The Osage Nation Museum held a book signing for Osage tribal member Elise Paschen on April 17 to commemorate her newest release, “Blood Wolf Moon.”
Many Osages, including members of the Tallchief family, attended the book signing.
“Elise is letting you into a very personal space in this book,” said Russ Tallchief, Paschen’s cousin. “It is a sacred space. It is a space that demands reverence. When I finished the book, I sat for a minute and listened to the Choir of Angels singing Hallelujah. And it really was a powerful moment to finish that book.”
Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear was grateful Paschen included the ONM on her book tour.
“I want to thank you for coming back and seeing us again,” he said. “The first time I’d read any of your poems, it was in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’ You gave the name to the book, to the movie, to all that, and that just tells me a little bit of your power.”
Paschen herself was excited to be back home with her family. Several of her relatives inspired poems in her book, and she had the opportunity to share with them.
“I can’t imagine a better place to celebrate ‘Blood Wolf Moon,’” she said. “This book has been inspired so much by my relatives, by my friends, and I’m so happy that many of you are in the room tonight.”
Paschen said she worked with the Osage Language Department to incorporate the language and orthography into her poetry.
“I’ve been taking Osage language classes for about a year and a half,” she said. “But I’ve been working with the Osage dictionaries for many, many years. I’ve turned to our Osage dictionaries for inspiration.”
She shared some of the poems from “Blood Wolf Moon” with attendees. Some of the poems reflect stories her mother, famous prima ballerina Maria Tallchief, shared with her.
“Because of their last name, the sisters believed they owned the town,” Paschen read. “‘Tallchief’ spelled out on the marquee; the gem of Fairfax built by their father, that theater a shell, as long as I can recall, a shell emptied from inside without maker or muscle; ghosts of dressing rooms beneath the sweep of stage, the place where vaudevillians between the acts swapped out their costumes.”
During the introduction, Russ Tallchief said this was the most personal book Paschen has written, but also the most Osage.
“I think that when I was trying to delve deeply into my past, it wasn’t something that I had intended to do,” she said. “But I ended up just exploring aspects of my childhood regarding my mother, famous prima ballerina Maria Tallchief. And so I ended up sort of exploring territories that I hadn’t really meant to explore, but the book kind of just guided me in certain directions that I hadn’t expected I would go.”
Paschen hopes readers can take away several key points from her poetry.
“I hope that readers will learn more about the Osage culture and the Osage history,” she said. “I hope they’ll learn more about the Reign of Terror, which I also talk about in the book. I also, I want to reclaim our Osage language, and so in poems throughout the book, I’ve incorporated Osage language in terms of the phonetic spellings and the Osage orthography.”
The Osage language holds an important part in the stories and helped inspire Paschen.
“Osage dictionaries have always inspired my work,” she said. “And so in this book as well, I’ve been inspired by Carolyn Quintero … Francis La Flesche … as well as our online Osage dictionary.”
Osage author, poet and artist, Aimee Inglis attended the book signing and had a positive review of “Blood Wolf Moon.”
“I have read most of Elise’s work when I was getting my MFA in poetry because there are not many published Osage poets,” they said.
The vulnerability of Paschen being able to share her family history and cultural heritage really spoke to Inglis.
“I think Elise’s heart and what she really cares about and just things that are very close and sometimes painful on a personal level,” they said. “And then also on a family history level … I don’t remember her doing it all that much in her other work. To me, this was a lot more of her taking risks and utilizing Osage language in her poetry and exploring that and how she would do that, and a lot more things that might be difficult to write about in terms of her own heritage.”
Grayhorse writer’s workshop
During her Oklahoma visit in April, Paschen partnered with the National Public Housing Museum – also based in Chicago – to host a writing workshop with elder residents of the Osage Nation Senior Housing on April 16 in Fairfax.
That day, six elders participated in the writing workshop at the Fairfax Elder Nutrition Building with Paschen and Dr. Lisa Yun Lee, NPHM executive director, facilitating the event. Paschen and Lee included Fairfax in several planned city stops for the writing workshop to visit residents of public housing communities, including ON Senior Housing, which was constructed thanks to federal housing and COVID-19 relief funding.
The attending participants were invited to bring an item of focus for the workshop to share in the group discussions and to provide a source of inspiration for the writing exercise. Paschen, Lee and Paschen’s cousin Russ Tallchief, who also has a performing arts and writing background, worked with the elders.
“The museum really believes in the power of place and memory,” Lee said, as she started the event with basic questions to the elders to start dialogue. Questions touched on memories, senses, food and daily routines.
Elders’ items included family heirlooms, jewelry, Osage dance clothing items, a blanket, a childhood book and an ornamental house decoration. Lee said she would work with the participants on possibly having one of their items be on display at the NPHM at a later date with a written description by the participants’ own words.
For more information on the National Public Housing Museum, visit its website at https://nphm.org/
