A Study of Siouan Cults
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Title: A Study of Siouan Cults
Author: James Owen Dorsey
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Language: English
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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION--BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS.
BY
JAMES OWEN DORSEY.
CONTENTS.
Page.
CHAPTER I.--Introduction 361
Definitions of “Cult” and “Siouan” 361
Siouan Family 361
Authorities 361
Alphabet 363
Abbreviations 364
CHAPTER II.--Definitions 365
Alleged belief in a Great Spirit 365
Phenomena divided into human and superhuman 365
Terms for “mysterious,” “lightning,” etc. 366
Other Omaha and Ponka terms 367
Significance of personal names and kinship terms 368
Myth and legend distinguished from the superhuman 368
CHAPTER III.--Cults of the Omaha, Ponka, Kansa, and Osage 371
Beliefs and practices not found 371
Omaha, Ponka, and Kansa belief in a wakanda 372
Seven great wakandas 372
Invocation of warmth and streams 372
Prayer to wakanda 373
Accessories of prayer 373
Omaha and Kansa expressions about wakanda 374
Ponka belief about malevolent spirits 374
An old Omaha custom 375
The sun a wakanda 376
Invocations 376
The offering of tobacco 377
The Ponka sun dance of 1873 378
The moon a wakanda 378
Berdaches 378
Stars as wakandas 379
The winds as wakandas 380
Invocation 380
Kansa sacrifice to the winds 380
Osage consecration of mystic fireplaces 380
The thunder-being a wakanda 381
Omaha and Ponka invocation of the thunder-being 381
Thunder-being invoked by warriors 382
Ictasanda custom 383
Kansa worship of the thunder-being 385
Subterranean and subaquatic wakandas 386
The indaȼiñga 386
Other Kansa wakandas 387
Omaha invocations of the trap, etc. 387
Fasting 390
Mystic trees and plants 390
Iȼa‘eȼĕ 392
Personal mystery decorations 394
Order of thunder shamans 395
Generic forms of decoration 397
Specific forms of decoration 398
Corn and the buffalo 403
Other Omaha mystery decorations 403
Kansa mystery decorations 405
Omaha nikie decorations 407
Omaha nikie customs 410
Governmental instrumentalities 411
Omaha and Ponka taboos 411
Fetichism 412
Fetiches of the tribe and gens 413
Omaha tribal fetiches 413
Osage tribal fetiches 414
Kansa tribal fetiches 415
Personal fetiches 415
Sorcery 416
Jugglery 417
Omaha and Ponka belief as to a future life 419
Kansa beliefs respecting death and a future life 421
CHAPTER IV.--┴ciwere and Winnebago cults 423
Authorities 423
Term “Great Spirit” never heard among the Iowa 423
The sun a wakanta 423
The winds as wakantas 423
The thunder-being a wakanta 424
Subterranean powers 424
Subaquatic powers 424
Animals as wakantas 425
Apotheoses 425
Dwellings of gods 425
Worship 425
Taboos 426
Public or tribal fetiches 427
Symbolic earth formations of the Winnebago 427
Personal fetiches 428
Dancing societies 428
The Otter dancing society 429
The Red Medicine dancing society 429
The Green Corn dance 429
The Buffalo dancing society 429
┴ɔiwere traditions 430
Belief in a future life 430
CHAPTER V.--Dakota and Assiniboin cults 431
Alleged Dakota belief in a Great Spirit 431
Riggs on the Taku wakan 432
Meaning of wakan 433
Daimonism 433
Animism 433
Principal Dakota gods 434
Miss Fletcher on Indian religion 434
Prayer 435
Sacrifice 435
Use of paint in worship 438
The unkteḣi, or subaquatic and subterranean powers 438
Character of the unkteḣi 438
Power of the unkteḣi 439
Subordinates of the unkteḣi 439
The mystery dance 440
The miniwatu 440
The Wakiⁿyaⁿ, or thunder-beings 441
The armor gods 443
The war prophet 444
The spirits of the mystery sacks 445
Takuśkaŋśkaŋ, the Moving deity 445
Tunkan or Inyan, the Stone god or Lingam 447
Iŋyaŋ śa 448
Mato tipi 448
The sun and moon 449
Nature of concepts 449
The sun dance 450
A Dakota’s account of the sun dance 450
Object of the sun dance 451
Rules observed by households 451
The “u-ma-ne” 451
Rules observed by the devotee 452
Tribes invited to the sun dance 452
Discipline maintained 452
Camping circle formed 453
Men selected to seek the mystery tree 453
Tent of preparation 454
Expedition to the mystery tree 455
Felling the tree 456
Tree taken to camp 457
Raising the sun pole 457
Building of dancing lodge 458
The Uuȼita 458
Decoration of candidates or devotees 458
Offerings of candidates 459
Ceremonies at the dancing lodge 460
The dance 460
Candidates scarified 460
Pieces of flesh offered 462
Torture of owner of horse 462
End of the dance 462
Intrusive dances 463
Captain Bourke on the sun dance 464
Berdaches 467
Astronomical lore 467
Day and night 467
The dawn 468
Weather spirit 468
Heyoka 468
The concepts of Heyoka 468
Heyoka feast 469
Story of a Heyoka man 469
Heyoka women 471
Iya, the god of gluttony 471
Ikto, Iktomi, or Unktomi 471
Ćaŋotidaŋ and Hoḣnoġića 473
Anuŋg-ite 473
Penates 475
Guardian spirits 475
Beliefs about the buffalo 475
Prevalence of the beliefs 475
Origin of the buffalo 476
The Tataŋgnaśkiŋyaŋ, or Mythic buffalo 477
The bear 477
The wolf 477
Horses 479
Spiders 479
Snake lore 479
The double woman 480
Deer women 480
Dwarfs or elves 481
Bogs 481
Trees 482
Customs relating to childhood 482
Puberty 483
Ghost lore and the future life 484
Meaning of wanaġi 484
Assiniboin beliefs about the dead 485
Ghosts not always visible 485
Death and burial lore 485
Why the Teton stopped burying in the ground 486
Importance of tattooing 486
Ceremonies at the ghost lodge 487
Good and bad ghosts 489
Intercourse with ghosts 489
Ghost stories 489
The ghost husband 489
The solitary traveler 489
The ghost on the hill 489
The Indian who wrestled with a ghost 489
The man who shot a ghost 492
Assiniboin beliefs about ghosts 492
Prayers to the dead, including ancestors 493
Metamorphoses and transmigration of souls 493
Exhortations to absent warriors 493
Mysterious men and women 493
Gopher lore 496
Causes of boils and sores 496
Results of lying, stealing, etc. 497
Secret societies 497
Fetichism 498
Public or tribal fetiches 498
Private or personal fetiches 498
Ordeals, or modes of swearing 499
Sorcery and jugglery 499
Omens 500
Bodily omens 500
Animal omens 500
Omens from dreams 500
CHAPTER VI.--Cults of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Sapona 501
Authorities 501
Alleged belief in a Great Spirit 501
The great mystery a modern deity 501
Polytheism 502
Worship 502
Fasting 502
Sacrifice 502
The Okipa 502
The Daḣpike 503
Cult of the Yoni 505
Absaroka fear of a white buffalo cow 505
Mandan cults 506
Mandan divinities 506
Guardian spirits 507
Mandan belief about serpents and giants 507
Thunder lore of the Mandan 508
Astronomical lore 508
Mystery objects and places of the Mandan and Hidatsa 508
The mystery rock 508
Dreams 510
Oracles 510
Fetiches 510
Folklore 511
Sorcery 511
Jugglery 512
Ghost lore 512
The future life 512
Four as a mystic number among the Mandan 513
Hidatsa cults 513
Hidatsa divinities 513
Animism 514
Worship of the elements, etc. 514
Serpent worship 514
Fetiches 515
Tribal fetiches 515
Personal fetiches 515
Oracles 516
Dreams 516
Berdaches 516
Astronomical lore 517
Food lore 517
Four souls in each human being 517
Sorcery 517
Disposal of the dead 518
Hidatsa belief as to future existence 518
Sapona cults 518
CHAPTER VII.--Concluding remarks 520
Peet on Indian religions 520
The author’s reply 521
Cults of the elements 522
The four quarters 524
Symbolic colors 527
Colors in personal names 533
The earth powers 534
Earth gentes 534
The fire powers 534
Fire gentes 536
The wind-makers 536
Wind gentes 537
Each quarter reckoned as three 537
Names referring to other worlds 537
The water powers 537
Water people 538
Cautions and queries 538
Composite names 539
Personal names from horned beings 541
Names derived from several homogeneous objects or beings 542
Return of the spirit to the eponym 542
Functions of gentes and subgentes 542
The “Messiah craze” 544
Epilogue 544
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATE XLIV. Siouan tents (_A_, tent of Ԁejequta; _B_, tent of
Mazi-jiñga (man in the sun); _C_, tent of Heqaga; _D_,
tent of Kaxe-ȼaⁿba’s father; _E_, tent of Hupeȼa,
Sr., and Agaha-wacuce) 361
XLV. Camping circle at the time of the sun dance 454
XLVI. The dancing lodge 458
XLVII. Scarification of candidates (1, Okáska nażin; 2,
Ptepa kin waći) 460
XLVIII. The sun dance 462
XLIX. A suspended devotee 464
L. The double woman 480
FIG. 156. George Miller’s personal mystery decoration 394
157. A variant of Fig. 156 394
158. Robe of Wanukige 395
159. Tent of Wanukige 396
160. Robe of Ȼaqube 396
161. Robe of Ԁahe-ʇap‘ĕ 397
162. Generic decoration referring to night, etc. 397
163. Tent of Aⁿpaⁿ-ska, Sr. 398
164. Robe of Aⁿpaⁿ-ska, Sr. 399
165. Tent of Mazi-jiñga (ghost vision) 399
166. A tent of Nikuȼibȼaⁿ 399
167. Another tent of Nikuȼibȼaⁿ 399
168. Blanket of Cuʞa maⁿȼiⁿ 400
169. Tent of ┴esaⁿ; vision of a cedar 401
170. Tent of ┴esaⁿ; sun and rainbow vision 401
171. Cornstalk decoration of the tents of Fire Chief and Waqaga 402
172. Robe of Ni-ȼactage 403
173. Duba-maⁿȼiⁿ’s father’s tent 403
174. Maⁿtcu-naⁿba’s tent 403
175. Wackaⁿhi’s tent 404
176. Tent of an unknown Omaha 404
177. Tent of ┴ebi‘a 405
178. Tent of a Kansa who had an eagle vision 405
179. Kansa decorated tent 406
180. Kansa decorated tent 406
181. Maⁿze-guhe’s robe 406
182. Maⁿze-guhe’s tent 407
183. Duba-maⁿȼiⁿ’s father’s blanket 407
184. Iñke-sabĕ tent decoration 408
185. Iñke-sabĕ tent decoration 409
186. Waqaga’s robe 409
187. Sacred tent in which the pole was kept 413
188. Bear Butte, South Dakota 449
189. The “u-ma-ne” symbol 451
190. Eagle-wing flute 455
191. The tent of preparation and the dancing lodge 459
192. The ghost lodge 487
193. The Ȼatada gentile circle 523
194. The four elements, etc. 523
195. Kansa order of invoking winds, etc. 525
196. Tsiɔu (Osage) order of placing the four sticks, etc. 525
197. Paⁿɥka (Osage) order of placing the four sticks, etc. 526
198. Kaⁿ[s]e (Osage) order of circumambulation 526
199. Showing how the Osage prepared the scalp for the dance 526
200. Omaha lightnings and the four quarters 527
[Illustration:
Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report. Plate XLIV
[image]
GAST LITH. CO.
SIOUAN TENTS.]
A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS.
BY JAMES OWEN DORSEY.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
DEFINITIONS OF “CULT” AND “SIOUAN.”
§ 1. Cult, as used in this article, means a system of religious belief
and worship, especially the rites and ceremonies employed in such worship.
The present article treats of the cults of a few of the Siouan
tribes--that is, with two exceptions, of such tribes as have been visited
by the author.
“Siouan” is a term originated by the Bureau of Ethnology. It is derived
from “Sioux,” the popular name for those Indians who call themselves
“Dakota” or “Lakota,” the latter being the Teton appellation. “Siouan”
is used as an adjective, but, unlike its primitive, it refers not
only to the Dakota tribes, but also to the entire linguistic stock or
family.
SIOUAN FAMILY.
The Siouan family includes the Dakota, Assiniboin, Omaha, Ponka,
Osage, Kansa, Kwapa, Iowa, Oto, Missouri, Winnebago, Mandan, Hidatsa,
Crow, Tutelo, Biloxi, Catawba, and other Indians. The Sapona, who are
now extinct, probably belonged to this family.
The author was missionary to the Ponka Indians, in what is now part of
Nebraska, from 1871 to 1873. Since 1878 he has acquired native texts
and other information from the Omaha, Ponka, Osage, Kansa, Winnebago,
Iowa, Oto, Missouri, and Dakota.
In seeking information respecting the ancient beliefs of the Indians
the author has always found it expedient to question the Indian when no
interpreter was present.
AUTHORITIES.
§ 2. This study is based for the most part upon statements made
by Indians, though several publications were consulted during the
preparation of the fifth and sixth chapters.
The following Indians had become Christians before the author met them:
Joseph La Flèche, Frank La Flèche, John Big Elk, and George Miller,
all Omaha. Joseph La Flèche, who died in 1888, was the leader of the
civilization party in the Omaha tribe after 1855. He was at one time
a head chief. He spoke several Indian languages, having spent years
among other tribes, including the Pawnee, when he was in the service
of the fur company. His son, Frank, has been in the Indian Bureau at
Washington since 1881. The author has obtained considerable linguistic
material from the father and son. The father, with Two Crows, aided
the author in the summer of 1882 in revising his sociologic notes,
resulting in the preparation of “Omaha Sociology,” which was published
in the third annual report of the director of the Bureau of Ethnology.
John Big Elk, a full Omaha, of the Elk gens, furnished an article
on “Sacred Traditions and Customs,” and several historical papers,
published in “Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. VI.”
George Miller, of the Ictasanda or Thunder gens, is a full Omaha, from
whom was obtained nearly half of Chapter III, including most of the
Omaha illustrations.
The following Indians were not Christians: Gahige, Two Crows,
Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ, and Samuel Fremont, all Omaha; Nudaⁿ-axa, a Ponka; and
the Kansa, Osage, Missouri, Iowa, and Winnebago informants.
Two Crows has been connected in several ways with the ancient
organizations of his people. He has been a head man, or nikagahi, being
thus an ex-officio member of the class which exercised the civil and
religious functions of the state. He has been a policeman during the
buffalo hunt. He has acted as captain, or war chief, and he is the
leading doctor in the order of Buffalo shamans, being the keeper of the
“sweet medicine.”
Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ, or He-who-fears-not-the-sight-of-a-Pawnee, is a member
of the Black Bear subgens, and he is also one of the servants of the
Elk gens, it being his duty to be present at the sacred tent of that
gens, and to assist in the ceremonies pertaining to the invocation of
the Thunder Beings.
Gahige was the chief of the Iñke-sabĕ, a Buffalo gens, and at the
time of his death he was the keeper of the two sacred pipes.
Samuel Fremont is a member of the Eagle subgens. He came to Washington
in the autumn of 1888 and assisted the author till February, 1889.
Nudaⁿ-axa is a chief of a part of the Thunder-Being gens of the Ponka.
The author has known him since 1871.
The other Indian authorities need not be named, as they are in
substantial agreement.
The following authorities were consulted in the preparation of the
Dakota and Assiniboin chapter:
BRUYIER (JOHN), a Dakota, MS. Teton texts. 1888. Translated by
himself. Bureau of Ethnology.
BUSHOTTER (GEORGE), a Dakota, MS. Teton texts. 1887-’88.
Translated by J. Owen Dorsey. Bureau of Ethnology.
FLETCHER (Miss ALICE C.), The Sun-dance of the Ogalalla Sioux. In
Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Montreal meeting, 1882, pp. 580-584.
FLETCHER (Miss ALICE C.), several articles in Rept. Peabody
Museum, vol. 3, 1884, pp. 260-333.
HOVEY (Rev. H. C.), “Eyay Shah,” in Am. Antiquarian, Jan., 1887,
pp. 35, 36.
LONG (Maj. S. H.), Skiff Voyage to Falls of St. Anthony. In Minn.
Histor. Soc. Coll., vol. II, pt. 1, pp. 18, 19, 55.
LYND (J. W.), Religion of the Dakotas. In Minn. Histor. Soc.
Coll., vol. II, pt. 2, pp. 57-84.
POND (G. H.), Dakota Superstitions. In Minn. Histor. Soc. Coll.,
vol. II, pt. 3, pp. 32-62.
RIGGS (S. R.), Theogony of the Sioux. In Am. Antiquarian, vol. II,
No. 4, pp. 265-270.
----. In Am. Antiq., vol. V, 1883, p. 149.
----. In Am. Philolog. Assoc. Proc., 3d An. Sess., 1872, pp. 5, 6.
----. Tah-koo Wah-kon, or, The Gospel Among the Dakotas, 1869.
SAY (THOS.), in James (E.), Account of Long’s Exped. Rocky Mts.,
vol. I, Phil., 1823.
SHEA (J. GILMARY), Am. Cath. Missions, N. Y. (after 1854).
SMET (Rev. P. J. DE), Western Missions and Missionaries, N. Y.
(n. d.).
WOODBURN (Dr. J. M., Jr.), MS. Letter and Teton Vocabulary, 1890.
Bureau of Ethnology.
ALPHABET.
§ 3. With the exception of seven letters taken from Riggs’s Dakota
Dictionary, and which are used only in the Dakota words, the characters
used in recording the Indian words occurring in this paper belong to
the alphabet adopted by the Bureau of Ethnology.
[TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: many of the letters in the original book cannot be
represented faithfully in the character set available. The following
table explains the conventions used to represent such characters. In
the table, ‘x’ and ‘y’ are used to mean “any letter”.
Symbol Symbol in book
‘ Inverted comma, to the left of a letter and raised above the
baseline, like a single opening quotation mark.
’ Comma, to the right of a letter and raised above the baseline,
like a single closing quotation mark.
´ “Accent mark”--a diagonal slash indicating a stressed syllable.
[x] The letter upside-down. This is used for upside-down
lower-case ‘p’, because an upside-down lower-case p looks too
much like a ‘d’; and for upside-down ‘s’, which looks too much
like a right-side-up ‘s’; and for an upside-down upper-case K,
because I don’t think that character exists in Unicode.
ȼ A lowercase ‘c’ with an acute accent and a mark below.
Ȼ An uppercase ‘c’ with an acute accent and a mark below.
END OF TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE.]
a, as in _father_.
‘a, an initially exploded a.
ă, as in _what_, or as _o_ in _not_.
‘ă, an initially exploded ă.
ä, as in _hat_.
c, as _sh_ in _she_. See ś.
ɔ, a medial _sh_, a sonant-surd.
ć (Dakota letter), as _ch_ in _church_.
ç, as _th_ in _thin_.
[ç], a medial ç, sonant-surd.
ȼ, as _th_ in _the_.
e, as in _they_.
‘e, an initially exploded e.
ĕ, as in _get_.
‘ĕ an initially exploded ĕ.
g, as in _go_.
ġ (in Dakota), _gh_. See x.
ɥ (in Osage), an h after a pure or nasalized
vowel, expelled through the mouth
with the lips wide apart.
ḣ (in Dakota), _kh_, etc. See q.
i, as in _machine_.
‘i, an initially exploded i.
ĭ, as in _pin_.
j, as _z_ in _azure_, or as _j_ in the French
_Jacques_.
ʞ a medial k, a sonant-surd.
k’, an exploded k. See next letter.
ḳ (in Dakota), an exploded k.
ŋ (in Dakota), after a vowel has the sound
of _n_ in the French _bon_. See ⁿ.
ɯ (in Kansa), a medial m, a sound between
m and b.
ñ, as _ng_ in _sing_.
hn, its initial sound is expelled from the
nostrils and is scarcely heard.
o, as in _no_.
‘o, an initially exploded o.
[p], a medial b or p, a sonant-surd.
p’, an exploded p.
q, as German _ch_ in _ach_. See ḣ.
[s], a medial z or s, a sonant-surd.
ś (in Dakota), as _sh_ in _she_. See c.
ʇ, a medial d or t, a sonant-surd.
t’, an exploded t.
u, as _oo_ in _tool_.
‘u, an initially exploded u.
ŭ, as _oo_ in _foot_.
ṵ, a sound between o and u.
ü, as in German _kühl_, _süss_.
x, _gh_, or nearly the Arabic _ghain_. See ġ.
ź (in Dakota), as _z_ in _azure_. See j.
dj, as _j_ in _judge_.
tc, as _ch_ in _church_. See ć.
tc’, an exploded tc.
ʇɔ, a medial tc, a sonant-surd.
ts’, an exploded ts.
ʇ[s], a medial ts, a sonant-surd.
ai, as in _aisle_.
au, as _ow_ in _how_.
yu, as _u_ in _tune_, or _ew_ in _few_.
The following have the ordinary English sounds: b, d, h, k, l, m, n,
p, r, s, t, w, y, and z. A superior n (ⁿ) after a vowel (compare the
Dakota ŋ) has the sound of the French n in bon, vin, etc. A plus
sign (+) after any letter prolongs it.
The vowels ‘a, ‘e, ‘i, ‘o, ‘u, and their modifications are styled
initially exploded vowels for want of a better appellation, there being
in each case an initial explosion. These vowels can not be called
“breaths,” as no aspiration is used with any of them; nor can they be
spoken of as “guttural breaths,” as they are approximately or partially
pectoral sounds. They have been found by the author not only in the
Siouan languages, but also in some of the languages of western Oregon.
In 1880 a brother of the late Gen. Armstrong, of Hampton, Va., who was
born on one of the Hawaiian islands, informed the author that this
class of vowel sounds occurred in the language of his native land.
ABBREVIATIONS.
The abbreviations in the interlinear translations are as follows:
sub.--subject.
ob.--object.
st.--sitting.
std.--standing.
recl.--reclining.
mv.--moving.
col.--collective.
lg.--long.
cv.--curvilinear.
pl.--plural.
sing.--singular.
an.--animate.
in.--inanimate.
CHAPTER II.
DEFINITIONS.
ALLEGED BELIEF IN A GREAT SPIRIT.
§ 4. It has been asserted for several hundred years that the North
American Indian was a believer in one Great Spirit prior to the coming
of the white race to this continent, and that, as he was a monotheist,
it was an easy matter to convert him to Christianity. Indians have
been represented as speaking of “The Great Spirit,” “The Master of
Life,” etc., as if the idea of the one and only God was familiar to our
aborigines during the pre-Columbian period.
