by Louis F. Burns

 

Siouan people who migrated from the Atlantic coastal region and settled in the central portion of the North American continent long before the arrival of Europeans are now known as Osage.  Because they did not possess a written language, their myths and cultural traditions were handed down orally through many generations.  With time, only those elements deemed vital were preserved in the stories, and many of these became highly stylized.  The resulting verbal recitations of the proper life of an Osage - from genesis myths to body decoration, from star songs to child-naming rituals, from war party strategies to medicinal hebs - are transcribed here by a member of the Osage people.