Maude “Grandma” Supernaw
Interviewed by: Bill Supernaw, Jr.
Interview Date: 1962
Transcribed by: Rise Supernaw Proctor & Billy Supernaw Proctor
Subject: Cold Water

Cold Water
 Grandma: Quapaw use to do, uh, make young people go swimming as soon as it, uh, water get cold, uh, about October, November, I guess and then they quit. And so, most of them, they young boys go, you know, they, they need it, war, so he can runs, run fast, so he can get away. So, that’s what they claim.

And so, and uh, that’s where, uh, cold water all right for rheumatism too so, my mother, uh, she, she had, uh, knee hurting and uh, go in the morning, and uh, stand in the water a while and uh, they, they make me go swimming, and uh, and not too long go, but, oh, not very long, cause, uh, water get too cold and they quit and my mother quit and then I quit too. So, uh, that help me whole lots, I guess, I, I never, I don’t have any rheumatism at all, this, old as I am now but I just keep going, and uh, that’s what they claim.
   
 
 

Maude “Grandma” Supernaw
Interviewed by: Bill Supernaw, Jr.
Interview Date: 1962
Transcribed by: Rise Supernaw Proctor & Billy Supernaw Proctor
Subject: Quapaw Fighting Osage (continuation of, Cold Water)

Quapaw Fighting Osage
(continuation of, Cold Water)
 Grandma: And so, uh, people, Indian fight each other and that’s what they getting ready for them fast running they want. So, they fighting and Wichita and Ponca, oh, and all, all like that, and Cheyenne too, I guess, they fighting each other. So, and uh, this, sometime they, oh, and uh, they commenced to make friend with the Osage. Uh, so they told them, come on, uh, we going make, uh, they going make friend with us, so, old man and two best man (runners), I was telling you about, you know, take with him, and then they fix a place to sit down, and they was going, they thought was going to talk to them, make friend with them. They sit down they said, and Osages said, “Lets go.” and they said they jump on him (Quapaw man) and they, and they kill him. These two run fast, got away. So, the all rest of them got kill. So they went home and they told them what had happened. So, well, we fix it, he said.

Uh, they go later on, they go, and then they went back down there watching around there, and they go up on hill, Osages, they go up on hill, cry used to be. Uh, they said later when they kill them too. But they never quit …. never, quit going in the morning. They just, keep doing that, so they get all around there close and uh, round house, I guess that they live in that. They all watching, watching, they won’t let them come out, nothing. Sometime they shoot right through the tent there, once in a while. And uh, about two, three days and that, that kids, their young, young kids cry, wants to eat, and want drink and all like that. So they come out and they said “We going come out and make friend with you this time”, they said, so, and they let them come out. And they did, sure enough, all kids and woman, all come down there, shake hand and put arm around and everything. So, that’s how, that’s why come to, Os…., uh, make friends with the Osage they claim. So, and uh, I guess all, Indians quit fighting then too, I guess.
   

Maude “Grandma” Supernaw
Interviewed by: William “Kugee” Supernaw III
Interview Date: 1969
Transcribed by: Rise Supernaw Proctor & Billy Supernaw Proctor
Subject: War, Fighting the Osage, & Stealing Children

War, Fighting the Osage, & Stealing Children
 Kugee: ... say they had, when they went to war, they prayed to the, to the sun and to the thunder?

Grandma: Uh huh!

Grandma: Yeah, they use to war, go so much, after more Indian come, you know, every, all the Indian, I don’t know where they, the other Indian come from. Anyhow, they fight each other when they could, aren’t fighting white people. They …. soldiers, you know, they make it, they pray for sun, they pray for that lightning, that lightning …. storm will come, that, that’s what they have fight. That’s what they use for, uh, war …. you know, a lot of people, Indian, Quapaw ….

Kugee: They fought the Osages one time, didn’t they?

Grandma: Uh huh! I don’t know where Osage, I never did hear Osage’s story.

Kugee: The Quapaws fought the Osages, didn’t they, one time?

Grandma: Uh huh! Yeah, they fight one time. I, I told daddy. Osage, uh, uh, after get more, more people, you know, I guess, they, they come fighting, Osage come, come fighting. So they went back, uh, and so, they went back and, they all Osage went home, and so, Quapaw, they going, slip up on them. They would, Osage used to be, they, somebody die, you know, they always go up on hill, cry in the morning. When they do that, they kill them and they, they can’t kill them, they just go home, that’s the way they do all time. So, they going slip up on them, so, uh, they all had teepee, you know, tent, not teepee, just round, like Osage they had, you know. So, they all around them, uh, they going starve them. So, uh, kids crying, I don’t know how many they have around them. Uh, kids crying, crying, want go outside and I guess they want a drink. They won’t let them go outside and shoot right through the tent, like that, you know. Then finally Osage give up. They come out, they say, going to give up now. They say going make friends with them. So, so they shake hand with them, all kids and women, all shake hand with them. So, that’s where they come get acquainted with the Osage, they claim. That’s what, lot of people, when they was little, uh, they steal the little, you little boy, if you had a boy or a girl, they raise them, adopted, that’s the reason they are all mixed up like.