While the author is unwilling to commit himself to a general denial
of this assertion, he has been forced to conclude that it needs
considerable modification, at least so far as it refers to the tribes
of the Siouan stock. (See §§ 7, 15, 21-43, 72-79, 92-99, 311, 312,
322-326, 341-346.)
On close investigation it will be found that in many cases Indians
have been quick to adopt the phrases of civilization in communicating
with white people, but in speaking to one another they use their own
terms. The student of the uncivilized races must ever be on his guard
against leading questions and their answers. The author has learned by
experience that it is safer to let the Indian tell his own story in
his own words than to endeavor to question him in such a manner as to
reveal what answers are desired or expected.
§ 5. In 1883 the author published an article on “The Religion of the
Omahas and Ponkas,” in The American Antiquarian of Chicago. Since then
he has obtained additional data, furnishing him with many undesigned
coincidences, which lead him to a broader view of the subject.
PHENOMENA DIVIDED INTO HUMAN AND SUPERHUMAN.
§ 6. In considering the subject from an Indian’s point of view,
one must avoid speaking of the supernatural as distinguished from the
natural. It is safer to divide phenomena as they appear to the Indian
mind into the human and the superhuman, as many, if not most natural
phenomena are mysterious to the Indian. Nay, even man himself may
become mysterious by fasting, prayer, and vision.
One fruitful source of error has been a misunderstanding of Indian
terms and phrases. It is very important to attempt to settle the exact
meanings of certain native words and phrases ere we proceed further
with the consideration of the subject.
TERMS FOR “MYSTERIOUS,” “LIGHTNING,” ETC.
§ 7. The attention of the author having been called to the article
on “Serpent Symbolism” of the Iroquoian languages, by Mr. Hewitt[1] of
the Bureau of Ethnology, a similar investigation of the Siouan terms
was made, the results of which are now presented. In connection with
the terms for “serpent,” Mr. Hewitt showed how they are related in the
languages with which he was familiar with other terms, such as “demon,”
“devil,” “wizard,” “witch,” “subtile,” “occult,” “mysterious,” and
“supernatural.”
In Dakota we find the following: Wakaⁿ, mysterious, wonderful,
incomprehensible, often rendered “holy” by the missionaries; wakaⁿ-hdi
(in Santee), wakaⁿ-kdi (in Yankton), lightning, perhaps containing
a reference to a zigzag line or forked lightning; wakaⁿ etcoⁿ, to
practice sleight of hand; and waⁿmducka, serpent. There are many
derivatives of wakaⁿ, among which are, Taku Wakaⁿ, literally “something
mysterious,” rendered “some one mysterious,” or “holy being,” and
Wakaⁿ-tañka, literally, “Great mysterious (one),” both of which terms
are now applied to God by the missionaries and their converts, though
Wakaⁿ-tañka is a name for the Thunder-being.
In Riggs’s alphabet (Contr. N. A. Ethn., Vol. VII), these words are
thus written: Wakaŋ, wakaŋhdi, wakaŋkdi, wakaŋ ećoŋ, waŋmduśka, Taku
Wakaŋ, and Wakaŋtaŋka. One of the Dakota words for “aged” is kaⁿ (kaŋ
in Riggs’s alphabet); but though this refers to persons we can not tell
whether it is related to wakaⁿ (or wakaŋ).
In the Ȼegiha, the language spoken by the Ponka and Omaha, Wakanda
means “the mysterious” or “powerful one,” and it is applied in several
senses. It is now used to denote the God of monotheism. Some of the old
people say that their ancestors always believed in a supreme Wakanda
or Mysterious Power. It sometimes refers to the Thunder-being. On one
occasion, a Ponka shaman, Cramped Hand, said to the author: “I am a
Wakanda.” Wakandagi, as a noun, means a subterranean or water monster,
a large horned reptile mentioned in the myths, and still supposed to
dwell beneath the bluffs along the Missouri River. With this term
compare the Dakota Uñkteqi (Uŋkteḣi, of Riggs) and the Winnebago
Waktceqi, the latter having given a name to the Water Monster gens
(Waktceqi ikikaratcada). Wakandagi is sometimes used adverbially, as,
si wakandagi, he is wonderfully stingy! E wakandagi, he (a small child)
speaks surprisingly well (for one so young)! ┴aⁿȼiⁿ wakandagi, he runs
very well (for one so young)! Maⁿȼiⁿ wakandagi, he (a small child)
walks very well! Wakandiȼe, to be in great haste, perhaps contains the
idea of putting forth a great effort in order to accomplish something
speedily. Wĕs‘ă, a serpent, is not related to the others just given.
Nor can the word for “wizard” or “conjurer” be found related to them.
In Kansa, Wakanda is used of superhuman beings or powers, as in
Omaha and Ponka, but the author never heard a shaman apply the term
to himself. Wakandagi has another meaning, mysterious, wonderful,
incomprehensible, as, nika wakandagi, mysterious man, shaman, juggler,
doctor; nanüŭⁿba wakandagi, mysterious or sacred pipe; wakandagi
wagaxe, the sleight-of-hand tricks of the mysterious men and women.
Wakanda qudje, the gray mysterious one, the elephant. Wakaⁿ does not
mean serpent, but pumpkin, answering to the Omaha and Ponka, wataⁿ, and
to the Osage, wakqaⁿ and watqaⁿ. [M]yets‘a (almost, Byets‘a) is the
Kansa word for a serpent.
In Osage, Wakaⁿʇa answers to the Kansa Wakanda, and Waɥkaⁿ-ʇa-ʞi is the
same as the Kansa, Wakandagi. Wets‘a is a serpent. In Kwapa, Wakaⁿʇaʞi
seems to answer to the Kansa Wakandagi.
In ┴ɔiwere (Iowa, Oto, Missouri), Wakaⁿʇa is the same as the Kansa
Wakanda. Wakaⁿ means a serpent. Wakaⁿ kiʞraʇɔe, the Serpent gens.
Wa-hu-priⁿ, mysterious, as a person or animal; but wa-qo-nyi-taⁿ,
mysterious, as an inanimate object.
In the Winnebago, three names for superhuman beings have been found.
One is Waʞuⁿse or Waguⁿze, which can not be translated; another is
Maⁿ‘uⁿ-na, Earth-maker, the third being Qo-piⁿ-ne qe-te-ră, Great
Mysterious One. Qopiⁿne seems related to waqopini (with which compare
the ┴ɔiwere, wahupriⁿ), a term used to distinguish people of other
races from Indians, just as in Dakota wacitcuⁿ (in Riggs’s alphabet,
waśićuŋ), now used for “white man,” “black man,” etc., retains in the
Teton dialect its ancient meaning of superhuman being or guardian
spirit. Wakawaⁿx, in Winnebago, denotes a witch or wizard. Wakaⁿ-na
is a serpent, and wakaⁿ ikikaratca-da, the Serpent gens; Wakaⁿtca, or
Wakaⁿtca-ra, thunder, the Thunder-Being; Wakaⁿtcañka-ra, a shaman or
mysterious man.
OTHER OMAHA AND PONKA TERMS.
§ 8. Other terms are given as being pertinent to the subject. They
occur in the language of the Omaha and Ponka. Qube, mysterious as a
person or animal (all animals were persons in ancient times); but a
mysterious inanimate object is spoken of as being “waqube.” Uqube
means the mysteriousness of a human being or animal. Uqubeaʇaȼicaⁿ,
pertaining to such mysteriousness. Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ, pertaining or
referring to Wakanda. Nikie is a term that refers to a mythical
ancestor, to some part of his body, to some of his acts, or to some
ancient rite ascribed to him. A “nikie name” is a personal name of
such a character. Iȼa‘eȼĕ, literally, “to pity him on account of it,
granting him certain power.” Its primary reference is to the mysterious
animal, but it is transferred to the person having the vision, hence,
it means “to receive mysterious things from an animal, as in a vision
after fasting; to see as in a vision, face to face (not in a dream);
to see when awake, and in a mysterious manner having a conversation
with the animal about mysterious things.”
§ 9. The names for grandfather, grandmother, and old man are terms of
veneration, superhuman beings having these names applied to them in
invocations. (See §§ 15, 99.)
SIGNIFICANCE OF PERSONAL NAMES AND KINSHIP TERMS.
In a note upon “The Religious Ceremony of the Four Winds or
Quarters, as Observed by the Santee Sioux,” Miss Fletcher[2] remarks:
“A name implies relationship, and consequently protection; favor and
influence are claimed from the source of the name, whether this be the
gens or the vision. A name, therefore, shows the affiliation of the
individual; it grades him, so to speak, and he is apt to lean upon its
implied power. * * * The sacred import of a name in the mind of the
Indian is indicated in that part of the ceremony where the “Something
that moves” seems to overshadow and inclose the child, and addresses
the wakan man as father. The wakan man replies, calling the god, child,
at the same time invoking the supernatural protection and care for
the boy, as he lays at the feet of the messenger of Unseen Power the
offerings of gifts and the honor of the feast. The personal name[3]
among Indians, therefore, indicates the protecting presence of a
deity, and must, therefore, partake of the ceremonial character of the
Indian’s religion.”
In this ceremony the superhuman being is addressed by the term
implying _juniority_, and the human being, the wakan man, by that
associated with _seniority_, an apparent reversal of the usual custom;
but, doubtless, there can be found some explanation for this seeming
exception to the rule.
MYTH AND LEGEND DISTINGUISHED FROM THE SUPERHUMAN.
§ 10. The Omaha, Ponka, and cognate tribes distinguish at the present
day between the myth (higaⁿ, higu) and the legend or story (iuȼa, etc.)
on the one hand; and what on the other hand is called “Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ,”
“uqubeaʇaȼicaⁿ,” and “iȼa‘eȼĕaʇaȼicaⁿ.” The former are told only for
amusement and are called, “iusictaⁿ iuȼa,” lying tales. They are
regarded as “iqawaȼĕaʇaȼicaⁿ,” pertaining to the ludicrous. With this
may be compared the statements of Lang:[4]
“Among the lowest and most backward, as among the most advanced races,
there coexist the mythical and the religious elements in belief. The
rational factor (or what approves itself to us as the rational factor)
is visible in religion; the irrational is prominent in myth.” * * *
“The rational and irrational aspects of mythology and religion may be
of coeval antiquity for all that is certainly known, or either of
them, in the dark backward of mortal experience, may have preceded the
other.” The author has found certain Indian myths which abound in what
to the civilized mind is the grossest obscenity, and that too without
the slightest reference to the origin of any natural phenomena. Myths
of this class appear to have been told from a love of the obscene.
Nothing of a mysterious or religious character can be found in them.
Perhaps such myths are of modern origin; but this must remain an enigma.
§ 11. The Omaha and Ponka are in a transition state, hence many of
their old customs and beliefs are disappearing. Some have been lost
within the past fifty years, others within the last decade, according
to unimpeachable testimony. The Ponka are more conservative than the
Omaha, and the Kansa and Osage are more so than the Ponka, in the
estimation of the author.
§ 12. Though it has been said that the Indians feared to tell myths
except on winter nights (and some Indians have told this to the
author), the author has had no trouble in obtaining myths during the
day at various seasons of the year.
§ 13. James Alexander, a full Winnebago of the Wolf gens and a
non-Christian, told the author that the myths of the Winnebago, called
wai-kaⁿ-na by them, have undergone material change in the course of
transmission, and that it is very probable that many of them are
entirely different from what they were several generations ago. Even in
the same tribe at the present day, the author has found no less than
three versions of the same myth, and there may be others.
The myth of the Big Turtle is a case in point.[5] The narrator
acknowledged that he had made some additions to it himself.
§ 14. No fasting or prayer is required before one can tell a myth.
Far different is it with those things which are “Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ,” or
are connected with visions or the secret societies. This agrees in
the main with what Mr. James Mooney, of the Bureau of Ethnology, has
learned from the Cherokee of North Carolina. Mr. Frank H. Cushing has
found that the Zuñi Indians distinguish between their folk-lore and
their cult-lore, i.e., between their legends and mythic tales on the
one hand, and their dramatized stories of creation and their religious
observances on the other, a special name being given to each class of
knowledge. To them the mythic tales and folk-lore in general are but
the fringe of the garment, not the garment itself. When they enact
the creation story, etc., they believe that they are repeating the
circumstances represented, and that they are then surrounded by the
very beings referred to in the sacred stories. Similar beliefs were
found by Dr. Washington Matthews, as shown in his article entitled “The
Prayer of a Navajo Shaman,” published in the American Anthropologist of
Washington, D.C., for April, 1888.
§ 15. At the same time there seems to be some connection between
certain myths and the personal names called, “nikie names.” This will
be considered in detail in a future monograph on “Indian Personal
Names,” now in course of preparation. One example must suffice for the
present. In the [K]aⁿze gens of the Omaha there is a nikie name, Ԁasi
duba, Four Peaks. The author did not understand its derivation until he
studied the myth of Haxige and observed the prayers made in gathering
the stones for the sweat-bath. Each stone was invoked as a venerable
man (see § 9), the Four Peaks were mentioned several times, and the two
superior deities or chief mysterious ones (Wakanda ʇañga agȼañʞaⁿhaⁿ
hnañkace) were invoked.[6]
This last refers to the Wakanda residing above and the one in
the ground. It is therefore possible that in past ages the
Siouan tribes did not differentiate between the myth and what is
“Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ.” But we have no means of proving this.
§ 16. Most of the Omaha governmental instrumentalities (“wewaspe”) were
“Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ,” but there were things that were “Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ,”
which were not “wewaspe,” such as the law of catamenial seclusion.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Am. Anthropologist, April, 1889, pp. 179, 180.]
[Footnote 2: Op. cit., p. 295.]
[Footnote 3: And also the kinship term in some cases.]
[Footnote 4: Myth, Ritual, and Religion, pp. 328, 329.]
[Footnote 5: See Contr. N. A. Ethn. Vol. VI, 271-277.]
[Footnote 6: Contr. N. A. Ethn., Vol. VI, pp. 234, 242]
CHAPTER III.
CULTS OF THE OMAHA, PONKA, KANSA, AND OSAGE.
BELIEFS AND PRACTICES NOT FOUND.
§ 17. There are certain beliefs and practices which have not been
found among the four tribes whose cults are treated of in this chapter.
Ancestors were not worshiped. They were addressed reverently when
alive, and when they died it was not contrary to custom to refer to
them by name, nor did their deaths involve the change of name for a
single object or phenomenon. It was a very common occurrence for
the name of the deceased to be assumed by a surviving kinsman.
This is shown by genealogical tables of a few Siouan tribes, the material
for which was collected by the author, and which will form part
of his monograph on “Indian Personal Names,” now in course of
preparation for publication by the Bureau of Ethnology.
§ 18. They never heard of Satan or the devil until they learned of him
from the white people. Now they have adopted the terms, “Wanáxe piäjĭ,”
“Iñgȼaⁿxe piäjĭ,” and “Wakanda piäjĭ.” The first is used by the Omaha
and Ponka, the others were heard only among the Ponka. They have a
certain saying, applicable to a young man who is a liar, or who is bad
in some other way: “Wanáxe piä´jĭ égaⁿ áhaⁿ,” i.e. “He is like the bad
spirit!” This becomes, when addressed to the bad person, “Wanáxe piä´jĭ
éȼikigaⁿ´-qti jaⁿ´,” i.e. “You act just like the (or a) bad spirit.”
§ 19. Though it has been said that hero worship was unknown among the
Omaha and Ponka, it has been learned that Omaha mothers used to scare
their unruly children by telling them that Icibajĭ (a hero of the
┴e-sĭnde gens) or his friend ┴exujaⁿ (a hero of the [K]aⁿze gens) would
catch them if they did not behave. There was no worship of demigods, as
demigods were unknown. Two Crows and Joseph La Flèche said that phallic
worship was unknown, and they were surprised to hear that it had
been practiced by any tribe. (See § 132, 164.) As the Ponka obtained
the sun-dance from their Dakota neighbors, it is probable that they
practiced the phallic cult.
§ 20. Totems and shamans were not worshiped, though they are still
reverenced. Altars or altar-stones were unknown. Incense was not
used, unless by this name we refer to the odor of tobacco smoke as it
ascended to the Thunder-being, or to the use of cedar fronds in the
sweat lodge. There were no human sacrifices, and cannibalism was not
practiced.
OMAHA, PONKA, AND KANSA BELIEF IN A WAKANDA.
§ 21. According to Two Crows and Joseph La Flèche, the ancestors of
the Omaha and Ponka believed that there was a Supreme Being, whom they
called Wakanda. “Wakanda t‘aⁿi tĕ eȼegaⁿi, they believed that Wakanda
existed.” They did not know where He was, nor did they undertake
to say how He existed. There was no public gathering at which some
of the people told others that there was a Wakauda, nor was there
any general assembly for the purpose of offering Him worship and
prayer. Each person thought in his heart that Wakanda existed. Some
addressed the sun as Wakanda, though many did not so regard him. Many
addressed Wakanda, as it were, blindly or at random. Some worshiped the
Thunder-being under this name. This was especially the case when men
undertook to go on the war path. [7] Mr. Say recorded of the Kansa:
“They say that they have never seen Wakanda, so they cannot pretend to
personify Him; but they have often heard Him speak in the thunder. They
often wear a shell which is in honor or in representation of Him, but
they do not pretend that it resembles Him, or has anything in common
with his form, organization, or size.”
SEVEN GREAT WAKANDAS.
§ 22. Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿ-pajĭ said that there were seven great Wakandas, as
follows: “Ugahana[p]aze or Darkness, Maxe or the Upper World, ┴ande
or the Ground, Iñgȼaⁿ or the Thunder-being, Miⁿ or the Sun, Niaⁿba
or the Moon, and the Morning Star. The principal Wakanda is in the
upper world, above everything.” (This was denied by Joseph La Flèche
and Two Crows; see § 93.) The author thought at first that these were
the powers worshiped by Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ and the members of his gens or
subgens; but subsequent inquiries and statements occurring in the
course of texts furnish cumulative evidence favoring the view that some
or all these powers had many believers among the Omaha and the cognate
tribes.
INVOCATION OF WARMTH AND STREAMS.
§ 23. Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ said that Macte or Warmth was a good Wakanda. Ni
ȼiⁿ, the flowing Stream, according to him, was thus addressed by a man
who wished to ford it: “You are a person and a Wakanda. I, too, am a
person. I desire to pass through you and reach the other side.” Two
Crows denied this, saying that his people never prayed to a stream; but
George Miller said that it was true, for his father, Little Soldier,
prayed to a stream when he was on the war path, and that such
invocations were made only in time of war.
PRAYER TO WAKANDA.
§ 24. Prayer to Wakanda, said La Flèche and Two Crows, was not made for
small matters, such as going fishing, but only for great and important
undertakings, such as going to war or starting on a journey. When a
man wished to travel he first went alone to a bluff, where he prayed
to Wakanda to help him and his family by protecting them during his
absence and by granting him a successful journey. At a time when the
Ponka were without food, Horse-with-yellow-hair, or Cañge-hiⁿ-zi,
prayed to Wakanda on the hill beyond the Stony Butte. The latter is
a prominent landmark in northern Nebraska (in what was Todd county,
Dakota, in 1871-’73), about 7 miles from the Missouri River and the
Ponka Agency (of 1870-’77)[8]. Several Omaha said that the places
for prayer were rocks, high bluffs, and mountains. “All Omaha went
to such places to pray, but they did not pray to the visible object,
though they called it Grandfather.”--(Frank La Flèche.) They smoked
towards the invoked object and placed gifts of killickinnick, etc.,
upon it. Compare with this the Dakota custom of invoking a bowlder on
the prairie; calling it Tŭñkaⁿcidaⁿ (Tuŋkaŋśidaŋ), or Grandfather,
symbolizing the Earth-being.[9] Though it has been said that a high
bluff was merely a place for praying to Wakanda, and that it was not
itself addressed as Wakanda, the author has learned from members of the
Omaha and Pouka tribes that when they went on the warpath for the first
time, their names were then changed and one of the old men was sent
to the bluffs to tell the news to the various Wakandas, including the
bluffs, trees, birds, insects, reptiles, etc.[10]
ACCESSORIES OF PRAYER.
Among the accessories of prayer were the following: (_a_) The action
called ȼistube by the Omaha and Ponka, riçtowe by the three ┴ɔiwere
tribes, and yuwiⁿtapi (yuwiŋtapi) by the Dakota, consisting of the
elevation of the suppliant’s arms with the palms toward the object
or the face of the being invoked, followed by a passage of the hand
downward toward the ground, without touching the object or person (see
§§ 28, 35, 36). (_b_) The presentation of the pipe with the mouthpiece
toward the power invoked (see §§ 29, 35, 40). (_c_) The use of smoke
from the pipe (See §§ 27, 36), or of the odor of burning cedar needles,
as in the sweat lodge. (_d_) The application of the kinship term,
“grandfather,” or its alternative, “venerable man,” to a male power,
and “grandmother” to a female power (see §§ 30, 31, 35, 39, 59, 60,
etc.). (_e_) Ceremonial wailing or crying (Xage, to wail or cry--Dakota
ćeya. See § 100).[11] (_f_) Sacrifice or offering of goods, animals,
pieces of the suppliant’s flesh, etc. In modern times the Kansa have
substituted the lives of animals, as deer, grouse, etc., for those of
human enemies (see §§ 28, 33, etc.).
OMAHA AND KANSA EXPRESSIONS ABOUT WAKANDA.
§ 25. Samuel Fremont said that before the advent of the white race the
Omaha had certain expressions which they used in speaking of Wakanda.
When an Indian met with unexpected good fortune of any sort the people
used to say, “Wakanda has given him some assistance.”[12] Or they might
say, “Wakanda knows him.”[13] Sometimes they said, “Wakanda has planned
for his own (i. e., for his friend, relation, or subject).”[14] If a
Kansa prospers, he says, “Wakan´da aká aⁿmaⁿ´yüxü´dje aka´ eyaú,” i.
e., “Wakanda has indeed been looking at me!” And in speaking of the
success of another, he says, “Wakan´da aká níka yiñké uyü´xüdje aká
eyaú,” i. e., “Wakanda has indeed been looking at the man.”
Samuel Fremont said that when an animal detected the approach of the
hunter and consequently fled from him, the man prayed thus:
Hau´ Wakan´da, wani´ta wiⁿ aⁿȼá‘i éiⁿte cĭ iⁿȼégȼize
Ho, Wakanda, quadruped one you gave perhaps again you take
to me yours
back
from me
égaⁿ. Cĭ wiⁿ´ waȼíɔnaaⁿȼákiȼe kaⁿbȼégaⁿ,
somewhat again one you cause to appear I hope
to me
i. e., “Ho, Wakanda, you may have given me an animal, but now it seems
that you have taken it from me. I hope that you will cause another to
appear to me.” But if the hunter shot at an animal and missed it, he
said nothing.
