The Omaha Tribe, Volume I by Alice C. Fisher and Francis La Flesche, Bison Book University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 1992.
This is an ethnological study of the Omaha Tribe. There is more information in this book than you could ever digest unless you might be an anthropologist.
The Omaha Tribe is closely related to the Pawnee and the Ponca tribes. At some point these groups broke off from the Omaha.
This book includes many descriptions of rituals. There were ten different gens or peoples. Each gen had their own responsibilities. The children had different hair styles based on the gen they were a member of. There were rituals around becoming an adut. There were rituals around the hunt. At one time someone wanted to hurry the rituals, thinking the buffalo would get away, so he took a group and the attacked the buffalo before the ritual songs had been sung. It went badly for him, his horse fell injuring him badly.
The Omaha had many sacred items. This included a pole, two pipes and a white buffalo hide. This items were used in conjunction with the hunt. Since the buffalo were all killed, they were no longer being used and are now in a museum at Harvard University, except the hyde which was stolen and showed up in a Chicago museum.
The book explores many, many different song. Some were sung three or four times as part of a ceremony.
This is a very detailed book, with pictures of tribal members and leaders and explanation of leadership roles.
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