--- title: The Power of Osage Storytelling description: Osage Nation’s Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear on how Osage storytelling connects us with our past and our present. canonical: https://time.com/6325824/osage-stories-geoffrey-standing-bear-essay/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-20T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:50.338Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Power of Osage Storytelling og:description: Osage Nation’s Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear on how Osage storytelling connects us with our past and our present. og:url: https://time.com/6325824/osage-stories-geoffrey-standing-bear-essay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0554aa69dbf0c7c1/698a4159d0753319cae6e7cb/osage-nation-commemoration-ceremony.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2048 og:image:height: 1152 og:image:alt: Members of the Osage Nation og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Power of Osage Storytelling twitter:description: Osage Nation’s Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear on how Osage storytelling connects us with our past and our present. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0554aa69dbf0c7c1/698a4159d0753319cae6e7cb/osage-nation-commemoration-ceremony.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # The Power of Osage Storytelling > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=acff2ca2-8f91-42e6-a8e9-200715493812&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Martin Scorsese | Profiles in TIME 2023 [Watch (HLS stream): Martin Scorsese | Profiles in TIME 2023](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3EuStm5E.m3u8) (10:04)  _Published 2023-10-12. Osage Nation’s Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear on how Osage storytelling connects us with our past and our present._ Oct 20, 2023 11:00 AM UTC  Members of the Osage Nation take part in a commemoration ceremony on the anniversary of the recognition of the Osage Nation which took place on 11 March 2006. Members of the Osage Nation take part in a commemoration ceremony on the anniversary of the recognition of the Osage Nation which took place on 11 March 2006. Pascal Maitre—Panos Pictures Panos/Redux by [Geoffrey Standing Bear](https://time.com/author/geoffrey-standing-bear/) ## Geoffrey Standing Bear Oct 20, 2023 11:00 AM UTC The Osage elders’ teachings about life and death were about both the seen and unseen. “We follow the drum,” they said. “This little drum helps make the big drum go,” they said. My generation knew the big drum as where we dressed in our finest traditional clothes and enjoyed the intimacy of our families. Across four-day long ceremonies, each of us carried into the day and night our own beliefs, as formed around the order of the dance. Our parents’ generation grew up during WWII and the Korea Conflict. They ventured out into the world to seek the American Dream of a fine house, two cars to park in the garage, a large yard, good jobs, good schools for their children, and the freedom to dream and build on those thoughts, which in turn became hopes. When able, they traveled back to the dances to the sound of the big drum, and often, one of their parents rode along. My grandma, for example, would sit quietly in the back seat with my brother and me as she looked out the car window teaching us to count in Osage. She would say the names of things we could see and touch. She left it to her brothers to teach us the ways of the sweat lodge and much about what we could not see. None of them spoke of the [“Osage Reign of Terror”](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-killers-of-the-flower-moon-180983086/)—a time before my parents were born—a time in the 1920s and 30s when Grandma and her brothers were young and just starting to build their own lives. But we must talk about our stories; for the Osage people are incredible storytellers. And in thinking about the release of the movie [_Killers of the Flower Moon_](https://time.com/collection/time100-leadership-series/6311403/martin-scorsese-killers-of-the-flower-moon-interview/), it’s clear how essential they are in helping us connect our past and our roots to our present. Not only do we rely on them—we are immersed in them. This knowledge of the Osage is passed down generation-by-generation. This is mine. **_Read More:_** [_What_ ](https://time.com/6325555/killers-of-the-flower-moon-osage-legacy-essay/)['Killers of The Flower Moon'](https://time.com/6325555/killers-of-the-flower-moon-osage-legacy-essay/)[ _Doesn’t Show About Osage Nation’s Legacy_](https://time.com/6325555/killers-of-the-flower-moon-osage-legacy-essay/) When the family station wagon pulled into the Osage Capital of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, my parents would drop Grandma and me off at the loan company where Grandma could pay on her loan with her “Payment” from her Osage headright, a share in the Osage mineral estate producing oil, gas, and other minerals. She would then borrow more money. We would sit in the waiting area with other Osage in this ritual we observed every three months. I knew what was coming as one of my great-aunts was invited up to the loan officer’s desk and I watched as she spoke in that distinct sound of the English language with that heavy accent which only comes from a full-blood Osage speaking a second language, that second language being English. She was born in the 1890s and, like most of the Osage of her time, went from living on the fringe of survival to fabulous wealth from their lands and minerals. Now, there we were—only 40 years later—waiting in line at the loan office. A few years later, I watched the drama of going to “the Agency,” where the Mahi-ta (Superintendent of the Osage Indian Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior) presided over the federal management of the Osage lands and minerals, and the Osage money. I had asked the elders why we called the Superintendent Mahi-ta, which in the Osage language translates as Long Knife. They said, “Because in our grandparents’ day, the Superintendent carried a sword.” Anyway, we needed a new lawnmower, and for an Osage to access any of their money, there had to be an order from the Superintendent, approved by the Agency lawyer and other staff. Her request for use of her own money was outside of the normal regular allocation of her quarterly allowance, disbursed every three months, but I was confident we would succeed! After all, she had plenty of money in her Agency account, and she never asked for any more than her quarterly payment except some Christmas money. She swore me to secrecy on that Christmas money as, by then, I