PONKA BELIEF ABOUT MALEVOLENT SPIRITS.
§ 26. About eighteen years ago, the author was told by the Ponka,
whose reservation was then in southern Dakota, that they believed death
to be caused by certain malevolent spirits, whom they feared. In order
to prevent future visits of such spirits, the survivors gave away all
their property, hoping that as they were in such a wretched plight the
spirits would not think it worth while to make them more unhappy. At
the burial of Mazi-kide, an Omaha, the author observed that some one
approached the corpse and addressed it. In referring to this in 1888,
Samuel Fremont said that the speaker said, “Wakanda has caused your
death.” In telling this, Fremont used the singular. “Wakanda aka.” On
repeating this to George Miller, the latter said that it should have
been “Wakanda ama,” in the plural, “the Mysterious Powers,” as the
Omaha believed in more than one Wakanda before they learned about the
one God of monotheism.
This agrees with what was learned about the Dakota by the late
missionaries, Messrs. S. R. Riggs and G. H. Pond, and by the late James
W. Lynd, as stated in chapter V.
AN OLD OMAHA CUSTOM.
§ 27. “Abicude,” said Samuel Fremont, “is a word which refers to an
old Omaha and Ponka custom, i.e., that of blowing the smoke downward
to the ground while praying. The Omaha and Ponka used to hold the pipe
in six directions while smoking: toward the four winds, the ground,
and the upper world.” The exact order has been forgotten by Fremont,
but Lewis and Clarke have recorded the corresponding Shoshoni custom.
Capt. Lewis tells how the Shoshoni chief, after lighting his pipe of
transparent greenstone (instead of catlinite), made a speech, after
which he pointed the stem of the pipe toward the four points of the
heavens, beginning with the east and concluding with the north. After
extending the stem thrice toward Capt. Lewis, he pointed it first
toward the heavens and then toward the center of the little circle
of guests, probably toward the ground, symbolizing the subterranean
power.[15]
In addressing the four winds, a peculiar expression is employed by the
Omaha:
┴a[p]é dúba híȼaȼĕ ȼáȼiⁿcé, iⁿ wiñ´ʞaⁿi-gă, Thou who causest
Wind four you cause you (sing.) help ye me.
it to reach who move
there
the four winds to reach a place, help ye me! Instead of the singular
classifier, ȼaȼiⁿce, the regular plural, nañkácĕ, ye who sit, stand, or
move, might have been expected. (See § 33.)
In smoking toward the ground and upper world, the suppliant had to
say, “I petition to you who are one of the two, you who are reclining
on your back, and to you who are the other one, sitting directly above
us. Both of you help me!” “Here,” said Fremont, “the ground itself was
addressed as a person.” Two Crows said that some Omaha appealed to a
subterranean Wakanda when their word was doubted, saying, “Iⁿc‘áge
hídeaʇa aká aⁿná‘aⁿi,” “The venerable man at the bottom hears me.” The
author is unable to say whether this was ┴ande or Wakandagi. (See § 37.)
The following was recorded of the Omaha, and refers to a custom
relating to the buffalo hunt.[16]
On coming in sight of the herd, the hunters talk kindly to their
horses, applying to them the endearing names of father, brother,
uncle, etc. They petition them not to fear the bisons, but to run
well and keep close to them, but at the same time to avoid being
gored.
The party having approached as near to the herd as they suppose
the animals will permit without taking alarm, they halt to give
the pipe bearer an opportunity to perform the ceremony of
smoking, which is considered necessary to their success. He lights
his pipe, and remains a short time with his head inclined, and the
stem of the pipe extended toward the herd. He then smokes, and
puffs the smoke toward the bisons, and the earth, and finally to
the cardinal points successively.
THE SUN A WAKANDA.
§ 28. In the Osage traditions the “mysterious one of day” is invoked
as “grandfather.”[17]
He replies that he is not the only Wakanʇa. That the Kansa worshiped
the sun as a Wakanda appears from the following: “On one occasion, when
the Kansa went against the Pawnees, the stick was set up for the mystic
attack or ‘waqpele gaxe.’ The war captain addressed the rising sun thus:
“Páyiⁿ áqli kŭⁿ´bla eyaú. Cŭñ´ge wábliⁿ alí kŭⁿ´bla
Pawnee I stun by I wish indeed. Horse I have I have I wish
hitting them come back
eyaú. Wayü´qpe ckí kŭⁿ´bla eyaú. Haléje uɯíblage.
indeed. Pulling down too I wish indeed. Calico (shirt) I tell you
(a foe) about it.
Haqiⁿ´ uɯíblage. Haská cki Páyiⁿ áqli-daⁿ´ mík’ü
Robe I tell you Blanket too Pawnee I stun when I give to
about it. by hitting you
tá miñke, Wákanda-é, é gü´aⁿyakiyé-daⁿ. “I wish to kill
will I who O Wakanda! that you cause me to when.
(sit) be returning
[Transcriber's note: the hyphen in “gü´aⁿyakiyé-daⁿ” was at the end of
a line; the word may have been “gü´aⁿyakiyédaⁿ” or “gü´aⁿyakiyé-daⁿ”.]
a Pawnee! I desire to bring horses when I return. I long to pull down
an enemy! I promise you a calico shirt and a robe. I will give you a
blanket also, O Wakanda, if you allow me to return in safety after
killing a Pawnee!” When warriors performed the “waqpele gaxe” or the
attack on the stick representing the foe, no member of the Lṵ or
Thunder gens could participate. On such an occasion the warrior turned
to the east and said: “Aⁿmaⁿ´pye kŭⁿ´bla aú. Haská
To follow me(?) I wish . Blanket
or We follow it(?)
uɯíblage aú, Wákanda-é,” i.e., I wish my party to pass along
I tell you of it . O Wakanda
the road to the foe(?). I promise you a blanket, O Wakanda (if I
succeed?).” On turning to the west he said: “Uⁿ´hŭⁿ
Boiling
uɯíblage aú, Wákanda-é,” i.e., “I promise you a feast, O
I tell you of it . O Wakanda
Wakanda (if I succeed?).”
When it was decided to perform the “waqpele gaxe,” the dudaⁿhañga or
war captain made one of the lieutenants carry the sacred bag, and two
of the kettle tenders took bundles of sticks, which they laid down in
the road. The four remaining kettle tenders remained at the camping
place. The next morning all the warriors but those of the Lṵ gens went
to the place where the sticks had been laid, drew a circle around the
bundles, set up one of the sticks, and attacked it, as if it were a
Pawnee. This ceremony often caused the death of real enemies.
Among the Osage and Kansa prayer was made toward the rising sun in the
morning and towards the setting sun in the afternoon and evening.
Among the Omaha and Kansa the head of a corpse is laid towards the
east. For this reason no Omaha will consent to recline with his head
towards that point. The Kansa lodges also are orientated, and so were
those of the Omaha (see § 59). The east appears to symbolize life or
the source thereof, but[18] the west refers to death; so among the
Osage the course of a war party was towards the mythic or symbolic
west, towards which point the entrances of the lodges were turned[19]
(see §§ 83 and 384).
Gahige, the late Omaha chief, said that when he was young all the Omaha
prayed to the sun, holding up their hands with the palms towards the
sun and saying, “Wakan´da, ȼá‘eaⁿ´ȼa-gă,” etc., i. e., “O Wakanda, pity
me!” They abstained from eating, drinking, and (ordinary) smoking from
sunrise to sunset; but after sunset the restrictions were removed.[20]
For four nights the men who thus prayed did not sleep at home. At the
end of that period the task was finished. “Íwackaⁿ gáxai,” i. e., they
made or gained superhuman power. They could thus pray at any time from
the appearance of grass in the spring until the ground became frozen.
THE OFFERING OF TOBACCO.
§ 29. In 1889 George Miller gave an account of what he called “Niní
bahaí tĕ,” i. e. the offering or presentation of tobacco. Whether this
phrase was ever used except in a religious or superhuman connection
is more than the author is able to say. Whenever the Indians traveled
they used all the words which follow as they extended the pipe with
the mouthpiece toward the sun: “Haú, niní gakĕ´ Wakan´da, Miⁿ´ ȼé
Ho tobacco that Wakanda Sun this
lg. ob.
niñkĕ´cĕ! Ujañ´ge ȼiȼíʇa kĕ égaⁿqti uáha té ă.
you who sit Road your the just so I follow will !
lg. ob. its course
Iñgáxa-gă! Edádaⁿ ctécte údaⁿqti ákipañkiȼa´-gă! Edádaⁿ
Make it for me What soever very good cause me to meet it What
júajĭ wiⁿ´ ĕdedíte ʞĭ´ íbetaⁿañkiȼá-gă! Ȼi´-naⁿ
inferior one it is there if cause me to pass Only thou
around it
ámusta waȼíɔna ȼagȼiⁿ´, ní-uȼan´da ȼéȼaⁿ ȼéȼaⁿska édegaⁿ,
directly in sight you sit island this this large but
above (us) place
edádaⁿ waníta ʇan´de uckaⁿ´ckaⁿ ȼaⁿ bȼúgaqti níkaciⁿga
what quadruped ground mv. on it here the all person
and there
ȼaⁿ´ ctĕwaⁿ´ wiⁿ´ aⁿ´ba ataⁿ´ íȼaɔni´gȼaⁿ ʞĭ, égaⁿ-naⁿ.
the soever one day how you decide for when always so.
long him
Ádaⁿ wi´ʞa-naⁿ maⁿ´ hă, Wakan´da” This may be rendered
Therefore I ask a favor alone . Wakanda
of you
freely thus: “Ho, Mysterious Power, you who are the Sun! Here is
tobacco! I wish to follow your course. Grant that it may be so! Cause
me to meet whatever is good (i. e., for my advantage) and to give a
wide berth to anything that may be to my injury or disadvantage.
Throughout this island (the world) you regulate everything that
moves, including human beings, when you decide for one that his last
day on earth has come, it is so. It can not be delayed. Therefore, O
Mysterious Power, I ask a favor of you.”
THE PONKA SUN DANCE OF 1873.
In the summer of 1873, when the author was missionary to the Ponka
in what was Todd County, Dakota, that tribe had a sun dance on the
prairie near the mission house. The scarifications and subsequent
tortures and dancing lasted but three hours instead of a longer
period, owing to the remonstrances of Bishop Hare, the agent, and the
missionary. The head chief, White Eagle, was tied to his pony, after he
had been scarified and fastened to the sun pole. Some of his policemen,
armed with whips, lashed the pony until it leaped aside, tearing out
the lariat that fastened the chief to the sun pole, and terminating his
participation in the ceremony. (See Pl. XLVI and § 187.) For obvious
reasons the author did not view the sun dance, but he was told about it
by some of the spectators. As the chief, Standing Buffalo, had said to
Bishop Hare in the council previous to the sun dance, “You white people
pray to Wakanda in your way, and we Indians pray to Wakanda in the sun
dance. Should you chance to lose your way on the prairie you would
perish, but if we got lost we would pray to Wakanda in the sun dance,
and find our way again.”
THE MOON A WAKANDA.
§ 30. No examples of invocations of the moon have yet been found
among the Omaha and Ponka. But that the moon is “qube” appears from the
decorations of robes and tents. (See §§ 45-47.)
The moon is addressed as a “grandfather” and is described as the
“Wakanʇa of night” in “Osage Traditions,” lines 55-59.[21]
BERDACHES.
The Omaha believe that the unfortunate beings, called “Miⁿ-qu-ga,” are
mysterious or sacred because they have been affected by the Moon Being.
When a young Omaha fasted for the first time on reaching puberty, it
was thought that the Moon Being appeared to him, holding in one hand
a bow and arrows and in the other a pack strap, such as the Indian
women use. When the youth tried to grasp the bow and arrows the Moon
Being crossed his hands very quickly, and if the youth was not very
careful he seized the pack strap instead of the bow and arrows, thereby
fixing his lot in after life. In such a case he could not help acting
the woman, speaking, dressing, and working just as Indian women used
to do. Louis Sanssouci said that the miⁿ-quga took other men as their
husbands. Frank La Flèche knew one such man, who had had several men
as his husbands. A Ponka child once said to the author, “Miⁿjiñga-ma
nujiñga ama ʇi-gaxe-nandi, miⁿquga, ai,” i.e., “If boys make a practice
of playing with the girls they become (or are called) miⁿquga.” This
term may be rendered “hermaphrodite” when it refers to animals, as “ʇe
miⁿquga,” a hermaphrodite buffalo. It must have been of this class of
persons, called “Miⁿ-quge” by the Kansa that Say wrote when he said:
Many of the subjects of it (i.e., sodomy among the Kansa) are
publicly known, and do not appear to be despised or to excite
disgust. One was pointed out to us. He had submitted himself to it
in consequence of a vow he had made to his mystic medicine, which
obliged him to change his dress for that of a woman, to do their
work, and to permit his hair to grow.[22]
After giving an account of the Miⁿquga which agrees with what has been
written above, Miss Fletcher[23] tells of “a man who had the misfortune
to be forced to this life and tried to resist. His father gave him a
bow and some arrows, but the penalty of his vision so wrought upon his
mind that, unable to endure the abnormal life, he committed suicide.”
(See §§ 212, 353.)
STARS AS WAKANDAS.
§ 31. That the Omaha and Ponka regarded the stars as Wakandas seems
probable from the existence of nikie names and the personal mystery
decorations. (See §§ 45, 47, and 52.) There are star names in the
Night gens of the Kansa, and they point to the mythical origin of the
gens. The Kansa made offerings to the morning star. Among the Osage
the traditions of the Tsiɔu Wactaʞe and Bald Eagle people mention
several Wakanʇas among the stars. These are as follows: Watse ʇuʞa,
a “grandfather;” Watse miⁿʞa, a “grandmother;” Miⁿkak’e peȼŭⁿ[p]a,
the Seven Stars (Pleiades?), a “grandfather;” the constellation
Ta ȼa[p]ȼiⁿ or the Three Deer, a “grandfather;” the morning star,
Miⁿkak’e tañʞa (literally, large star), a “grandfather;” the small
star, a “grandfather;” the bowl of the Dipper, called “Wa[p]aha
ȼiñkce; the Funeral Bier,” a “grandfather,” and the Female Red Bird,
a “grandmother,” the eponym of the Tsiɔu Wactaʞe or “Red Eagle” gens.
She, too, was probably a star.[24]
§ 32 Gaⁿ edádaⁿ ȼiⁿ´ ctĕwaⁿ ȼahaⁿ´-naⁿi ni´aciⁿ´ga ama´, [p]ahe´
And what the soever usually Indian the hill
col. prayed (to) pl.
ob. sub.
ʇañga´ ȼiⁿ, ctĕwaⁿ´. “Wakan´da bȼu´gaqti wi´ʞai ă,” e´-naⁿi.
large the soever Wakanda all I ask a ! they said
col. favor of usually
ob.
“Hau, ┴an´de niñkĕ´ cĕ, ʞa´ci jiñ´ga e´gaⁿ a´witaⁿ te´ ă,”
Ho Ground you who sit some little so I tread will !
time on you
ai´ ni´kaciⁿ´ga ama´. ┴ade´ ui´ȼĕ du´baha tĕ´ ctĭ
say Indians the Whence the wind in four the too
pl. sub. is sent hither(?) places
ȼahaⁿ´-naⁿi. “┴ade´ ui´ȼĕ du´baha nañka´cĕ, iⁿwiñ´ʞaⁿi-gă.”
they usually Whence the wind in four ye who are help ye me
pray (to) is sent hither(?) places
Gaⁿ´ gage´giȼaⁿ´i ni´aciⁿ´ga uke´ȼiⁿ ama´, Wakan´da
and they speak in that Indian ordinary the pl. Wakanda
manner to (one) sub.
wa´ȼahaⁿi tĕ´di. “The Indians used to invoke various objects,
they pray to when
them
including the mountains, saying, ‘O, all ye mysterious powers, I ask a
favor of you!’ They prayed to the ground, saying, ‘O, you who are the
ground! May I tread you a little while longer!’ i. e., ‘May my life on
earth be prolonged!’ When one prayed to the four winds, he would say,
‘Ho, ye four winds, help me!’ Thus did speak when they prayed to the
Wakandas.”--(George Miller.)
THE WINDS AS WAKANDAS.
§ 33. The Omaka and Ponka invoked the winds, as has been stated in
part of the preceding section. See also the statement of Samuel Fremont
(§ 27).[25]
In preparing for the pipe dance the tobacco pouch, two gourd rattles,
and the ear of corn have a figure drawn on each of them with green
paint; it is the cross, indicating the four quarters of the heavens or
the four winds.[26]
KANSA SACRIFICE TO THE WINDS.
“In former days the Kansa used to remove the hearts of slain foes
and put them in the fire as a sacrifice to the four winds. Even now
(1882) offerings are made to every Wakanda by the Kansa, to the
power or powers above, to those under the hills, to the winds, the
thunder-being, the morning star, etc. As Aliⁿkawahu and Pahaⁿlegaqli
are Yata men (i. e., members of gentes camping on the left side of the
tribal circle), they elevate their left hands and begin at the left
with the east wind, then they turn to the south wind, then to the west
wind, and finally to the north wind, saying to each, ‘Gá-tcĕ, Wakan´da,
mik’ü´ eyau´,’ i. e., ‘O Wakanda, I really give that to you.’ In former
days they used to pierce themselves with knives and splinters of wood,
and offer small pieces of their flesh to the Wakandas.”[27]
OSAGE CONSECRATION OF MYSTIC FIREPLACES.
The author considers that the following statement of the Osage
chief, [K]ahiʞe-waʇayiñʞa (of the Tsiɔu Wactaʞe gens), refers to the
invocation of the four winds. It appears to have been associated with
fire or hearth worship. Whenever a permanent village of earth lodges
was established among the Osage and Kansa, there was a consecration of
a certain number of fireplaces before the ordinary fireplaces could be
made by the common people. The consecrated fireplaces were made in two
parallel rows, beginning at the west and ending at the east. Among the
Kansa there were seven on one side and six on the other, but among the
Osage there seem to have been seven on each side. Among the Osage, the
Tsiɔu Wactaʞe and Paⁿɥka gentes were the ‘roadmakers,’ i. e., those who
consecrated the two rows of fireplaces. [K]ahiʞe-waʇayiñʞa said, “When
the old Tsiɔu man made his speech, he went into details about every
part of a lodge, the fireplace, building materials, implements, etc.
Four sticks were placed in the fireplace, the first one pointing to the
west (see §§ 40, 84). When the first stick was laid down, the Tsiɔu
leader spoke about the west wind, and also about a young buffalo bull
(Tseʇṵ-ɔiñʞa), repeating the name, Wanie-skă (meaning not gained). When
the stick pointing to the north was laid down he spoke of Tsehe-qṵʇ[s]e
(gray buffalo horns), or a buffalo bull. When the stick at the east was
laid down, he spoke of Tse-ʇṵʞa-tañʞa (a large buffalo bull). On laying
down the fourth stick, pointing to the south, he spoke of Tse miⁿʞa (a
buffalo cow). At the same time a similar ceremony was performed by the
aged Paⁿɥka man for the gentes on the right side of the tribal circle.
In placing the stick to the east, he mentioned Taʇ[s]e [K]aqpa tsĕ (the
east wind) and Tahe ca[p]e (dark horned deer). In placing that to the
north, Taʇ[s]e Ԁa[s]aⁿ tsĕ (the north wind, literally, ‘the pine wind’)
and Tahe qṵʇ[s]e (the deer with gray horns) were mentioned. In placing
that pointing to the west, Taʇ[s]e Maⁿha tsĕ (the west wind) and an
animal which makes a lodge and is with the Tahe pa[s]iʞe (probably a
deer name) were mentioned. In placing the stick pointing to the south,
he spoke of Taʇ[s]e Ak’a tsĕ (the south wind) and Ta wañka he aʞȼaɔi
skutañʞa (probable meaning, a large white female deer without any
horns).
§ 34. In time of war, prayers were made about the fire (§ 287), when a
warrior painted his face red, using the “fire paint,” a custom of the
left or Tsiɔu side of the tribe. Those on the right or Hañʞa side used
“the young buffalo bull decoration,” and probably offered prayer in
connection therewith, in order to be filled with the spirit of their
“little grandfather” (the young buffalo bull), as they rushed on the
enemy. This will be seen from the words employed by the warrior: “My
little grandfather is always dangerous as he makes an attempt. Very
close do I stand, ready to go to the attack!”[28]
THE THUNDER-BEING A WAKANDA.
OMAHA AND PONKA INVOCATION OF THE THUNDER-BEING.
§ 35. Among the Omaha and Ponka, when the first thunder was heard in
the spring of the year, the Black bear people went to the sacred
tent of the Elk gens, and there they assisted the Elk people in
the invocation of the Thunder-being. At a similar gathering of the
Ponka, the Ponka Black bear people said, “Hau, iⁿc‘áge, ȼiʇúcpa ȼéȼu
añ´ga-taⁿ ganáxiwaȼáȼai. Maⁿciáʇahá maⁿȼiñ´gă,” i. e., “Ho, venerable
man! by your striking (with your club) you are frightening us, your
grandchildren, who are here. Depart on high.”[29]
[Transcriber’s note: The hyphen in “añ´ga-taⁿ” was at the end of a
line; the word may have been “añ´gataⁿ” or “añ´ga-taⁿ”.]
THUNDER-BEING INVOKED BY WARRIORS.
The Thunder-being is invoked by all present during the feast
preparatory to starting on the warpath, when there is a small party of
warriors. Each one addresses the Thunder-being as “Nudaⁿhañga,” leader
in war, or war captain.[30]
When a large war party is desired, the Thunder-being is invoked
(See history of Wabaskaha, in Contr. N. A. Ethn., Vol. VI, p. 394).
Wabaskaha himself prayed, saying, “Oh, Wakanda, though foreigners
have injured me, I hope that you may help me.” All who heard him knew
that he desired to lead a large war party. When the four captains
were chosen, they had to cry incessantly at night as well as by day,
saying, “Oh, Wakanda! pity me! help me in that about which I am in a
bad humor.” During the day they abstained from food and drink; but they
could satisfy their thirst and hunger when night came.
