The Radiant Star

The Radiant Star is one of the shining star people who came down from the sky world in the Osage genesis. In the Black Bear division's telling, the descending Radiant Star came upon Wa-ça'-be, the Black Bear, already dwelling upon the earth, and through that meeting the star people and the earth people were joined into one. As a child of the Sun and Moon and kin of the Morning and Evening Stars, the Radiant Star embodies the Osage understanding of themselves as descendants of the stars who took on bodies in the middle world.

Parentage

• Grandfather the Sun
• Grandmother the Moon

Domains

• stars
• creation

Powers

• descends from the sky to become one of the people

Epithets

• Mi-ka-k'e ho-e-ga

Relations

• sibling: Morning Star
• sibling: Evening Star
• companion: Wa-ça'-be the Black Bear

Sources

• Osage Bear Clan creation narrative, in Osage Oral History (M. Fuller, comp.).
• John Joseph Mathews, The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters (1961).