Once a warparty attacked an old village and brutally massacred all its inhabitants. They spared but one of the villagers, a small boy. When the warparty returned to their own country, they gave the boy away, but that master gave him away in turn, and it was not until he was received by his fourth master that he found a home. It came to pass that another warparty returned with a boy, the sole survivor of his village. They gave him to the same man who raised the first boy. The two boys became great friends and learned from their adoptive father all his skills in hunting. When they reached maturity, their father told them that they might now hunt on their own. Every time they went out, they brought back a large animal. Their reputation had become great, and it was decided that they should be invited to a feast in their honor. The host rose and said, "Let the two boys have the choicest pieces of meat." At this, a chief suddenly stood up and walked out of the proceedings. This made the boys angry. At another feast in their honor, a second chief did the same. This happened a third and a fourth time, and by now the boys were furious. One day the two boys were out hunting, and they spotted the first chief who had insulted them, so they came upon him and killed him, taking his head. Even though his wife was nearby, no one ever found out who had killed him. After a time the two boys dealt in like manner with the remaining three chiefs who had insulted them, and still no one knew that they had done the deed. One day a chief came up to the boys in camp and told them, "You two boys are nothing but slaves."

At this the boys resolved to leave the tribe, and they journeyed across the Missouri. Then they came upon a village. The first boy told his friend that he would go into the village first and come back later to get his friend. So the first boy was gone the whole night and returned the next morning. At dawn, the two of them then set out for the village. When they got there, they entered a lodge, and pulled a man out. The man gave an alarm, and soon the whole village surrounded the two boys. The boys struck their chests with their hands over and over, trying to indicate that they were of this people. The villagers fetched an old man, who asked the boys, "Of what people are you?" They replied, "We are of this people," and they told the story of how each had been taken captive by marauders when they were small children. The people believed them, but at first did not know what to do with them. At last it was decided that the two young men should be admitted back into the tribe, so they were given wives and two very fine lodges were built for them to live in. [1]

Commentary. This story is a worak meant to be a history of events that took place in the recent past. However, it has interesting mythological elements, and bears some resemblance to stories about two friends who are killed on the warpath and who are reborn after a sojourn in the spirit world. Their journey is to the west, the direction in which departed souls travel until they establish themselves in the Otherworld.

The Hotcâgara admitted aliens into the Thunderbird Clan.

Comparative Material: There are probably numerous such stories among the Indian nations. An Osage story relates how a boy out hunting was taken west by a warparty and tied to a tree during a two day thunderstorm. He freed himself and fled to the chief's tent, where he was granted asylum and adopted into the subordinate chief's family. In time he was allowed to go see his parents in his old village, where he was at first mistaken for a ghost. Eventually, he got together a warparty and raided his adopted village where took a special scalp waxobe (a scalp made of many other scalps and held as a prize possession by a warrior). He left horses for his adopted father, and returned with his trophy. This he did in revenge for his ill treatment. Such tales are cautionary: if someone taken in war is adopted into the tribe, he should not have been mistreated prior to his induction. An adoptee should be treated as a genuine member of the tribe, otherwise he could turn on the people who wronged him. [2]

Links: ...

Stories: about two brothers: The Two Children, The Twin Sisters, The Twins Cycle, The Two Brothers, The Two Boys, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Children of the Sun, The Lost Blanket, The Man with Two Heads, Bluehorn's Nephews, Snowshoe Strings, The Old Man and the Giants, The Brown Squirrel.

Other stories in the Longtail/Dorsey set: I. Watequka and His Brothers; III. The Man who Visited the Upper and Lower Worlds; IV. The Fatal House; V. The Two Brothers; VI. Iron Staff and His Companions; VII. Rich Man, Boy, and Horse; VIII. The Man with Two Heads.

Themes: someone is abducted and led off into captivity: A Man's Revenge, Bluehorn's Nephews, Wears White Feathers on His Head, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers, Bird Clan Origin Myth, The Man Whose Wife was Captured, Bladder and His Brothers, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, Bluehorn Rescues His Sister, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, The Green Man, Brave Man, The Chief of the Herok'a, Cûgepaga, Hare Gets Swallowed, The Raccoon Coat, Wodjidjé, Wolves and Humans, The Woman Who Became an Ant, Thunderbird and White Horse, The Boy who Flew, Testing the Slave; a prisoner escapes by killing (some of) his captor(s): Wears White Feathers on His Head, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers, Hare Acquires His Arrows, Thunderbird and White Horse, The Boy who Flew, Hare Gets Swallowed, The Raccoon Coat, Wodjidjé; a man is adopted into a family that lives in a distant village: Sun and the Big Eater, The Big Eater, Grandfather's Two Families.

Notes:

[1] Philip Longtail, "The Captive Boys," translated by J. O. Dorsey (National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, 1893) 4800 Dorsey Papers: Winnebago 3.3.2, Story II.

[2] Francis LaFlesche, A Dictionary of the Osage Language, Smithsoninan Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, bulletin 109 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1932) 404-406.