At the feast preparatory to starting off as a large war party, the
keepers of the sacred bags sing thunder songs as well as other sacred
songs. One of the thunder songs used on such an occasion begins thus:
“Wi-ʇí-gaⁿ naⁿ´-pe-wá-ȼĕ é-gaⁿ,
Wi-ʇí-gaⁿ naⁿ´-pe-wá-ȼĕ é-gaⁿ,
Wé-tiⁿ kĕ gȼi-haⁿ´-haⁿ ʞĭ,
Naⁿ´-pe-wá-ȼĕ ----.”
“As my grandfather is dangerous,
As my grandfather is dangerous,
Dangerous when he brandishes his club,
Dangerous ----.”
When he had proceeded thus far, Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ stopped and refused to
tell the rest, as it was very “waqube.” He said that the principal
captains of a large war party tied pieces of twisted grass around their
wrists and ankles, and wore similar pieces around their heads. But
Two Crows, who has been a captain, says that he never did this. (See,
however, the Iowa custom in § 75.)
ICTASANDA CUSTOM.
The following “nikie” or ancient custom of the Ictasanda gens was
related by George Miller:
Najiⁿ´ daⁿ´ctĕaⁿ´ ʞĭ, naⁿ´pai ʞĭ, gaⁿ´ Wakan´da-ma
Rain perhaps if they fear if so the Wakandas (pl. ob.)
seen danger
nini´ uji´ wa‘i´i tĕ. Gaⁿ´ nini´ uji´ wa‘i´i
tobacco put in they the (past and tobacco put in they gave
gave to act) to them
them
tĕ´di e´giȼaⁿ´i tĕ: Ȼéȼu waqpa´ȼiⁿ-qti a´ȼiⁿhe´,
when they said to the Here very poor I who move
(one) (past act)
[Transcriber’s note: the hyphen in “waqpa´ȼiⁿ-qti” was at the end of a
line; the word may have been “waqpa´ȼiⁿqti” or “waqpa´ȼiⁿ-qti”.]
aⁿwaⁿ´waʇa´ȼicaⁿ cte´ctewaⁿ ȼiúde ti´gȼe gáxai-gă,
in what direction soever to become abandoned make ye
(suddenly)
ʇigaⁿ´ha. Ĕ´dedi´ ȼa´ȼiⁿcé (é) jaⁿmiⁿ´.
O grandfather. You are mv. there I suspect.
Ȼigȼíze-maⁿ´ȼiⁿ, ĕ´dedí ȼáȼiⁿcé (é) jaⁿmiⁿ´.
Walking Forked-lightning, you are mv. there I suspect.
Ȼiaⁿ´ba-ti´gȼe, ĕ´dedí ȼa´ȼiⁿcé. (é) jaⁿmiⁿ´.
Sheet-lightning flashes you are mv. there I suspect.
suddenly
Ȼiaⁿ´ba-gí-naⁿ, ĕ´dedi´ ȼáȼiⁿcé (é) jaⁿmiⁿ´.
Sheet-lightning is often you are mv. there I suspect.
returning hither.
Gáagigȼédaⁿ ĕ´dedí ȼáȼiⁿcé (é) jaⁿmiⁿ´. Gaⁿ´
(a name referring you are mv. there I suspect. And
to passing thunder)
gatégaⁿ gáxa-bájĭ ʞĭ´ctĕ níaciⁿ´ga ciⁿȼiqáde ȼégaⁿ
in that manner he does not if man (See Note.) thus
najiⁿ´i, maqpi´ kĕʇáȼicaⁿ xagé najiⁿ´i. Gaⁿ´ Wakan´da
stands, cloud toward the lg ob. crying stands. And Wakanda
amá wégi[p]ahaⁿ´-bi, aí. Níkaciⁿ´ga
the pl. sub. that they know about they say. Person
them, their own
taⁿ´waⁿgȼaⁿ wédajĭ amá aȼiⁿ´ naⁿ´pai,
gens elsewhere the pl. sub. to have it they fear seen danger,
ijáje gĕ´ ctĕwaⁿ. Águdi´ctĕ níkaciⁿ´ga amá
name the pl. in. ob. even. In some places person the pl. sub.
(not specified.)
iȼa‘e´ȼĕ amá Icta´sanda úckaⁿ eʇai´ tĕ e´gaⁿ
those who have visions, etc. Ictasanda custom their the ob. so
ga´xai. Waaⁿ´ ĕ´qti ga´xai daⁿ´ctĕ giaⁿ´
they do. song they themselves they make perhaps singing their own
najiⁿ´i. Nini´ba kĕ uji´ aȼiⁿ´i e´gaⁿ maqpi´
they stand. Pipe the lg. ob. filled they have as cloud
kĕʇáȼicaⁿ úgaqȼe baha´ najiⁿ´i. Ni´kaciⁿ´ga
towards the lg. ob. facing holdingoutto they stand. Person
ama´ a´ji ctĭ ga´xe-naⁿ´i. Ataⁿ´ctĕ nini´ba
the pl. sub. different too they often do. Sometimes pipe
aȼiⁿ´-bajĭ gaⁿ´ waaⁿ´ si´aⁿȼe´ daⁿ´ctĕ najiⁿ´-naⁿi. Kĭ
they do not have so singing alone perhaps they stand often. And
ni´kaciⁿ´ga ama´ ȼe´ i´ȼa‘e´ȼĕ ama´ úckaⁿ eda´daⁿ údaⁿ
person the pl. sub. this those who have deed what good
visions, etc.
uha´ ‘i´ȼĕ tai´ ʞĭ´ctĕ i´bahaⁿ´i, cĭ úckaⁿ
to follow the course promise will even they know, again deed
júajĭ a´kipa tai´ ʞĭ´ctĕ i´bahaⁿ´i. Gaⁿ ni´kaciⁿ´ga ȼiⁿ
unsuitable they will meet even they know. And person the
mv. one
aⁿwaⁿ´waʇa gaqȼaⁿ´ maⁿȼiⁿ´ ctĕwaⁿ´ nini´ uji´
in what direction large hunting walks soever tobacco puts in
expedition
‘i´i e´gaⁿ waȼi´gȼañkiȼai´. E‘aⁿ´ ujañ´ge uha´ tai
gives to as causes him to prophesy. How road he will follow its
him course
ʞĭ´ctĕ i´bahaⁿ gi´gaⁿȼai´ e´gaⁿ waañ´kiȼai´. Kĭ
even to know wishes for him as causes him to sing. And
ataⁿ´ctĕ ni´kaciⁿ´ga ama´ e´gaⁿi, a´ȼade-naⁿ´i,
sometimes person the pl. sub. just so, they often pronounce,
wani´ta daⁿ´ctĕ ube´[s]niⁿ ʞĭ, wani´ta d‘u´ba aⁿ‘i´i hă, e´
quadruped perhaps they find if quadruped some they have . he
out given to me says
daⁿ´ctĕaⁿ´i.
perhaps.
_Notes._
383, 4, et passim. Ȼaȼiⁿce ejaⁿmiⁿ, contracted in rapid pronunciation
to, ȼaȼiⁿcejaⁿmiⁿ.
383, 4-6. Ȼigȼize-maⁿȼiⁿ, Ȼiaⁿba-tigȼe, Ȼiaⁿba-gínaⁿ, and Gaagigȼedaⁿ
are “nikie names” of the Ictasanda or Thunder gens of the Omaha. They
may refer to four Thunder beings, one at each point of the compass, or
one dwelling in the direction of each of the four winds.
383, 8. Ciⁿȼiqade, with the arms elevated and the hands stretched out,
palms down, towards the clouds.
383, 9-10. Nikaciⁿga wedajĭ ama, etc. Other gentes of Omaha fear to
mention these Ictasanda names, or to bestow them on members of their
gentes.
383, 11. Agudictĕ ... iȼa‘eȼĕ ama, etc. Refers to the Iñgȼaⁿ iȼa‘eȼĕ
ama, or the Thunder shamans, of the other Omaha gentes.
_Translation._
When the Ictasanda people become fearful during a shower, they fill a
pipe with tobacco and offer it to the Thunder-beings. And when they
offer the tobacco, they speak thus: “O grandfather! I am very poor
here. In some direction or other cause a place to be abandoned by those
(who would injure me?). I think that you are there O Ȼigȼize-maⁿȼiⁿ! I
think that you are there. O Ȼiaⁿba-tigȼe! I think that you are there. O
Ȼiaⁿba-gi naⁿ! I think that you are there. O Gaagigȼedaⁿ! I think that
you are there.”
And when they do not offer the tobacco, they stand with the arms
elevated and the hands stretched out, palms down, as they cry towards
the clouds. And they say that the Thunder-beings know about them, their
worshippers.
The Omaha of the other gentes fear to mention these Ictasanda nikie
names, or to bestow them on members of their gentes, as well as to
invoke the Thunder-being or beings, unless they belong to the order of
Thunder shamans. In that case, they can do as the Ictasanda people do.
They make songs about the Thunder-beings, and stand singing their own
songs. They fill the pipe with tobacco, and stand, holding it with the
mouth-piece toward the clouds, as they gaze towards them.
These shamans often act otherwise. Sometimes they do not fill the
pipe, and then they stand singing the Thunder songs, without offering
anything to the Thunder-beings.
And these shamans know when anything promises to result in good or
evil to the person undertaking it. So when a person wishes to join a
large hunting party, he fills a pipe with tobacco, and offers it to
a shaman, thus causing him to prophesy. As he wishes him to know the
result of following a certain course, (i. e., of traveling in a certain
direction), he induces the shaman to sing (sacred songs). And sometimes
the shaman predicts the very occurrence which comes to pass; if, for
instance, he foretells that the inquiring man will kill game, he may
say, ‘The Thunder-beings (?) have given me some quadrupeds.’
KANSA WORSHIP OF THE THUNDER-BEING.
§ 36. The following was a custom of the Lṵ or Thunder-being gens. At
the time of the first thunder-storm in the spring of the year, the Lṵ
people put a quantity of green cedar on a fire, making a great smoke.
The storm ceased after the members of the other gentes offered prayers.
The Buffalo or Tcedŭñga gens aided the Lṵ gens in the worship of the
Thunder-being, by sending one of their men to open the sacred bag of
gray hawk skin and remove the mystery pipe. These objects were kept by
a Lṵ man, Kinuyiñge, who was not allowed to open the bag.
Pahaⁿle-gaqli, of the Large Hañga gens, and Aliⁿkawahu, of the Small
Hañga, are the leaders in everything pertaining to war. Pahaⁿle-gaqli
furnished the author with a copy of his war chart, on which are
represented symbols of the mystery songs. In the middle of the chart
there should be a representation of fire, but Pahaⁿle-gaqli said
that he was afraid to draw it there, unless he fasted and took other
necessary precautions. The songs used in connection with the chart
are very “wakandagi,” or mysterious. They are never sung on common
occasions, or in a profane manner, lest the offender should be
killed by the Thunder-being. One of the three songs about the sacred
pipe, sung when the wrappings are taken from the pipe (See § 85) by
Aliⁿkawahu is as follows:
“Ha-há! tcé-ga-nú ha-há!
Ha-há! tcé-ga-nú ha-há!
Ha-há! tcé-ga-nú ha-há!
Hü-hü´!”
(Unintelligible to the author. Said when Aliⁿkawahu presses down on the
covers or wrappings of the pipe.)
“Yu! yu! yú! Hü-hü´! Hü-hü´!”
(Chorus sung by all the Large and Small Hañga men.)
This last line is an invocation of the Thunder-being. The arms, which
are kept apart and parallel, are held up toward the sky, with the
palms of the hands out. Each arm is then rubbed from the wrist to the
shoulder by the other hand.[31]
After the singing of these three songs, Pahaⁿle-gaqli carries the
sacred clam shell on his back.
The second figure on the chart is that of the venerable man or Wakanda,
who was the first singer of all the Hañga songs. When Aliⁿkawahu and
Pahaⁿle-gaqli are singing them, they think that this Wakanda walks
behind them, holding up his hands toward the Thunder-being, to whom he
prays for them.
When the war pipe is smoked by any Hañga man, he holds the pipe in his
right hand, and blows the smoke into the sacred clam shell, in his
left. The smoke ascends from the clam shell to the Thunder-being, to
whom it is pleasant.
The Kansa used to “cry to” the Thunder-being before going on the
warpath. When the captain (the head of the Large Hañga gens) smoked his
pipe, he used to say, Haú, Wákanda-é, Páyiⁿ-máhaⁿ miⁿ´ ts’e kŭⁿ´bla
Ho? O Wakanda! Skidi one to die I wish
eyau,” i. e. “Ho, Wakanda! I really wish a Skidi” (or, Pawnee Loup)
indeed
“to die!”
The men of the two Hañga gentes unite in singing songs to stop rain,
when fair weather is needed, and songs to cause rain when there has
been a drought. (See § 43.)
SUBTERRANEAN AND SUBAQUATIC WAKANDAS.
§ 37. The Omaha and Ponka believe in the Wakandagi, monsters that
dwell beneath the bluffs and in the Missouri river. These monsters have
very long bodies, with horns on their heads. One myth relates how an
orphan killed a Wakandagi with seven heads.[32]
The Omaha have a tradition that a Wakandagi was seen in the lake
into which Blackbird creek empties, near the Omaha agency. It is
impossible to say whether the Wakandagi and the ┴ande or Ground were
differentiated (See § 27). The Kansa Mi-á-lṵ-cka were somewhat like
the Wakandagi, though in one respect they resembled the mythical
Ԁá-[s]nu-ta of the Omaha, i. e., in having enormous heads. The Kansa
speak of the Mialṵcka as a race of dreadful beings with large heads and
long hair.[33] They dwelt in remote places, to which they were supposed
to entice any unwary Indian who traveled alone. The victim became crazy
and subsequently lived as a miⁿquga or catamite. Some of the Mialṵcka
dwelt underground or in the water, sitting close to the bank of the
stream. The ancient Mialṵcka was a benefactor to the Indians, for he
took some wet clay and made first a buffalo calf and then three buffalo
bulls, which he ordered the Indians to shoot, after teaching them how
to make bows and arrows and to use them.
THE INDAȻIÑGA.
§ 38. The Ponka, in 1871, told the author of a being whom they called
the Ĭndáȼiñga. This being was a superhuman character, who dwelt in the
forests. He hooted like an owl, and he was so powerful that he could
uproot a tree or overturn a lodge. The Ponka had a song about him,
and mothers used to scare their children by saying, “Behave, else the
Ĭndaȼiñga will catch you!” Joseph La Flèche had heard it spoken of
as a monster in human shape, covered with thick hair. As the Ponka
for wearing a mask is “Ĭndáȼiñga gáxe,” or “to act the Ĭndáȼiñga,” it
may be that this character was an aboriginal bogy. Compare the Dakota
Ćaŋotidaŋ, Hoḣnoġića, Uŋgnaġićala, etc. (§ 232.) Omaha mothers used
to scare their children by telling them that if they did not behave,
Icibajĭ (a hero of the ┴e-sĭnde gens) or ┴exujaⁿ (a hero of the [K]aⁿze
gens) would catch them.[34] Another fearful being was Ĭnde-naⁿba, or
Two Faces, the very sight of whom killed a woman who was enceinte.[35]
This being resembled, in some respects, Ictinike, the deceiver,[36]
though Ictinike was usually the counterpart of the Dakota Ikto, Iktomi,
or Uŋktomi. (See §§ 228-231.) As a worker of evil Ictinike may be
compared with the Dakota Anŭŋg-ite or Two Faces, and the latter in turn
resembled the Ĭndáȼiñga of the Ponka. (See §§ 233, 234.)
OTHER KANSA WAKANDAS.
§ 39. The third figure on the Kansa war chart is[37] that of the Wakanda
or aged man who gives success to the hunter. He is thus addressed by
Aliⁿkawahu and Pahaⁿle-gaqli: Ts‘áge-jiñ´ga haú! Dáble
Venerable man Ho! To hunt
large quadrupeds
maⁿ´yiⁿ-aú! Dádaⁿ wadjü´ta níkaciⁿga ckédaⁿ wáyakípa-bá[p]aⁿ
walk thou What quadruped person soever you meet them and
(pl.)
[Transcriber’s note: the hyphen in “maⁿ´yiⁿ-aú” was at the end of a
line; the word may have been “maⁿ´yiⁿaú” or “maⁿ´yiⁿ-aú”.]
ts’éya-bána-hau!
kill ye !
[Transcriber’s note: the last hyphen in “ts’éya-bána-hau” was at
the end of a line; the word may have been “ts’éya-bánahau” or
“ts’éya-bána-hau”.]
i.e., “Venerable man, go hunting! Kill whatever persons or quadrupeds
meet you!” They think that this being drives the game towards the
hunter.
In the war chart there are seven songs of the Wakanda who makes night
songs. Fig. 16 of that chart refers to a song of another Wakanda who is
not described. Fig. 18 refers to two shade songs. Shade is made by a
Wakanda. Fig. 19 is a dream song. There is a Wakanda who makes people
sleepy, an Indian Somnus.
§ 40. OMAHA INVOCATIONS OF THE TRAP, ETC.
Jábe daⁿ´ctĕ úji ʞĭ, makaⁿ´ ígaxe maⁿȼiⁿ´i ʞĭ, é
Beaver for instance he if, medicine making he walks if, that
traps for that
it purpose
niní bahá eʇá tĕ é. (The invisible being who first made
tobacco showing his the it.
the medicine was thus addressed:) Níkaciⁿga pahañ´ga makaⁿ´
Person first medicine
ícpahaⁿ niñkĕ´cĕ, [p]éjehíde ckaⁿzé niñkĕ´cĕ, niní gakĕ´! Ȼéȼu
you knew you who medicine you you who tobacco that Here
(sit), taught (sit), lg. ob.
edádaⁿ ckaⁿzé gĕ iȼápahaⁿ-majĭ´-qti wiⁿ´ áiȼágaȼaȼiⁿhé
what you taught the I do not know at all one I am carrying on
pl. my arm and in my
in. ob. hand as I move
ȼaⁿ´ja, caⁿ´edádaⁿ ctécte íwamakáaȼĕ té ă. Niní
though, yet what soever I get it easily by will ! Tobacco
means of
gakĕ´, aí níaciⁿga amá. (He then prays to the beaver:) Haú, Jábe!
that, says person the mv. Ho, Beaver!
lg. ob., sub.
Niní gakĕ´! Úbahi e‘aⁿ´ ckáxai gĕ bȼúgaqti ugígȼacaⁿ´i-gă!
Tobacco that! Feeding how you made the all travel ye in your
place them pl. own!
in ob.
Niní gakĕ´! (Next, to the medicine:) Haú, Ԁéjehíde, niní gakĕ´!
Tobacco that! Ho, Medicine, tobacco that!
lg. ob. lg. ob.
‘Aⁿ´qti ctécte waníta wiⁿ uhé eaⁿ´ȼĕ taté, eȼégaⁿ
No matter how it quadruped one pass me on the shall, thinking it
is (_or_ At any road (to the
rate) trap)
najiñ´-gă. ‘Aⁿ´qti ctécte [p]áqȼuge aⁿ´ȼaⁿská taté,
stand thou. At any rate nostrils large enough shall,
for me (i. e., to
smell me.)
eȼégaⁿ najiñ´-gă. Niní gakĕ´! (Invocation of the trap:) Haú,
thinking it stand thou. Tobacco that! Ho,
lg ob.
Maⁿ´zĕ nañkácĕ! niní gakĕ´! ‘Aⁿ´qti ctécte wiⁿ´ wat’éaȼĕ
Iron ye who (sit) tobacco that! At any rate one I kill it
lg. ob.
tá miñke, eȼégaⁿ gȼiⁿ´i-gă. (Invocation of the pack-strap:)
will I who, thinking it sit ye.
Haú, Wé‘iⁿ niñkĕ´cĕ! niní gakĕ´! Aⁿ´qti ctécte wí
Ho, Packstrap you who (sit)! tobacco that! At any rate I
lg. ob.
waníta áhigi weát‘ĕ, eȼégañ-gă. Haú, ┴ijébe íɔnugaʇá
quadruped many I touch think thou. Ho, Entrance at the right
them, side
ȼátaⁿcé! niní gakĕ´! ‘Aⁿ´qti ctécte wí waníta aⁿȼaⁿ´bakĭn´de
you who tobacco that! At any rate I quadruped brushing by me
stand! lg. ob.
anájiⁿ tá miñke, eȼégañ-gă. Haú, ┴e-sĭn´de ugácke
I stand will I who think thou. Ho, Buffalo-tail tied to it
(sit),
ȼátaⁿcé! niní gakĕ´! ‘Aⁿ´qti ctécte wí waníta aⁿʇáp‘ĕ
you who tobacco that! At any rate I quadruped near to me
stand! lg. ob.
anájiⁿ tá miñke, eȼégañ-gă. Haú, Unéȼĕ niñkĕ´cĕ! niní
I stand will I who think thou. Ho, Fireplace you who tobacco
(sit), (sit)!
gakĕ´! ‘Aⁿ´qti ctécte wi waníta aⁿ´naaí agȼiⁿ´ tá miñke,
that! At any rate I quadruped drops over I sit will I who
lg. ob. on me (from (sit)
the kettle)
eȼégañ-gă.
think thou.
_Notes._
Told by George Miller. In the last invocation, he began to dictate thus:
“Haú, Náwiⁿxe dúba ákipasan´de nañkácĕ!” i. e., “Ho, ye
Ho, Firebrand four meet at a common ye who
point
four firebrands that meet at a common point (i. e., in the middle of
the fireplace)!” He subsequently changed it to an invocation of the
fireplace itself. But it is very probable that there was an invocation
of the four firebrands, resembling the ceremonies of the Kansa and
Osage (see § 33). George has given all that he remembers of the
invocations, but he does not recollect the exact order.
387, 3. [p]eje-hide, “lower part,” or “roots of grass,” an archaic
name for “makaⁿ”, medicine. Nini gakĕ--the classifier kĕ shows that
a long object, the pipe, is referred to, the tobacco being in the
pipe when it is offered to the powers.
388, 1. aiȼagaȼaȼiⁿhe, contr. from áiȼágaȼa áȼiⁿhé, used here in
the sense of “abȼiⁿ,” I have.
388, 12. aⁿȼaⁿbakĭnde, eq. to aⁿȼaⁿbista ȼéwaȼĕ, to send them
(through) when they are so close that they touch me.
_Translation._
The invisible being who first made the beaver medicine and taught
its use to mankind, was thus addressed: “Oh, Thou who didst teach how
to make the medicine, here is tobacco! Though I have your medicine, the
nature of which I do not understand at all, grant that I may easily
acquire something or other by means of it! Here is tobacco!”
