§ 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.
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.’
§ 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.
§ 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.
§ 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).
§ 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.
§ 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 caused to uphold the earth, trees, rivers, etc., and that they are the enemies of the Thunder-beings (§ 386). In the Winnebago Waktceqi gens are the following personal names: Black Waktceqi, White Waktceqi, Green Waktceqi, “Waktceqi that is saⁿ” (which may be gray or brown), Four Horned Male, Two Horned Male, and Lives in the Hill.
§ 78. Mr. Hamilton wrote that the Iowa often spoke about the buffaloes, whom they regarded as gods, addressing them as “Grandfathers.” He also told of a doctor whom he met one day; the doctor seized a joint-snake that was handed him by another doctor, calling it his “god,” spoke of it as being good medicine, and after putting its head into his mouth, he bit it twice.
§ 79. “They also seem to think that human beings may become gods, and in this respect they are like the Mormons.”
§ 80. “High rocks are supposed by the Iowa to be the dwellings of gods.” “There is a Winnebago tradition that a woman carrying her child was running from her enemies, so she jumped down a steep place and was turned into a rock. And now when they pass that place they make offerings to her.”
§ 81. “One of their most common acts of worship, and apparently one of daily occurrence, is observed when a person is about to smoke his pipe. He looks to the sky and says, ‘Wakanta, here is tobacco!’ (See §§ 29, 40, ‘Nini bahai tĕ.’) Then he puffs a mouthful of smoke up towards the sky, after which he smokes as he pleases.” “They also make offerings of tobacco by throwing a small quantity into the fire.” “They frequently offer a small portion of food at their feasts, before they begin eating.”
Mr. Hamilton saw dogs hung by their necks to trees or to sticks planted in the ground, and he was told that these dogs were offerings. “No Heart told me that when the smallpox raged among them about fifty years ago” (i. e. about 1798), “and swept off so many, that they made a great many offerings.” Said he, “We threw away a great many garments, blankets, etc., and offered many dogs to God. My father threw away a flag which the British had given him. When we had thrown away these things, the smallpox left us.” These offerings to God (literally, to Wakanta) were the means of checking it. “To throw away,” in Iowa, is the same as “to offer in sacrifice.”
§ 82. Mr. Hamilton was told by the Iowa that no member of any gens could eat the flesh of the eponymic animal.
The author gained the following taboos from a Missouri, Ckaʇɔe-yiñe or Ckaʇɔinye, who visited the Omaha in 1879: The members of the Tunaⁿp’iⁿ, a Black Bear gens in the Oto and Nyut’atci (or Missouri) tribes can not touch a clam shell. The Momi people, now a subgens of the Missouri Bird gens, abstain from small birds which have been killed by large birds, and they can not touch the feathers of such small birds.
§ 83. Among these are the sacred pipes, the sacred bags, or waruxawe, and the sacred stone or iron. The sacred pipes are used only on solemn occasions, and they are kept enveloped in the skin wrappers. The sacred bags, or waruxawe, are made from the skins of animals. They are esteemed as mysterious, and they are reverenced as much as Wakanta. Among the Winnebago (and presumably among the ┴ɔiwere tribes) no woman is allowed to touch the waruxawe. There used to be seven waruxawe among the Iowa, “related to one another as brothers and sisters,” and used by war parties. On the return from war the seven bags were opened and used in the scalp dance. They contained the skins of animals and birds with medicine in them, also wild tobacco and other war medicine, also the war club. There used to be seven war clubs, one for each waruxawe, but during the last expedition of the Iowa, prior to the date of Mr. Hamilton’s letters, the war club and pipes or whistles were lost from the principal bag. The next kind of sacred bags, the Waci waruxawe, numbered seven. They were the bad-medicine bags, by means of which they professed to deprive their enemies of power, when they had discouraged them by blowing the whistles. Owing to this enchantment, they said, their enemies could neither shoot nor run, and were soon killed. The next kind were the Tce waruxawe, or buffalo medicine bags. They were not used in war, but in healing the wounded. These bags contain medicine and the sticks with the deer hoofs attached which they shake while treating the sick; also a piece of buffalo tail, and perhaps a piece from the skin covering the throat of an elk.
The Ta waruxawe, or deer medicine bags, contain the sacred otter skins used in the Otter dance. (See § 86.)
In some of the sacred bags are round stones, which the warriors rub over themselves before going to war, to prevent their being killed or wounded.
The waruxawe is always carried with the same end foremost, the heads of the animals or birds being placed in the same direction, and care is taken to keep them so. (See § 28.) On one occasion a leader broke up a war party by turning the bag around.
The Iowa claim to have a mysterious object by which they try men, or make them swear to speak the truth. This mysterious iron or stone had not been gazed upon within the recollection of any of the Iowa living in 1848. It was wrapped in seven skins. No woman was allowed to see even the outer covering, and Mr. Hamilton was told that he would die if he looked at it.
Ckaʇɔinye, the Missouri, told the author that there were four Tu-naⁿp’iⁿ men who kept sacred pipes (raqnowe waqonyitaⁿ), their names being Weqa-nayiⁿ, Cŭⁿ-ʞiqowe, Naⁿ[ç]ra[ç]raʇɔe, and Naⁿʇɔe-yiñe. It is probable that two of these men belong to the Tunaⁿp’iⁿ gens of the Oto tribe and two to the Tunaⁿp’iⁿ gens of the Nyut’atci tribe, as these two tribes have been consolidated for years. In the Aruqwa or Buffalo gens of the Oto, ┴ɔe-ʇo-nayiⁿ and ┴ɔe-wañeʞihi are the keepers of the sacred pipes of that gens.
