Fred Lookout
Fred Lookout
“This [Oklahoma Hall of Fame] honor is an acknowledgment of the cultural and economic contributions of my Osage people to the founding and development of the great State of Oklahoma.”
Biography
Born in the camp of the Little Osage near Independence, Kansas, Fred Lookout was only ten years old when he joined his family and tribe on a 150-mile walk to the new Osage Mission, present-day Osage County, on Mission Creek in the northern part of the county. After attending boarding school in Pawhuska, he graduated from Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania and returned to the Mission where he married, bought a farm, and raised a family at Sand Creek, near Pawhuska.
He became a member of the Osage Tribal Council in 1896 and was appointed to fill the vacancy of Assistant Chief from 1908 until 1910. He was Principal Chief of the Osages from 1913 to 1914, and was re-elected from 1916 to 1918 and 1924 to 1949. The “spiritual and political leader” of his tribe, Chief Lookout worked tirelessly in his efforts to maintain the property interests and oil leases of his people and was well known in Washington, D.C. and across the nation.
Fun fact
Chief Lookout’s wife, Julia, was the great granddaughter of Chief Pawhuska, for whom the Osage county seat was named.
Oklahoma connections
Lookout came with his family to the new Osage reservation in Oklahoma Territory in 1871.
Relevant Exhibits
Beyond the Portraits: Artists and Their Subjects