When he addressed the beavers, he said, “Ho, ye Beavers! Here is
tobacco! Let all of you travel in your feeding places which you have
made. Here is tobacco!” To the beaver medicine itself, he said, “Ho,
Medicine! Here is tobacco! Stand thinking thus, ‘At any rate an animal
shall surely pass me and be caught in the trap, and its nostrils shall
be large enough to smell me.’” The trap itself was thus addressed: “Ho,
ye pieces of iron! Here is tobacco! Sit ye and think thus: ‘At any
rate I will kill one!’” To the pack-strap was said, “Ho, pack-strap!
Here is tobacco! Think thou, ‘At any rate I shall press against many
quadrupeds.’” The right side of the entrance to the tent (?) was thus
addressed: “Ho, Thou who standest at the right side of the entrance
to the tent! (§ 232) Here is tobacco! Think thou, ‘At any rate I shall
continue to have some one bring dead animals on his back and send
through me suddenly, rubbing against me as they pass through.’” To the
principal tent pole these words were said, “Ho, Thou who standest with
the buffalo tail tied to thee! Here is tobacco! Think thou, ‘At any
rate, I shall have a quadruped to come near me.’” When the man invoked
the fireplace, he said, “Ho, Fireplace! Here is tobacco! Think thou,
‘At any rate I shall sit and have the water fall on me in drops as it
boils over from the kettle containing the quadruped.’”
These invocations may be compared with what the prophet Habakkuk tells
us about the Chaldeans, in the first chapter of his prophecy. In his
prayer to God, he says, “These plunderers pull out all men with the
hook, draw them in with their casting net, and gather them with their
draw net, and rejoice and are glad in it. Therefore they make offerings
to their casting net, and burn incense to their draw net, for through
them their catch is rich and their food dainty.”[38]
FASTING.
§ 41. This topic naturally precedes that of visions or dreams about
mystery, animals, and objects. Two Crows and Joseph La Flèche heard
the following spoken of as an ancient custom. It was told them in
their youth by some of the old men of that day, who had received it
from their elders as having been practiced by the tribe for unnumbered
generations. When old men had sons, sisters’ sons, or grandsons, who
approached manhood, they used to direct those youths to abstain from
food and drink, and to put clay on their faces, saying: “Qaⁿxa´ʇa
Far away
xage´ maⁿȼiⁿ´i-gă. Aⁿ´ba ȼa´bȼiⁿ du´ba jaⁿ´ ʞĭ, waȼáta-bajíi-gă,
crying walk ye. Day three four sleep if, do not eat (pl.),
kĭ ní ȼataⁿ´-bajíi-gă. Ȼiqu´bajĭ cte´ctĕwaⁿ, caⁿ´ Wakan´da
and water do not drink (pl.) You are not even if, still Wakanda
“qube”
aká uȼi´ʞaⁿ tá aka. Wa´ȼawaqpáni maⁿɔniⁿ´i ʞĭ,
the sub. he will aid you. You act as if poor you walk if,
waɔnáhaⁿ-de ȼaxáxage ʞĭ, uȼi´ʞaⁿ ta´ aka,” i. e., “Walk ye in remote
you pray when you cry if he will aid you.
places, crying to Wakanda. Neither eat nor drink for three or four
days. Even though you do not acquire personal mysterious power, Wakanda
will aid you. If you act as poor men, and pray as you cry, he will help
you.”
When their throats became dry, their voices gave out. When they had
completed their fasts, they went home, being exceedingly emaciated. At
that time they could not swallow solid food, so they were obliged to
subsist on mush mixed with much water, till by degrees they became able
to eat what they pleased. Many thought that this fasting enabled them
to have superhuman communications with Wakanda.
Fasting was practiced at other times, but always in order to obtain
superhuman assistance or to acquire a transfer of superhuman power. A
Ponka war captain exhorted each of his followers thus: “Ahaú! Wackaⁿ´
egañ´-gă! Qu´bekiȼa´-bi ȼiⁿhe´!” i.e., “Oho! Do exert yourself! Be sure
to make yourself the possessor of superhuman power by the aid of the
animal that you have seen in your vision after fasting!”[39] Members
of a small war party had to fast four days, counting from the time
that they started on the warpath.[40] Before the large war party was
formed to avenge the wrongs of Wabaskaha, the four prospective captains
fasted.[41] When the Kansa captain fasted, he could not visit his
family, but a small fasting lodge was erected for him at some distance
from his own house.[42]
MYSTIC TREES AND PLANTS.
§ 42. The Omaha have two sacred trees, the ash and the cedar. The
ash is connected with the beneficent natural powers. Part of the sacred
pole of the Omaha and Ponka is made of ash, the other part being of
cottonwood. The stems of the niniba weawaⁿ, or “sacred pipes of
friendship,” are made of ash. But the cedar is linked with the
destructive agencies, thunder, lightning, wars.[43]
When the seven old men took the pipes around the Omaha tribal circle,
the bad Maⁿȼiñka-gaxe people wore plumes in their hair and wrapped
branches of cedar around their heads, being awful to behold. So the old
man passed them by and gave the pipe to the other Maⁿȼiñka-gaxe, who
were good. In the Osage traditions, cedar symbolizes the tree of life.
When a woman is initiated into the secret society of the Osage, the
officiating man of her gens gives her four sips of water, symbolizing,
so they say, the river flowing by the tree of life, and then he rubs
her from head to foot with cedar needles three times in front, three
times at her back, and three times on each side, twelve times in all,
pronouncing a sacred name of Wakanʇa as he makes each pass. Part of
the Paⁿɥka gens of the Osage tribe[44] are Red Cedar people. The Pañka
gens of the Kansa tribe is called “Qŭndjalaⁿ,” i.e., “wearers of cedar
(branches) on the head.” Cedar is used by the Santee Dakota in their
ceremony of the four winds. (See § 128.) The Teton Dakota believe in
the efficacy of the smell of cedar wood or of the smoke from cedar in
scaring away ghosts. (See § 272.) In the Athapascan creation myth of
Oregon, obtained by the author in 1884, the smoke of cedar took the
place of food for the two gods who made the world, and the red cedar is
held sacred as well as the ash, because these two trees were the first
to be discovered by the gods.[45]
That the Hidatsa have a similar notion about the red cedar is shown by
their name for it, “midahopa,” mysterious or sacred tree. Compare what
Matthews tells about the Hidatsa reverence for the cottonwood with what
is recorded above about the Omaha sacred pole.[46] (§ 344.)
The cottonwood tree also seems to have been regarded as a mystic tree
by the Omaha and Ponka, just as it is by the Hidatsa. The sacred pole
of the two tribes was made from a tall cottonwood.[47] When the lower
part of the sacred pole became worn away, about 8 feet remained, and
to this was fastened a piece of ash wood about 18 inches long. In
preparing for the dance called the Hede watci, the Iñke-sabĕ people
sought a cottonwood tree, which they rushed on, felled, and bore to
the center of the tribal circle, where they planted it in the “ujeʇi.”
Mystic names taken from the cottonwood are found in the Ȼixida and
Nika[p]aɔna, the two war gentes of the Ponka tribe, and in the Ȼatada
and [K]aⁿze gentes of the Omaha.[48]
That there were other mystic trees and plants, appears from an
examination of the personal names of the Omaha, Ponka, and cognate
tribes. For instance, ┴ackahigȼaⁿ, a nikie name of the ┴a[p]a, or Deer
gens of the Omaha, conveys some reference to a white oak tree, ʇackahi;
and in the Nuqe, a Buffalo gens of the Ponka tribe, we find the name
┴abehi, from a plant, bush, or tree found in Nebraska, the leaves of
which, resembling those of red cherry trees, are used by the Omaha for
making a tea. Further study may show that the Winnebago, who have the
name Waziʞa, Pine Person, reverence a pine tree. (Query: May not this
name be Cedar Person, rather than Pine Person?)
Among the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri, we find several cedar, corn, and
pumpkin names. Several corn and pumpkin names occur in the name list
of the Kansa tribe. Corn, elm, and black hawthorn names are found in
the Osage name list, as well as cedar names; and their traditions
tell of the cedar, red oak, and sycamore, as well as of the corn and
pumpkin.[49] (See § 49.)
IȻA‘EȻĔ.
§ 43. This term has been defined in Chapter II (§ 8). It is very
probable that fasting for several days tended to produce the condition
of mind and body requisite for the supposed superhuman communications.
According to Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ and other Omaha, some persons thought that
they saw or heard ghosts or various animals. Sometimes men were roused
from sleep, imagining that they heard mysterious voices. They claimed
to have interviews with U-ga-ha-na-[p]a-ze, or the Ancient of Darkness;
Ma-qpi, or the Ancient of Clouds; ┴ande, or the Ground Being; Iñgȼaⁿ,
or the Thunder-being; the Sun, the Moon, the Morning Star, the Ancient
of Rattlesnakes, the Ancient of Grizzly Bears, the Ancient of Black
Bears, the Ancient of Buffaloes, the Ancient of Big Wolves, and the
Ancient of Prairie Wolves. Each being or animal thus seen in a dream
or vision seems to have been regarded as the special guardian spirit
of the person claiming to have had interviews with him. The Iñgȼaⁿ
iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma, or Those who had interviews with the Thunder-being, never
danced at the meetings of their society. They invited one another to
feast, and they sang as they remained seated. The songs referred to the
Thunder-being. When they finished eating and singing the ceremonies
ended. This order of Thunder shamans claimed the power to make rain
(see § 36).
According to Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ and Little Village Maker, these shamans
could also make circles of seven colors around the sun and moon, and
the two men just named said that they had seen this done. Joseph La
Flèche and Two Crows gave the following explanation: “When there are
clouds that obscure the moon, a circle is seen around the moon, and it
sometimes resembles a rainbow.” Though Two Crows belongs to the Buffalo
society (┴e iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma, or Order of Buffalo shamans--see § 89), he said
that he had never had an interview with a mysterious buffalo, but that
his work in the order was confined to the practice of surgery, he being
the keeper of the “makaⁿ skiȼĕ,” or sweet medicine. Notwithstanding
this, there are certain buffalo songs, the property of the order, and
which they claim to be powerful charms capable of working cures, when
used by the surgeons of their order. Said Two Crows to the author,
“If they had sent for the doctors of our order we could have cured
President Garfield.” The author obtained two of these Buffalo songs
from an Omaha, but they are recorded only in singing notation.[50]
Among the Omaha societies are the Cañge iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma, the Horse
shamans,[51] the Caⁿʇañga iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma, the Big Wolf shamans,[52] and the
Maⁿtcu iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma, the Grizzly Bear shamans.[53]
According to Francis La Flèche,[54]
“There are three degrees of powers which come to men through
visions: First, when the vision takes the form of an animal which
addresses the man, he will then have acquired a power which will
stead him in danger, and give him success in life. Second, if the
vision assumes the appearance of a cloud, or a human shape having
wings like an eagle, and a voice addresses the man, he will have
the additional power of being able to foretell events. Third,
when the vision comes without any semblance and only a voice is
heard, the man is given not only the power to achieve success and
foretell events, but he can foresee the coming of death. Should
a man endowed with the third degree so elect, he can in due form
join the Ghost Society; or, if he prefers, he can practice his
powers individually.”
His father, the late Joseph La Flèche, told the author in 1882 that
the Ghost Dance formerly belonged to the Ponka tribe, from whom the
Omaha took it; though it has not been used by the Omaha since about A.
D. 1850.[55] The only inference which the author can draw from this
statement of the father is that if the Omaha obtained the Ghost Dance
from the Ponka, the Ghost Society or order of Ghost shamans is not an
original Omaha society. That the two are closely connected is proved
by the names, Wanaxe iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma, the (order of) Ghost shamans (or, The
Ghost Society), and Wanaxe iȼa‘eȼĕ watcigaxe, The dance of those who
have visions of ghosts, or, The Ghost Dance.
The Kansa have the Tce wactce, or Buffalo shaman, and an order of
such shamans. When a Kansa had a vision or dream (i-ya-k’e-ye) of an
animal, etc., he painted the mystery object on his shield. An old woman
used to “iyak’eye” of a flying serpent, the [M]yets‘a táji lícka. The
remains of such enormous serpents are found in the Black Hills, “and
if one finds such a reptile, he must die.” For an account of the Kansa
“wakandagi” see § 66.
The Kwapa or Ukaqpa Indians speak a dialect more closely allied to
that of the Omaha and Ponka than to those of the Kansa and Osage. With
them, to have superhuman communications is called dȼa-q‘é-dȼĕ; shamans
and doctors are níka qúwĕ, mysterious men, and among their societies
of such men are the following: Te dȼáq‘edȼĕ, Those having superhuman
communications with the Buffalo; the Maⁿtú dȼaq‘édȼĕ, Those having
interviews with the Grizzly Bear; the Iⁿtaⁿ´dȼaⁿ tañ´ʞa dȼaq‘édȼĕ,
Those having interviews with the Panther; and the Jawé dȼaq‘édȼĕ,
Those having interviews with the Beaver. There were doubtless other
orders, but they are unknown to the author’s Kwapa informant, Alphonsus
Valliere, of the Wajiñʞa or Bird gens.[56]
PERSONAL MYSTERY DECORATIONS.
§ 44. The Omaha and Ponka have certain personal mystery decorations,
some of which are worn on garments, and others appear on the tents
of their owners. The makers and wearers of such decorations must be
members of one of the orders of shamans. George Miller’s father, Little
Soldier, used to wear a buffalo robe decorated in the style shown in
Figs. 156 and 157. It was his personal mystery decoration, which no
one else could use. Even members of his gens (the Ictasanda, a Thunder
and Reptile gens) feared to imitate it. The father promised to paint
this decoration on four white blankets for his son George, but he died
before he could paint the fourth one.
[Illustration: FIG. 156.--George Miller’s personal mystery decoration.]
George received the first one when he was about seventeen years of
age. Before he married he had worn out three. He still has the right
to decorate and wear the fourth blanket, according to his father’s
intention. He could decorate other white blankets in this style, and
wear them, if he wished, but he could not transmit to any one of his
children (the grandchildren of Little Soldier) the right to make and
wear such a decoration, unless George himself should hereafter see the
objects in a dream or vision.
[Illustration: FIG. 157.--A variant of Fig. 156.]
The right to use such designs on a buffalo robe, blanket, tent, etc.,
must originate with one who has had a vision or dream in which the
mystery objects are manifested. Those who could use the class of
designs represented in the accompanying illustrations (Figs. 156-161)
were members of the order of Thunder shamans (Iñgȼaⁿ iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma).
ORDER OF THUNDER SHAMANS.
§ 45. This order is composed of those who have had dreams or visions,
in which they have seen the Thunder-being, the Sun, the Moon, or some
her superterrestrial objects or phenomena.
When a person saw the Thunder-being or some other mystery object, he
kept the matter a secret for some time. He took care to join the first
war party that went from his camp or village. When the party reached
the land of the enemy or got into some trouble the man told of his
dream or vision. Should the dreamer or seer kill or grasp a foe while
a member of the expedition he made a Thunder song. He who brought back
one of the enemy’s horses also had the right to make a Thunder song.
Some time having elapsed after the return of the warriors, the seer
painted the mystery objects on a robe or blanket, and prepared a feast,
to which he invited all the members of the order of Thunder shamans.
When the guests had assembled the robe was hung up and shown to them.
Then all who were present rejoiced. From that time onward the host was
a member of the order, and he could wear the robe with safety.
[Illustration: FIG. 158.--Robe of Wanukige.]
He could give his son the right to wear such a robe, but unless that
son had a similar vision he could not transmit the right to one of
the next generation. Little Soldier painted a buffalo robe with his
personal mystery decoration, and gave it to Two Crows, whose father
had been one of the leaders of the order of Thunder shamans. So Two
Crows wore the robe, and he can make another like it; but he can not
transmit the right to his son, Ga‘iⁿ-bajĭ. Two Crows would have
been afraid to wear the robe or to copy the decoration on it had he not
been a member of the order by direct inheritance from his father. A
father can clothe his son in such a robe when that son is large enough
to go courting. The man can not give such a robe to his daughter, but
he can give one to his son’s son, or to his daughter’s son, should that
grandson be a large youth, who has neared or reached the age of puberty.
[Illustration: FIG. 159.--Tent of Wanukige.]
If a man who became eligible by his vision to membership in the order
of Thunder shamans ventured to wear the decorated robe without inviting
the members of the order to a feast, he incurred the anger of the
members and misfortune was sure to follow. Should a man wear such a
decorated robe without having had a vision of the mystery object, he
was in danger (if the object was connected with the Thunder-being,
etc.) of being killed by lightning. Every Omaha feared to decorate
his robe, tent, or blanket with an object seen by another person in a
dream or vision. For instance, George Miller would not dare to have
bears’ claws, horses’ hoofs, etc., on his robe, because neither he nor
his father ever saw a bear or horse mysteriously. There are penalties
attached to violations of the prohibitions of the other orders, but
George Miller did not know about them.
[Illustration: FIG. 160.--Robe of Ȼaqube.]
Besides the personal mystery decoration of the robe or blanket, is that
of the tent. Pl. XLIV, E is a sketch of a tent, furnished to the author
by Dried Buffalo Skull, an old man of the Ȼatada gens of the Omaha.
The decoration of this tent was the personal mystery or “qube” of
Hupeȼa, Sr., father of Hupeȼa, Jr. (now known as ┴enugaʇañga), of the
Wasabe-hit‘ajĭ or Black Bear sub-gens of the Ȼatada. After the death
of Hupeȼa, Sr., the decoration became the property of his kinsman,
Agaha-wacuce, of the same sub-gens, and father of Ԁaȼiⁿnaⁿpajĭ. The
circle at the top, representing a bear’s cave, is sometimes painted
blue, though Agaha-wacuce had it reddened. Below the four zigzag lines
(representing the lightnings of different colors) are the prints of
bears’ paws. The lower part of the tent was blackened with ashes or
charcoal. Among the four zigzag lines, red, according to Mr. Francis La
Flèche, symbolizes the east.
[Illustration: FIG. 161.--Robe of Ԁahe-ʇap‘ĕ.]
Wanukige, a chief of the Ictasanda gens, had a vision of the aurora
borealis, so he depicted this on his robes and tent, as shown in Figs.
158 and 159. On the tent were seven stripes, three on each side of the
entrance and one in the rear. Each robe that he wore had seven stripes.
Fig. 160 represents the personal mystery decoration of Ȼaqube of the
[K]aⁿze gens. George Miller’s father could wear this decoration, but
the right to it could not be transmitted by him to any one else.
Ԁahe-ʇap‘ĕ, of the [K]e-‘iⁿ subgens of the Ȼatada gens, once had a
vision of two stars and the new moon. Consequently he decorated his
buffalo robe, as shown in Fig. 161, and joined the order of Thunder
shamans. He died when the author was at the Omaha agency (between 1878
and 1880).
GENERIC FORMS OF DECORATION.
[Illustration: FIG. 162.--Generic decoration referring to night, etc.]
§ 46. There are examples of generic forms of decoration, as well
as those of specific forms. For instance, when a person had a
vision of the night, or of the Thunder-being, or one of some other
superterrestrial object, he blackened the upper part of his tent and a
small portion on each side of the entrance, as shown in Fig. 162.
It was given thus by George Miller:
Níaciⁿga amá águdi ctĕ haⁿ´ daⁿ´ctĕ íȼa‘eȼé amá ʇí
People the where ever night for example they have the tent
pl. visions
sub. of it
ugȼiⁿ´i ʞĭ, wiⁿdétaⁿ sábeȼaí, kĭ ci águdí ctĕ
they if one-half the they blacken and again where ever
dwell length
in
níkaciⁿga amá iñgȼaⁿ´ íȼa‘eȼé amá cĭ égaⁿ
people the pl. thunder they have the pl. again so
sub. being visions sub.
of it.
ugȼiⁿ´-biamá.
they dwell in,
they say.
SPECIFIC FORMS OF DECORATION.
A specific form related to the generic one just described is shown in
Fig. 163. The blackened part of the tent represents the night, and the
star denotes the morning star. There was a star on the left hand at the
back of the tent, and another star on the right side. Black and blue
are occasionally interchangeable in Omaha symbolism; hence we find that
the night is represented by a blue band on a coyote skin worn by the
elder Aⁿpaⁿ-skă, and subsequently by his son and namesake, when
the latter was a small boy. The blue band was worn next the shoulders
of the owner (Fig. 164).
[Illustration: FIG. 163.--Tent of Aⁿpaⁿ-skă, Sr.]
[Illustration: FIG. 164.--Robe of Aⁿpaⁿ-skă, Sr.]
The decoration refers to his “qube” or “sacred vision.” Little Cedar,
of the Maⁿȼiñka-gaxe (Omaha) gens, belonged, we are told, to the Miⁿ
iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma, or order of Sun and Moon shamans, probably identical with
the order of Thunder shamans. Fig. 165 represents a vision which Little
Cedar once had, described thus by George Miller:
Gaⁿ´ níaciⁿga aká íȼa‘eȼá-bi egaⁿ´ ȼetégaⁿ ʇi ugá tĕ
And man the having had a vision, like this tent painted the
sub. they say std. ob.
ugȼiⁿ´-biamá. Mázi-jiñ´ga ijáje aȼiⁿ´-biamá. Sábe tĕ haⁿ´
he dwelt in, Cedar Little his name had, they Black the night
they say, say
kĕ é gáxai; niaⁿ´ba ȼaⁿ éȼaⁿbe tĕ gáxai. Niaⁿ´ba
the that made moon the cv. emerging the made. Moon
lg. ob. ob.
uȼan´da ȼan´di níkaciⁿga ugȼiⁿ´ gáxai, gañ´ʞĭ íȼa‘eȼaí ȼiñké
in the in the person sitting made and one seen in the one
midst of part in a vision who
é tĕ. Niaⁿ´ba éȼaⁿbe atí-nandi náqȼiⁿ
that the Moon emerging comes regularly, blazes
when (sends up
light)
égaⁿ-naⁿ´i. The black band refers to the night; the circle, to
somewhat usually.
the moon; the circumscribed figure is a ghost that he saw in the moon;
and the dots above the moon refer to the “white which stands above the
rising sun or moon.” Pl. XLIV B shows another tent decoration of the
same man. The red circle represents the sun, in which stands a man
holding the ʇa-cá-ge, or deer rattles, made of the hard or callous
knobs found near the hoofs of the deer. These knobs are split, hollowed
out, and strung on sticks. The tent being very large, the figure of the
man was almost life size, and a real feather was tied to his head. The
blue band at the bottom may represent night, but there is no certainty
about it.
[Illustration: FIG. 165.--Tent of Mazi-jiñga--ghost vision.]