§ 84. The Winnebago tent used for sacred dances is long and narrow; not more than 20 feet wide and varying from 50 to 100 feet long.
In the Buffalo dance, which is given four times in the month of May and early June, the dancers are four men and a large number of women. As the dancers enter each woman brings in a handful of fine earth and in this way two mounds are raised in the center at the east—that is, between the eastern entrance and the fire, which is about 15 feet from the eastern entrance. The mounds thus formed are truncated cones. An old man said to me, “That is the way all mounds were built; that is why we build so for the buffalo.”
The mounds were about 4 inches high and not far from 18 inches in diameter. On top of the mounds were placed the head-gear worn by the men, the claws, tails, and other articles used by the four leaders or male dancers.
The men imitate the buffalo in his wild tramping and roaring, and dance with great vigor. They are followed by a long line of gaily decked women in single file. Each woman as she dances keeps her feet nearly straight and heels close together, and the body is propelled forward by a series of jerks which jars the whole frame, but the general effect on the long, closely packed line is that of the undulating appearance of a vast herd moving. The women dance with their eyes turned toward the ground and with their hands hanging closely in front, palms next to the person. The track left by their feet is very pretty, being like a close-leaved vine. It is astonishing to notice how each woman can leap into her predecessor’s track. Water is partaken of and the entire dance is clearly indicative of the prayer for increase and plenty of buffalo. The two mounds remind one of larger structures and suggest many speculations, particularly when taken in connection with the manner of their building.
In the great mystery lodge, whence so many of the sacred societies among other tribes professedly take their rise and inspiration, the fire is at the east, and is made by placing four sticks meeting in the center and the other ends pointing to the four points of the compass.[83] Just at that part of the initiation of the candidate when he is to fall dead to the old life, be covered as with a pall, and then be raised to the new life, the remains of the four sticks are taken away and the ashes raised in a sharp conical mound, again suggesting hints of a peculiar past.
Upon the bluffs of the Missouri, on a promontory * * * is a little depression cut in the ground, circular in form, with an elongated end at the east. The depression is 1 foot in diameter and about 6 inches deep. Placing my compass in the center, the long end or entrance was found to be exactly to the east. To the south of this sacred spot, for it is cleared and cleaned * * * every year, stood a large cedar tree, now partly blown down. This was the sacred tree on which miraculous impersonation of visions lit; and here the spirits tarried as they passed from one resting place to another going over the country. About every 50 miles there is one of these strange, supernatural resting places.
§ 85. All medicines were regarded as mysterious or sacred. The heart of a slain enemy was sometimes dried and put in the medicine bag to be pulverized and mixed with the other medicines. “One or two days before a war party started from the village of the Iowa, the man who was to carry the sacred bag hid it while the others busied themselves with preparing sacred articles” (probably their personal fetiches). “The hunters often brought in deer, after eating which, the warriors painted themselves as they would do if they expected to see an enemy. Next, one of their number measured a certain number of steps in front, when each man took his place, and knelt down. As soon as the word was given, each one pulled away the grass and sticks, moving backwards till he came to the poles, when he arose. Then each placed his own sacred objects (personal fetiches?) before him, and began his own song. While singing, they opened their sacred objects, asking for good luck. They sang one song on opening them (as among the Kansa, see § 36), and another while putting them back into their places, a song being supposed necessary for every ceremony in which they engaged. In the conversations which ensued, they were at liberty to jest, provided they avoided common or vulgar terms.”
There is very probably some connection between these societies and the cults of the tribes now under consideration. (See §§ 43, 62, 111, 113, 120, et passim.)
§ 86. The members of this order shot at one another with their otterskin bags, as has been the custom in the Wacicka dancing society of the Omaha (Om. Soc., pp. 345, 346). Some have said that they waved their otter-skin bags around in order to infuse the spirit of the otter into a bead in its mouth, and that it was by the spirit of the otter that they knocked one another down. Each one who practiced this dance professed to keep some small round object in his breast to cough it up before or during the dance, and to use it for shooting one of his companions in the neck. He who was thus shot did in turn cough up the mysterious object, and at the end of the dance each member swallowed his own shell or pebble.
§ 87. The Indians used to obtain in the prairies, towards the Rocky Mountains, an object about the size of a bean or small hazelnut and of a red color. Mr. Hamilton was told that it grew on bushes, and that it was considered to be alive, and they looked on it as a mysterious animal. In the red medicine dance the person who makes the medicine kills the animals by crushing the beans and boiling them in a large kettle filled with water. This drink is designed for or appropriated by a few members, and they drink the liquid when it is quite hot. The more that they drink the more they desire, and they seem able to drink almost any quantity. It produces a kind of intoxication, making them full of life, as they say, and enabling them to dance a long time. (See § 62.)
§ 88. This dance did not originate with the Iowa. It is said that the Sac tribe obtained it from the Shawnee. It is held after night. Men and women dance together, and if any women or men wish to leave their consorts they do it at this dance and mate anew, nothing being urged against it.
§ 89. The Iowa have the buffalo dance, and by a comparison of Mr. Hamilton’s description of it, and his account of the buffalo doctors, and of the medicine or mystery bag of buffalo hide, with what has been learned about the Omaha order of buffalo shamans (see § 43), it seems probable that among the Iowa this dance was not participated in by any but those who had had visions of the buffalo, and that there was also some connection between all three—the dancing society, the buffalo doctors, and the mysterious bag of buffalo hide. As among the Omaha, the buffalo doctors of the Iowa are the only surgeons.
