Name/Title
Letter from Francis LaFlesche to Harry GeorgeEntry/Object ID
Q1430.635.7DDescription
Vol II pg. 7D
Letter from Francis LaFlesche to Harry George providing information on George's Osage and Winnebago bundles
214 First Street S.E.
Washington, D.C.
January 14, 1916
Mr. Harry L. George.
St. Joseph, Mo.
Dear Sir:
Day before yesterday I received your letter dated January 10/ 16, and yesterday the two “bundles” and “life sticks”. I am very glad to report that, upon a careful examination, your Osage “bundle” proves to be one of the most interesting of those that I have seen. I shall describe it in the forthcoming book on the Osage. The strap tied around the middle on the outside seems to have lost one of its most important attachments, the eagle’s leg, but it still retains two pieces of scalps. The outer bag is made of buffalo hair and is woven about the same as the others. The photograph of it was printed so light that it quite deceived me. I am sorry that the deerskin bag next to the outer one has met with some abuse, it had been cut by some person for some reason and only one side of it remains. The rope should have been wound around the woven rush case in the middle but to hold the remains of the deerskin bag to the case it was wound once around the middle and twice around the length of the case. This rope is made of nettle weed fibre, and juding from this fact, together with the bunch of pine fronds, will help to determine the place of the “bundle” in the tribe, but if you secure the nameof the Indian from whom the entire outfit was purchased that would be the best evidence. The woven rush case is an unfinished one, the ends having been left unfastened. The designs on the body of the case are about the same as those I have examined, as are also those on that part that would have been the folding flap. This flap has four narrow black [bottom of page possibly cut off] of days a man is obliged to fast when he takes the rite of fasting. The bird-hawk, which is the holy of holies, with its two pouches, the buffalo heart sack and the fawn-skin, is most interesting. While there is no doubt that the pipe has been used in the ceremonials, and belongs to the “bundle” it has no peculiar interest. I mean, by this, that it does not belong to a certan type of pipes found in some of the Osage “bundles” which has a peculiar interest of its own. The skin of a little bird wrapped up in a piece of calico also interests me very much, knowing as I do its full meaning. Usually the skins of little birds used in a ceremony are thrown away afterward and are not preserved but it may be that this skin was kept in the “bundle” to await the ceremony to be performed. This ceremony of the bird is for a boy and is called, “Wa-zhin-ga-o,” and the little bird forms the central figure of the degree, for the ceremony is a boy’s degree in the tribal rites.
I congratulate you for coming into possession of so interesting a “bundle”. I took it to our photographer this morning to have the hawk and its pouches photographed. The woven rush case will also be photographed. As soon as this is done I will return the “bundle” as I do not care to have the responsibility of keeping it any longer than I can help
Later I will examine the Winnebago “bundle” b8ut I fear that I cannot tell you as much about it as I can about the Osage “bundle.” It undoubtedly is just as interesting but its lack of a story is against its value, making it stand as merely a curio. After examination i will return the “bundle” promptly.
Some Osages are here and I may obtain from them some information concerning the Osage “bundle.” The only thing that is doubtful in my mind about this “bundle” is the battle ax. There is no doubt that it is of Indian make, but to me there is a question as to whether it belongs to the “bundle” or not, since the war-clubs that have been found attached to Osage war “bundles” are different in shape and are specially mentioned in the rituals as to their shape. Leaving this out, your “bundle, in my judgment, is valuable, ethnologically. But send me the name of the Indian from whom it was purchased and I will tell you to what clan it belonged.
The examination of he articles that make up your “bundle” has been of much assistance to me in the study of the great Osage war rites.
Very truly yours,
Francis LaFlescheSubject
LaFlesche, Francis
Smithsonian Institution
Bureau of American Ethnology
Washington, D.C.
Bundle -- Osage
Bundle -- Winnebago
Osage
WinnebagoSubject Person/Organization
Harry L. George Collection