[Illustration: FIG. 166.--A tent of Nikuȼibȼaⁿ.]
§ 47. Fig. 166 is the decoration of one of the tents of Ni-ku-ȼi-bȼaⁿ,
father of the present Wackaⁿ-maⁿȼiⁿ (Hard Walker), an ex-chief of the
Omaha. Nikuȼibȼaⁿ was one of the two leaders of the order of Thunder
shamans, and was regarded as being very “qube” or mysterious. The black
band at the bottom refers to the night, and above it are seen the moon
and a star. The old man named one of his grandchildren Haⁿakipa (Meets
the Night), after the vision to which the tent decoration refers.
George Miller furnished the description of Nikuȼibȼaⁿ’s tent, obtained
from an old woman, who is his widow:
“Gaⁿ wíqti ʇaⁿ´ba-májĭ ȼaⁿ´ja, uȼaí égaⁿ ana´‘aⁿ hă. Gaⁿ´
And I I did not though they have as I have And
myself see him told about heard it.
him
iñgȼaⁿ´ⁿ íȼa‘eȼá-biamá, ádaⁿ ʇuɔniñ´ge gáxai tĕ
Thunder he had a vision of therefore rainbow made it the
Being him, they say (past
act)
gátĕ. ┴íhuʞaⁿ ȼaⁿʇá bagȼéjai tĕ, é uȼaí hă
that ob. Smoke-hole at the painted in the that told it .
part spots (past
act)
wa‘újiñga igáqȼaⁿ aká. Maⁿ´ciaʇá aȼiⁿ´ akíi, á-biamá.
old woman his wife the sub. On high having had he said,
him reached they say.
there again
Eʇá ctĭ majaⁿ´ ȼé égaⁿ, á-biamá. Qubĕ´qti gáxai
There too land this like he said, they Very mysterious they
say. made him
níaciⁿga, ádaⁿ ʇí ugá tĕ áwatégaⁿ gáxe gaⁿ´ȼai
man therefore tent painted the how to make he wished
it
ʞĭ, gaⁿ´ égaⁿ gáxai. Bagȼéjai tĕ mási é wakaí
when at any so he made it. Made spotted he hail that it meant
rate by painting
tĕ.”
the (past
act).
That is, “I myself did not see him, but I have heard what was told.
They say that he had a vision of the Thunder-being, so he made that
rainbow which appears in the figure (Fig. 167). The old woman,
his widow, has told that he painted the top of the tent, near the
smoke-hole, in spots. They say that he said that the Thunder-being
had carried him up on high, and that the place there resembled this
world. The man was regarded as very mysterious; therefore he decorated
his tent according to the pattern that he wished to make. The painted
spots represent hail.” Many years ago, Nikuȼibȼaⁿ said that he had
been carried up into the world above this one, and that he found it
resembled the world in which we live. The rainbow and hail depicted on
the tent formed part of the vision, but their exact significance has
not been explained.
[Illustration: FIG. 167.--Another tent of Nikuȼibȼaⁿ.]
[Illustration: FIG. 168.--Blanket of Cuʞa-maⁿȼiⁿ.]
Cu-ʞa maⁿ-ȼiⁿ, an Omaha, had a vision which gave him the right to use
the decoration given in Fig. 168. The meanings of the different marks
have not been learned. Cuʞa maⁿȼiⁿ bequeathed the blanket to his son,
[K]axe-giaⁿ (Flying Crow), now known as Gilbert Morris.
[Illustration: FIG. 169.--Tent of ┴e-saⁿ; vision of a cedar.]
[Illustration: FIG. 170.--Tent of ┴e-saⁿ; sun and rainbow vision.]
§ 48. The old chief ┴e-saⁿ (Ta sone of Maj. Long), Distant-white
Buffalo, father of the chiefs Standing Hawk and Fire Chief, had a
vision of a cedar tree, which he painted on each side of his tent, as
seen in Fig. 169. The next sketch (Fig. 170) shows the back part of
another tent of ┴e-saⁿ. The blue band near the top is called “sabe”
(black); below this is the sun and a blue rainbow; near the bottom are
two horsetails. The only decorations on the front of the tent are two
horsetails, one on each side of the entrance. This tent was used by
Standing Hawk after the death of his father. This decoration may have
been made after a vision of horses, as Standing Hawk was a member of
the order of Horse Shamans (Cañge iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma). George Miller speaks
thus about it:
Gaⁿ´ níaciⁿga aká níkagahí átai egaⁿ´ íȼa‘éȼĕ daⁿ´etĕaⁿ´i
And man the sub. chief he was as he had a perhaps
beyond vision
tĕ, miⁿ´ ȼaⁿ ugaí, íʇi. Cĭ cañ´gĕ sĭn´de
the (past sun the he painted he painted the Again horse tail
act) cv. ob. tent with it.
ctĭ gáxai, hidé kĕ´di. ┴íhuʞaⁿ [p]así ȼaⁿ
too he made bottom at the Smoke hole tip end the part
sábĕȼai. That is, “As the man was a head chief, he may have had a
he blackened.
vision, for he occupied a tent on which he painted the sun, and he also
decorated it with horse-tails at the lower part. He painted the border
of the smoke-hole a dark blue (ʇu sabĕ, which is some-times called,
sabĕ).”
“Iȼádi amá daⁿ´ctĕ égaⁿ gáxai tĕ´di, ijiñ´ge amá
His father the pl. sub. perhaps so did when his son the pl.
sub.
íȼa‘éȼa-bájĭ ctĕwaⁿ´ égaⁿ gáxe-naⁿ´-biamá, ádaⁿ égaⁿ
they did not have even so usually did, they therefore so
visions of it say
gáxai.” That is, “When the fathers decorate their tents in consequence
he did
of their respective visions, their sons (who succeed them) usually
imitate them (or dwell in the decorated tents), even when they
themselves have not had visions of the objects. Therefore he (i.e.,
Standing Hawk) did so.”
George Miller told the following about Ԁede-gahi or Fire Chief, another
son of ┴e-saⁿ:
Cĭ égaⁿ Ԁéde-gáhi aká ugȼiⁿ´i waʇaⁿ´be. Wataⁿ´zihi íʇi
Again so Fire Chief the he sat in I saw Corn-stalk painted
sub it on the
tent
waʇaⁿ´be ȼaⁿ´ja, áwatégaⁿ iȼápahaⁿ-májĭ ȼaⁿ´ja, níkagáhi égaⁿ
I saw though of what sort I knew not though chief like
égaⁿ ugȼiⁿ´i tĕ. Wataⁿzi ȼiⁿ´ ctĭ waqu´be gáxai. Kĭ
so he sat in the Corn the col. too mysterious he made and
(past ob. it
act)
cĭ´ Ԁéde-gáhi aká taⁿ´waⁿgȼaⁿ eʇá amá Wajiñ´ga-ȼatájĭ amá
again Fire Chief the gens his the pl. Bird eat not the pl.
sub. sub. sub.
wahába pahañ´ga ju´t‘aⁿ tĕ´di ȼatá-bajĭ wahába
ear of corn first matures when they do not ear of corn
eat
ȼiⁿ´, níkaciⁿga amá naⁿ´wape ȼaté tai tĕ´. Ȼataí ʞĭ,
the col. people the pl. fear them they will the They if
ob. sub. eat (act) eat
wahába ȼiⁿ´, wajiñ´ga ȼasniⁿ´ weʞubaí. Iñké-sabĕ
ear of corn the col. bird devour they fear Shoulder black
ob. them
ákadí ctĭ égaⁿ gáxe-naⁿ-biamá ʇí ugá. Hañ´ga
among too so make usually they say tent painting. Foremost
the the
ákadí ctĭ égaⁿ gáxe-naⁿ´-biamá ʇí ugá.
among too so make usually they say tent painting.
This refers to Fig. 171, and may be thus rendered: “And I have likewise
seen the tent of Fire Chief. It was decorated with cornstalks, but I
do not know the reason for it. He dwelt in such a tent because he was
a chief. Corn was regarded as “waqube,” mysterious. In the sub-gens
of Fire Chief, the Wajiñga-ȼatajĭ, or, those who eat no small birds,
the people feared to eat the first ears of corn that matured, lest the
small birds (particularly blackbirds) should come and devour the rest
of the crop. There was a similar tent decoration in the Iñke-sabĕ and
Hañga gentes.” In the former, it was used by Waqaga (see § 53). The
cornstalks and ears were green, the tips of the ears were black. There
were two similar cornstalks on the back of the tent.
[Illustration: FIG. 171.--Cornstalk decoration of the tents of Fire
Chief and Waqaga.]
CORN AND THE BUFFALO.
§ 49. Corn is regarded as a “mother” and the buffalo as a “grandfather”
among the Omaha and other tribes.[57] In the Osage tradition, corn was
bestowed upon the people by four buffalo bulls or “grandfathers.”[58]
Dr. Washington Matthews tells of a similar Arikara belief about an ear
of corn.[59] (See § 42.)
[Illustration: FIG. 172.--Robe of Ni-ȼactage.]
[Illustration: FIG. 173.--Duba-maⁿȼiⁿ’s father’s tent.]
[Illustration: FIG. 174.--Maⁿtcu-naⁿba’s tent.]
OTHER OMAHA MYSTERY DECORATIONS.
§ 50. Among the members of the order of Buffalo (┴e iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma) was
Niȼactage, whose robe is shown in Fig. 172. The red band is at the
top. The black spots represent the places where the buffaloes play
“buffalo wallows.” Buffalo hoofs are in blue.
Duba-maⁿȼiⁿ’s father had a vision of horses, hence he wished to depict
horse-tails and tracks on his tent, as found in Fig. 173; but he died
before he finished it.
The father of Maⁿtcu-naⁿba had a vision of horses, and bequeathed to
his son Maⁿtcu-naⁿba the right to decorate his tent in the style shown
in Fig. 174. The yellow was connected with the vision. When the owner
dwelt in an earth-lodge, the horse-tail was tied to a long pole, which
was thrust through the opening at the top of the lodge. So when he used
his skin tent, the horse-tail hung from the top of a long pole above
the smoke-hole.
When the Omaha dwelt near the present town of Homer, Nebr., and
Wackaⁿhi was a young child, he went out to play, and fell asleep. He
said that he was aroused by the sounds made by many chickens crowing
and cackling. In those days (_fide_ George Miller) there were no
white people in that neighborhood; but now in that very place where
Wackaⁿhi had the vision, there is a wealthy family living, and besides
large herds they have a great many chickens. In remembrance of that
occurrence, Wackaⁿhi painted his tent with his personal decoration as
given in Fig. 175.
[Illustration: FIG. 175.--Wackaⁿhi’s tent.]
[Illustration: FIG. 176.--Tent of unknown Omaha.]
An unknown Omaha had a vision of deer, so he decorated his tent
accordingly. (See Fig. 176.) George Miller could not furnish the man’s
name.
§ 51. Among the members of the order of Grizzly Bear shamans was an
Omaha named ┴ebi‘a (Frog). The top of his tent was painted yellow,
as shown in Fig. 177. There was no other decoration; but this yellow
evidently was connected with a grizzly bear vision, as it appears
in the decoration adopted by the father of Two Crows, who was not
only one of the two leaders of the order of Thunder shamans (Iñgȼaⁿ
iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma) but also a member of the orders of Buffalo and Grizzly
Bear shamans (┴e iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma and Maⁿtcu iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma). (See Pl. XLIV, D,
in which a grizzly bear is depicted as emerging from his den. The blue
part represents the ground.)
This decoration (of the tent of Two Crows’ father) is thus described by
George Miller: Maⁿtcú iȼa‘eȼaí egaⁿ´ ʇí tĕ égaⁿ gáxai.
Grizzly bear they have as tent the so they
visions of it std. ob. make it
Maⁿtcú wadaⁿ´bai tĕ´di ʇan´de kĕ maⁿ´taʇa éȼaⁿbe tí
Grizzly bear they see them when ground the within emerging come
lg. ob.
wadaⁿ´bai, gaⁿ´ égaⁿ gáxai ʇí tĕ. ┴an´de kĕ ʇúȼĕ-naⁿ´i,
they see them and so they tent the Ground the they usually
make it std. lg. ob. paint blue
ob.
ʇí hébe kĕ zíȼĕ-naⁿ´i.” That is, “When they have had visions
tent part the they usually
lg ob. paint yellow.
of grizzly bears, they decorate their tents accordingly. When they see
grizzly bears, they behold them coming out of the ground, and so they
paint the tents. They always (or usually) paint the ground blue,
and part of the tent they paint in a yellow band.” This shows the
conventional use of colors. See Pl. XLIV, E, for the sketch of another
tent representing the vision of a grizzly bear.
[Illustration: FIG. 177.--Tent of ┴ebi‘a.]
[Illustration: FIG. 178.--Tent of a Kansa who had an eagle vision.]
KANSA MYSTERY DECORATIONS.
§ 52. Three Kansa decorations follow. They are taken from an original
sketch made by a Kansa man, known to the white people as Stephen
Stubbs. The first tent (Fig. 178) is that of a man who had fasted
and held mysterious communication with an eagle which gave him some
feathers. He had danced the pipe dance once for some one. At the base
of this tent are seen two peace pipes on each side of the entrance. At
the back are a black bear and a large turtle. The second tent (Fig.
179) is that of a man who had danced the pipe dance three times.
Buffalo tails are fastened to the tops of the triangular pieces
forming the shelter of the smoke-hole, feathers hang from the two
shields, and the stars are above and on the base of the tent skins.
Feathers, shields, and stars are also on the back of this tent.
[Illustration: FIG. 179.--Kansa decorated tent.]
[Illustration: FIG. 180.--Kansa decorated tent.]
[Illustration: FIG. 181.--Maⁿze-guhe’s robe.]
Fig. 180 is the tent of a man who has danced the pipe dance four times.
It is very probable, judging from the stars on the tents, that the
owners of the second and third Kansa tents had had visions. The Kansa
say that when a man has danced the pipe dance twice, his tent can be
decorated with two cornstalks at the front (one on each side of the
entrance), and two more at the back. The pipes used in the calumet or
pipe dance are regarded as “Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ” by the Omaha and Ponka, and
the inference is that the Kansa and Osage had a similar belief about
these pipes and the accompanying dance. Perhaps there was a time when
no man could undertake the pipe dance unless he had a vision of some
kind.
OMAHA NIKIE DECORATIONS.
§ 53. As the gentes of the Omaha and Ponka are regarded as being
“Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ,” the “nikie” and “nikie names” have a religious
significance. George Miller has furnished the author with a few nikie
decorations, which are now given.
Maⁿze-guhe, an Omaha, belonged to the Waȼigije sub-gens of the
Iñke-sabĕ gens. The decoration of his robe (Fig. 181) marks the nikie
of the sub-gens, as it consisted of spiral forms known as “waȼigije.”
That of the tent (Fig. 182) refers to the nikie of the entire gens. In
the latter case, the buffalo head was painted on the back of the tent.
[Illustration: FIG. 182.--Maⁿze-guhe’s tent.]
Duba-maⁿȼiⁿ, who has a nikie name referring to the buffalo, belongs to
the Waȼigije sub-gens. His father wore a black blanket embroidered with
beadwork in two rows of spirals, between which was a star. All these
figures were made of white beads. (See Fig. 183.)
[Illustration: FIG. 183.--Duba-maⁿȼiⁿ’s father’s blanket.]
In the Pipe sub-gens of the Iñke-sabĕ there were several tent
decorations. Of the first, George Miller speaks thus:
Níkaciⁿ´ga-ma taⁿ´waⁿgȼaⁿ´-ma niníba t‘aⁿ´ amá Iñké-sabĕ
The people those in the gentes pipe have the pl. Black shoulder
sub.
akádi ʇí ugaí, niníba íʇi. Kĭ wédajĭ-ma
among tent they pipe painted the And those elsewhere
the paint tent with
wédahaⁿ-májĭ, añ´ka-bájĭ ebȼégaⁿ. Iñké-sabĕ akádi
I do not know them they are not so I think. Black shoulder among
the
níkagáhi aká égaⁿ gáxai ebȼégaⁿ, aⁿ´ctĕwaⁿ´ gáxa-bájĭ
chief the sub. so made I think of any pattern he did not make
ebȼégaⁿ. Niníba waqúbe gáxai ʞĭ, niníba jaⁿ´ kĕ bȼáska gáxai,
I think. Pipe mysterious made when pipe wood the flat made
thing lg. ob.
uȼískai, wajiñ´gadá ájii tĕ, ʇáhiⁿ jíde
put porcupine bird heads put many the “deer fur” red
work around it on it past act
íkaⁿtaⁿ´i.”
tied to it.
That is, “Those persons who belong to the Iñke-sabĕ sub-gens known
as Keepers of the Pipes, paint their tent(s) with the pipe decoration.
I do not know of any other persons, members of other gentes, using this
decoration; I think that no others use it. I think that the Iñkesabĕ
chief decorates his tent in this manner, and that he did not decorate
it in any way he pleased. When the sacred pipes were made (on the tent)
the pipestem was made flat, porcupine work was put around it, several
heads of birds were fastened on it, and tufts of reddened horses’ hair
were tied to it at intervals.” (See Fig. 184 and Pl. XLIV, C.) This
Iñke-sabĕ tent had only two pipes on it--one on each side of the
entrance.
[Illustration: FIG. 184.--Iñke-sabĕ tent decoration.]
The second Iñke-sabĕ tent decoration is thus described by the same
authority:
Aⁿjiñ´ga tĕ´di ʇi´-ugȼiⁿ´ waʇaⁿ´be ʞĭ, ȼekégaⁿ
The small when tent dwelt in I saw them when like this
lg. ob.
ugȼiⁿ´i. Niníba mácaⁿ ugȼé íʇi waʇaⁿ´be Niníba t‘aⁿ´
they dwelt Pipe quill attached painted I saw Pipe had
in feather to at the tent
right with
angles
akádi, Waqága égaⁿ íʇi waʇaⁿ´be. Niníba waqúbe kĕ
among Burrs so painted I saw them Pipe sacred the lg.
the the tent ob.
with
ékigaⁿ´qti ȼaⁿ´ja, e mácaⁿ ugȼé gáxai, niníba
just like it though that quill attached to made pipe
feather at right angles
wéawaⁿ akéĕ hă. Ȼaⁿ´ja niníba kĕ é ínikagáhi
calumet that is it . Though pipe the lg. that chief by
ob. aforesaid means of it
ʞiʞáxai, níaciⁿ´ga amá átaqti gáxai niníba waqúbe.
they make people the pl. exceedingly make it pipe sacred
themselves sub.
Níaciⁿ´ga amá píäjĭ´qti ctéctĕwaⁿ´, ukít‘ĕ ákikiȼáqti
People the pl. very bad notwithstanding foreign contending
sub. nation fiercely together
maⁿȼiⁿ´i ctéctĕwaⁿ´, kikídĕqti maⁿȼiⁿ´i ctéctĕwaⁿ´,
they walk notwithstanding shooting often they walk notwithstanding
and fiercely
niníba kĕ éȼaⁿbe aȼiⁿ´ ahíi ʞĭ, uȼúci kĕ uhá
pipe the lg. coming they take it when in the the following
ob. forth thither middle lg. its course
line
aȼiⁿ´ aȼai´ ʞĭ, múkictaⁿ tai´. Téqi gáxai níaciⁿ´ga
they when they stop will Precious they people
take it shooting at make it
one another
amá.
the pl. sub.
That is, “When, in my childhood, I saw the tents in which the people
dwelt, they were of this sort. (See Fig. 185.) I saw the tent decorated
with the pipes having feathers attached to each pipe at right angles.
I saw a tent of this sort when it was occupied by Waqaga of the Pipe
sub-gens. (See another tent decoration of this man, § 48.) Though these
pipes closely resemble the peace pipes (niniba waqube), they are made
with the feathers attached to the stems at right angles. These are
the pipes used in the pipe dance. By means of the pipes the people
made for themselves that which was equivalent to (or, lead to) the
chieftainship. So they regarded the sacred pipes as of the greatest
importance. Even when the people were very bad, even when different
tribes continued to struggle with one another; even when they shot
often at one another, when some persons came forth with the peace
pipes, and bore them to a place between the opposing forces, carrying
them all along the lines, they stopped shooting at one another. The
Indians regarded the pipes as precious.”
[Illustration: FIG. 185.--Iñke-sabĕ tent decoration.]
A ┴a[p]a nikie tent decoration is shown in the tent of Heqaga. (Pl.
XLIV, C.) This tent had two pipes on each side of the tent, double the
number on the Iñke-sabĕ tent (Fig. 184).
[Illustration: FIG. 186.--Waqaga’s robe.]
Fig. 186 is given as the nikie decoration of a robe belonging to
Waqaga. The bird on the robe is an eagle. Members of the Pipe sub-gens
of the Iñke-sabĕ have eagle birth names. And we know that Waqaga
belonged to that sub-gens.
The author understood Joseph La Flèche and Two Crows to say, in
1882, that while nikie names possessed a sacredness, it was only the
sacredness of antiquity, and that they were not “Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ.”
But the author now thinks that such a statement needs modification;
for, besides what appears at the beginning of this section, we know
that among the Osage and Kansa the nikie names are associated with the
traditions preserved in the secret society of seven degrees, and that
this applies not only to names of gentes and sub-gentes, but also to
personal nikie names. The author frightened an Osage in January, 1883,
by mentioning in public some of this class of names.
OMAHA NIKIE CUSTOMS.
§ 54. Among the nikie of the Omaha, the following may be mentioned:
The Wajiñga-ȼatajĭ, or “Blackbird people,” had a curious custom during
the harvest season. At that time the birds used to devour the corn, so
the men of this sub-gens undertook to prevent them, by chewing some
grains of corn which they spit around over the field.[60] During a
fog, the [K]e-‘iⁿ men would draw the figure of a turtle on the ground,
with its head to the south. On the head, tail, middle of the back, and
each leg, were placed small pieces of a (red) breechcloth with some
tobacco. They imagined that this would make the fog disappear very
soon.[61] The [K]aⁿze gens, being Wind people, flap their blankets to
start a breeze when mosquitoes abound.[62] The ┴a-[p]a gens have a
form for the naming of a child on the fifth morning after its birth,
according to Lion, one of the chiefs of that gens.[63] In the feast on
the hearts and tongues,[64] the Hañga men who belong to the sub-gens
keeping the sacred pole, eat the buffalo tongues, though the buffalo
is their “grandfather” and the eponym of their gens; but they can not
eat the “ʇa” or buffalo sides. However, the other Hañga men, who can
not eat the tongues, are allowed to eat the consecrated buffalo sides,
after the ceremonies connected with the thanksgiving and anointing of
the sacred pole.[65] No Omaha child had its hair cut until it had been
taken to an old man of the Ictasanda gens, to have the first locks cut,
the first moccasins put on the child’s feet, and prayers to be said
over it. Sometimes the old man said “┴ucpáha, Wakan´da
O grandchild, Wakanda
ȼa‘éȼiȼé-de ʞáci maⁿȼiñ´ka sí áȼagȼé tate,” i.e., "O
pity you when a long time soil foot you set it shall,
erect on
grandchild, may Wakanda pity you, and may your feet rest a long time
on the ground!” Another form was sometimes used--“Wakanda ȼa‘eȼiȼe
tate. Maⁿȼiñka si aȼagȼe tate. Gudihegaⁿ ne tate,” i.e., “May Wakanda
pity you! May your feet tread the ground! May you go ahead (or, live
hereafter)!”[66]
§ 55. When there is a “blizzard,” the other Kansa beg the members of
the Tcihaciⁿ or Kaⁿze gens to interpose, as they are Wind people.
