself, is seated with a scroll in his proper right hand and a war-club in his proper left hand. With Mohawk style haircut, he is staring forward and seated in a hewn log to resemble a chair, and the entire statue is mounted upon a three foot high stone cairn.
"Complete with staff and scroll, presented to Pierre Chouteau, serving as a deed for 38,000 acres in 1792. Stacey Robinson, artist." ~ LASR Community
"I walked another block to the remarkable chainsaw carving of an Osage Indian chief. He holds a scroll, a deed of title to about 30,00 acres the Osage tribe gave to trading partner and friend Pierre Chouteau. The federal government didn't recognize the scroll as a true deed of title, saying the Louisiana Purchase made the contract moot. Chouteau sued, and won." ~ Coastal Missouri: Driving on the Edge of Wild, by John Drake Robinson, on Google
The quote here is from a book published in 2008. It refers to a plaque next to this statue...the plaque no longer exists.
"In the Village of Blackwater, the U. S. Army funded a small obelisk dedicated to "all veterans past, present and future." A plaque near a wooden carving of an Indian chief reads:
The Osage Indians thought so much of the French explorer, [Jean] Pierre Chouteau, as a fur trader, that on
March 19, 1792, they gave him land along the Lamine River, including what is now Blackwater township.
~ Blue Bug, Red Road, By Gaines Post, Jr., on Google