The following account of the great ceremonies of the Minsi, which correspond to the annual ceremony of the Unami, was obtained from Chief James Wolf, now deceased, and his nephew, Chief Nellis Timothy.
At first, it appears, the Indians did not know how to worship, so Kĕ‛tanĭtoʹwĕt, the Great Manĭʹto or God, now called Pa‛ʹtŭmawas, came down and told them what to do. After following his instructions, they watched him when he ascended. He carried twelve sumach sticks in his hand, and they could see them shine far up in the air. Every now and then he dropped one, and when he dropped the twelfth he disappeared, while they heard the heavens crack like thunder behind him as he went in. After this the Lenape began to hold these meetings according to the instructions he had given them.
There were two of these ceremonies every year, both held in the Minsi Big House (W‛aʹtekan), which was quite similar to that of the Unami. One of these, performed about June when the wild strawberries were ripe, lasted only a single night; the other, early in winter, covered twelve days and nights. This latter corresponds to the Annual Ceremony of the Unami.
At the June ceremony fresh strawberries were made into a drink for the people, which reminds one of the Iroquois Strawberry Dance, or Dance of First Fruits, as it is sometimes called. Strawberries were dried at this time to make a drink for the Winter Ceremony.
Fig. 14.—Drum of dried deerskin, Minsi type. E. T. Tefft collection, American Museum of Natural History. (Length 16.7 in.)
Fig. 15.—a, Drumstick, Minsi type; b, Prayerstick. E. T. Tefft collection, American Museum of Natural History. (Length of a, 19 in.)
Like the Unami Big House, that of the Minsi had a large central post bearing carved faces; but, unlike that of the Unami, there was a second short post, near the central one, upon which was hung, for each ceremony, a raw fresh deerskin with the head and horns at the top. This feature, however, corresponds with the second form of the Annual Ceremony noted among the Lenape in Oklahoma and also recorded by Zeisberger in Pennsylvania. Near this central post the singers sat, and beat with four carved sticks upon a dry deerhide folded into a square, in lieu of a drum (fig. 14), differing from the Unami form, which is a rolled dry deerskin upon which are tied several slats of wood (fig. 8). The drumsticks are flat, resembling those of the Unami, as each bears a face carved upon one side, but differ from them in the form of the forked end, and in width. Some, it is said, represented women, the breasts being indicated as among the Unami, but this feature does not appear in the set collected by the writer at Grand River reserve (fig. 15, a), which the Indians said were representative of the Minsi type.
There were two poles laid along on each side from end to end of the Big House to divide the dancing place in the center from the sitting places on the side, which were covered with a special kind of leaves. Along these poles twelve little sumach sticks (fig. 15, b), peeled and painted, were laid for twelve people to hold in their hands, and tap on the poles in time to the music. There were also provided a turtle rattle, which was placed at the foot of the central pole; a fire-drill which Nellis Timothy thinks was worked on the “pump-drill” principle, like that of the Unami, and a lot of entirely new and unused bowls and spoons of bark. Unlike the Unami custom, both doors of the Big House were used, the people always going in at the east door and coming out at the west, and here also (like the Unami) the ashes were carried out. “The Sun and everything else goes toward the west,” say the Minsi, in explanation, “even the dead when they die.”
The first act remembered by the informants preparatory to holding a meeting was to send to each man in the tribe who had been blessed by a “vision of power,” a little stick which represented an invitation to the ceremony, the time of which the messenger gave out, before which date the people leaving their scattered homes gathered and camped about the Big House. Meanwhile hunters were sent out, appointed before, not during the meeting as among the Unami, to bring in for the Winter Ceremony, if possible, exactly twelve deer, which were cooked by four young men who served as attendants in a small separate house, built for the purpose.
Fire.—The fire was made with a fire-drill by a group of old men for use in the Big House, but, as among the Unami, none of it could be taken outside during the ceremony.
Purification.—When the two fires had been built, but before the crowd had gathered, the house was purified by the smoke of hemlock boughs thrown on the flames, and by sweeping the floor with turkey-wing fans, which cleared away both dirt and evil influences.
Chief’s Speech.—The next step was for the attendants to call in all the people from their camps except the women in their menses who were not allowed to enter. When all were seated, the speaker rose and addressed those assembled in terms like the following:
“We are now gathered here, our house is purified and clean, and Pa‛ʹtŭmawas is with us, ready to hear our worship. We must thank Him for all the things that we enjoy, for He made them every one.” Then he proceeded to tell the people not to drink liquor, nor to do anything wrong in the Big House or in the camp about it, and advised them to be always honest and kind and hospitable. He held virtue as something to be followed, at the same time condemning evil, every vice that he could think of being mentioned.