“[M]i´tcigu-e´, haⁿ´ba ya´li kŭⁿ´bla eyau´. Ciñ´gajiñ´ga yi´ta
O grandfather, day good I desire indeed. Child your
be decorated (_or_
painted)
kik’ŭⁿ´yakiye´ tce au´[64], a´be au´.” i.e., “They say, ‘O
you cause him to will . they .
be decorated (_or_ say
painted)
grandfather (said to one of the Kaⁿze gens), I wish good weather.
Please cause one of your children to be decorated!’” Then the
youngest son of one of the Kaⁿze men, say one over 4 feet high, is
chosen for the purpose, and painted with red paint (I´gamaⁿ jü´dje
i´kik’ŭⁿ´kiya´be au). The youth rolls over and over in the snow and
reddens it for some distance all around him. This is supposed to stop
the storm.
GOVERNMENTAL INSTRUMENTALITIES.
§ 56. Among the Omaha governmental instrumentalities which are
“Wakandaʇaȼicaⁿ” are the chiefs, the keepers of the three sacred
tents, the keepers of the sacred pipes, the gentes, sub-gentes, and
taboos, none of which can be regarded as fetiches, and the following
which appear to be fetiches: The sacred pipes (including the war pipes
of the Elk gens, the two peace pipes kept by the Iñke-sabĕ gens, the
mysterious objects kept by the “keepers of the pipes” in the Ȼatada,
[K]aⁿze, Maⁿȼiñka-gaxe, ┴e-sĭnde, ┴a-[p]a, and Ictasanda gentes, and
the weawaⁿ or pipes used in the calumet dance), the sacred pole, the
sacred hide of a white buffalo, the sacred arrows of divination, and
the sacred clam shell of the Elk gens.[67]
§ 57. OMAHA AND PONKA TABOOS.
Buffalo skull not touched by--
1. ┴e-[p]a it‘ajĭ sub-gens of Ȼatada (Omaha).
2. Waȼigije sub-gens of Iñke-sabĕ (Om.).
3. ┴e-sĭnde gens (Om.).
4. Part of the Wacabe gens (Ponka).
5. Part of Necta gens (P.).
Buffalo tongue not eaten by--
1. Waȼigije sub-gens of Iñke-sabĕ (Om.).
2. Hañgaqti or Wacabe sub-gens of Hañga (Om.).
3. Part of Nika[p]aɔna gens (P.).
4. Part of Wacabe gens (P.).
5. Part of Necta gens (P.).
Buffalo (black) horns not touched by part of Iñke-sabĕ gens (Om.).
Buffalo sides (when consecrated), not eaten by ┴a waqube ȼatajĭ
sub-gens of Hañga gens (Om.).
Buffalo rib (lowest one, ʇeȼiʇ-ucagȼe), not eaten by ┴e-sĭnde gens
(Om.).
Buffalo and domestic calf not eaten when the hair is red, but can be
eaten when the hair turns black, by ┴e-sĭnde gens (Om.).
Buffalo calf can not be touched, when its hair is “zi” (yellow or red), by
a sub-gens of the Necta gens (P.).
Buffalo calf can not be eaten at any time by--
1. Iñgȼe-jide gens (Om.).
2. Part of Wacabe gens (P.).
3. Part of Necta gens (P.).
Deer not eaten by-- 1. Part of Hisada gens (P.). 2. Part of
Nika[p]aɔna gens (P.).
Male deer not eaten by Elk gens (Om.); but Deer gens can eat venison.
Skin of any animal of the deer family can not be touched by ┴ada gens
(Om.).
Flesh of male elk not eaten by Elk gens (Om.).
Bladder and sinew of male elk not touched by Elk gens (Om.).
Elk not eaten by part of Nika[p]aɔna gens (P.).
Turtles not eaten by Turtle sub-gens (Om.).
Black bear skin not touched by--
1. Black bear sub-gens (Om.).
2. Black bear sub-gens (P.).
Wild-cat skin, not touched by pipe sub-gens of Deer gens (Om.).
Cranes and swans not eaten by part of Hañga gens (Om.).
Swans not touched (formerly?) by Miⁿxasaⁿ wet‘ajĭ sub-gens of
Maⁿ-ȼiñka-gaxe gens (Om.).
Small birds not eaten by Wajiñga-ȼatajĭ (Blackbird or Small bird)
sub-gens of the Ȼatada gens (Om.). They can eat wild turkeys, ducks,
geese, swans, cranes. When members of this sub-gens are sick they can
eat grouse.
(Small birds) blackbirds, (_black_ ones), swallows, and grouse not
eaten by part of Hisada gens (P.).
Reptiles neither touched nor eaten by--
1. Ictasanda gens (Om.).
2. Wajaje gens (P.).
Blood not touched by part of the Ȼixida gens (P.), hence their name,
Wami it‘ajĭ.
Red corn not eaten by a sub-gens of the Iñke-sabĕ gens (Om.).
Charcoal not touched by--
1. A sub-gens of the Iñke-sabĕ gens (Om.).
2. The Pipe sub-gens of the Deer gens (Om.).
3. A sub-gens of the Ȼixida gens (P.).
4. The Pipe sub-gens of the Wajaje gens (P.).
Verdigris not touched by--
1. [K]aⁿze gens (Om.).
2. Pipe sub-gens of Deer gens (Om.).
3. Part of the Ȼixida gens (P.).
4. Pipe sub-gens of the Wajaje gens (P.).
FETICHISM.
§ 58. According to Dr. Tylor, “Fetichism is the doctrine of spirits
embodied in, or attached to, or conveying influence through, certain
material objects.”[68]
Fetiches may be regarded as of two kinds--those pertaining to the
tribe or gens, and those belonging to individual members of the social
organization. Some fetiches are amulets, others are charms.
FETICHES OF THE TRIBE AND GENS.
§ 59. _Omaha tribal fetiches._--The sacred pole and white buffalo hide,
in the keeping of the Hañga gens until a few years ago, but now in the
Peabody Museum of Archæology and Ethnology at Cambridge, Mass., were
regarded by the Omaha as “wakanda egaⁿ,” i.e., “like Wakandas,” or
“partaking of the nature of deities.” During the public thanksgiving
after the buffalo hunt, prayer was made towards the sacred pole.[69]
The sacred tent in which the sacred pole of the two tribes was kept was
never painted. When the people remained in their permanent villages of
earth lodges, the entrance of the sacred tent faced the sunrise; but
when the tribe migrated, the entrance of the tent faced the direction
in which they traveled. The pole was never exposed to dew, rain, or
snow, but was kept within the lodge, during any kind of bad weather.
It was never laid down, but was tied to a tent pole. In good weather
it was exposed to view. Sometimes it was tied to one of the tent poles
near the entrance, as shown in Fig. 187. When not tied thus, it rested
on a forked post set in the ground, either in the rear of the tent or
in front of it. The top of the pole, to which the scalp was fastened,
projected beyond the forked post. When this post was in the rear of the
tent, the top of the pole pointed towards the tent; but when the post
was set up in front, the pole pointed in the direction to be traveled.
The place for the pole in good weather was determined by its keeper.
[Illustration: FIG. 187.--Sacred tent in which the pole was kept.]
The people feared the pole, and they would not dare to tread on the
tent or its tent-poles. Should a horse tread on a tent-pole of this
tent, its legs were sure to be broken subsequently. George Miller knew
of two horses that did this, and their legs were broken when the people
were surrounding a herd of buffalo.
Frank La Flèche has told the author about some sacred stone arrows
which were used for purposes of divination. Hence, the nikie name, Maⁿ
pĕjĭ, Bad Arrow, i.e. _Good_ Arrow, a personal name of the Hañga gens.
Other objects, which may have been fetiches, have been named in § 56.
In addition to all which have been mentioned must be named the waȼixabe
or mysterious bags. While these are not governmental instrumentalities,
they are “waqube” mysterious things, and on certain occasions they
are addressed as “grandfathers.” There used to be five of these bags
among the Omaha, but only three are now in existence. Those which could
be carried in time of war were made of the skins and feathers of the
gȼedaⁿ or pigeon hawk, the iⁿbe-jañka or fork-tailed hawk, and the
nickucku or swallow.[70]
┴ade uȼeȼĕ, according to Big Elk (but denied by Joseph La Flèche and
Two Crows) is the mystic rite performed by the principal captain when
near the camp of the enemy. It is thus described by Big Elk (See § 62):
“Four times he untied the bag which he had made sacred. He caused
the wind to waft the odor of the medicine toward the lodges. When
the medicine arrived there, it made the Pawnees forget their
warlike temper; it made them forget their weapons.”[71]
That there was some foundation for this statement, compare what is said
in Omaha Sociology, p. 321:
“When the principal captains wish to open their sacred bags, they
assemble their followers in a circle, making them sit down. Any of
the followers or servants may be ordered to make an “ujeʇi” in the
center of the circle by pulling up the grass, then making a hole
in the ground (the “U-ma-ne” of Miss Fletcher[72]). Then the
sacred bags are laid at the feet of the principal captains, each
one of whom opens his own bag (i.e. the one borrowed by him from
its keeper), holding the mouth of the bird toward the foe, even
when some of the warriors are going to steal horses.”
During the ordeal of the “wastegistu,” as the Omaha call it, the
successful warriors were called up, one by one, and as each man stood
over one of the sacred bags, he addressed the bag itself thus:
“Hau´, iⁿc‘a´ge-ha, eda´daⁿ uwi´bȼa tá miñke ȼaⁿ´ja,
Ho! old man ! what I will tell you though
iȼáusi´ctaⁿ-ma´jĭ uwi´bȼa ta´ miñke,” i.e., “Ho, venerable man!
I tell a I not I will tell you
lie
though I will tell you something, I will not lie when I tell it to
you.” As he spoke he let a small stick drop on the bag. It was supposed
that if the stick rested on the bag instead of rolling off, the man had
told the truth (Om. Soc., p. 328).
§ 60. _Osage tribal fetiches._--The corresponding Osage custom has
been described by the author:[73] The old men assembled at the war
tent. The sacred bags were brought into the tent to test the warriors,
who were watched very closely by the old men. All the old men who had
been distinguished in war were painted with the decorations of their
respective gentes. * * * Each warrior had four sticks about 6 inches
long, and he was required to lay them in succession on the sacred bag.
The warriors were taken in the following order: First, the captain,
next the lieutenants, then the heralds, after whom came the man who
had struck the first blow, then he who gave the second blow, and so
on. As each captain laid his first stick on the bag he said, “Ho, O
grandfather! I lay this down on you because I am the one who has
killed a man.” On laying down the second stick, he said, “Ho, O
grandfather! I wish to be fortunate in stealing horses! I wish our
children, too, to be as fortunate as we have been!” When he put
down the third, he said, “Ho, O grandfather! I wish to raise a
domestic animal. I wish to succeed in bringing it to maturity.” By
this he meant _a son_. The prayer made when the last stick was laid
down was as follows: “Ho, O grandfather! May we continue a people
without sustaining any injuries!” Similar petitions were made by the
lieutenants and heralds. He who gave the first blow said, as he laid
down the first stick, “Ho, O grandfather! I lay this down on you as
one who has caused another to stun a foe!” The rest of his petitions
were those made by the captains. He who struck the second blow said as
follows, on laying down the first stick: “Ho, O grandfather! I place
this on you because I was the next one to strike and stun a man!” The
other petitions follow, as given above. The first petition of each of
the remaining warriors is as follows: “Ho, O grandfather! I lay this on
you as a token that I have aided in overcoming the enemy.”
§ 61. _Kansa tribal fetiches._--Among the Kansa, the following
fetiches belong to the two Hañga gentes: The war pipe and the war clam
shell. The war pipe was kept in 1882 by Pahaⁿle-wak’ü, the son of
Aliⁿkawahu, for the two Hañga gentes. This pipe has an eye on each
side, so that it may see the enemy! There is no pipestem, but there is
one hole to which the mouth is applied, and in the bowl is another hole
in which the tobacco is placed. The pipe, which is all in one piece,
is of catlinite, about as thick as two hands. It is never taken from
the wrappings, except when all the men of the two Hañga gentes assemble
at the lodge of the chief Aliⁿkawahu. The sacred clam shell was kept
in 1882 by Pahaⁿle-gaqli, the chief of the other Hañga gens. It is
wrapped in five coverings, similar to those around the war pipe. They
are as follows: (1) The innermost covering, the bladder of a buffalo
bull; (2) next covering, made of the spotted fur of a fawn; (3) made
of braided rushes or “sa;” (4) a very broad piece of deerskin; (5) the
outermost covering, made of braided hair from the head of a buffalo
bull.
PERSONAL FETICHES.
§ 62. Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ said that there were some Omaha who considered
as “waqube” the skins of animals and the skins and feathers of birds
used in making their “waȼixabe” or mystery bags. Among these birds
and animals he named the eagle, sparrow hawk, yellow-backed hawk,
green-necked duck, great owl, swallow, otter, flying squirrel, mink,
miʞa skă (“white raccoon” sic), and mazaⁿhe. The last is an animal
resembling an otter. It is covered with thick black and reddish-yellow
hair, and its tail is bushy. Samuel Fremont said (in 1889) that this
animal was not found in that part of Nebraska where the Omaha dwelt,
but that he had heard of its being found among the Dakota. Two Crows
and Joseph La Flèche never heard of the miʞa skă and mazaⁿhe among
their own people; but they said that when the Omaha traveled, some used
to take with them their respective “makaⁿ” or medicines, evidently
their personal fetiches, for they used to say, “Our medicines are wise;
they can talk like men, and they tell us how many horses we are to
receive from the people to whom we are going.”
When the Omaha went against the Pawnee during the boyhood of the
present Big Elk, one of the captains, named Gi‘aⁿhabi, had a war club
of the kind called “weaqȼade.” He made this club “waqube,” in order to
use it mysteriously. When near the camp of the enemy he brandished the
club four times toward the Pawnees. This was followed by the use of the
sacred bag, as related in § 59.
It is probable that the medicines of the Watci Waȼupi, Wase-jide
aȼiⁿ-ma, and the Ԁaȼiⁿ-wasabĕ watcigaxe ikagekiȼĕ, of the Omaha,[74]
the Red Medicine of the Kansa, and the Red Medicine of the Osage Makaⁿ
ɔüʇ[s]e watsiⁿ or Red Medicine Dance, were used as fetiches, as they
conferred wonderful powers on those who used them. When the author was
at the Omaha Agency, in 1878, he obtained the following: Rocky Mountain
beans, which are scarlet, and are called “Makaⁿ jide” or Red Medicine,
confer good luck on their owners. If the beans like their owners, they
will never be lost; even if dropped accidentally, they will return to
the possession of their owners. Ni-k’ú-mi, an aged Oto woman, told one
of her granddaughters (then Susette La Flèche, known as Bright Eyes
after 1879, and now the wife of T. H. Tibbles) of her own experience
with one of these beans. She had dropped it in the grass, but she found
it on retracing her steps. It is impossible to say whether this scarlet
bean was identical with the Red Medicine of the Iowa (§ 87), Kansa, and
Osage; but it certainly differed from that of the Wase-jide aȼiⁿma of
the Omaha.
There are sacred or mystery rites practiced by the dancing societies,
including those to which the wazeȼĕ or doctors belong. Two Crows said
that he did not know those of his society, the ┴e iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma. As
initiation into one of these societies is very expensive, it is
unreasonable to suppose that Two Crows would communicate the secrets of
his order for a small sum, such as $1 a day.
SORCERY.
§ 63. There have been sorcerers, i.e., such as prepared love potions
for those who bought them, and who were thought to cause the death of
those persons who had incurred their displeasure. The author has been
told that the sorcerers give a high price for a small quantity of the
catamenial discharge of a virgin. It is mixed with a love potion, and
when the compound is administered to a man he can not help courting the
woman, even when he knows that he does not love her.
JUGGLERY.
§ 64. Ickade or sleight of hand exists not only in the secret societies
but also along with the practice of medicine, government, and religion.
Some of the Omaha and Ponka doctors of the first class (the wazeȼĕ,
not the makaⁿ aȼiⁿ-ma or root doctors) pretend to draw sticks from the
bodies of their patients, or worms from aching teeth, saying that those
things are the causes of the diseases. Every disease is a “nie” or
“pain,” and there must be a cause for that pain.
§ 65. In 1872 Big Grizzly Bear, a subordinate Ponka chief, told the
following to the author: “One day Whip, a head chief, said, ‘I am
going to make the sun blue.’ And he did so. Then he said, ‘I am going
to pull out some of the hair of the man in the moon.’ He held up his
hands to show that they had no hair in them. Then he began to sing.
Suddenly he had some bloody hair in each hand. Ga-ʇi-de maⁿ-ȼiⁿ and a
great many others were witnesses. Once, when the Ponka were destitute
of food, Buffalo Bull, the father of Grizzly Bear’s Ear, said, ‘I will
use magic.’ His wife replied, ‘Please do so.’ So he made a pile of earth
about 2 feet high and shot four arrows into it. A large deer was slain,
furnishing them with plenty to eat.”
In 1871 the author saw an exhibition of the skill of Cramped Hand and
Bent Horn, two Ponka shamans. One afternoon, near sunset, about two
hundred persons, mostly Indians, stood in a large circle around a tent
in which sat the shamans and their assistants. Presently the shamans
and the aged chief, Antoine Primeau, came out of the tent and stood
within the circle. One of the shamans, Cramped Hand, danced along the
inner side of the circle, exhibiting a revolver (Allen’s patent), one
chamber of which he seemed to load as the people looked on. After he
had put on the cap, he handed the weapon to the chief, who fired at
the shaman. Cramped Hand fell immediately, as if badly wounded. Bent
Horn rushed to his relief and began to manipulate him. It was not long
before Cramped Hand was able to crawl around on his hands and knees,
though the bullet had apparently hit him in the mouth. He groaned and
coughed incessantly, and after a tin basin was put down before him he
coughed up a bullet which fell in the basin, and was shown in triumph
to the crowd. This is told merely to show how the Indian juggler has
adopted some of the tricks of his white brother. In a few moments Bent
Horn danced around, showing to each of us an object which appeared to
be a stone as large as a man’s fist, and too large to be forced into
the mouth of the average man. Cramped Hand stood about 10 or 15 feet
away and threw this stone toward Bent Horn, hitting the latter in the
mouth and disappearing. Bent Horn fell and appeared in great pain,
groaning and foaming at the mouth. When the basin was put down before
him, there fell into it, not one large stone, but at least four small
ones. We were told that the chief, Antoine, had to give a horse for the
privilege of shooting at the shaman.
It is probable that some of the Omaha shamans performed similar tricks,
though the author has been unable to obtain any accounts of them.
§ 66. He was fortunate, however, in making the acquaintance of the
chief “wakandagi,” or shaman of the Kansa, when at Kaw Agency, in the
winter of 1882. This man, Nixüdje-yiñge, was very communicative. He
said that there used to be ten shamans in the tribe, and all had round
pebbles which they blew from their mouths against the persons whom they
“ʞilŭⁿxe” or “shot in a mysterious manner.” The arrow of the
shamans was called “Mi-pa-ha,” which is a name of the Buffalo gens.
This missile was made of part of the red-breasted turtle.
A woman named Saⁿ-si-le had two “makaⁿ” (medicines, fetiches?)
which she used for “ickade” or “wakandagi wagaxe” (magic, shamanistic
legerdemain). She could swallow a knife; and when she swallowed a
certain kind of grass she drew a green snake from her mouth. John
Kickapoo’s father had a red medicine, which was used for women who
desired to become enciente, for horses, and for causing good dreams.
Nixüdje-yiñge’s mother, who was a shaman, has a small pebble and a clam
shell, which she used in her mystery acts.
Pagani had a “sika-hyuka” or “needle” (so represented by Nixüdje-yiñge,
but it may not have been a steel needle), which he swallowed and
voided through the urethra. Gahige-wadayiñga used to stab himself with
a “mahiⁿsü” or arrow-point, about 6 inches long, causing the blood
to spurt from his left shoulder as he danced. The other shamans used
to spurt water on his back from their mouths, while he held his arms
horizontally from his body, with the forearms pointing upward. When
they finished no wound could be found. One shaman had a fish called “hu
blaska” or flat fish, to which he talked. He made a necklace of the
skin, and he used it for “ʞilŭⁿxe.”
Wakanda-zi had the skin of a small black bear as his sacred bag. As he
danced he held it by the tail and shook the skin. After shooting the
round pebble from his mouth at a person he thrust the bear skin at the
wounded man, drawing it back very quickly. The round pebble was drawn
into the mouth of the bear and dropped on the ground when the skin bag
was held with the tail up.
He who wished to be shot at handed a gun to some one, who shot him in
the side, much blood escaping. He seemed to be dead; but the shamans
assembled and manipulated him. One put the mouth of the otter (of the
otterskin sacred bag) to the mouth of the patient in order to perform
the act called “lüpayiⁿ” (to raise up or resuscitate his own). Then,
“Zü´be aká eyaú tuhnañ´ge aká,” i.e., when the bag was drawn away
rapidly, the otter made the sound “zübe,” as when one draws in the
breath, and the bullet was in its mouth. On the patient’s recovery he
gave a horse to the man who shot at him.
Mañge-zi had a clam shell and a snake that he used in his
sleight-of-hand acts. He also swallowed “mahiⁿ-tu,” a kind of green
grass about a foot long and as thick as a pencil. Before swallowing
this, he warmed it at a fire. He rubbed himself on his chest after
swallowing it, saying, “Let all look at me!” Then he called to him a
man to act as his assistant. He coughed and in the assistant’s hand
there was a snake, which he took around the circle of spectators,
showing it to every one, though no one handled it. On his returning
the snake to Mañge-zi, the latter swallowed it and coughed up the long
grass.