was her driver, and being the oldest grandson, I had her trust. As the morning drew on, I became nervous about our chance of success. We had completed the interview with the Agency lawyer, the Solicitor. He was pleased to hear I was doing well at university. He was warm and cordial to Grandma. Outside his office, I could hear the Osage language spoken back and forth by other Osage who were there on similar missions. Then the moment came, and we were summoned back to the Superintendent’s office. The Mahi-ta pronounced a store downtown had a fine selection of lawnmowers, and from the description I gave for the size of our yard, he had selected the right one for us. “Just go to the store, and they will have it ready for you.” We were reassured and went to the store. I loaded the lawnmower into the trunk of the large Buick I was driving (“poor man’s Cadillac,” Grandma called it). Halfway back to the house in Tulsa, I just could not shake off the facts of this process we experienced that morning and for all my memories of similar events. We never did learn of the price of that lawnmower. Yet, Grandma was happy. Mahi-ta was happy. The Agency Solicitor was happy, the merchant was happy. Why was I unhappy with what had happened? Now, take that experience at “the Agency” and multiply it by thousands or tens of thousands among the Osage people. In 1990, I was elected Assistant Principal Chief of the Osage. We raised our right hands as the Mahi-ta delivered the Oath of Office. Today, our Osage Supreme Court Chief Justice delivers the Oath of Office. The elders once told us the way we dance, the way we sing, the way we speak to one another all have the element of respect. For our big drum, the men dance with the otter as part of what we wear. The elders said we try to be quick in life like the otter. We dance with bells on our legs making a sound like rain with the thunder and lightning of the big drum. The little drum is another story. ## Transcript I guess they're two trains running in a way the story that you want to tell them how you want to tell it. Sometimes my father would say, we talked about a film and then with his brother is here and they can't know, they can't show that. I can't do that. What can we tell the stories in it supposed to tell? I was really attracted to kill us the flower Moon initially by the combination of the words, flower Moon and Killers impression I got from the juxtaposition of those words, I was drawn to the story in the landscape but primarily the story because of the nature of the scam. I was interested in that manipulation of the people, particularly the intimacy of ordinarily villains, hate their victims, Etc. They love them but they killed them. And that's interesting that also reflects who we are as a western culture itself, European culture, what are the values that we brought to this new land and the story seems to hit right at the heart of that money flows freely here. Now I do love that money sir. I try to make a list over the years of films that I I personally feel with my favorites. That means then you find out that the favorite has different levels as opposed to go and best list, you know. Broke all the rules. And when they say, you can't many different levels to the film, as far as I know, the guys did Braveheart, studied it. I know we studied a lot different from Alexander, nevsky film, The thing about it is the sense of paranoia, the low ceilings, claustrophobia the location of the year. Do people get shows up in the apartment was also in the crowd King beater? And of course, the scene with the painter, with the slacks up, in the Garret with the children's eyes looking through as they raised the pipe. That's the trial. Got the idea, you know, there are things like that. When you talk about feelings and influence their memories staying in your head, Question. I'm partial to Kubrick's 2001 released several times and it's a Transcendent film. There's no doubt about that. About the picture was the under plain. What are you talkin about? Bishop thermostat 1968. I think it was just the focus is you and apparently the critics didn't even go for that. If you seen 2001 somebody time, watch Barry, Lyndon Elegance, the framing. And as easy as out for me detail, it becomes an eighteenth-century painting. What do you do more interesting to me is the GHIN, the Rhythm and pasting of the 18th century, Sumptuous Lush, gorgeous. And halting a classic have an estimable value. Committee was very important to me because I saw on television with my grandparents and I realize making the same language that my grandparents feet, which I don't really understand something. And the suffering that was shown was being shown on screen was very real and look like to be any of us not interested in watching the war Trilogy wrestling. I would suggest the beauty and joy of watching Steve bright, a little flowers of Saint Francis. Sweet. Funny disturbing in a good way because Francis as if he's capable of capable of it. Grandma's deliver. The first Technicolor film shot in India to another culture, painting on the ground. And it's a moving picture. I just live with that one. Get soup. If you're interested in classic japanese Cinema, and Japanese culture of certain. This is the most poetic Do you want something from Japan? Just take a look at high and low wide screen black and white characters. As you're watching the picture and not bright screen black and white with the drug addict. This sort of thing. You really feel you're going into a kind of a Bosch painting in a way. Is the red shoes, pal, pressburger films, and of course, Visconti film The Leopard. Which is a great favorite of mine and look at it classical images in. It actually, is to me now where my grandmother was born when they get out of the coach and a couple of dust the sense of time, passing like in Barry, Lyndon whole lives by cultures, in this case, class class has to leave for another class to become them. She says, everything has to change in order to remain the same. Polish film by andrzej wajda called ashes and diamonds. There's this wonderful actor, tobolski who wears a special sunglasses because he plays the character in the Warsaw Ghetto is so long that you can't stand the light and he's a warrior fighter. At the end of the war in the last 24 hours, really. He is caught in this web But ultimately undoes him. But at the same time for the first time in his life, he meets this young woman and has one of the most powerful endings visual surprises, just the way. Billy is no more. And you're not going to get out of it, but at the same time, they don't realize there's a life out there but they aren't meant to live it. 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