§ 90. The ┴ɔiwere tribes have traditions of their origin similar to those found among the Osage, Kansa, and Ponka, and these traditions are considered as “waqonyitaⁿ,” or mysterious things, not to be spoken of lightly or told on ordinary occasions.
As among the Osage and Kansa, the traditions tell of a period when the ancestors of the present gentes dwelt, some in the upper world, and others in the ground (or in the world beneath this one).
Mr. Hamilton’s informant said, “These are sacred things, and I do not like to speak about them, as it is not our custom to do so except when we make a feast and collect the people and use the sacred pipe.” These traditions were preserved in the secret societies of the tribes. They explain the origin of the gentes and subgentes, of fire, corn, the pipes, bows and arrows, etc.
It is probable that similar secret societies exist among the Winnebago. James Alexander, a Winnebago of the Wolf gens, told a part of the secret tradition of his gens, in which appear some resemblances to the ┴ɔiwere traditions, such as the creation of four kinds of wolves, and their dwelling underground, or in the world beneath this one. (See §§ 381, 383.)
That the ┴ɔiwere believed in the existence of the ghost or spirit after death is evident from what Mr. Hamilton observed:
They often put provisions, a pitcher of water, and some cooking utensils on the grave for the use of the spirit for some time after burial. * * * At the time of burial, they often put new clothing and ornaments on the corpse, if they are able, and place by its side such things as they think necessary. I once saw a little child with some of its playthings which its mother had placed by it, in her ignorance, thinking that they would be pleasing to it. * * * They are generally careful for a year or so, to keep down all the weeds and grass about the grave, perhaps for 10 feet around.
§ 92. That the Dakota tribes, before the advent of the white race, believed in one Great Spirit, has been asserted by several writers; but it can not be proved. On the contrary, even those writers who are quoted in this study as stating the Dakota belief in a Great Spirit, also tell us of beliefs in many spirits of evil. Among the earlier writers of this class is Say, who observes:
Their Wahconda seems to be a protean god; he is supposed to appear to different persons under different forms. All who are favored with his presence become medicine men and magicians in consequence of their having seen and conversed with Wahconda, and of having received from him some particular medicine of wondrous efficacy.
The same writer records that “Wahconda” appeared sometimes as a grizzly bear, sometimes as a bison, at others as a beaver, or an owl, or some other bird or animal.[84] It is plain that Say mistook the generic term, “Wahconda,” for a specific one. (See §§ 6, 21-24.)
Shea says:
Although polytheism did not exist, although they all recognized one Supreme Being, the creator of all, * * * they nowhere adored the God whom they knew. * * * The demons with which they peopled nature, these alone, in their fear they sought to appease. * * * Pure unmixed devil-worship prevailed throughout the length and breadth of the land.[85]
§ 93. Lynd made some very pertinent remarks:
A stranger coming among the Dakotas for the first time, and observing the endless variety of objects upon which they bestow their devotion, and the manifold forms which that worship assumes, at once pronounces them pantheists. A further acquaintance with them convinces him that they are pantheists of no ordinary kind—that their pantheism is negative as well as positive, and that the engraftments of religion are even more numerous than the true branches. Upon a superficial glance he sees naught but an inextricable maze of gods, demons, spirits, beliefs and counter-beliefs, earnest devotion and reckless skepticism, prayers, sacrifices, and sneers, winding and intermingling with one another, until a labyrinth of pantheism and skepticism results, and the Dakota, with all his infinity of deities appears a creature of irreligion. One speaks of the medicine dance with respect, while another smiles at the name—one makes a religion of the raw fish feast, while another stands by and laughs at his performance—and others, listening to the supposed revelations of the circle dance, with reverent attention, are sneered at by a class who deny in toto the wakan nature of that ceremony.[86]
In common with all nations of the earth the Dakotas believe in a Wakantanka or Great Spirit. But this Being is not alone in the universe. Numbers of minor deities are scattered throughout space, some of whom are placed high in the scale of power. Their ideas of the Great Spirit appear to be that He is the creator of the world and has existed from all time; but after creating the world and all that is in it He sank into silence and since then has failed to take any interest in the affairs of this planet. They never pray to Him, for they deem Him too far away to hear them, or as not being concerned in their affairs. No sacrifices are made to Him, nor dances in His honor. Of all the spirits He is the Great Spirit; but His power is only latent or negative. They swear by Him at all times, but more commonly by other divinities.[87]
Yet Lynd is not always consistent, for he says on another page (71) of the same work: “No one deity is held by them all as a superior object of worship.”
§ 94. Pond writes:
Evidence is also wanting to show that the Dakotas embraced in their religious tenents the idea of one supreme existence, whose existence is expressed by the term Great Spirit. If some clans at the present time entertain this idea it seems highly probable that it has been imparted to them by individuals of European extraction. No reference to such a being is found in their feasts, fasts, or sacrifices. Or if there is such a reference at the present time it is clear that it is of recent origin and does not belong to their system. It is indeed true that the Dakotas do sometimes appeal to the Great Spirit when in council with white men, but it is because they themselves have embraced the Christian doctrines. Still, it is generally the interpreter who makes the appeal to the Great Spirit, when the Indian speaker really appealed to the Taku Wakan, and not to the Wakantanka. It is true that * * * all the Dakota gods * * * are mortal. They are not thought of as being eternal, except it may be by succession.[88]
The author agrees with Pond in what he says about the average Indian interpreter of early days, who seldom gave a correct rendering of what was spoken in council. But at the present time great improvement has doubtless been observed.
It should be remembered that Messrs. Riggs and Pond were missionaries to the Dakotas, while Messrs. Say, Shea, and Lynd must be classed among the laity. Yet the missionaries, not the laymen, are the ones who make the positive statements about the absence of a belief in one Great Spirit.
