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T-620-3 (Third of Six" Interviews)
MARY LANE RED EAGLE,'.QUAPAW
INTERVIEWED BY: VELMA NEIBERDING
INTERVIEW'DATE: DECEMBER 15, I969
TRANSCRIBED BY: MONSTTE COOMBES
TRANSCRIPTION CHECKED BY: MONETTE COOMBES
GENERAL SUBJECT:
QUAPAW WORDS; CLANS-;* SOME FAMILY HISTORY; MEDICINE
AND HERBS . « « •
1
BACKGROUND OF INFORMANT: - "
Mary Lane.Red Eagle was born around 1891 on Spring'River in*
northeastern Oklahoma. She lived with an aunt until -she was sent
to Seneca Indian School at "Wyandotte, Oklahoma and then Haskeil
Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. Her aunt died while she was attending
Haskeil, and she then went to the Sisters of Loretta Academy
in Kansas City, she studied music and was a student at the
Kansas Conservatory of Music .where she met Madame Schumah Heinke
and Lily Pons. Mrs. Re.d Eagle has traveled extensively and has
sung before many audiences. She came back to Miami, -Oklahoma to
make her home and has lived here for .several years. Mary was
married tu Wa-Go-She, an Osage and inherited his headright when,
he died. Her first.husband was Leroy Red Eagle. Her father was
•a medicine man (Big Jim Lane 1 ). ^
Note: The other interviews on this tape are: Ruby Diebold, Seneca-Cayuga
William Shawnee, Shawnee
Language Class, Seneca
Ruby Diebold, Speaker
Emelece Reynolds., Cherokee
Language Class, Seneca
• Robert White, Speaker
A
\

\•
*
Mary Lane Red Eagle, Quapaw
(We are now going to talk to Mrs. Mary Red Eagle, member of the Quapaw tribe.
• She's considered a historian of the tribe and is one of the few who speak the
. language. Mrs. Red Eagle is going to give us some Quapaw words. Mary, now
what is the word for God?)
• Wah-kon-tah.
The word for God is Wah-kon-tah, and the meaning would be that
He is the highest being and knows all.
(What is the word for corn?) ,
The word for corn is wah-tu-zah^/?). . ' •
(Do you think of some other words or some sentences you-could say for me?)
• Well, the word for bird is wah-zhinga (?). Aad well,*the word for moon is
meum-bah. "
(Do you have a word for stars?)
And the word fdr start is' me-gu-a (?).
'
v
> • (Do you remember the clans of the Quapaw? The*clans?) ^
%, I don't. They're—course we have the clans the same as other tribes, but
I don't really remember. As for myself I--I believe that I have forgotten
the* clan that I belong to.' * ' (
(I_believe you are a member of the Beaver clan if I—)
.x" .
(Irrelevant words).
\
Do you want me to say my name first--Mary Lane? My name is Mary Lane, and
I was bornton Spring River and—'course that's Quapaw reservation.
And the
Storing River—I was born where the old village blacksmith shop is—was--*
well it's still known as that name.
And I love to go down there as it is
beautiful around there—foliage, trees are just beautiful.
And of course it
•* makes me quite lonesome to* see my old home place.
vSome of /our folks are buried there, I believe Mary?)
Yes. Nearly all of my people are ouried there. And there were onl^ two
children of # us, ray brother and I.
And.of course he'd ouried there with my
father and my mother and my relatives. But there are quite a few graves
• ' -1- ' . *

•{He was a doctor- also, wasn'.t: he — sort of a'herb doctor?) ..
He was the doctor of the tribe. And he doctored of course with the root—
-2- T-620-3
there.
'Course there wouldn't be seen or you couldn't f.ind them now because
it's good many years ago. _ '
(What was your mother's name?)
My mother's name was Julia Ann Sactaw.
That was—Sactaw was her Potawatomi
name." She^'was a'Potawatomi, member of the Quapaw-Potawatomi tribe from St.
Marys, Kansas. And it seems though, the history goes,- I believe that there
was a/,preacher that worked among the Indians at that time and he happened
to be*"up• around St. ^Marys, Kansas and he said he would like to go down south
and see where he could find a reservation where he could work.
And he'd like
to take some people down therewith him, because'they helped him when he was
in his prayers,' and in his singing—they all learned how to sing. And so
he wanted someone you know, to go along with him and to help him.
So there
was a bunch of; people--I don't know how many families left, but -they did—
v
they migrated dowi south tbward Kansas.
And I don't know much about the
history, but it seems though that they camped along the northern part of Kansas
and small.Tpox broke out.
Ancf that's where we lost quite a number of the
Quapaws there.
But they* finals came on in--further into Oklahoma and began
to settle around, and of course, around north of Baxter Springs, Kansas and
, / • • s
l\ .• - -
then further 1 on south. And—but they always wanted water and they always
I *' ' *
saw to it that they would camp along the river so that they would have plenty
• . / * * ' - • • * .
' of water fcjr what little stock that they had--left, you know, coming down
toward Oklahoma. And of course then I was born there at the village black-,
smith sho£>, as'I told you there at the little ford.
(What"was your father's name?) , > 0 *
My father'.: name was George Lane, but he had a nickname—he .was a^ir; feli^.v
and they--his friends nickname'd him "Big George Lane."
He was always-.known
thtt: ' ,

-3- . - T-62Q-3
with the herbs and sometimes the flower. But the flower—the flower, I have "
/
, forgotten the name, but I can just see it and it has a beautiful odor. And
it was made more for a tea, for a bath like you have a sore throat and you
''have a headache, you put this tea, you'know across your head. And this tea,
• * i
why you bathed in it and where ever it hurt Tou.
And they used that quite
a lot for medicine too.
(You don't remember it's' name ?) - f
Well, I don't remember it's name, but it's a long stem and it's has a—it's
a,purple—purple flower and the leaves are real slender.
There are a whole
lot of leaves around that little center part.
And they are-purple and they
have a beautiful odor.
I can't--! don't know, it doesn't smell like camphor,
'but I don't remember the name.
But I know that my aunt used that cyjite a
lot in headaches, and wherever your' leg aches arid whatever you had that was,
paining ^ou, why they just made kind of a planter like and put there.
(Do you remembe» arty of the roots they used?)
Well, no, I don't. I don't remember any of the rpots, but there were plenty
I know, that, they-have for indigestion for their stomach trouble, why they
dug' and they had—they'd make tea out of that too and they would chew some
of that.
And that way it seems though they• were.-quite relieved. ' They used
to
•