Nation to preserve ceremonial roundhouse
Oral History of Osage People tells the story of a historic site
By ON Communications
* Osage Nation Communications interviewed Osage people who have family and cultural ties to the Hominy Village Roundhouse. Dates, times and names are subject to disclaimer due to oral history accounts.
HOMINY, Okla. (August 6, 2015) — It is the first day of the annual Osage Hominy Ilonska (Ee-lon-shka) Dances and it’s hot, Oklahoma month of June hot, with the promise of some rain in the dark clouds edging the skies. Alice Buffalohead, 39, walks through double doors into slightly cooler temperatures in the shade of an old round building known as an “Osage Roundhouse”. Outside in the humidity, Osage people who have travelled short and long distances set-up camps, stir large pots over campfires, visit with old friends and new friends, and prepare for dancing.
The Hominy Indian Village, where the Hominy Osage Roundhouse is located, is tucked away in a small valley off the main road in the small town of Hominy Northwest of Tulsa. Like most small towns, if you blink you might miss the turn. But if you do make the turn it takes you to a secluded area with a large community building and an even larger dance arbor. The roundhouse is situated neatly between the larger structures. There are family homes surrounding the Osage dance grounds that include all three buildings.
“It’s been a long time since I stood in here,” Buffalohead says as her voice trails off till she finds a memory. Then smiling she recalls an ancient ceremony of the Osage, and says, “I remember when they passed the drum in here.” She remembers hand games, dinners, birthdays, hearing the Drum and dancing inside the roundhouse.
More than twenty years have passed since Buffalohead last stood under the tall wooden beams angling towards the sky. The Osage roundhouse is fast approaching 100 years old. The ceiling has a large opening where a bell was once mounted and provided ventilation for a time when wood burning stoves were used. Now it opens up like a skylight with a lid. Buffalohead only steps a few feet inside the building before being swept away with memories.
The Hominy Osage Round House has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979 and according to the National Register it was built in 1919. Today, it still stands relatively intact. The roof from the outside is sagging and the inside, though cooler than outside, has obvious signs of the disjointed stages of repair keeping it standing.
“There is an entire generation of Osage kids that have never been inside a roundhouse, much less, for any type of activity in the way that I was able to. I had the opportunity to be here for different events growing up as a child,” said Buffalohead who remembers dancing inside the roundhouse as a teen.
For many Osage people, especially Osages from the Hominy District, the circular building is a symbol of heritage, family, Osage culture and traditions. Despite centuries of oppression, disease, genocide and cultural loss, the Osage Nation is now a thriving sovereign Native Nation. The Hominy roundhouse was built nearly 100 years ago to strengthen the Osage people by helping to maintain Osage culture and community togetherness, and it did for a long time.
Complete restoration of the historic building is now being done by the Osage Nation so future generations of Osage people will dance on the same grounds in the same manner as the generations before them.
Leadership steps-up for preservation
In the week before the Hominy Ilonska, Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear ordered emergency repairs to the Round House when the roof looked to be on the verge of collapse. He then asked members of the Osage Nation Congress, like Buffalohead, for funding to restore the Round House.
“This is the last standing [Osage] roundhouse,” said Standing Bear. “Our intent is to completely restore it, as it was, to the way the people who remember it used it for our dances.”
Every year in June, the Osage Ilonska ceremonial dances are held and hundreds of Osage people and guests gather from all over the country to participate. The Ilonska, or “Playground of the eldest son,” has been part of Osage culture and history since the late 1800s. The Osage Ilonska Dances are divided into three districts typically during the month of June for four days at each district; Pawhuska, Hominy, and Grayhorse. Each district hosts four days of dancing, eating, and celebration. Each district maintains the same agenda and other similarities. They also celebrate their unique differences, like having a roundhouse.
On July 22, Chief Standing Bear’s efforts to save the structure were reinforced. Funding for an architectural study for proper rehabilitation of the roundhouse was approved unanimously by the Osage Congress during a Special Session the Chief had requested to address health, education and cultural matters of urgency. Preserving the roundhouse qualified as an urgent matter for Standing Bear.
