Paraphrase of the Wi´-gi-e of the Red Eagle Gens

PEACEFUL DAY IS MY NAME

Verily, my abode is in the days that are calm and peaceful.
When the little ones make of me their bodies (their life),
They shall become a people of the days that are ever serene.
From each of the great gods,
I verily remove all traces of anger and violence.
When the little ones make of me their bodies,
They shall have power to remove from the gods
All anger and the desire for destruction.
From the god of the lower world (the earth);
From the god of light who standeth in the midst of heaven;
From the god of the upper world (the over-arching sky),
I have power to remove all anger and violence.
When the little ones make of me their bodies,
They also shall have power to remove from the gods all anger.
When the little ones of the Wa-zha´-zhe (subdivision),
And those of the Hoⁿ´-ga (subdivision),
Make of me their bodies,
They shall have power to remove from all lands,
All anger, hatred and violence.

NO-ANGER IS ALSO MY NAME

I am a person of whom the little ones may well make their bodies.
My abode is in the midst of the earth’s warm, quivering air.
When the little ones make of me their bodies,
They shall become a people of the earth’s quivering air.
Verily, in the days that are gentle and peaceful,
I make my abode.
When the little ones make of me their bodies,
They shall become a people of the days that are gentle and peaceful.
Of a little yellow flower
I have made my body.
The little Ba-shta´, that stands amidst the winds,
I have made to be my body.
When the little ones make of the Ba-shta´ their bodies,
They shall ever live together without anger, without hatred.

Ṭoⁿ-woⁿ-i´-hi-zhiⁿ-ga, Little Ṭoⁿ-woⁿ-i´-hi, in speaking to Miss Fletcher in 1898 of the Osage gentile system, said that there are five subgentes in the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-shta-ge gens, namely:

1. Ṭsi´-u-çkoⁿ-çka, House in the center, meaning the Sanctuary in the keeping of this gens which, figuratively, stands in the center of the earth.

2. Ba´-po, Elder, or, People of the elder trees.

3. Moⁿ´-ça-hi, Arrow-tree, or, People of the arrow tree.

4. Zhoⁿ-çoⁿ´, White-tree (Sycamore), or, People of the white tree.

5. Sho´-ḳa, Messengers, or, People from whom a ceremonial messenger is chosen for the gens. Sometimes this gens is called Ṭsi´-u-thu-ha-ge, Last group of houses.

It is from the people of the Ṭsi´-u-çkoⁿ-çka that the hereditary chief of the Ṭsi´-zhu great tribal division must always be chosen. The Ba´-po subgens has the office of making the stem for the ceremonial peace pipe of the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-shta-ge. The stem must always be made of the Ba´-po, the elder tree. The people of the Arrow-tree and the Sycamore gentes have lost the significance of their life symbols. All of these five subgentes use the cone-flower symbolic hair cut.

There is something pathetic in the passing away of these ancient rites and customs which the Osage Indians had treasured from the earliest times of their tribal existence. Joe Shoⁿ´-ge-moⁿ-iⁿ, like his father, had respect and reverence for the religious thoughts of his ancestors which they had expressed in symbols and rituals with ceremonial forms and handed down. Joe had two little daughters (pl. 9, a) upon whom he bestowed a large share of his affections. He not only gave to each of them a sacred name of his gens, but, from year to year, as they approached womanhood, he cut their hair to typify the sacred flower of peace and happiness, an act which implied a supplication to Wa-ḳoⁿ´-da to bless each little one with a long and fruitful life. At the last symbolic hair cut the children had reached school age and they willingly went to the house of learning. The white children with whom they mingled hooted and jeered at them for their strange hair cut and made them unhappy. When they came home they told their father of their unkind treatment at the school. The fond father quietly took a pair of shears and cut away from each little head the symbolic locks.