§ 95. Riggs remarks:
The religious faith of the Dakota is not in his gods as such. It is an intangible, mysterious something of which they are only the embodiment, and that in such a measure and degree as may accord with the individual fancy of the worshiper. Each one will worship some of these divinities and neglect and despise others; but the great object of all their worship, whatever its chosen medium, is the TA-KOO WAH-KON, which is the supernatural and mysterious. No one term can express the full meaning of the Dakota’s Wakan. It comprehends all mystery, secret power, and divinity. * * * All life is Wakan. So also is everything which exhibits power, whether in action, as the winds and drifting clouds, or in passive endurance, as the bowlder by the wayside.[89]
In the mind of a Dakota * * * this word Wah-kon (we write, wa-kan) covers the whole field of their fear and worship. Many things also that are neither feared nor worshiped, but are simply wonderful, come under this designation. It is related of Hennepin that when he and his two companions were taken captive by a Sioux war party, as they ascended the upper Mississippi one of the men took up his gun and shot a deer on the bank. The Indians said, “Wah-kon chi?”—Is not this mysterious? And from that day * * * the gun has been called Mah-za wah-kon, mysterious iron. This is shortened into Mah-za-kon. The same thing we may believe is true when, probably less than two centuries ago, they first saw a horse. They said “Shoon-ka wah-kon,” wonderful dog. And from that day the horse has been called by the Sioux wonderful dog, except when it has been called big dog, Shoon-ka tonka. These historical facts have satisfied us that the idea of the Great Spirit ascribed to the Indians of North America does not belong to the original theogony of the Sioux, but has come from without, like that (sic) of the horse and gun, and probably dates back only to their first hearing of the white man’s God.[90]
Taku Wakan.—This is a general term, including all that is wonderful, incomprehensible, supernatural—what is wakan; but especially covering the objects of their worship. Until used in reference to our God, it is believed that the phrase was not applied to any individual object of worship, but was equivalent to “the gods.”[91] As tuwe, who, refers to persons, and taku, what, to things, the correctness of Riggs’s conclusion can hardly be questioned, provided we add that the Dakota term, Taku Wakan, could not have conveyed to the Dakota mind the idea of a personal God, using the term person as it is commonly employed by civilized peoples.
§ 96. Lynd says:
The divinities of evil among the Dakotas may be called legion. Their special delight is to make man miserable or to destroy him. Demons wander through the earth, causing sickness and death. Spirits of evil are ever ready to pounce upon and destroy the unwary. Spirits of earth, air, fire, and water (see § 36) surround him upon every side, and with but one great governing object in view—the misery and destruction of the human race.[92]
§ 97. Their religious system gives to everything a soul or spirit. Even the commonest sticks and clays have a spiritual essence attached to them which must needs be reverenced; for these spirits, too, vent their wrath upon mankind. Indeed, there is no object, however trivial, but has its spirit.[93]
In his article on the Mythology of the Dakotas,[94] Riggs says of the Dakota:
They pray to the sun, earth, moon, lakes, rivers, trees, plants, snakes, and all kinds of animals and vegetables—many of them say, to everything, for they pray to their guns and arrows—to any object, artificial as well as natural, for they suppose that every object, artificial as well as natural, has a spirit which may hurt or help, and so is a proper object of worship.
Lynd says:
The essentially physical cast of the Indian mind (if I may be allowed the expression) requires some outward and tangible representation of things spiritual before he can comprehend them. The god must be present, by image or in person, ere he can offer up his devotions. * * * Similar to this “belief in a spiritual essence” is the general Dakota belief that each class of animals or objects of a like kind possesses a peculiar guardian divinity, which is the mother archetype. * * * Sexuality is a prominent feature in the religion of the Dakotas. Of every species of divinity, with the exception of the Wakantanka, there is a plurality, part male and part female. Even the spirits, which are supposed to dwell in the earth, twigs, and other inanimate substances, are invested with distinctions of sex.[95]
§ 98. Pond asserts that “evidence is wanting to show that these people divide their Taku-wakan into classes of good and evil. They are all simply wakan.”[96]
The gods of the Dakotas are of course innumerable; but of the superior gods these are the chief: The Unkteḣi, or god of the water; the Wakinyan, or thunder god; the Takuśkanśkan, or moving god; the Tunkan, Inyan, or stone god; the Heyoka god; the Sun; the Moon; the Armor god; the Spirit of the Medicine Sack; and the Wakantanka, who is probably an intrusive deity.[97]
§ 99. The following remarks are those of a later writer, Miss Fletcher:
The Indian’s religion is generally spoken of as a nature and animal worship. The term seems too broadcast and indiscriminate. Careful inquiry and observation fail to show that the Indian actually worships the objects which are set up or mentioned by him in his ceremonies. The earth, four winds, the sun, moon, and stars, the stones, the water, the various animals, are all exponents of a mysterious life and power encompassing the Indian and filling him with vague apprehension and desire to propitiate and induce friendly relations. The latter is attempted not so much through the ideas of sacrifice as through more or less ceremonial appeals. More faith is put in ritual and a careful observance of forms than in any act of self-denial in its moral sense, as we understand it. The claim of relationship is used to strengthen the appeal, since the tie of kindred among the Indians is one which can not be ignored or disregarded, the terms grandfather and grandmother being most general and implying dependence, respect, and the recognition of authority. (See §§ 9, 100.)
