Right and Left in Osage Ceremonies 



By Francis La Flesche 



HE habitat of the Wazhdzhe Indians, better known as the 

 Osage tribe, was in the country now included in the states 

 of Missouri and Kansas. Like many of the tribes which 

 made their homes along the Missouri river, the Osage main- 

 tained themselves partly by hunting and partly by culti- 

 vating the soil. 



The purpose of this paper is to set forth some of the peculiar 

 thoughts of the ancestors of the Osage, when the ancient leaders were 

 organizing the people as a tribe. These thoughts are expressed in the 

 rituals, ceremonial forms, symbols, and myths that have been trans- 

 mitted orally through a long line of generations. 



Early in this formative period the Osage had become imbued with 

 the idea that all forms of life proceeded from the united fructifying 

 powers of two great forces, namely, the sky and the earth, and that 

 the continuity of all forms depended absolutely on the unity of these 

 two. This idea the ancient leaders figuratively expressed in the com- 

 plex organization of the tribe and in the rites that were formulated 

 as a means by which to perpetuate the tribal life. They divided the 

 groups of families composing the tribe into two great divisions, one 

 to represent the sky and to be known by the name Tsizhu, and the 

 other to represent the earth, and to be known by the name H6 n ga. 

 By the interlacing relations between these two great divisions the 

 leaders united the people into one ever-living body. 



As the inseparable unity of the sky and the earth made possible 

 the continuity of the life that proceeded from them, so must the two 

 great tribal divisions be inseparably united to make possible the con- 

 tinuity of the tribal life. This idea of the bringing together of the 

 two great symbolic divisions of the tribe to form one body was, in 

 its turn, likened to a living man. This symbol was further carried 

 out by the ceremonial positions of the two great divisions in the tribal 

 rites. The left side of this man, who faced the east, is the Tsizhu 

 division, representing the sky, and his right side is the H6 n ga, repre- 

 senting the earth with its land and water. 



In performing the ceremonies connected with the tribal rites, the 

 members of the two divisions sit facing each other in two parallel 

 lines extending east and west; this arrangement is always observed 



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