Wak’on
Wak’on is an Osage word for woman.
On February 3rd, 2018 we held our first dance to celebrate Osage females. The love and support that our community had for the dance was exciting. Our next dance will be on Saturday, February 23rd, 2019. We will host a meet and greet on Friday, February 22, 2019. We hope you will join us. Photo by Shannon Duty.
Wak’on
Wak’on Osage
We celebrate osage women
Owatsi
Owatsi is an Osage word meaning “dance for”. We are planning an Owatsi to celebrate and honor Wak'on Wah-Sha-She. Our tradition of honoring Osage females continues to this day. We want to honor all Osage grandmothers, mothers, aunties, sisters, daughters, and nieces. We know our women and girls represent artists, singers, warriors, cooks, healers, policy-makers, musicians, athletes, preservationists, scientists, historians, lawyers, and doctors. Each of us plays a role in our community.
Photo by Shannon Duty
Welana Queton, Anita Fields, Audrey Luttrell
Osage marbles with Osage leaders Rosemary Woods and Kathryn redcorn
Photo by Shannon Duty
Sisters Ruth Shaw and Margaret Sisk
Photo by Shannon Duty
Photo by Shannon Duty
Our people
Wahzhazhe
When the French first made contact with our people, they wrote down a phonetic representation of what we call ourselves: Wahzhazhe. In French, this is spelled O-sa-ge. So when English speakers saw this, the pronunciation shifted.
We hope this wak'on owatsi for all Wahzhazhe brings peace and joy.
photo by Addie Roanhorse
drum by rock pipestem
Our mothers, grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers taught us how to treat a drum. Rock learned those lessons and brings great reverence and respect while crafting his drums. Rock brings his passion to this owatsi and hopes to create a beautiful event to honor his sister, daughter, aunts, and tribe.
logo by Addie roanhorse
Wahzhazhe artist Addie Roanhorse designed our logo. When we approached Addie about helping with this project, she said she had been thinking about a flower opening and had been waiting for the right project to come along. It has the simplicity and clean lines reminiscent of some of our old tattoo designs. Addie's design draws from the past, but looks to the future.
photo by Jen Tiger
wah nom bre
Wah nom bre means come and eat in Wahzhazhe. Our fire keeper Robert Warrior spent many years with Buddy RedCorn learning how to keep a fire. He will serve as our head cook to help coordinate our meals.
Waa-thon
Waa-thon is an Osage word for song. We will begin with a set of round dance songs. This will be followed by war dance songs. We will also feature a song we had made in 2018 by Rock Pipestem entitled “Wak’on Waa-thon”. In the upcoming year we plan on introducing three new songs: a grandmothers’ song, an orphans’ song, and a teachers’ song. We will continue to craft songs about our women and all of their roles in our community.