The chief then gave thanks for everything he could remember, from the heavenly bodies to the animals, trees, and herbs of the earth, not forgetting corn, beans, and squashes; and prayer for successful hunting and good health for all the people. At the summer meeting he prayed for good crops also. When he had finished, bear’s fat was thrown on the two fires, and the smoke rose and filled the place with its odor.
At this point it was customary to pass around a vessel of drink made of crushed wild strawberries, from which each person present swallowed about a spoonful, a drink made at the Summer Ceremony of fresh fruit, but in winter necessarily of berries dried for the purpose.
The first man to relate his vision (my informant did not remember whether he was the one who “brought in” the meeting or not) took up the turtle rattle from its place at the foot of the post and began to shake it rapidly, while the singers struck the drum of dry hide. He then recited the story of his vision of power, still keeping the rattle shaking, following this with his dance song, at the same time dancing and rattling the turtleshell.
Any one who wished to dance was supposed to give wampum to the vision-teller for the privilege. Some who were well off would give him an entire string, others merely a few beads. These the vision-teller would take, when he had quite a handful, to two officers who sat in a corner of the building, whose duty it was to count the wampum, after which it was kept by the chief or leader. Sometimes if a poor person who had no wampum wished to dance, they would give him some to pay the vision-teller.
A translated example of a Minsi vision chant and dance song has already been given. When the dream-teller finished the first verse of his dance song, he exclaimed, “E-ye-he-ye-ĕ!” whereupon the singers took up the strain and sang the verse several times, for the benefit of those who wished to dance, omitting, however, the final exclamation, but those who had bought the privilege rose and danced where they stood, instead of circling around, as among the Unami. Each “set” ended with a whoop, “kwi!”.
When the vision-teller finished dancing, he went around the house and shook hands with everyone; then the turtle rattle was passed to another man who had been blessed with a vision, and so on, until all those qualified, who wished to recite their visions, had done so.
The Prayer Cry.—From time to time during the night the prayer cry “Ho-o-o!” was repeated twelve times, and the twelfth cry, they say, was heard by the Great Manĭʹto.
Feast.—The people were accustomed to eat a light supper before going into the meeting; then about midnight the four attendants carried around baskets with boiled meat and corn bread, and in the morning, before leaving the Big House, a regular feast of venison was served in new bark bowls and eaten with new bark spoons especially made for the purpose.
Final Address.—Before the meeting closed, the speaker again addressed the people, telling them to do right, and prayed that the hunters about to leave for the winter hunt might be successful, and that all might live to meet again.
In the morning after the ceremonies in the Big House were finished, the people filed out through the west door, circled about the building, and lined up, facing eastward, to the east of it. Then they raised their hands and cried “Ho-o-o!” twelve times, and the twelfth time, it is said, their cry reached Heaven.
In comparing this form of the Annual Ceremony with that of the Oklahoma Lenape the most noticeable difference is that here no masked impersonator of Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn was seen in or about the Big House, the Masks among the Minsi, as with the Iroquois, constituting a society with its own separate rites.
Such was the version of the great ceremonies given the writer by the Minsi of Munceytown, Ontario, which is similar to, but more detailed in parts than, the account previously obtained from the Delawares of Grand River reserve, published by the writer in the American Anthropologist[50] which we will reproduce here. It will be noticed that this description gives fuller information in some places where the first is deficient; so that between this and the preceding account, a good general idea of the Minsi form of the ceremony can be reconstructed. It reads:
“In the old religious ceremonies of the Delawares at Grand River a very peculiar drum was used, a dry skin folded in rectangular form and beaten with four sticks, each bearing a tiny human head carved in relief (fig. 15, a). I secured the set of four original sticks from Michael Anthony (Na‛nkŭmaʹoxa), and employed him to make me a reproduction of the drum (fig. 14) as the original had been destroyed. This he did, and in addition made six painted sticks (fig. 15, b) also used in the ceremony. The description of how these articles were used, pieced together from several Indian accounts, may prove of interest here.
“It appears that the Delawares of Six Nations Reserve formerly held what was known as a ‘General Thanksgiving’ ceremony called in Lenape Gitctlaʹkan, twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall. At these times it was customary to meet in the Cayuga long-house, borrowed for the occasion. At a certain point in the proceedings (I shall not attempt a consecutive description from hearsay testimony) a man stood up and recited, in a rythmical sing-song tone, his dream—the vision of power seen by him in his youth. Na‛nkŭmaʹoxa remembered how one old man was accustomed to tell about a duck, half black and half white, which had appeared to him. Between the verses of the dream four musicians kneeling at the drum (pw‛awaheʹgŭn) began a plaintive song, beating time with the carved sticks (pw‛awaheʹgŭnŭk). As they sang, the reciter swayed his body to and fro, while a group of dancers gathered on the floor behind him danced with a sidewise step. Before the ceremony, poles were laid lengthwise along both sides of the council house, and against these, at intervals, three on a side, the painted sticks, called mkäähiʹgŭn, were laid. If anyone in the crowd felt ‘especially happy’ he was privileged to strike with one of these sticks upon one of the poles in time to the music. The carved heads on the drumsticks meant that human beings were giving thanks; the lengthwise painting of the sticks, half black and half red, implied that men and women were together in thanksgiving, the black representing the warriors, the red the women. The fork at the striking end of the sticks was to give a sharper sound. The dyes for producing the colors were made by boiling bark, the black being soft maple (sexiʹkiminsi), and the red, red alder bark (witoʹ‛pi).
