The Osage were described by Isaac McRoy as an uncommonly fierce, courageous, warlike nation, by Washington Irving as the finest looking Indians he had ever seen in the West, and by George Catlin as the tallest race of men in North America, either white or red skin, with many of them six and a half and others seven feet. They were the largest tribe ever to populate Missouri and lived without boundaries or geographical constraints, equally at home in the forest and on the wide-open plains. Yet every aspect of Osage life was strictly regulated by tribal custom and governed by elder warriors known as the Little Old Men. Osage men were very tall and well proportioned, wore a roach-style scalp lock, and dressed in deer-skin loincloths, moccasins, and leggings, with a buffalo robe for warmth or to cast aside in threat or emergency; hunters and fierce warriors, they led the way. Osage women wore their hair long down their backs and carried babies on cradle boards that flattened children's heads, a feature the Osage considered very attractive. Women built houses, tended children, made clothing, and gardened, while children learned from their elders and absorbed the love of their tribal family. The Osage fought continuously for their culture and traditions, and although the American Government could kill or move them, it could not break their will.