ST. LOUIS – At the base of the city’s last remaining mound, something very special was taking place on Sunday.
Sugar Loaf Mound, owned by the Osage Nation, was the site for the closing performance of Counterpublic 2023. Actors from The Wahzhazhe Puppet Theatre performed “Sky E.Ko Tells Stories of Way Back,” an adaptation of the Puma Clan’s version of the Osage people’s creation story as translated by the late Charles Wah-Hre-She.
Prior to the performance, a water acknowledgment was given to the crowd. Osage artist Anita Fields, who had a collaborative onsite installation called “WayBack” with her son Nokosee Fields, was unable to make the performance. Instead, she gave a two-page typed speech for her daughter Welana Queton to read. Queton is the founder of The Wahzhazhe Puppet Theatre.
In the acknowledgment, Fields shared that she had a dream of her and Nokosee at the mound site over a year ago, cooking food over a fire at its base like Osages do, and a table with a white tablecloth, white cups and a white carafe with an hourglass design on them. She explained the image of the hourglass and what it means to the Osage, and what water means to the people. At the table was a diverse group of people, who didn’t know each other, but they knew they were gathered there to partake in fellowship.
Her dream was acted out for the crowd as Queton spoke. Fields’ views on the importance of culture, the Osage worldview, and the rematriation of the mound site to the Osage Nation moved the crowd. When Queton finished, volunteers distributed little cups of water.
Fields and Nokosee’s outdoor installation included over 30 wooden platforms, each painted with bright, colorful Osage designs. The platforms were placed at the base of the mound, under a billboard that read, “WHEN YOU LISTEN THE LAND SPEAKS.” According to the artists’ bios on counterpublic.org, the exhibition encourages visitors to gather in physical relation to each other, to Sugar Loaf Mound, and to Osage ancestors, history, and legacy.
“When the Osage Nation purchased part of Sugar Loaf Mound in 2007, the sacred site was reabsorbed into the Nation through the auspices of property, extending Osage territory from the site of their displacement in Oklahoma back to their ancestral homeland. Atop this site, forty platforms are installed, modeled after those found at Osage events in Oklahoma. Each platform is embellished with ribbons that reference Osage cosmologies of balance between sky, water, and earth. Nokosee Fields’s composition for wind instruments invites further consideration of the earth from which the mound was constructed, the sky that unfolds above the platforms, the sound of the Mississippi River on the banks below the quarry and the wind that flows through the surrounding trees that transform first into breath. After the exhibition, the platforms will travel from St. Louis to Tulsa where they will be distributed to Osage community members completing the link between the current home of the Osage Nation and its ancestral homelands.”
Counterpublic 2023 is a civic exhibition that weaves contemporary art into the life of the city for three months every three years in order to reimagine civic infrastructures toward generational change, according to counterpublic.org.
Wahzhazhe Puppet Theatre thrills the crowd
With larger-than-life puppets and artistic direction from Queton, narration by playwright Candice Byrd-Boney, and stage direction from Russell Tallchief, the play began, and the actors began to tell the story of how the earth was formed and how the Children of the Middle Waters came to exist.
The crowd gave ooh’s and aahs throughout the performance as a giant elk bugled to the four directions to create the land, a giant wolf scouted the future home of the Osage and some in the crowd gasped at the beauty of a giant waterbird when it spread its wings with the help of six people, painted by renowned Osage/Creek artist Yatika Fields, also Anita’s son.
At the end of the performance, the crowd gave a rapturous applause with some rising to their feet for a standing ovation. Osages from near and far also traveled to attend the performance. Lou Anna Red Corn traveled from Kentucky and stopped in on her way to Pawhuska, Okla., the Osage Nation’s capital city. Ed Smith, a St. Louis local, attended as well as others.
St. Louis citizen and history professor at Washington University, Peter Kastor, said he thought the program was great. As somebody who teaches students about the history of mounds, he really liked the way the program explained the history of the mounds in the past, and also what their meaning is to the Osage people in the present.
“I thought the play was wonderful. I thought it was wonderful in several ways,” he said. “The historian part of me loved the way it told the story about the past in the way that was clear and moving and informative and interesting, and also, just as a work of outdoor theater production I just thought it was wonderful. I thought the way the whole play was staged was really terrific.”
This is the first touring performance for the play, which was first conceptualized for the Nation’s 2022 Sesquicentennial Celebration, which was held in honor of the tribe’s 150 years on their current reservation in Oklahoma.
“Performing one version of the Osage creation story & other historical accounts at the last remaining mound in St. Louis where our ancestors once stood was a powerful & memorable experience for all Osage cast, crew, & members in attendance,” Queton wrote on her Facebook page.
“I’m proud of all my cast, crew, & St. Louis volunteers, they knocked it out of the park! I’m thankful for the supporting families, husbands, wives, & partners who helped make our trip possible. Thank you for all your hard work!! Also, a special thanks to our Osage Nation Museum for the support & care of our puppets & to our Wahzhazhe Cultural Center for the swag- volunteers & Counterpublic loved it.
“I especially want to thank New Red Order for advocating the rematriation of Sugar Loaf Mound back to Osage people. The installation, performance, & Osage presence was a rematriation in process, we were blessed!”
