(1) When the Hotcâgara lived on Turkey River (Seseke Nicnâk), some went up the river to hunt and were living there. There while the men went out from the village away on a hunt, one day a warparty fell upon them. They were Osages (Waras). All the old people that were there, and all the women, they also killed. Then they went away. When the hunters eventually returned home, these were all dead. So these men did it. They painted the faces of all the dead, as many as there were, and then they laid them away.

Then they took up their trail. They kept on. Then eventually, there they were going on ahead of them. There a young man was with them (the Hotcâgara). He ran ahead. The men were fleet of foot. But as they went, he overtook them. As they went, he disappeared into the distance. When they got there, the man was fighting them. He did a great deal. As they went along, this one would catch up to them and kill one of them. A mighty and great man he was, not to be equaled. When they tried to run away from him, he would catch up to them and circumcise their heads. He never considered them to be men. After he had killed many of them, they decided that he should stop, but he kept right on alone. So they told him to stop, but he got mighty angry. He said to them, "Just how can you say that? They killed our relatives, so you said we must kill all of them. How is it then that you are relenting?" he said. "But I will not stop," he said and again he rushed for them, but they pleaded with him once more. So there the young man wept and killed himself.

This young man was a great man, but thus he did. (2) He did this in his first battle, and there he acted this way. This young man was a great loss of a man, and "Goes Where It is Cold" (Sinîhogiwega) was his name. An old man, "Big Thunder" (Wakâdjaxedega) he is called, he had a son who was called Tcap'ósgaga, they say that he was the father of Goes Where It is Cold. So Big Thunder himself had blessed Tcap'ósgaga. Therefore, he was holy (wákâdjâk), it is said.

The one who led these people (the Osage) on the warpath, that leader was a brave man, but he did not do the ritual properly. Therefore, he was killed. When he was ready to come out, he had said, "They have killed one of my children, so that's why I'm going," he said. That was a thing that the old people forbid very much. The Osage brave had said, "I declared that I would put a Hotcâk head there with my child, so that's why I'm going," he said. So that is why it is said that he was killed, they say. They say that the Hotcâgara never did such things. They could be bad people, but sometimes they were afraid of at least one thing. And they liked to do war. It was forbidden to speak of the dead (wanâghi) when at war. It was that thing that this Osage, a brave, did -- he might as well have surrendered himself. That is why he died a bad death. When one of his children had died, it was not better to have said it that way. Truly, the War Controller thought thus, so thus he fared, and so it seems, so should he have fared. So the man on the warpath, the warleader, takes cognizance of all these things and how he plans is done the way it is usually done. This is what the old people say. If one has good thinking qualities, one always fares well. Thus the Indians said to those who came to hokíkû. This is about all that I know of this worak. [1]

Commentary. "painted the faces" -- the dead had their faces painted in the particular pattern of their clan so, it is said, that they might be recognized in the other world.

"Circumcise their heads (nasura-wamadjes'aje)" -- the word madje is used in the Gospel of Luke to mean "circumcise", so it is unclear whether this describes scalping (as the translation has it), or beheading, which is the established practice from antiquity.

"Tcap'ósgaga" -- this name, which means "White Breast" is never translated in the text, perhaps because he is so well known under his Hotcâk name.

"such things" -- at first glance this might seem to suggest that the Hotcâgara never went to war for the sake of revenge, but that is contradicted by this very story. What is being referred to here is the idea of mentioning the dead while at war. The Osage brave made the mistake of mentioning out loud his lost child in connection with his warpath, which was taboo.

"they were afraid of at least one thing" -- that is, violating a religious taboo, particularly in the context of a warpath.

"wanâghi" -- this word also means "ghosts".

"he died a bad death" -- that he violated a spiritually sanction taboo is why he died; but the death was bad because, as a warleader, he had lost many men on the warpath, and therefore died in disgrace.

"War Controller ( Wonâghire Hirukanara)" -- the "one in charge of wars" is one of the spirits who decide the outcome of such battles. When the Osage warleader mentioned the wanâghi, "ghosts", he violated a taboo which offended the War Controller. (See the Glossary entry.) Thus, whatever blessings he might have received from the spirits were nullified by this action, and they forsook his protection. That is why the wise warleader avoids such taboos, and is thereby able to fulfill all the promises that he makes about the outcome of his warpath.

"hokíkû" -- defined by Miner as, "to attempt to better oneself by communicating (said of groups)."

Links: Ghosts.

Stories: mentioning the Osage: Big Thunder Teaches Tcap'ósgaga the Warpath; mentioning Big Thunder (Wakâdjaxedega ): Big Thunder Teaches Tcap'ósgaga the Warpath; mentioning Tcap'ósgaga: The Fox-Hotcâk War, Big Thunder Teaches Tcap'ósgaga the Warpath; about great Hotcâk warriors and warleaders: How Little Priest went out as a Soldier, The Masaxe War (Hogimasâga), Wazûka, Great Walker's Warpath (Great Walker), Great Walker's Medicine (Great Walker, Smoke Walker, Dog Head, Small Snake), Cûgepaga (Dog Head), The Shawnee Prophet -- What He Told the Hotcâgara (Smoke Walker, Dog Head, Small Snake), Big Thunder Teaches Tcap'ósgaga the Warpath (Big Thunder, Tcap'ósgaga), The Fox-Hotcâk War (Tcap'ósgaga), White Thunder's Warpath, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, Fighting Retreat, Mitchell Red Cloud, jr. Wins the Medal of Honor (Mitchell Red Cloud, jr.)..

Themes: descriptions of human warfare: The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara I, Annihilation of the Hotcâgara II, The First Fox and Sauk War, Great Walker's Medicine, How Little Priest went out as a Soldier, Wazûka, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Four Slumbers Origin Myth, Big Thunder Teaches Tcap'ósgaga the Warpath, The Fox-Hotcâk War, Great Walker's Warpath, The Lame Friend, White Thunder's Warpath, A Man's Revenge, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion; a Hotcâk warrior singlehandedly fights an overwhelming enemy force, taking at least one enemy head (or scalp): How Little Priest went out as a Soldier (Arapahoe), Big Thunder Teaches Tcaposgaga the Warpath (Osage), Fighting Retreat; failure to observe ritual practice or taboo has fatal consequences: The Masaxe War; (attempted) suicide: Lake Winnebago Origin Myth.

Notes:

[1] John Hazen, War Exploit, in Paul Radin, [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks, #66 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, < 1909) Story 5, pp. 1-2.