Traditions of the Osage: Stories

by Garrick Alan Bailey (Editor), Francis la Flesche (Translator)

The forty-nine traditional Osage narratives presented here, collected in Oklahoma between 1910 and 1923 for the Bureau of American Ethnology, have never before been assembled in one book. What makes these stories especially important is that they were collected in their original language, Osage, by a scholar who was a native speaker of a mutually intelligible language, Omaha, and who was also highly educated and articulate in English. As contextualized in Garrick Bailey's introduction, these stories offer insights into Osage culture and society that are not available elsewhere. Bailey divides the stories into sacred teachings, folk stories, and animal stories. To the Osage, the sacred included not only religious but also what we would consider social and political institutions. Unlike the sacred teachings, which were known only to priests, folk tales were public property. Sacred teachings were always educational, whereas folk stories served a variety of purposes. Some were entertaining, some humorous, some frightening, but all were also designed to instill the proper social norms and values of the Osage. The animal stories, intended for children, also illustrate Osage values, as well as conveying information about the animals themselves.

192 pages, Hardcover

Published May 15, 2010

Reviews

[Tony Manning · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this book. I was hoping to find a lot of stories about the Osage history and be able to reference it with other histories, but I found though it had a few stories they were very redundant and were very terse in the information they offered. It was a bit difficult to read because it kept providing the Osage terms (which are very difficult to read and pronounce). Since this is a scholarly work I expected this, but since it offered very little in the actual information I felt the least Bailey could've done was to make the book more enjoyable for the reader. I felt it failed both as a scholarly work and as something to entertain. It does provide some information and there are some stories I found enjoyable, but they were very sparse.
I did find some correlations between other histories and the Osage oral traditions, but it was hardly anything. I did like the story of The Unfaithful Wife. It detailed the elaborate plans the wife went to be with her lover and then how she was exposed and the couple punished. The book shows a stark reality, often harsh where family seems to come second to the tribe. The parables were a bit simple and while somewhat entertaining didn't offer much in the way of morals. I guess that means they were a simple society and had simple needs and desires.
I wouldn't recommend reading this book. I found it a chore and very dull for the most part. I think it does hold some data that could be useful at times though only as a reference material... not as reading entertainment. Each to his own though. A scholarly book that fails to enlighten while also giving the reader no delight (though to be fair, some information was gleaned from it, but it was a task to do so. Not a good experience).