The Osage world is expanding.
With the Osage Nation Language Department’s two latest interactive publications in an ongoing immersion book series, “Corn and Squash” illustrated by Erica Pretty Eagle and “Devouring Mountain” illustrated by Cameron Free, the tribe is revitalizing old stories and pushing augmented reality (AR) technology.
The Osage Nation Language Department (ONLD) created the AR books and the library hosting them – the Osage Books app – with tech and design company MacLean Engineering and Technology (METECS). It was METECS who created the app in 2022 for the ONLD with the release of “The Coyote and the Bear.”
For the two new titles in the book series, ONLD Director Braxton Redeagle worked closely with METECS Creative Director Sam Stanton. As creative director, Stanton managed the technology development and coordinated the layout for publication. “He made suggestions for the artwork that helped mesh the illustrations with the video and application features, as well as the overall book layout,” said Redeagle.
The collaboration shines in all those aspects, from the finished layout in the hard copies of the books to AR images that arise from the pages when readers scan them with the Osage Books app.
While the technology is innovative, the cover pages of the interactive books acknowledge that the stories are not originals. For both books, Redeagle updated the language, however, so that contemporary speakers would be able to recognize the language. “The stories are quite old,” he said, noting that he updated them so the books would be “as publicly digestible as possible with the minimal amount of changes as possible. This meant restructuring them into a more recognizable ‘storybook’ form, somewhat modernizing the more archaic elements and other things of that nature.
“It’s my favorite part of the work,” Redeagle added. “Diving into the actual linguistics, the language change, the old forms, the comparative work, and then contextualizing that within Osage psychology.
“Corn and Squash”
The opening to “Corn and Squash” illustrated by Erica Pretty Eagle acknowledges that the 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 story “dates back to a time much beyond our knowledge.
“This retelling is based on the version given by 𐓀𐒰͘ 𐓓𐒰͘ 𐒰𐒼𐒻𐓈𐒰 (Watches-Over-the-Land) over a century ago,” the cover page reads. “Multiple versions of the story exist among the 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐓁𐒻𐒼𐒰𐓇𐒻𐒼𐒰 (Osage People) and their relatives.” Pretty Eagle said that creation stories “are one of [her] passions.”
“I really want to bring [creation stories] to life more,” she said. “Of course, for my tribe – but for other tribes as well. When this opportunity came up, I was over the moon and [it] just made me feel like, ‘Okay, this is part of my purpose.’
“This is something I want to bring to life for future generations and generations to come. … I’m a mom so I think about those things, you know. I want these stories to be told and re-told and to be carried on. This is very special to me, this project. And I hope everybody enjoys it, loves it just as I do.
“There are so many stories that are told verbally, but what we need is like this: to hold it, to show it and experience it,” she said, holding the book in her hands.
Pretty Eagle’s favorite aspect of the illustration project was creating the cover, specifically, depicting florals and adding in cultural details like the ribbon work on the butterfly wings.
The voice in the audio version of “Corn and Squash” available in the Osage Books app belongs to Robynn Rulo, who is an academic advisor at the Osage Nation Education Department. App users can hear Rulo read the story of how the buffalo bull brought the two sacred foods to the people as they turn the pages of the book, either digitally or with AR scans of the physical pages.
“Devouring Mountain”
The story retold in “Devouring Mountain,” as read by Osage elder and ONLD worker Stephanie Rapp, “dates back to time immemorial,” reads the book’s opening acknowledgment. The Language Department’s retelling of the story is an adaptation of a version told by 𐓀𐒻͘ 𐓆𐒰͘ 𐓍𐒻͘ (White-Sun) in the year 1883. Alternate versions exist among the Dhegiha tribes, according to the book’s title page.
The illustrations for “Devouring Mountain” were painted by Cameron Free, who referenced works by portrait artist George Catlin to depict historic details such as spears, roached hair and buckskin leggings. The ONLD also sourced other various images from the Osage Nation Museum to help Free paint the details, said Redeagle.
Redeagle selected Free because of his characteristic Western-style paintings. When Redeagle and Celena White, a language teacher at the department who helped publish the book, approached the artist, he said he was surprised. “I’ve never done [a book]. It was exciting for me, and kind of nerve-wracking. I couldn’t imagine seeing [the paintings] in a book,” said Free. “You want to get it right.”
Free painted on wood for the project – a detail that Stanton said added to the texture of the images – and used a “lighter” touch than usual in both his colors and brushstrokes. This left the images “vague,” said the artist, to make it more appropriate for children.
The story tells of a mountain that devours people and an orphan who is brave enough to confront the mountain. Redeagle wanted the story to be as realistic as possible, he said. At the book launch event at the Osage Nation Visitor’s Center on Feb. 7, Language instructor Noah Shadlow admired one of his favorite pages in which four warriors are being sucked into the cave. “Oh, he swallowed them up!” Shadlow said of the mountain. “𐓏𐒰𐓍𐒰𐓇𐓊𐓎𐒰𐓄𐒷, ‘They inhaled them,’” he translated.
Putting all the orthography in print and AR formats was challenging, said the collaborators. Redeagle and Stanton had to work through hitches in getting a newly written language into published releases. Redeagle explained, “The orthography has been in Unicode with the full character set and diacritics for some time now, but the problem is making sure it is readily accessible on various devices and ensuring it renders properly across all programs. We’ve tackled the first part with the language and keyboard becoming part of the standard options with new updates (no longer relying on third-party apps and installs), but we still have a lot of work to do for better usage in several areas.”
When the ONLD communicates with Apple to resolve an issue, that doesn’t solve the problem across the board. “Programs are unique in how they access fonts and manipulate text, so there isn’t necessarily a universal solution,” said Redeagle. “We have to go through individually [to Apple, Android or Google, and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)] to identify specific issues and communicate that to multiple people. Any emerging script is going to be that way and even major scripts that have a lot of users still have similar problems,” he said.
As the ONLD overcomes the obstacles of getting Osage orthography typefaces and fonts correctly displayed in their publications, the immersion series team is excited to keep going. “It’s obviously something that we want to continue. We’ve gotten great support from leadership to do this … the community reception has been outstanding … so we’re going try to stay on it,” said Redeagle.
Hard copies of Corn and Squash and Devouring Mountain are for sale at the Osage Nation Visitor’s Center for $20 each. A tote featuring a painting by Cameron Free from Devouring Mountain and a t-shirt with designs from Corn and Squash by Erica Pretty Eagle are available as well. The Osage Books app is available for download on the App Store and on Google Play. The app is the start of a growing Osage library.
