Song Of The Osage Woman

In celebration of American Indian History Month,

this song of an Osage Indian woman is sung in honor

of the soil as it is prepared for the sacred act of

planting corn in the seven blessed hills.

Corn was a very important crop grown

by many of the Indian tribes of the western plains.

Daughter of the Osage and Sioux

David Yorke

This song honors the growing of the corn,

and the later bearing of fruit, and reminds 

the singer and her listeners the reaping

of joy which the harvest will bring.

The People of the Middle Waters, the Osage,

once dominated parts of what are today the states

of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

The word, "Osage" comes from French

and roughly translates, as "warlike"

a befitting name for these fierce, proud,

buffalo-hunters, who once roamed freely

 across the vast prairies of mid-western America.

Footprints I make! Smoke arises from burning of the old stalks.

Footprints I make! The soil lies mellowed.

Footprints I make! The hills stand in rows.

Footprints I make! Lo, the little hills have turned gray.

Footprints I make! Lo, the hills are in the light of day.

Footprints I make! I come to the sacred act.

Footprints I make! Give me one grain, two, three, four.

Footprints I make! Give me five, six, the final number seven.

Footprints I make! Lo, the tender stalks breaks the soil.

Footprints I make! Lo, the stalk stands amidst the day.

Footprints I make! Lo, the blades spread in the winds.

Footprints I make! Lo, the stalks stand firm and upright.

Footprints I make! Lo, the blades sway in the winds.

Footprints I make! Lo, the stalk stands jointed.

Footprints I make! Lo, the plant has blossomed.

Footprints I make! Lo, the blades sigh in the wind.

Footprints I make! Lo, the ears branch from the stalk.

Footprints I make! Lo, I pluck the ears.

Footprints I make! Lo, there is joy in my house.

Footprints I make! Lo, the day of fulfillment.

Osage Indian Song

Cheyenne Harvest

Karen Noles

"We give praise and thanks to You, O God,

we praise and give thanks; Your wondrous works

declare that Your Name is near and they who

invoke Your name rehearse Your wonders."

Psalm 75:1

"Song of the Osage Woman"
Adapted by Myra Cohn Livingston for
the book, "Thanksgiving Poems"
Selected poems by Myra Cohn Livingston
(1985)
"Song of the Osage Woman"
from the 45th annual report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology 
to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute
(1927-28)
"The Osage Tribe: Rite of the Wa-xo-be"
by Francis La Flesche
Smithsonian Institution
(1930)