Three Bois d’Arc Capital crafters are assessing their impact on the Osage Indian nation in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, after staging a bois d’arc festival on Saturday, Aug. 13, at the tribal headquarters.  Jim Conrad, Jerry Lytle, and Fred Tarpley attended the event to sell and barter bois d’arc products and to share their enthusiasm and techniques for crafting useful and decorative objects from the tree.  It was an historic revival of trade between Oklahomans and Texans.

Osage orange, the dominant common label for the tree, was named for the Osage tribe and for the Osage River, where the Indians once lived in Missouri.  Later the tribe was assigned land in Indian Territory northwest of present-day Tulsa.  The Osage wisely retained mineral rights to their Oklahoma land and are now considered the wealthiest Native American nation because of their oil royalties.  The Texas traders were invited to Pawhuska by Barbara Pease, director of the Osage County Historical Society Museum.  Pawhuska is also home of the Osage museum, the first to be established by a tribe.

During the bois d’arc festival in Pawhuska, Fred Tarpley and Jerry Lytle visited the Osage national tribal museum to learn more about the Indians whose name is associated with the Osage orange tree, more familiarly known as bois d’arc in Texas.  (photo by Jim Conrad)

Pawhuska is known for achievements of ballerina Maria Tallchief, Oscar winner Ben Jonson and the recent Pulitzer-winning play “August:  Osage County” by Tracy Letts, as well as the home of the Osage nation.

“At first I thought we would be taking coals to Newcastle because of the long association of the Osage people with the tree,” Jim Conrad remarked, "but we were able to demonstrate uses of Osage orange that were new to the residents. They were fascinated by the long-stemmed bouquets I had made of horse apples.  I sold all the flowers, and now they decorate homes in Pawhuska.” 

Conrad also demonstrated the making of dye from parts of the tree and sold bottles of dye for the Osage artisans to use.  He explained how he makes various types of paper from horse apples and leaves.  His exhibition included prints with bois d’arc depicted in art by James Green of Commerce.

A Pawhuska newspaper reporter interviews Jim Conrad about his flowers created from horse apples, and dyes and paper made from parts of the bois d’arc tree.  Conrad was one of three Commerce craftsmen exhibiting their useful and decorating products at the bois d’arc festival at the Osage County Historical Society Museum.  (photo by Fred Tarpley)

Jerry Lytle was amazed by the enthusiastic reception for his natural  bois d’arc sculpture décor, forever sticks, paper weights, and methods of finding strange beauty by probing the wood. 

“More than a score of the Pawhuska residents left the festival with one of my bois d’arc walking canes.  They will find them very useful walking around the scenic hills of the Osage nation,” Lytle said.  He had an opportunity to discuss Osage orange art with Sean Standingbear, a renowned painter and wood carver, and with one of the local craftsmen who carves wild turkey calls from he wood.

Fred Tarpley signed copies of his comprehensive book about the tree, Wood Eternal, and dispensed bags of bois d’arc magic mulch insect repellant.   He also sold the thirty-minute video, “Commerce: Bois d’Arc Capital of Texas,” made with Dave Walvoord, and twenty-month-old saplings grown from seed in Commerce.  He represented Kent and Jay Garrett in selling their bois d’arc kitchen utensils and back-to-school lead pencils.  As additions to his private collection of bois d’arc crafts, Tarpley commissioned Sean Standingbear to carve two traditional Osage battle clubs from wood provided by Kent Garrett.

“We enjoyed restoring the Indian trade custom of cash or bartering,” Tarpley said.  "We Texans came away with paintings and prints by Osage artist Joe Don Brave and other exhibiters at the festival.  Many residents of Pawhuska now know about Commerce, Texas, and the Bois d’Arc Bash.  The climax of the Oklahomans hospitality came when the museum director invited us to return next year for an even-larger festival."