Prairie Girls

Elizabeth

I am a ten-year- old Osage Indian girl. Our people are the people of the Middle Waters. We believe there must be a naming ceremony for a child to become a member of the tribe. Hoo-tha`-to-me, which means Good Eagle Woman, is the name I received in my naming ceremony. I left my father, mother and younger brother to attend the boarding school at Osage Mission. The Black Robes (Catholic Priests) at the school called me Elizabeth.

The elders of our tribe petitioned the government in Washington to send Black Robes to teach us the ways of the white settlers. Some of the rituals of the Black Robes appealed to those of our people. Our tribe’s elders said if our people and the people called Heavy Eyebrows  (white men) were to live in peace, we had to learn all their ways. It took bravery to leave my family and tribe. I will tell you more next time.

 

Osage Artifacts

The region of the state where I live is rich with Native American artifacts. Nearly fifty years ago a reservoir on the Elk River was constructed to help control flooding. Huge areas of fertile land and places where bands of Osage Indians travelled and camped were covered by the lake. Construction crews uncovered examples of tribal life during their work on the dam. Four different bands of the Osage tribe hunted, camped, and left remnants of their lives in this area.

Archeologists and anthropologists uncovered relics and examples of tribal life during major excavations conducted here. My family lamented the loss of river bottom land. I wonder how much missed information about Osage life rests at the bottom of the lake today. While engineers claimed the reservoir would not flood in 100 years, I have witnessed three such floods in the last 40 years making retrieval of objects more difficult if they have moved with the flood waters.