Nixüdje-yiñge said that there were eight objects used by the shamans
for “shooting,” the needle; flint (?) arrow head; beaver teeth; the
half of a knife blade, i.e., that part next to the point; the fish-fan,
made of “huqtci” or “real fish;” the red medicine; the hiyádadáxe or
medicine bag that was caused to fly; and the tuhnañge, or otter skin
bag. (See §§ 292-295, 307.)
OMAHA AND PONKA BELIEF AS TO A FUTURE LIFE.
§ 67. They have a very crude belief. Each person is taught to have a
wanaxe or spirit, which does not perish at death. According to Joseph
La Flèche and Two Crows, the old men used to say to the people, “Ȼiudaⁿ
ʞĭ, wanaxe udaⁿ-maʇa ci tate. Ȼipiäjĭ ʞĭ, wanaxe piäjĭ-maʇa ci tate,”
i.e., “If you are good, you will go to the good ghosts. If you are bad,
you will go to the bad ghosts.” Nothing was ever said of going to dwell
with Wakanda, or with demons.[75]
Rev. William Hamilton found a belief that retribution is in this life,
and he says, “Their notions are exceedingly crude.”
§ 68. Frank La Flèche told the author before 1882 that he had heard
some old men relate a tradition that years ago a man came back to
life and told about the spirit land. He said that for four nights
after death the ghost had to travel a very dark road, but that after
he reached the Milky Way there was plenty of light. For this reason,
said he, the people ought to aid their deceased friends by lighting
fires at the graves, and by keeping them burning for four nights in
each case. After going along the Milky Way, the ghost came at last to
a place where the road forked; and there sat an aged man, clothed in a
buffalo robe with the hair outside. (See § 359½.) He said nothing,
but pointed to each inquirer the road for which he asked. One road was
a very short one, and he who followed it soon came to the place where
the good ghosts dwelt. The other road was an endless one, along which
the ghosts went crying. The spirits of suicides could not travel either
road; but they hovered over their graves. But Joseph La Flèche and Two
Crows (in 1882) said that the road of the ghosts was not the Milky Way,
and they regarded the account of the endless road as a modern addition,
which is very probable. The latest statements of Frank La Flèche are
given in the Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, vol. II, No. 4, pp. 10, 11:
There are a variety of beliefs concerning the immediate action
of the spirit upon its withdrawal from the body. Some think that
the soul at once starts upon its journey to the spirit land;
others, that it hovers about the grave as if reluctant to depart.
Because of this latter belief, food and water are placed at the
head of the grave for several days after the burial. The spirit
is supposed to partake of this food. No Indian would touch any
article of food thus exposed; if he did, the ghost would snatch
away the food and paralyze the mouth of the thief, and twist his
face out of shape for the rest of his life; or else he would be
pursued by the ghost, and food would lose its taste, and hunger
ever after haunt the offender. There is a belief in the tribe that
before the spirits finally depart from men who died of wounds or
their results, they float toward a cliff overhanging the Missouri,
not far from the present Santee Agency, in Nebraska, and cut upon
the rocks a picture showing forth their manner of death. A line
in the picture indicates the spot where the disease or wound was
located which caused the death. After this record is complete,
the spirit flies off to the land of the hereafter. It is said
that these pictures are easily recognized by the relatives and
friends of the deceased. This place is known as Iñ-gȼaⁿ´-xe
ʞi-ʞá-xai ȼaⁿ,[76] or, Where the spirits make pictures of
themselves. A suicide ceases to exist; for him there is no
hereafter. A man struck by lightning is buried where he fell, and
in the position in which he died. His grave is filled with earth,
and no mound is raised over one who is thus taken from life.
In 1873 some of the Ponka said they had the following beliefs
concerning a murderer: (1) The ghosts surround him and keep up a
constant whistling; (2) he can never satisfy his hunger, though he eat
much food; (3) he must not be allowed to roam at large lest high winds
arise.
It is important to compare this whole section with the Dakota beliefs
found in §§ 266-278.
The author was told by the Omaha that when a man was killed by
lightning, he ought to be buried face downwards, and the soles of his
feet had to be slit. When this was done, the spirit went at once to
the spirit land, without giving further trouble to the living. In one
case (that of a Wejiⁿcte man, Jadegi, according to George Miller
and Frank Le Flèche)[77] this was not done, so it was said that the
ghost _walked_, and he did not rest in peace till another person (his
brother) was slain by lightning and laid beside him.
When Joseph La Flèche and Two Crows heard what Frank had told about
the Milky Way, etc., they remarked, “We have never been to the spirit
land, so we can not tell what is done there. No one has ever come back
and told us.” All that they had ever heard was the old story about the
forked road.
§ 69. Gahige, the late chief of the Iñke-sabĕ (a buffalo gens), told
the author about the address made to a member of his gens, when dying.
According to him, the person was addressed thus: “You are going to the
animals (the buffalos). You are going to your ancestors. Ánita dúbaha
hné (which may be rendered, You are going to the four living ones, if
not, the four winds). Wackañ´-gă (Be strong).” Gahige was understood to
speak of four spirits or souls to each person, but Joseph La Flèche and
Two Crows said that the Omaha did not believe that a person had more
than one spirit. Two Crows gave the following as the address to a dying
member of his gens, the Hañga, another buffalo gens: “Waníʇa etáʇaⁿ
Quadruped from
ȼatí. Gaⁿ ĕʇa ȼagȼé taté hă. Gaⁿ dúduȼagaqȼajĭ te hă.
you And thither you go shall . And you do not face will .
have this way (please)
come
Hné tĕʇa caⁿ´caⁿ maⁿȼiñ´-gă há,” i.e., “You came hither from the
you go to the always walk thou !
animals. And you are going back thither. Do not face this way again.
When you go, continue walking.” The last sentence is a petition to the
departing spirit not to return to this earth to worry or injure the
survivors. That the dead are referred to as still existing, and as
having some knowledge of what is happening here, may be seen from the
address to a Ponka chief at his installation: “Ȼiádi gáhi, ȼijiⁿ´ȼĕ
gáhi, ȼiʇígaⁿ gáhi, ámustáqti ȼidaⁿ´be maⁿ´ȼiⁿ tai;” i.e., “Your father
was a chief, your elder brother (i.e., his potential elder brother,
Ubiskă, a former head chief of the Ponka) was a chief, and your
grandfather was a chief; may they continue to look directly down on
you!”[78]
§ 70. Those who boil sacred food, as for the warpath, pour some of the
soup outside the lodge, as an offering to the ghosts. (Omaha custom.)
There has been no belief in the resurrection of the body, but simply
one in the continued existence of the ghost or spirit. While some of
the Iowas expressed to Mr. Hamilton a belief in the transmigration of
spirits, that doctrine has not been found among the Omaha and Ponka,
nor has the author heard of it among other Siouan tribes.
Not all ghosts are visible to the living. They may be heard without
being seen. One Omaha woman, the mother of Two Crows, told how she had
been in a lodge with many persons, who were invisible from the knees
upward.[79]
KANSA BELIEFS RESPECTING DEATH AND A FUTURE LIFE.
§ 71. When the author was at Kaw Agency, Indian Territory, in
the winter of 1882-’83, a man named Ho-sa-sa-ge died. After the
representatives of all the gentes had assembled at the house, Wakanda
(named after the Thunder-being), the father-in-law of the deceased,
removed the lock of hair called the “ghost,” and took it to his own
house, weeping as he departed.
When Mr. Say was among the Kansa[80] he obtained the following
information about their beliefs concerning death and the future life:
When a man is killed in battle the thunder is supposed to take him
up, they do not know whither. In going to battle each warrior
traces an imaginary figure of the thunder on the soil; he who
represents it incorrectly is killed by the thunder. A person saw
this thunder one day on the ground, with a beautiful moccasin on
each side of it. Having need of a pair, he took them and went his
way; but on his return to the same spot the thunder took him off,
and he has not since been heard of.
They seem to have vague notions about the future state. They think
that a brave man or a good hunter will walk in a good path; but
a bad man and a coward will find a bad path. Thinking that the
deceased has far to travel, they bury with his body moccasins,
some articles of food, etc., to support him on the journey. Many
persons, they believe, who have revived have been, during their
apparent death, to strange villages, where they were not treated
well by the people, so they returned to life.
The author, when among the Kansa, in the winter of 1882-’83, learned
the following, which differs from anything he has ever obtained
elsewhere: “The Kansa believe that when there is a death the ghost
returns to the spirit village nearest the present habitat of the
living. That is to say, all Indians do not go to one spirit village or
‘happy hunting ground,’ but to different ones, as there is a series of
spirit villages for the Kansa, beginning with the one at Council Grove,
where the tribe dwelt before they removed to their present reservation
in Indian Territory, and extending along both sides of the Kansas
River to its mouth, thence up the Missouri River, as far as the tribe
wandered before meeting the Cheyennes (near the State line), thence
down the river to the mouth of Osage River, and so on, down to the
mouths of the Missouri and Ohio rivers,” etc.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 7: See James, Account Exped. to Rocky Mountains, vol. I, p.
126.]
[Footnote 8: See Jour. Amer. Folk-lore, vol. I, No. 1, p. 73.]
[Footnote 9: See §§ 132-136, and Tuŋkaŋśila, in Riggs’s
Dakota-English Dictionary, Contr. N.A. Ethnology, vol. VII.]
[Footnote 10: See Contr. N.A. Ethn., vol. VI, pp. 372, 373, 376, and
Omaha Sociology, in 3d Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethnology, pp. 324, 325.]
[Footnote 11: Contr. N.A. Ethn., Vol. VI, p. 394, lines 10-19; p. 395,
lines 14-16.]
[Footnote 12: Wakanda aka uiʞaⁿi egaⁿ.]
[Footnote 13: Wakanda aka ibahaⁿi.]
[Footnote 14: Wakanda aka igiȼigȼaⁿi.]
[Footnote 15: Lewis and Clarke, Expedition, ed. Allen, Dublin, vol. I,
1817, pp. 457, 458; also M’Vickar’s abridgment of the same, Harpers, N.
Y. vol. I, 1842, p. 303.]
[Footnote 16: James’s Account of Long’s Exped., Phila., vol, I, 1823,
p. 208.]
[Footnote 17: Ha, witsiʞue. 6th Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 385, line
50; p. 389, line 50; p. 391, line 4, etc.]
[Footnote 18: Am. Naturalist, Feb. 1884, p. 126; _Ibid._, July, 1885,
p. 670.]
[Footnote 19: Ibid., Feb. 1884, pp. 115, 116, 117, 120, 123, 125.]
[Footnote 20: A similar rule about fasting obtained among the Kansa
when mourning for the dead. See Amer. Naturalist, July, 1885, pp. 670,
672, 679.]
[Footnote 21: See 6th Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., pp. 385, 389.]
[Footnote 22: James’ Account Long’s Exped., Phil., vol. I, 1823, p.
129.]
[Footnote 23: Rept. Peabody Museum, Vol. III, p. 281, note.]
[Footnote 24: See “Osage Traditions,” pp. 384-395, in 6th Ann. Rept.
Bur. Ethn.]
[Footnote 25: For an account of the offering of meat to the four winds,
see Om. Soc., 3d Ann. Rept., Bur. Ethn., p. 284.]
[Footnote 26: See Miss A. C. Fletcher on the “Wawan or Pipe Dance of
the Omahas,” Rept. Peabody Museum. Vol. III, p. 311, note 11, and the
author’s paper, Om. Soc., pp. 278, 279.]
[Footnote 27: Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Waqube-k’iⁿ gave this information
in the winter of 1882-’83. Compare the self-inflicted tortures of the
Dakota and Ponka in the sun dance (§§ 29, 181-3, 185, 187).]
[Footnote 28: Account of the war customs of the Osages: in Amer.
Naturalist, Vol. XVIII, No. 2, February, 1884, p. 133.]
[Footnote 29: See Omaha Sociology, § 24, 3d. Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p.
227.]
[Footnote 30: Omaha Sociology, in 3d. Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 316.]
[Footnote 31: This song and the invocation of the Thunder-being are
used by the Ponka as well as by the Kansa. According to Miss Fletcher,
the “sign of giving thanks” among the Hunkpapa Dakota is made by moving
the hands in the opposite direction, i. e., “from the shoulder to the
wrist.” See “The White Buffalo Festival of the Uncpapas,” in Peabody
Museum Rept., vol. III, p. 268.]
[Footnote 32: Contr. N. A. Ethn., vol. VI, pp. 108-131.]
[Footnote 33: Compare the hair of the Thunder-men, in Contr. N. A.
Ethn., vol. VI, pp. 187, 188.]
[Footnote 34: Contr. N. A. Ethn, vol. VI, p. 390. See also § 19.]
[Footnote 35: Ibid., p. 207.]
[Footnote 36: Ibid., pp. 40, 134, etc.]
[Footnote 37: Am. Naturalist, July, 1885, vol. 19, Pl. XX, p. 676.]
[Footnote 38: Geikie’s paraphrase, in “Hours with the Bible,” vol. V,
p. 357.]
[Footnote 39: Contr. N. A. Ethn., vol. VI, pp. 370, 371.]
[Footnote 40: Om. Sociology, in 3d. Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 317.]
[Footnote 41: Ibid, p. 319.]
[Footnote 42: “Kansas Mourning and War Customs,” in Am. Naturalist,
July 1886, p. 672.]
[Footnote 43: Miss Fletcher, in Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Proc., vol.
XXXIII, pt. 2, 1885, pp. 616, 617. Francis La Flèche, ibid., p. 614.]
[Footnote 44: Osage Traditions, in 6th Ann. Rept. of the Director Bur.
Ethn., 1888, p. 377.]
[Footnote 45: Am. Anthropologist, vol. II., No. 1, 1888, p. 59.
(“January, 1889.”)]
[Footnote 46: U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Survey, Hayden; Miscel. Publ., No.
7, 1877; Matthews’ Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa, 1877, p.
48.]
[Footnote 47: Om. Soc., p. 234. Contr. N. A. Ethn., vol. VI, 468, line
3.]
[Footnote 48: Om. Soc., p. 297. Contr. N. A. Ethn., vol. VI, 471, lines
3-5.]
[Footnote 49: Osage Traditions, in 6th Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., pp. 377,
379, 390.]
[Footnote 50: See Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. I, No. 3, p. 209; and Om.
Sociology, in 3d Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., pp. 347-8.]
[Footnote 51: Om. Sociology, p. 348.]
[Footnote 52: Ibid, pp. 348, 349.]
[Footnote 53: Ibid, p. 349.]
[Footnote 54: “Death and Funeral Customs among the Omahas,” in Jour.
Amer. Folk-lore, vol. II, No. 4, p. 3.]
[Footnote 55: Om. Soc., p. 353.]
[Footnote 56: This Kwapa information was obtained in January, 1891,
some time after the preparation of the greater part of this paper. In
such a combination as dȼ the ȼ is scarcely heard.]
[Footnote 57: See Om. Soc., in 3d Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn. §§ 123, 163,
and several myths in Contr. to N. A. Ethnology, vol. VI.]
[Footnote 58: See Osage Traditions, in 6th Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p.
379.]
[Footnote 59: U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ., No.
7, 1877; Ethnography and Philology of Hidatsa Indians, p. 12.]
[Footnote 60: Om. Soc., in 3d Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 238.]
[Footnote 61: Ibid., p. 240.]
[Footnote 62: Ibid., p. 241.]
[Footnote 63: Ibid., pp. 245, 246.]
[Footnote 64: Ibid., pp. 290, 291.]
[Footnote 65: Ibid., p. 295.]
[Footnote 66: For detailed accounts, see “Glimpses of Child-life among
the Omaha Indians,” by Miss A. C. Fletcher, in Jour. Am. Folk-lore,
vol. I, No. 2, pp. 115-118; and Omaha Sociology, in 3d Ann. Rept. Bur.
Ethn., pp. 249, 250.]
[Footnote 67: See pp. 221-251 and Chap. XI of Omaha Sociology, in 3d
Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn.]
[Footnote 68: Prim. Culture, vol. II. p. 132.]
[Footnote 69: See Om. Soc., in 3d. An. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 295.]
[Footnote 70: See Om. Soc., p. 320.]
[Footnote 71: Contr. N. A. Ethn., Vol. VI, p. 404.]
[Footnote 72: Rept. Peabody Museum, Vol. III, p. 263, note 8.]
[Footnote 73: In the Am. Naturalist, Feb., 1884, pp. 128, 129.]
[Footnote 74: See Om. Soc., pp. 349-351.]
[Footnote 75: Compare the Oregon story: No Indians go after death to
the upper world to dwell with Qawaneca. Am. Anthropologist, Jan., 1889,
p. 60.]
[Footnote 76: This name is given in the notation of the Bureau of
Ethnology, not as published by Mr. La Flèche.]
[Footnote 77: See Jour. Am. Folklore, Vol. II, No. 6, p. 190.]
[Footnote 78: Om. Soc., p. 360.]
[Footnote 79: See “Death and Funeral Customs of the Omahas,” by Francis
La Flesche, in Jour. Am. Folk-lore, Vol. II, No. 4, pp. 4, 5.]
[Footnote 80: See James’s Account Exped. to Rocky Mountains, Vol. I.,
p. 125.]
CHAPTER IV.
┴[C]IWERE AND WINNEBAGO CULTS.
§ 72. The Rev. William Hamilton, who was a missionary to the Iowa and
Sac Indians of Nebraska, from 1837 to 1853, is the authority for most
of the Iowa material in this chapter. About the year 1848, he published
a series of letters about the Iowa Indians in a Presbyterian weekly
newspaper, and with his permission the present writer transcribed these
letters in 1879, for his own future use.
Other information about the three ┴ɔiwere tribes (Iowa, Oto and
Missouri) was obtained by the author from Ke-ʞre[ç]e, an Oto;
Ckaʇɔinye, a Missouri; and the delegation of Iowa chiefs that visited
Washington in 1882.
The principal Winnebago authority was James Alexander, a full-blood and
a member of the Wolf gens.
TERM “GREAT SPIRIT” NEVER HEARD AMONG THE IOWA.
Mr. Hamilton wrote thus in one of his letters:
It is often said that the Indians are not idolaters, and that
they believe in one Supreme Being, whom they call the Great
Spirit. I do not now recollect that I ever heard the Iowas use
the term Great Spirit since I have been among them. They speak
of God (Wakanta), and sometimes of the Great God or Bad God. But
of the true character of God they are entirely ignorant. Many of
them speak of God as the creator of all things, and use a term
that signifies “Creator of the earth.” Sometimes they call him
“Grandfather” (hiⁿtuka). But they imagine him to be possessed of
like passions with themselves, and pleased with their war parties,
scalp dances, thefts, and such like sin. * * * They sometimes
speak of the sun as a god, because it gives light and heat. The
moon they sometimes speak of as a god, because it seems to be to
the night what the sun is to the day. I asked an Indian the other
day how many gods the Iowas had, and he promptly replied, ‘Seven.’
THE SUN A WAKANTA.
§ 73. An Iowa told Mr. Hamilton that he had once killed a bear, which
he offered to the sun, allowing the animal to lie where he had killed
it.
THE WINDS AS WAKANTAS.
§ 74. An Iowa told Mr. Hamilton that Tatce, or Wind, was one of the
seven great gods of his tribe. Another told him that he had made
offerings to the South Wind, who was considered a beneficent Wakanta.
But the North-east Wind was a maleficent one.
Judging from some of the Winnebago personal names, it is probable that
the winds were regarded as powers by that people.
THE THUNDER-BEING A WAKANTA.
§ 75. Among the Iowa and Oto, the Tcexita is the eagle and thunderbird
gens, and Mr. Hamilton was told by the Iowa that the Thunder-being was
called Tcexita, and Wakanta, the latter being its peculiar title. “They
supposed the Thunder-being to be a large bird. When they first hear the
thunder in the spring of the year, they have a sacred feast in honor of
this god.”
The Winnebago called the Thunder-being “Wakaⁿtca-ra,” and one
division of the Bird gens is the Wakaⁿtca ikikaratca-da, or
Thunder-being sub-gens. The Thunder-beings are the enemies of the
Waktceqi or Submarine Wakantas. One person in the Thunder-being
sub-gens is named Five-horned Male, probably referring to a
Thunder-being with five horns! Other personal names are as follows:
Green Thunder-being, Black Thunder-being, White Thunder-being, and
Yellow Thunder-being; but James Alexander, a full-blood Winnebago of
the Wolf gens, says that these colors have no connection with the four
winds or quarters of the earth (See § 381).
The Iowa told Mr. Hamilton of a Winnebago who saw a Thunder-being
fighting a subaquatic power. Sometimes the former bore the latter
up into the air, and at other times the subaquatic power took his
adversary beneath the water. The Winnebago watched them all day, and
each Power asked his assistance in overcoming the other, promising him
a great reward. The man did not know which one to help; but at last he
shot an arrow at the subaquatic power, who was carried up into the air
by the Thunder-being, but the wounded one said to the man, “You may
become a great man yourself, but your relations must die.” And so they
say it happened. He became very great, but his relatives died.
When the warriors returned home from an expedition against their
enemies, they plaited grass and tied the pieces around their arms,
necks, and ankles. Sometimes to each ankle there was a trailing piece
of plaited grass a yard long. This was probably associated, as were all
war customs, with the worship of the Thunder-being (See Chap. III, §
35).
SUBTERRANEAN POWERS.
§ 76. An Indian became deranged from the use of whisky, and ran wild
for several days. The Iowa supposed that his madness was caused by a
subterranean power, whom he had seen, and whose picture he had drawn on
the ground, representing it with large horns.
SUBAQUATIC POWERS.
§ 77. Some Iowa claim to have seen them. No Heart (Natce-niñe) told
Mr. Hamilton that he had seen a “water god in the Missouri river, when
a man was drowned. When a person is drowned they sometimes say that
the god who lives in the water has taken him for a servant. Not a year
since, some Iowa went over the river for meat. A young girl sat down in
the canoe with her load on her back. When near the shore the canoe was
upset accidentally, and the girl was drowned. The men thought that they
heard a god halloo in the water, and that he had taken her. One told me
that the gods of the air (i. e. the Thunder-beings) fought the gods of
the water, and when the latter came out of the water, the former stole
upon them and killed them.”
The subterranean and subaquatic powers are called “waktceqi” by the
Winnebago, and this tribe has a gens called Waktceqi ikikaratcada.
The Winnebago say that the waktceqi dwell under the ground and the
high bluffs, and in subterranean water, that they are c
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