“We’re fortunate to have the last remaining roundhouse still standing,” said Osage Nation Congressman John Maker, from Hominy. Maker was also invited by the Chief to look at what needs to be done to save the building. Osage Congressman Otto Hamilton and Congresswoman Angela Pratt were also invited by the Chief to visit the building in June. Assistant Principal Chief Raymond Red Corn also attended and fully supports preserving the building in the best manner possible.
Maker also talked about another roundhouse in Hominy that was built in the late 1800s. He said it was built before statehood, before the Osage 1906 Act, and before the three Osage districts were established. “[Osages] have been here a long time. We came down here in 1871. That’s when we first started building our roundhouses.”
Congressmen Maker and Hamilton have stepped into the leadership of the traditional Osage as the elder generation has passed the responsibility to the next generations. Congresswoman Pratt is a traditional cook who grew up in Hominy in a traditional Osage family. As a Committee Cook, Pratt works with other highly respected traditional cooks for the Osage meals for the Drum Keeper, his committee, and the hundreds of guests who enjoy the Osage meals. Congresswoman Buffalohead is also a Committee Cook for the Hominy District.
Grandma’s roundhouse
Janis Carpenter, an Osage citizen, works for the Osage Nation’s Language Department as a language instructor and curriculum developer. Her family is from Hominy and growing up she heard firsthand accounts of the purpose of the building and how it came to be.
“My Aunt Marguerite [Matin-Waller] wrote the application for the roundhouse to be a historical site. I do know that it was first used in 1919, and Walter Matin was the Drum Keeper at the time and had been [the Drum Keeper] for three years,” said Carpenter whose grandfather was Walter Matin. “My Aunts Marguarite Waller and Lucille Roubedeaux were small children at the time.”
Growing up she heard it called, “grandma’s roundhouse.” She said her grandmother Helen Pratt-Matin paid for the completion of the roundhouse to help support the drum keeper, her husband, Walter Matin. She also had it built to replace the first Hominy roundhouse that was smaller and in disrepair.
“There used to be a wood burning stove in it,” she said. “I do know it was used for the Ilonska Dances. But they also used it for other social events. I remember my aunt saying when the Osages went to Washington D.C. they would meet there to relay information to the community of Osages, to deliver a report.”
Complete rehabilitation
“I’m so happy this administration is taking the steps necessary to do this and to take care of this not only for the Hominy people but also for all Osage people,” said Buffalohead. She said saving the roundhouse and making it safe and functional again was important and needed for cultural preservation.
The task of starting proper restoration has begun. The funds requested by Chief Standing Bear and approved by the Osage Congress in July will be used to do an architectural study to determine the best methods to restore the building.
Recently, the other Osage Districts, Pawhuska and Grayhorse, had new dance arbors built to replace their deteriorating arbors and to accommodate a growing Osage Nation. The cost to replace the two arbors totaled more than $3 million.
“This roundhouse, it belongs to the whole tribe now and it’s a symbol of our nation, that’s how I see it,” said Congressman Maker. “The Chief has ordered engineers to come and look at it and save our roundhouse so it can be here for future generations to enjoy.”
The Nation will now begin bidding out structural analysis for the site. The unique shape of the building, its age, purpose, and the fact that it is a Registered Historical Site will all be factors for determining the most efficient way to restore the building. But, if the swiftness of taking-care-of-business the new administration is known for applies, the roundhouse will be fully functional again within two years.
“I appreciate this Executive administration’s initiative to restore the roundhouse for the Osage people. I have a lot of memories in there and I was really taken back when the doors were open and we walked in there,” Pratt said looking at the dance grounds and watching people prepare for the Ilonska. “This is really a special time for us and being in [the roundhouse] reminded me of being in there as child and as a teen and all the older ones who have gone on.”
“The Hominy people, we feel that this roundhouse is a symbol of our people, of our past, of our ancestors, all of our grandparents, all of our old people, and the elders who have gone on …,” said Maker, “…. when I see this old roundhouse it reminds me of them and those times.”
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