Passages : Terraglyph Lore

Monday, July 3, 2017

Terraglyph Lore - Osa Hini

Terraglyphs are tiny ridges of wet soil pushed to the surface by ground beetle larvae activity after rains on the Llano Estacado tablelands. They resemble whimsical figures and indecipherable calligraphy. Let’s indulge in creating a myth. Let’s conjure a story first spoken in hushed and reverend awe among native American cultures of the Southern Great Plains.

Imagine a Comanche boy on the precipice of manhood. This fourth day of his first vision quest he remains quietly humble before the Great Spirit. It’s an unusually cold mid-summer day on the plain. He shivers in the aftermath of a passing thunderstorm. In the foggy clarity induced by a four-day fast, he observes the damp earth in his camp move almost imperceptibly. He mutters, “osa hini…osa hini…what is that?” A guardian spirit soon reveals itself and asks raven to teach the boy several songs, but also draws symbols of hope upon the terra cotta skin of Earth Mother. “What will I call you when I tell the medicine man about you,” the boy asks? The spirit chuckles and says, “you came by my power when you implored me with osa hini. That will be my name.” The boy thanks the spirit and returns to his band and family with medicine power—what his people call puha. That evening at a camp fire gathering he makes time to sing the spirit’s admonitions to the People.

“Hear me, these are the words brought to me on wings of raven and now first spoken to you the ancient People of the plains. You have seen the signs on the face of Earth Mother after sky lakes soothe her burnt countenance with rain. From this day forward we will respect and call them osa hini; for they are messages written by tami and nami—the younger brothers and sisters of ground beetles—summoned by the Great Spirit. They are joyful promises of better days and hunts ahead. Let all who encounter the signs refrain from disturbing the messages of things to come—lest all manner of calamity and torment befalls the People.”

Eventually terraglyph lore makes its way into the roughhewn lives of white settlers and weatherbeaten cowboys huddled around cattle drive camp fires on the vast grasslands. Stories persist in oral traditions of people who cast shadows onto the plains.