Wa-ça'-be the Black Bear
Osage · numen · Osage traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Wa-ça'-be, the Black Bear, is a powerful animal person belonging to the earth people of the Osage. In the Black Bear division's account of origins, the Radiant Star coming down from the sky met Wa-ça'-be already dwelling on the earth, and their meeting bound the star people to the land. Because the bear was seen to pass through the whole course of life, from birth to gray old age, and to withdraw and rise again with the seasons, he was taken as a symbol of long, unbroken life, and in the child-naming rites the newborn is likened to the Black Bear so that it may reach the far hills of age.
Domains
- earth
- life force
Powers
- carries the power of reaching old age
Epithets
- Wa-ça'-be ho-e-ga — the sacred Black BearGarrick A. Bailey, The Osage and the Invisible World (1995). (secondary)
Relations
- companion: The Radiant StarOsage Bear Clan creation narrative, in Osage Oral History (M. Fuller, comp.). (secondary)
Sources
- Wa-ça'-be the Black Bear is an earth being met by the descending Radiant Star and a life-symbol of long life in the naming rites.: Osage Bear Clan creation narrative, in Osage Oral History (M. Fuller, comp.). (secondary); Francis La Flesche, The Osage Tribe: Two Versions of the Child-Naming Rite, 43rd Annual Report BAE (1928). (primary)