On Puget Island our weather has turned toward autumn with perfect sunny days and thistledown floating in the breeze. I visited a U-pick farm with lavender fields and lush green pumpkin leaves filling a large patch. Ed Smith, an Osage living in St. Louis, Mo., is picking 𐓈𐓂𐓒𐒰͘𐒼𐒷 𐒷𐒼𐓂͘, pawpaws, at a park near his home. Known for foraging and promoting Osage ancestral foods, Smith said, “Pawpaws, which vary slightly from tree to tree, taste like a blend of mango and banana with a hint of vanilla. They can be substituted for banana or mango in bread, jelly, wine, or eaten plain.” He also likes them in pudding and ice cream.
It’s also a perfect time of year for powwows. Osage Terry Filer of McMinnville, Ore., recently attended the Grand Ronde Powwow for the 25th year. Filer said this was the biggest she’s attended. The cedar arbor at Uyxat Powwow Grounds in Grand Ronde, Ore., held several drums. “The singing was powerful,” Filer said. One of her favorite events is the tiny tot competition. Filer, who attends with friends, said as soon as she “hears the drums and bells she’s home in the Osage.”
Children returned to school this week, posing for first day pictures, and my teacher friends posted first day of school photos as well. The Osage Nation Language Department’s classes will start the week of September 4th. The schedule and registration is on the website, including orthography, beginning, intermediate, and advanced classes online as well as in person for children and adults.
Osage language teachers have realigned. As a returning student, I’ll miss some of my teachers and classmates from last year. It’s a gift to have the teachers we do, standing on the shoulders of all our elders who worked for years in Fairfax, Pawhuska, Hominy, and Tulsa preserving and carrying the language forward. Each of the men and women who teaches for the Nation has strengths. It’s enjoyable to experience the different teaching styles and energy they bring, the class environments they create.
I’m going to miss the camaraderie that had built over the years in Master Teacher Mogri Lookout’s Tuesday Edmond class. I enjoyed listening to Lookout chat with students about ball games before class. The class offered a particular intimacy with an elder that was in addition to, but also an important part of the Osage language lessons he taught. I’m grateful for that time, and I look forward to seeing 𐓏𐒰𐒼𐓂͘𐓒𐒷 Lookout in class again.
Tracey Moore is no longer teaching intermediate classes online on Wednesdays but will continue teaching in local schools. She, too, created a warm environment. It was good to hear her pride in the successes of the high school students she taught and also to listen to them pray at varied events. It’s so right that Osage language is taught in public schools and community settings across the reservation in Fairfax, Pawhuska, Skiatook, at the Osage Casino Tulsa and at the Lottie Pratt Summer House in Hominy, as well as online across the nation.
I haven’t studied as much as I should have through the summer, but I continue to use Osage as it comes to me and to listen to old CDs. Some Osages use the language on social media and some of us text to each other in Osage. My husband trades me Norwegian words for Osage ones. The other day (out of the blue) he asked, “𐓀𐒰͘𐒼𐒰𐓆𐒰 𐓈𐓂𐒰 𐓇𐒼𐓂͘𐓇𐓈𐒰?” And he did make some coffee.
It’s been a busy and beautiful summer. The Cowlitz Powwow held east of us is coming up soon. I’m looking forward to class. I hope you’ll look over the Osage Language Department’s schedule and take a class, too. You’ll find a warm welcome.
