Kihegashugah
[[File:Six Osage Native Americans.png|thumb|Kihegashugah (center) with other natives from his tribe (1827)
Lithograph Artist: Pierre Lacroix, 1783–1856]]
Kihegashugah (c. 1791 – c. 1840) or "Little Chief" was a chief of the Osage Nation in central Missouri. Tribal folklore said that he was the great-grandson of an Osage man who visited France in 1725. Kihegashugah was said to be one of the most distinguished of the Osage Indians. He was one of six members of his tribe to travel to France in the 1820s.
Journey to France
Kihegashugah was in his late 30s when he made a long journey to France along with his two wives, Hawk Woman and Sacred Sun, Frenchman David DeLaunay, and four other Osage Indians in 1827. They faced many hardships on the way to France and when in France.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2uPlNlxuksC&q=Kihegashugah&pg=PA410|title=Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships|website=|publisher=|isbn=9780160020193|access-date=|last1=Mooney|first1=James L.|year=1959}} The Osage were led to believe that they were traveling with DeLaunay to Washington, D.C. to meet the president. However, DeLaunay actually took them to France and the Netherlands where he displayed them in a Wild West show for European entertainment.{{Cite web|url=https://www.donaldheald.com/pages/books/16527/thomas-l-mckenney-james-hall/mo-hon-go-an-osage-woman|title=Donald A. Heald Rare Books and Maps|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=|access-date=December 1, 2016}} While in France Little Chief and his band met King Charles. While there Little Chief took a ride in a hot air balloon. The hot air balloon was a recent invention of the French Montgofier brothers, and a popular attraction in France during the period.{{Cite book|title=An Osage Journey to Europe, 1827–1830: Three French Accounts|last=Least Heat-Moon|first=William|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0806151120|location=|pages=np|quote=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6sEcAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT13}}
Return to America
[[File:Six Osage in 1827.png|thumb|From Luther Brand's Illustration, 1827.
Original Caption: "The Indians From the Tribe Osage, who are still in Paris—at the theater in Rouen"
Kihegashugah can be seen in the front row with his two wives, Hawk Woman and Sacred Sun.
]]
Early sources conflated Little Chief Kihegashugah with a fellow tribesman, Little Soldier, and reported that he died of smallpox while aboard a ship when returning to America after the voyage.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9Y_AAAAYAAJ&q=Kihegashugah&pg=PA927|title=Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: A-M|last=Hodge|first=Frederick Webb|date=1912-01-01|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}} In fact, Kihegashugah was on the Fort Gibson Indian Territory tribal councils of 1833 and 1839.