One of the simplest and most picturesque explanations of the use of the varied forms of life in the Indian worship was given to me by a thoughtful Indian chief. He said: “Everything as it moves, now and then, here and there, makes stops. The bird as it flies stops in one place to make its nest, and in another to rest in its flight. A man when he goes forth stops when he wills. So the god has stopped. The sun, which is so bright and beautiful, is one place where he has stopped. The moon, the stars, the winds, he has been with. The trees, the animals, are all where he has stopped, and the Indian thinks of these places and sends his prayers there to reach the place where the god has stopped and win help and a blessing.”
The vague feeling after unity is here discernible, but it is like the cry of a child rather than the articulate speech of a man. To the Indian mind the life of the universe has not been analyzed, classified, and a great synthesis formed of the parts. To him the varied forms are equally important and noble. A devout old Indian said: “The tree is like a human being, for it has life and grows; so we pray to it and put our offerings on it that the god may help us.” In the same spirit the apology is offered over a slaughtered animal, for the life of the one is taken to supplement the life of the other, “that it may cause us to live,” one formula expresses it. These manifestations of life, stopping places of the god, can not therefore be accurately called objects of worship or symbols; they appear to be more like media of communication with the permeating occult force which is vaguely and fearfully apprehended. As a consequence, the Indian stands abreast of nature. He does not face it, and hence can not master or coerce it, or view it scientifically and apart from his own mental and emotional life. He appeals to it, but does not worship it.[98]
§ 100. Every power is prayed to by some of the Dakota and Assiniboin. Among the accessories of prayer the Dakota reckons the following: (a) Ceremonial wailing or crying (ćéya, to weep, wail; whence, ćékiya, to cry, to pray, and woćékiye, prayer), sometimes accompanied by articulate speech (§§ 177, 208); (b) the action called yuwiⁿtapi (yuwiŋ´tapi) described in § 24; (c) holding the pipe with the mouthpiece toward the power invoked, as the Heyoka devotees sometimes do (§§ 223, 224); (d) the use of smoke from the pipe or the odor of burning cedar needles (§§ 159, 168); (e) the application of the kinship terms, “grandfather” (or its alternative, “venerable man”) to a male power, and “grandmother” to a female one (§§ 99, 107, 239); (f) sacrifice, or offering of goods, animals, or pieces of one’s own flesh, etc. (see § 185).
§ 101. The radical forms of worship among the Dakota, according to Lynd, are few and simple. One of the most primitive is that of Wocnapi (Wośnapi) or Sacrifice. To every divinity that they worship they make sacrifices. Even upon the most trivial occasions the gods are either thanked or supplicated by sacrifice. The religious idea it carries with it is at the foundation of the every-day life of the Dakota. The wohduze or taboo has its origin there; the wiwaŋyag waćipi or sundance (§§ 141-211) carries with it the same idea; the wakaŋ wohaŋpi or sacred feast (feast of the first-fruits) is a practical embodiment of it; and haŋmdepi or god-seeking of the extreme western tribes is but a form of self-sacrifice. No Dakota in his worship neglects this ceremony. It enters into his religious thoughts at all times, even at the hour of death. The sacrifices made upon recovery from sickness are never composed of anything very valuable, for the poverty of the Indian will not permit this. Usually a small strip of muslin, or a piece of red cloth, a few skins of some animals, or other things of no great use or value are employed. Sometimes a pan or kettle is laid up for a sacrifice. But after a short time, the end for which the sacrifice was made is attained, and it is removed. Those in need of such things as they see offered in sacrifice may take them for their own use, being careful to substitute some other articles. Perhaps the most common forms of sacrifice are those which are made in the hunt. Particular portions of each animal killed are held sacred to the god of the chase or some other deities. If a deer is killed, the head, heart, or some other part of it is sacrificed by the person who has slain it. The part sacrificed differs with different individuals. In ducks and fowls the most common sacrifice is of the wing, though many sacrifice the heart, and a few the head. This custom is called wohduze, and is always constant with individuals, i. e., the same part is always sacrificed. The other wohduze or taboo is connected with the wotawe or armor,[99] and will be described hereafter (§ 125).
§ 102. Haŋmdepi or god-seeking.—Haŋmdepi or god-seeking is a form of religion among the Dakotas that points back to a remote antiquity. The meaning of the word, in its common acceptation, appears to be greatly misunderstood by some. Literally, it means only to dream, and is but another form of haŋma; but in its use it is applied almost wholly to the custom of seeking for a dream or revelation, practiced by the Sisitonwan, Ihanktonwanna, and Titonwan (Sioux), and by the Crow, Minnetaree, Assiniboin, and other western Dakota. In this respect it has no reference whatever to the common dreams of sleep, but means simply the form of religion practiced.
If a Dakota wishes to be particularly successful in any (to him) important undertaking, he first purifies himself by the Inipi or steam bath, and by fasting for a term of three days. During the whole of this time he avoids women and society, is secluded in his habits, and endeavors in every way to be pure enough to receive a revelation from the deity whom he invokes. When the period of fasting is passed he is ready for the sacrifice, which is made in various ways. Some, passing a knife through the breast and arms, attach thongs thereto, which are fastened at the other end to the top of a tall pole raised for that purpose; and thus they hang, suspended only by these thongs, for two, three, or even four days, gazing upon vacancy, their minds being intently fixed upon the object in which they desire to be assisted by the deity, and waiting for a vision from above. Once a day an assistant is sent to look upon the person thus sacrificing himself. If the deities have vouchsafed him a vision or revelation, he signifies the same by motions, and is released at once; if he be silent, his silence is understood, and he is left alone to his reverie.
Others attach a buffalo hair rope to the head of a buffalo just as it is severed from the animal, and to the other end affix a hook, which is then passed through the large muscles in the small of the back, and thus fastened they drag the head all over the camp, their minds meanwhile being fixed intently, as in the first instance, upon the object in which they are beseeching the deity to assist them.
