John Joseph Mathews

Who was John Joseph Mathews?

John Joseph Mathews became one of the Osage Nation's most important spokespeople and writers, and served on the Osage Tribal Council during the 1930s. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, Oxford University and the University of Geneva after serving as a flight instructor during World War I.

Matthews' first book was Wah'kon-tah: The Osage and The White Man's Road, which was selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club as their first by an academic press; it became a bestseller. His book The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters was a life work, preserving many collected stories and the oral history of the Osage.