Origin of "Osage"

The Native Americans that inhabited the area originally called themselves "Ni-U-Kon-Ska", meaning "Children of the Middle Waters", but were known as "Wa-shah-she" by early French explorers.  They soon began pronouncing it "Wa-sa-gee", and being French, used "Ou" when writing the name as "Ousages".  The English later read and pronounced it as "Osage".