A third class pass knives through the flesh in various parts of the body, and wait in silence, though with fixed mind, for a dream or revelation. A few, either not blessed with the powers of endurance or else lacking the courage of the class first named, will plant a pole upon the steep bank of a stream, and attaching ropes to the muscles of the arm and breast, as in the first instance, will stand, but not hang, gazing into space, without food or drink, for days.
Still another class practice the haŋmdepi without such horrid self-sacrifice. For weeks, nay, for months, they will fix their minds intently upon any desired object, to the exclusion of all others, frequently crying about the camp, occasionally taking a little food, but fasting for the most part, and earnestly seeking a revelation from their god.[100]
§ 103. Similar testimony has been given respecting the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, though this last tribe belongs to the Caddoan stock. Smet wrote thus about them:
They cut off their fingers and make deep incisions in the fleshy parts of the body before starting for war, in order to obtain the favors of their false gods. On my last visit to these Ricaries, Minataries, and Mandans I could not discern a single man at all advanced in years whose body had not been mutilated, or who possessed his full number of fingers.[101]
In treating of the religious opinion of the Assiniboin, Smet says:
Some burn tobacco, and present to the Great Spirit the most exquisite pieces of buffalo meat by casting them into the fire; while others make deep incisions in the fleshy parts of their bodies, and even cut off the first joints of their fingers to offer them in sacrifice.[102]
Lynd says:
§ 104. Frequently the devout Dakota will make images of bark or stone, and, after painting them in various ways and putting sacred down upon them, will fall down in worship before them, praying that all danger may be averted from him and his. It must not be understood, however, that the Dakota is an idolater. It is not the image that he worships, * * * but the spiritual essence which is represented by that image, and which is supposed to be ever near it.[103]
This plausible distinction has been made by persons of different nations at various periods in the world’s history, but it seems to be of doubtful value.
§ 105. In the worship of their deities paint forms an important feature. Scarlet or red is the religious color for sacrifices, while blue is used by the women in many of the ceremonies in which they participate (§§ 374, 375). This, however, is not a constant distinction of sex, for the women frequently use red or scarlet. The use of paints the Dakotas aver was taught them by the gods.[104]
For accounts of the Sun-dance and a sacrifice to the Dawn, see §§ 141, 211, 215.
§ 106. The gods of this name, for there are many, are the most powerful of all. In their external form they are said to resemble the ox, only they are of immense proportions. They can extend their horns and tails so as to reach the skies. These are the organs of their power. According to one account the Unkteḣi inhabit all deep waters, and especially all great waterfalls. Two hundred and eleven years ago, when Hennepin and Du Luth saw the Falls of St. Anthony together, there were some buffalo robes hanging there as sacrifices to the Unkteḣi of the place.[105]
§ 107. Another account written by the same author informs us that the male Unkteḣi dwell in the water, and the spirits of the females animate the earth. Hence, when the Dakota seems to be offering sacrifices to the water or the earth, it is to this family of gods that the worship is rendered. They address the males as “grandfathers,” and the females as “grandmothers.” It is believed that one of these gods dwells under the Falls of St. Anthony, in a den of great dimensions, which is constructed of iron.[106]
§ 108. “The word Unkteḣi defies analysis, only the latter part giving us the idea of difficult [sic], and so nothing can be gathered from the name itself of the functions of these gods. But Indian legend generally describes the genesis of the earth as from the water. Some animal, as the beaver [compare the Iowa and Oto Beaver gentes, Paça and Paqça.—J. O. D.] living in the waters, brought up, from a great depth, mud to build dry land.”[107] According to the Dakota cosmogony, this was done by the Unkteḣi, called in the Teton dialect Ŭñktcexila or Uŋkćeġila. (Compare the Winnebago, Waktceqi ikikaratcada or water-monster gens, and the Wakandagi of the Omaha and Ponka, see §§ 7, 77).
§ 109. The Iowa and Oto tribes have among their nikie names, Niwaⁿcike, Water Person, and Niwaⁿcikemi, Water Person Female. If these do not refer to the beaver, they may have some connection with the water monsters or deities. An Omaha told the author a Yankton legend about these gods of the waters. The wife of the special Unkteḣi coveted an Indian child and drew it beneath the surface of the river. The father of the child had to offer a white dog to the deity in order to recover his son; but the latter died on emerging from the water, as he had eaten some of the food of the Unkteḣi during his stay with the deity. After awhile the parents lost a daughter in like manner, but as she did not eat any of the food of the Unkteḣi, she was recovered after an offering of four white dogs.[108]
Smet tells of offerings made by the Assiniboin to “the water” and “the land,” but it is probable that they were made to the Unkteḣi.[109]
§ 110. The Dakota pray to lakes and rivers, according to Riggs,[110] but he does not say whether the visible objects were worshiped or whether the worship was intended for the Unkteḣi supposed to dwell in those lakes and rivers.
§ 111. These gods have power to send from their bodies a wakan influence which is irresistible even by the superior gods. This influence is termed “tonwan.” This power is common to all the Taku Wakan. And it is claimed that this tonwan is infused into each mystery sack which is used in the mystery dance. A little to the left of the road leading from Fort Snelling to Minnehaha, in sight of the fort, is a hill which is used at present as a burial place. This hill is known to the Dakota as “Taku Wakan tipi,” the dwelling place of the gods. It is believed that one of the Unkteḣi dwells there.
