Of the religion of the Indians we have no full and clear account. Indeed,
of the opinions of a people who have nothing more than a few vague and
indefinite notions, no distinct explanation can be given. On this subject
the Indians are not communicative; and to obtain a thorough knowledge
of it would require familiar, attentive, unsuspected, and unprejudiced
observation. But such observation is not easily made; and a few general,
and on some points uncertain, notices only can be given.
On looking at the most renowned nations of the ancient heathen world, we
see the people prostrating themselves before innumerable divinities; and
we are ready to conclude that polytheism is the natural belief of man,
unenlightened by revelation. But a survey of the vast wilds of America
will correct this opinion. For there we find a multitude of nations,
widely separated from each other, all believing in One Supreme God, a
great and good spirit, the father and master of life, the maker of heaven
and earth, and of all other creatures. They believe themselves entirely
dependent on him, thank him for present enjoyments, and pray to him for
the good things they desire to obtain. They consider him the author of
all good; and believe he will reward or punish them according to their
deeds.
They believe in inferior spirits also, both good and bad; to whom,
particularly to the good, they give the name of _Manitou_, and consider
them tutelary spirits. The Indians are careful observers of dreams, and
think themselves deserted by the Master of life, till they receive a
manitou in a dream; that is, till they dream of some object, as a buffalo
or beaver, or something else, which they think is an intimation that the
Great Spirit had given them that object as a manitou, or medicine. Then
they are full of courage, and proud of their powerful ally. To propitiate
the manitou, or medicine, every exertion is made, and every personal
consideration sacrificed. “I was lately the proprietor of seventeen
horses,” said a Mandan; “but I have offered them all to my medicine, and
am now poor.” He had turned all these horses, which constituted the whole
of his wealth, loose into the plain, committed them to his medicine,
and abandoned them for ever. But, although they offer oblations to the
manitous, they positively deny that they pay them any adoration, and
affirm that they only worship the Great Spirit through them.
They have no regular periodical time either of private or public
religious worship. They have neither temples, altars, stated ministers
of religion, nor regular sacrifices; for the jugglers are connected
rather with the medical art than with religious services. The Indians in
general, like other ignorant people, are believers in witchcraft, and
think many of their diseases proceed from the arts of sorcerers. These
arts the jugglers pretend to counteract, as well as to cure natural
diseases. They also pretend to predict the weather and to make rain; and
much confidence is placed in their prognostications and their power.
The devotional exercises of the Indians consist in singing, dancing, and
performing various mystical ceremonies, which they believe efficacious in
healing the sick, frustrating the designs of their enemies, and securing
their own success. They often offer up to the Great Spirit a part of the
game first taken in a hunting expedition, a part of the first produce
of their fields, and a part of their food. At a feast, they first throw
some of the broth, and then of the meat, into the fire. In smoking, they
generally testify their reverence for the Master of life, by directing
the first puff upwards, and the second downwards, or the first to the
rising, and the second to the setting sun: at other times they turn the
pipe to every point of the compass.
They firmly believe in the immortality of the soul, and in a state of
future retribution: but their conceptions on these subjects are modified
and tinged by their occupations in life, and by their notions of good and
evil. They suppose the spirit retains the same inclinations as when in
the body, and rejoices in its old pursuits. At times, an Indian warrior,
when about to kill and scalp a prostrate enemy, addresses him in such
terms as the following:—
“My name is Cashegra: I am a famous warrior, and am going to kill you.
When you reach the land of spirits, you will see the ghost of my father:
tell him it was Cashegra sent you there.” The uplifted tomahawk then
descends upon his victim.
The Mandans[7] expected, when they died, to return to the original
subterraneous abode of their fathers: the good reaching the ancient
village by means of the lake, which the weight of the sins of the bad
will render them unable to pass. They who have behaved themselves well
in this life, and been brave warriors and good hunters, will be received
into the town of brave and generous spirits; but the useless and selfish
will be doomed to reside in the town of poor and useless spirits.
The belief of those untutored children of nature has an influence on
their conduct. Among them the grand defect is, an erroneous estimate of
good and evil, right and wrong.
[Illustration: Destruction of the Pequots.]