International Indian Council (Held at Tahlequah, Indian Territory, 1843), detail

In 1910 Omaha anthropologist Francis La Flesche recorded Saucy Calf singing the songs and reciting the ritual prayers used in his clan’s portion of the sacred songs of the Wa-xo’-be rite of the Osages (figs. 2–3). Saucy Calfs version of the four-day-long rite consisted of ninety songs, six long ritual prayers, and seven symbolic ritual acts called we’-ga-xe. Like all Osage clan priests, Saucy Calf used a tally stick to assist as a memory aid, notched in various places along both of its flat …