§ 112. The Unkteḣi are thought to feed on the spirits of human beings, and references to this occur in the mystic songs. The mystery feast and the mystery dance have been received from these gods. The sacrifices required by them are the soft down of the swan reddened with vermilion, deer skins, dog, mystery feast and mystery dances.
In Miss Fletcher’s article on “The Shadow or Ghost Lodge: A ceremony of the Ogallala Sioux,” we read that 2 yards of red cloth are “carried out beyond the camp, to an elevation if possible, and buried in a hole about 3 feet deep. This is an offering to the earth, and the chanted prayer asks that the life, or power in earth, will help the father” of the dead child “in keeping successfully all the requirements of the ghost lodge.”[111] (See § 146.)
The subordinates of the Unkteḣi are serpents, lizards, frogs, ghosts, owls, and eagles. The Unkteḣi made the earth and men, and gave the Dakota the mystery sack, and also prescribed the manner in which some of those pigments must be applied which are rubbed over the bodies of their votaries in the mystery dance, and on the warrior as he goes into action.
§ 113. Immediately after the production of the earth and men, the Unkteḣi gave the Indians the mystery sack and instituted the Wakan waćipi or mystery dance. They ordained that the sack should consist of the skin of the otter, raccoon, weasel, squirrel, loon, one variety of fish, and of serpents. It was also ordained that the sack should contain four species of medicines of wakan qualities, which should represent fowls, medicinal herbs, medicinal trees, and quadrupeds. The down of the female swan represents the first, and may be seen at the time of the dance inserted in the nose of the sack. Grass roots represent the second, bark from the roots of the trees the third, and hair from the back or head of a buffalo the fourth. These are carefully preserved in the sack. From this combination proceeds a wakan influence so powerful that no human being, unassisted, can resist it.
Those who violated their obligations as members of the Mystery dance, were sure of punishment. If they went into forests, the black owl was there, as a servant of the Unkteḣi; if they descended into the earth, they encountered the serpent; if they ascended into the air, the eagle would pursue and overtake them; and if they ventured into the water, there were the Unkteḣi themselves.[112] An account of the mystery or medicine dance is given by Pond, op. cit., pp. 37-41.
“Those Dakotas,” said Lynd, “who belong to the medicine dance esteem the Unkteḣi as the greatest divinity. Among the eastern Dakotas the medicine dance appears to have taken the place of these more barbarous ceremonies (i. e., the self-tortures of the hanmdepi, piercing of the flesh, etc.)—among the Winnebagoes entirely.”
The Omaha do not have the sun dance, but the wacicka aȼiⁿ, answering to the Dakota mystery dance, is said to be of ancient use among them.
“Indeed, the medicine dance, though an intrusive religious form, may be considered as an elevating and enlightening religion in comparison with the hanmdepi.”[113]
§ 114. The Teton Dakota tell of the Miniwatu, Wamnitu,[114] and Mini waśiću, all of which are probably names for the same class of monsters, the last meaning “Water God or Guardian Spirit.” These powers are said to be horned water monsters with four legs each. “They make waves by pushing the water toward the lowlands; therefore, the Indians prefer to encamp on or near the bluffs. They fear to swim the Missouri River on account of the water monsters, who can draw people into their mouths.” Can these be the Unkteḣi, whom the Teton call Uŋkćeġila?
§ 115. “Long ago,” according to Bushotter, “the people saw a strange thing in the Missouri River. At night there was some red object, shining like fire, making the water roar as it passed upstream. Should any one see the monster by daylight he became crazy soon after, writhing as with pain, and dying. One man who said that he saw the monster described it thus: ‘It has red hair all over, and one eye. A horn is in the middle of its forehead, and its body resembles that of a buffalo.’[115] Its backbone is like a cross-cut saw, being flat and notched like a saw or cog wheel. When one sees it he gets bewildered, and his eyes close at once. He is crazy for a day, and then he dies. The Teton think that this matter is still in the river, and they call it the Miniwatu or water monster. They think that it causes the ice on the river to break up in the spring of the year.”[116]
The Teton say that the bones of the Uŋkćeġila are now found in the bluffs of Nebraska and Dakota.
§ 116. The name signifies the flying ones, from kinyan, to fly. The thunder is the sound of their voices. The lightning is the missile or tonwan of the winged monsters, who live and fly through the heavens shielded from mortal vision by thick clouds. By some of the wakan men it is said that there are four varieties of the form of their external manifestation. In essence, however they are but one. One of the varieties is black, with a long beak, and has four joints in his wing. Another is yellow, without any beak at all; with wings like the first, except that he has six quills in each wing. The third is scarlet, and remarkable chiefly for having eight joints in each of its enormous pinions. The fourth is blue and globular in form, and it is destitute of both eyes and ears. Immediately over the places where the eyes should be there is a semicircular line of lightning resembling an inverted half moon from beneath which project downward two chains of lightning diverging from each other in zigzag lines as they descend. Two plumes like soft down, coming out near the roots of the descending chains of lightning, serve for wings.[117]
These thunderers, of course, are of terrific proportions. They created the wild rice and a variety of prairie grass, the seed of which bears some resemblance to that of the rice. At the western extremity of the earth, which is supposed to be a circular plain surrounded by water, is a high mountain, on the summit of which is a beautiful mound. On this mound is the dwelling of the Wakinyan gods. The dwelling opens toward each of the four quarters of the earth, and at each doorway is stationed a sentinel. A butterfly stands at the east entrance, a bear at the west, a reindeer [sic, probably intended for a deer.—J. O. D.] at the north, and a beaver at the south [the beaver seems out of place here as a servant of the Wakinyan gods, for, judging from analogy, he ought to be the servant of the Unkteḣi (see § 108)—J. O. D.].