“In another part of the same ceremony wampum was used in the form of strings and bunches, both of which were represented in my collection from the Delawares. At least thirteen of the strings were used, each one made different by different combinations of the white and purple beads. These thirteen, it is said, represented respectively (1) Earth; (2) Plants; (3) Streams and Waters; (4) Corn, Beans, and Vegetables; (5) Wild Birds and Beasts; (6) Winds; (7) Sun; (8) Moon; (9) Sky; (10) Stars; (11) Thunder and Rain; (12) Spirits; and (13) Great Spirit. At the ceremony these strings were laid upon a bench before a speaker, who picked them up one by one as he made his address, each string reminding him of one part of his speech. He began, my informant told me, by explaining that the Great Spirit had made all things—the earth, plants, streams, and waters—everything. Having thus enumerated all the things represented by the wampum, he proceeded to speak to each of the remaining twelve directly, holding the appropriate string in his hand. Thus he gave thanks to the Earth for the benefits it gives to man, and prayed that its blessings might continue; then thanked in the same way the Plants, the Streams and Waters, the Winds; the Corn, Beans, and Vegetables—each one in turn. As he finished each string he handed it to an attendant, who laid it aside. When his long speech or prayer was finished, he announced, ‘We will now enjoy ourselves,’ and selected a man to distribute little bunches of wampum, three beads in each, which served as invitations to join in the dancing that followed. These bunches were delivered only to a certain number of those known to be ‘sober and honest’ among the crowd in the long-house. If any person wishing to dance failed to get invitation wampum, it was his privilege to ask for one of the bunches, which was given him if he was considered qualified. The first man receiving wampum arose first; then the others, until the dancers were all on the floor. It is said that this dance, which sometimes lasted all night, did not circle around like most of the Iroquois dances, but each performer remained in about the same spot.
“I was told that in this dance a small rattle without a handle and made of turtleshell was used, probably like the box-turtle rattle still used in the annual Planting Dance by the Seneca and Cayuga.”
The only extended account in print, known to the writer, of the great ceremonies of the Minsi, beside his own, quoted above, is that furnished by John Wampum, known as Chief Waubuno,[51] which reads as follows:
“They kept annual feasts:—... a feast of first fruits which they do not permit themselves to taste until they have made an offering of them to the manitu-oo-al, or gods; ... There is one of the greatest sacrifice offerings of our forefathers every six months for cleansing themselves from sin; they will have twelve deers to be consumed in one day and night. At the great feast of the offerings of the first fruits of the earth, which feast the Delawares or Munceys hold annually, they brought a little of all that they raised, such as Indian corn, or hweisk-queem, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes, together with the deer. The Indian women were busily engaged in cooking their provisions, previous to the commencement of their exercises. They invited all strangers into a long pagan temple prepared for such purposes, there is a door at each end—one opening to the east, and one opening to the west. On entering, they with all the Indians were seated on the ground around two fires; in the center of the temple was a large post, around which was suspended a number of deer skins, and wampum is kept buried at the foot of this post. Near the post sat two Indian singers, each with a large bundle of undressed deer skins which served as drums. There were two young men appointed to watch the doors and keep the fires burning, the doors being closed. Each of the young men brought an armful of hemlock boughs, which being thrown on the fires smothered them and caused a great smoke. In order that the smoke might fill every corner of the temple, each man waved his blanket over the fire; this was done with the idea of purifying the temple and driving out the evil spirits. After the smoke had subsided, the master of ceremonies, an old chief, rose and began to rattle a turtle shell he had in his hand. He delivered a speech to the people telling them the object of the meeting was to thank the great spirit for the growth and ripening of the corn. When he finished his speech he began to dance, sing and rattle the shell, the two singers joining in, beating on their skins. When he took his seat he handed the shell to the next person, who performed in the same way, thus it went from one to the other all night. The purport of their speeches was to recount the mercies of the Great Spirit to them during the past year, and telling any remarkable dreams that they had had. In the course of the night a number of them went out the west door, making a wailing noise to the moon, and came in again the east door. In the morning the meat and soup were divided amongst the people.
“These feasts often lasted twelve days and twelve nights, and the Indians call it nee-shaw-neechk-togho-quanoo-maun, or ween-da-much-teen. No drinking or improper conduct is allowed. The utmost solemnity prevails.”