PHOTOS

Some Photographs I found on the internet about Otoe Tribe and Historical information.

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Rubideux Photo's A story retold
Fourth Universe Retold by Richard L. Dieterle -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There once was a man who was born among another people, and one day he "stumbled upon the warpath" (was killed in action). Since he died honorably in battle, he was able to enter the spirit village of Earthmaker. Every now and then, the man would ask Earthmaker if he could return to mortal life, but the Creator replied, "The moment is not yet right." However, after many entreaties over a period of time, Earthmaker finally asked the man where he wanted to be reborn. He replied that he wished to be among the Hotcâgara, for these are a holy people and their ancestors are as numberless as the stars. When the man descended to earth, he grew in the womb of a Waraxi (Potawatomi) woman, in a village of that people. where they called him "Dawn." As a boy he always visited the Winnebago village, and when he came of age, he married a Winnebago woman and lived in her village as a member of the tribe. They renamed him "Fourth Universe." Fourth Universe fasted rigorously during his vision quest, and received not only great blessings from the Nightspirits, but also knowledge of his past lives. They revealed that he had begun as a Nightspirit who lived in the sky village of the coming sun. The Nights also gave him the prophetic vision in which he saw himself as the founder of a new Winnebago lineage. And so it came to pass that Fourth Universe became the progenitor of the Black Bear Subclan. After a fulfilling life, Fourth Universe had a vision that Earthmaker would summon him back to his lodge. So near the summer solstice, he gathered together his kinsmen, and told them that he would soon die, and that they should not mourn for him, as he would leave behind something that would benefit them. That evening he died, and they took his body to a hill, and placed it sitting upright, facing the setting sun. When the Nightspirits had walked their course, the sun rose on high to a clear day, but suddenly the sky darkened, and a terrifying thunderstorm enwrapped the earth, so that all who suffered it feared for their lives. Over the thunder and wind could be heard the clear voice of Fourth Universe: "Fear not, I but leave this earth." As the storm died down, the sun reemerged, and where the body of Fourth Universe had been, they found a tall, white flower. In this flower resides the powerful medicine of the Bear Clan, the magical force by which they master war, and convert fear itself into their ally. [1] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commentary. As a reincarnated Nightspirit, Fourth Universe had the power to create plants that possessed strong medicine. This suggests that he originated as one of the Happy Nights, since it is among them that this unusual power resides. [2] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commentary. The Fox have a story about the origin of the Sauk nation that is parallel and at the same time inverse in some respects. "The People of the Red Earth [the Fox] dwelt a long time by the sea. Old men used to congregate at the shore, where they could sit and look out over the sea. On one of these occasions they beheld an object coming from afar, and making straight for the shore where they were. They watched, and saw that it was a huge fish. For a while its head reared above the water; and when it ducked beneath, up came the tail a-switching. Thus it came, first the head out of the water, and then the tail. When the fish drew nigh, the people saw that its head was like the head of a man, and they were astonished. They watched it come to the shore, and when it arrived in water too shallow for swimming, it rose; and every part that lifted out of water became the same as a man. The tail was the last to change; it became legs and feet after leaving the water behind. Behind the strange being came a great school of other fishes, and the same thing happened to them. They changed from fishes into people. They went up from the water and followed their leader. He was bigger and taller than all the rest. He was their chief. He led them off to a place close by the town. Everything they saw they copied. Everything they saw the Foxes do, they went and did the same. The Foxes asked them who they were, why they left the sea, what manner of life they had while there. But the new folk were unable to tell. All they knew was, that they had lived in the sea, that one day they followed their chief inshore, and became transformed into people when they quit the water. Nothing more could they tell. Thereupon, because they knew nought of themselves while in the sea, the Foxes named them Osagiwagi, which is 'people who come out into the open.' They gave the name as a symbol to show that they came out of one manner of life and entered into another which they knew nothing of before. It was a sign that they came out to become a race of people." [3] The friendship people of the Sauk are the Fox, and the Sauk come not as ravens flying over water, but as fish emerging from it.
Please feel free to use and download these pictures.