Except the head, each of these wakan sentinels is enveloped in scarlet down of the most extraordinary beauty.[118]
§ 117. The Teton texts of Bushotter state the belief that “some of these ancient people still dwell in the clouds. They have large curved beaks resembling bison humps, their voices are loud, they do not open their eyes except when they make lightning, hence the archaic Teton name for the lightning, Wakinyan tunwanpi, “The thunder-beings open their eyes.” They are armed with arrows and “maza wakan” or “mysterious irons” (not “guns”), the latter being of different kinds. Kaŋġitame, stones resembling coal, are found in the Bad Lands, and they are said to be the missiles of the Thunderers. When these gods so desire they kill various mysterious beings and objects, as well as human beings that are mysterious. Their ancient foes were the giant rattlesnakes and the prehistoric water monsters (Uŋkćeġila: see §§ 108, 114, 115).
§ 118. Long ago the Teton encamped by a deep lake whose shore was inclosed by very high cliffs. They noticed that at night, even when there was no breeze, the water in the middle of the lake was constantly roaring. When one gazed in that direction, he saw a huge eye as bright as the sun, which caused him to vomit something resembling black earth moistened with water, and death soon followed. That very night the Thunderers came, and the crashing sounds were so terrible that many people fainted. The next morning the shore was covered with the bodies of all kinds of fish, some of which were larger than men, and there were also some huge serpents. The water monster which the Thunderers had fought resembled a rattlesnake, but he had short legs and rusty-yellow fur.
§ 119. The Thunderers are represented as cruel and destructive in disposition. They are ever on the war path. A mortal hatred exists between them and the family of the Unkteḣi. Neither has power to resist the tonwan of the other if it strikes him. Their attacks are never open, and neither is safe except he eludes the vigilance of the other. The Wakinyan, in turn, are often surprised and killed by the Unkteḣi. Many stories are told of the combats of these gods. Mr. Pond once listened to the relation, by an eyewitness (as he called himself), of a story in substance as follows: A Wakinyan measuring 25 to 30 yards between the tips of his wings was killed and fell on the bank of the Blue Earth river (Minnesota).
From the Wakinyan the Dakota have received their war implements, the spear and tomahawk, and many of the pigments, which, if properly applied, will shield them from the weapons of their enemies.[119]
§ 120. When a person dreams of the Thunderers, it is a sign that he and they must fight. The Wakinyan are not the only gods of war; there are also the Takuckaⁿckaⁿ (Takuśkanśkan) and the Armor gods. (See §§ 122-3, 127-9.)
Of the circle dance, Riggs says (in Amer. Antiq., II, 267): “They cut an image of the great bird from bark and suspend it at the top of the central pole, which is shot to pieces at the close of the dance.” (He probably means that the image of the great bird, a Thunder bird, is shot to pieces, not the pole.) Sacrifices are made to the Wakinyan and songs are sung both to the Wakinyan and the Unkteḣi.
§ 121. There seems to be some connection between the Heyoka gods and the Wakinyan; but it is not plain. The Heyoka god uses a small Wakinyan god as his drumstick. (See § 218.) The Wakinyan songs are sung by members of the Heyoka dancing order.
Smet was told that the Dakota—
Pretend that the thunder is an enormous bird, and that the muffled sound of the distant thunder is caused by a countless number of young (thunder) birds. The great bird, they say, gives the first sound, and the young ones repeat it; this is the cause of the reverberations. The Sioux declare that the young thunderers do all the mischief, like giddy youth who will not listen to good advice; but the old thunderer or big bird is wise and excellent; he never kills or injures any one.[120]
Next to the Sun, according to Smet, Thunder is the great deity of the Assiniboin. Every spring, at the first peal of thunder, they offer sacrifices to the Wakinyan.[121]
The Assiniboin, according to Maximilian, ascribed the thunder to an enormous bird.[122]
§ 122. As each young man comes to maturity a tutelar divinity, sometimes called “Waśićuŋ” (see § 236), is assigned to him. It is supposed to reside in the consecrated armor then given to him, consisting of a spear, an arrow, and a small bundle of paint. It is the spirit of some bird or animal, as the wolf, beaver, loon, or eagle. He must not kill this animal, but hold it ever sacred, or at least until he has proved his manhood by killing an enemy. Frequently the young man forms an image of this sacred animal and carries it about with him, regarding it as having a direct influence upon his everyday life and ultimate destiny. Parkman says (in his “Jesuits in North America,” p. LXXI, note) that the knowledge of this guardian spirit comes through dreams at the initiatory fast. If this is ever true among the Dakota, it is not the rule. This knowledge is communicated by the “war prophet.”[123] (See §§ 120, 127, 129, 305, etc.)
Ashley tells us that among the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota the warrior, as such, was forbidden by custom of law to eat the tongue, head, or heart of many beasts. There were other animals of which the heads might be eaten, but not the tongues. A warrior about to go on the war path could not have intercourse with women, but must go through the purification of the inipi or sweat bath, which lasts four days. A married warrior could not touch his own weapons until he had thus purified himself.[124]
§ 123. The Armor god and the Spirit of the mystery sack are sometimes spoken of as if they were individual and separate divinities; but they seem rather to be the god-power which is put into the armor and sack by consecration. They should be regarded as the indwelling of the Unkteḣi or of the Takuśkanśkan. A young man’s war weapons are wakan and must not be touched by a woman. A man prays to his armor in the day of battle. In the consecration of these weapons of war and the hunt a young man comes under certain taboo restrictions. Certain parts of an animal are sacred and must not be eaten until he has killed an enemy.[125]