My trip home in October was everything good. The 𐓏𐓘𐓸𐓘𐓪𐓧𐓣͘ Pawhuska District
𐓣𐓧𐓪𐓩𐓯𐓤𐓘 Inlonshka was held in cool fall weather. It seemed extra festive, maybe because the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of our arrival in what would become the Osage Reservation was coming in another week, or maybe because every time we get together is special.
Osage are a talented people, evident throughout the Sesquicentennial events held on Saturday, Oct. 22. In addition to a social dance and a community meal, Welana Fields, Russ Tallchief, and Candice Byrd produced a magnificent puppet show, Sky E’ko and her Ni.Ka.She, for the Osage Nation Museum.
Puppets suggest small figures like marionettes to some folks, but these were larger-than-life, bison, wolf, and birds often staged by at least two people. Daniel Thornton supported the head of The Great Elk from a version of the Osage creation story. Despite the size of the head and the immense antlers, Thornton made the Great Elk expressive. Welana Fields said, “When I saw the size of the head I knew it had to be filled by a tall and strong Osage man. I immediately thought of Daniel, not only for his stature but for his love and knowledge of Osage history.”
Alex DeRoin, Dakota Pratt, Brooklyn Cheshewalla Lemon, Cynthia Moore, and Crystal Standingbear supported the elk’s body. Its eyes were painted so that it seemed alive. Elk bugling sounded as the animal threw itself down to make the waters recede and land appear. During the performance, Wah-Kon-Tah surrounded the play with a glorious sunset that echoed the creation story and blessed his Wah Zha Zhe people.
Welana cast me as Sky E’ko, narrating the story, which gave me a chance to see Dapoksa Ahnkodapi students shine as stars in all the roles. See videos on Facebook of the evening show on Welana Fields’ page or Saturday’s windblown performance on the Osage News’ Facebook page. Everyone was creative and caring, including Chris Lutter-Gardella, master puppet creator, as well as all the children. I loved the generosity of the young water spirit who told me she liked my Grandma performance.
During the commemoration, attendees made clay figures representing themselves. Anita Fields will fire the thirty-some figures she collected and sat them at a long community table. When I went to the table to make my person, Cherokee ceramicist and artist Bill Glass was finishing a sophisticated figure.
It was a day to meet Osages I admire like Norman Akers. I visited with my cousins Charles Murray and his wife Brenda, and second cousins Dawn Bennett and her family, and Sadie Murray and her son Oliver. We stood talking with relatives Clark Batson and James Crowe.
In the afternoon social dance, Archie Mason’s voice surrounded us, while Timmy Lookout chased plastic bottles that flew across the arena with the wind. A woman told me it was the first time she had danced, as she wrapped herself and her daughter in a shawl and stepped out.
As the children danced, I pictured them in fifty years. Attendees of the Nation’s Centennial Celebration in 1972 posed for a photograph on stage before an emblem “1872-2022 Osage Nation 𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟” on a golden sun. When the people gathered, we saw the treasure of the Osage Nation.