Little Ṭoⁿ-woⁿ´-i-hi also stated that there was another style of symbolic hair cut called çiⁿ´-dse-a-gthe, tails worn on the head, which belongs to the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-noⁿ, the principal war gens of the Ṭsi´-zhu great tribal division, which he described as: All of the hair of the head cut close but leaving uncut a row of three locks, equidistant apart, beginning at the crown of the head and ending near the edge of the hair at the back of the head. (Fig. 8.) This style of hair cut symbolizes all animals of the dog family, including the gray wolf, the coyote, and the domestic dog. It also symbolizes a star called Shoⁿ´-ge a-ga-ḳ’e e-goⁿ, Dog that lies suspended in the sky (Sirius).

The Dog Star is mentioned in the Child-naming Wi´-gi-e of the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-noⁿ gens, bearing the title Wa-zho´-i-ga-the Wi´-gi-e, Taking of Life Symbols, given by Xu-tha´-wa-ṭoⁿ-in. (See p. [82], sec. 10 of the wi´-gi-e.)

Little Ṭoⁿ-woⁿ´-i-hi said that the Wa-ça-be-ṭoⁿ, Black Bear gens of the Hoⁿ´-ga great division, had a similar style of hair cut as that of the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-noⁿ gens. Wa-xthi´-zhi said that the Puma gens also had the same style of hair cut.

Fig. 8.—Hair cut of the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-noⁿ and Wa-ça´-be (Black Bear) gentes

The symbolic hair cut of the Ni´-ḳa Wa-ḳoⁿ-da-gi gens, Men of Mystery, is: hair of the head all cut close excepting a lock left uncut on the crown of the head (pl. 10, a) and a lock at the back of the head near the edge, which does not show in the picture. The life symbol of this gens is the hawk and the hair cut represents this raptorial bird which was adopted by all of the gentes of both the Hoⁿ´-ga and the Ṭsi´-zhu great tribal divisions as an emblem of courage for their warriors.

The name of the boy whose picture shows the hair cut of his gens is Gthe-doⁿ´-çka, White-hawk (Gthe-doⁿ, hawk; çka, white). It is the name that belongs to the second son in a family of this gens. His father’s name is Noⁿ´-ḳa-ṭo-ho, Blue-back (Noⁿ´-ḳa, back; ṭo-ho, blue), a name referring to the blue-backed hawk. White-hawk’s mother is Xi-tha´-doⁿ-wiⁿ, Good-eagle-woman, daughter of Shoⁿ´-ge-moⁿ-iⁿ of the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-shta-ge gens.

The style of symbolic hair cut adopted by the Tho´-xe gens is of the Çiⁿ´-dse A-gthe class and is described as, hair on entire head cut close excepting a little tuft left uncut just over the middle of the forehead, and a fringe running across the crown of the head from one ear to the other as shown in the picture (pl. 10, b); two tufts, one on either side of the head back of the fringe, and a tuft just above the nape of the neck, which do not show in the picture. This style of cut represents the buffalo bull, the principal life symbol of the gens.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 9

FOUR OSAGE CHILDREN

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 10

CHILD’S HAIR CUT OF THE THO-XE AND NI´-ḲA WA-ḲO^N-DA-GI GENTES

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 11

MEN, SHOWING HAIR CUT OF ADULT OSAGES

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 12

BONE EAR PERFORATORS AND EXPANDERS

The two gentes, the Ni´-ḳa Wa-ḳoⁿ-da-gi and the Tho´-xe, are closely related, being joint custodians of the rites pertaining to war. (See 36th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 64-65.) The symbolic hawks, each of which formed the central figure in the ceremonies of the war rites, were regarded as being in the special care of the Ni´-ḳa Wa-ḳoⁿ-da-gi, while all of the thirteen o-doⁿ´, military honors, to be won by each warrior of the tribe in order to secure ceremonial rank, belonged to the Tho´-xe. The war honor must be won in a fight by a war party carrying a hawk, the tribal emblem of courage. The places of these two gentes are on the Ṭsi´-zhu side of the two great tribal divisions, but they are not of the seven fireplaces of that great division.

In the Ṭsi´-zhu Wi´-gi-e recited by Moⁿ-zhoⁿ-a´-ḳi-da (36th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 277-285), relating to the mythical story of the descent of the people from the upper to the lower world, these two gentes are mentioned. A paraphrase of this part is here given: