ritualistic hymn. This hymn is extracted from the ritual of a
ceremonial of great age in the Pawnee nation, and there were similar
ceremonials among all the tribes and nations of the Plains area. The
full ritual from which this is taken is published in the Twenty-second
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, part 2.
Having given the description of the structure of the earth-lodge, the
allusions in the following hymn will be readily understood:
HYMN TO THE SUN
I
Now behold: hither comes the ray of our father Sun; it cometh
over all the land, passeth in the lodge, us to touch, and
give us strength.
II
Now behold: where alights the ray of our father Sun; it touches
lightly on the rim, the place above the fire, whence the
smoke ascends on high.
III
Now behold: softly creeps the ray of our father Sun; now o'er the
rim it creeps to us, climbs down within the lodge; climbing
down, it comes to us.
IV
Now behold: nearer comes the ray of our father Sun; it reaches now
the floor and moves within the open space, walking there, the
lodge about.
V
Now behold where has passed the ray of our father Sun; around the
lodge the ray has passed and left its blessing there, touching
us, each one of us.
VI
Now behold: softly climbs the ray of our father Sun; it upward
climbs, and o'er the rim it passes from the place whence the
smoke ascends on high.
VII
Now behold on the hills the ray of our father Sun; it lingers
there as loath to go, while all the plain is dark. Now has
gone the ray from us.
VIII
Now behold: lost to us the ray of our father Sun; beyond our sight
the ray has gone, returning to the place whence it came to
bring us strength.
DESCRIPTION OF THE TIPI
The temporary dwelling used for traveling was a conical tent made from
buffalo skins erected on a frame of poles. It commonly had about
twenty poles averaging twenty-five feet in length. The poles were set
in a circle about fifteen feet in diameter, held together above by a
hide rope wound round the whole set of poles about four feet from the
upper ends. Three poles were first tied together, then the others were
laid in the forks of these, then the rope was passed round all of them
and tied. The cover was from fifteen to eighteen buffalo hides cut and
fitted so that when sewn together with sinew thread, they formed a
single large sheet nearly semi-circular in shape. This was lifted into
place by a special pole at the back of the structure, then the ends
were brought around to the front and fastened by means of eight or ten
small wooden pins at intervals from the door to the crossing of the
poles. The bottom was kept in place by pegs about two feet apart
around the circle. The door was usually a piece of skin stretched over
an elliptical frame.
At the top an opening was left for ventilation and outlet for the
smoke of the fire. The draft was regulated by two flaps or wings
supported each on a movable pole slanted alongside the tipi with its
base on the ground and its top fastened to the apex of the smoke-flap.
This held the draft open to the side away from the wind and was moved
according to the changes of the wind so as always to be open to the
lee side.
The beds were at the sides and the back of the tipi. Decorated
curtains above the beds kept off any drops of rain which might come
through the smoke-hole in rainy weather. The ground was the floor, the
part near the beds sometimes cut off from the open space by a hedge of
interwoven twigs.
In warm weather the bottom of the tipi was raised to allow the breeze
to pass through. In cold weather the bottom was banked with grass to
keep out the wind.
The camp was arranged in a circle, each band of the tribe having its
own proper segment of the circle, which was relatively the same
through immemorial generations, and each family in each band had its
proper place in the segment, so that one coming into camp after
nightfall, although he might not have been in camp before, could thus
unfailingly find his way to his own family.
On account of its exact adaptability to prairie life, the tipi was
taken as the model of the army tent which bears the name of General
Sibley, and is used now by our army.
AN OMAHA GHOST STORY
In the springtime a little child had died and was buried on the hill
southeast of the village. The hill was green with the prairie grass
and spangled with the beautiful wild flowers of the prairie. On the
north and east the forest ascends the slope from the Missouri River
valley to the crest of the hill, partly encircling the burial place
with a rampart of green trees in which were numbers of happy birds,
busy with their nest-building and tuneful with their joyful songs.
Not long after the death of this little child the people went upon the
annual summer buffalo hunt to the Sand Hill region many miles away to
the west from the village. As the people drew away from the familiar
home scenes of the village the mother was strongly affected by a
feeling of sadness and grief for her little one which she had to leave
alone in its lone and narrow bed upon the hill. When the people made
camp and the evening meal was prepared this mother was so burdened
with grief for her child that she could not eat and went away to
grieve alone. When she left the camp she was so drawn by yearning for
her little one that she walked on and on all night toward the home
village. In the morning, weak and weary, she was back in the deserted
village. All was still. Not a person and not a dog was there. She went
into her own house. Then she went through the village to other houses.
At some deserted fireplace she happened to find some coals; so she was
able to kindle a fire and cook a bit of food. She sat in her house and
wailed for her baby. After a time she heard sounds. She listened and
there seemed to be whispers and murmurs all about her. And so it
continued day after day. At first she saw nothing, but heard the
murmurs and whispers, and gradually she could almost understand what
the whispers said, especially when she fasted. She made out enough to
know that it was the spirits of the departed, who, in the absence of
the living, returned to occupy the houses during the absence of the
people.
After a time she became able to understand more of what the ghosts
said, and finally she could talk with them in their own manner. Their
speech was not like the speech of living people; there was no voice,
but slight whispering sounds, as one sometimes hears among the grass
on the prairie when all is still, or among the leaves of growing corn,
or the light rustling of the cottonwood leaves on a quiet evening.
At first the woman saw nothing, though she could hear the whispering
speech like the breathing of those who sleep. Later she could see, as
it seemed, feet moving about on the floor, but nothing above the feet.
As she looked she could see nothing between herself and the opposite
walls of the house. Then, after a time, she seemed to see not only the
moccasins but the leggings above them as far as the knees, but she
never saw any more. And thus it was with her during all the time she
dwelt there alone with the spirits until her people returned to the
village.
This time it happened the people did not return for a year. When the
woman had disappeared from the camp on their first night out the
people supposed she had gone out somewhere to be alone to weep and
pray, but when she did not return they sought for her, and not being
able to find any trace of her they supposed some accident had befallen
her and that she was dead. They were much surprised to find her at
home when they returned to the village at the end of a year. But when
they spoke to her they found that she was mute; she moved her lips,
but no sound came. After some days she recovered speech and again took
up her accustomed life with her people.
During the year in which she lived alone in the deserted village she
had planted and harvested a crop and had lived by that and by what
food may have been left in the storage places and from the wild
products which she gathered.
AN OMAHA HERO SONG
All American tribes had many different classes of songs. One class of
songs was in praise of tribal heroes. There were also songs of
chivalry, celebrating brave and generous deeds. To this class belongs
the one given herewith. It must be said in explanation that all Indian
songs are very brief. They comprise only a line or two and the meaning
of the song is known by the story which is its foundation. To
understand this particular song it must be explained that a common
military custom among the tribes was to award certain honors for
certain exploits, just as we see in our own armies the awarding of the
Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Military Medal,
the Croix de Guerre, etc. In the Omaha tribe the highest military
honor was awarded for getting near enough to the enemy to touch an
enemy body, either with a lance, a bow, or any object in the hand.
There was an old warrior of this tribe, named Yellow-wood Bow, who had
fought well and won many honors in his time. But he was now old and no
longer able to fight for his people. But one day when an attack had
been made on his people by the enemy and the young men were fighting
valorously, the old man went out walking feebly toward the field of
conflict to see the battle, for he was unable to sit quietly in the
village while the fighting was going on. It happened that as he
approached the battlefield two young men were just about to count
their honors by striking with a lance the body of a slain enemy when
one saw the old warrior, Yellow-wood Bow approaching. He held back and
spoke to his comrade in the words "Hold! Yellow-wood Bow is coming!"
So the young men gave over the opportunity of counting the honor for
themselves in order that the highly respected old warrior might have
this one more chance to gain an honor, one more honor to his long list
of honors. And the generosity of these two young men is praised in the
song:
"Hold! Yellow-wood Bow is coming!"
In singing this song not only do the people award praise and glory to
bravery and courage, but the virtue of renunciation shown by the young
men also receives its measure of praise. The song has the purpose to
inculcate emulation of bravery and also of generosity and
unselfishness of spirit.
Stories of Plant People
SACRED TREES
A people living under natural conditions in communion with nature,
will carefully note the appearance of natural objects in their
environment. They become acquainted with the various aspects of the
landscape and of the living things, plants and animals in their
changes through the seasons, in storm and calm, in activity and in
repose. Becoming thus intimately acquainted with the life about them
the people will come to regard some of the more notable forms with a
feeling akin to that which they have towards persons, and hence they
come to have place in folk stories, in reasoned discourse and in
ceremonies of religion.
Commonly throughout the region of the Missouri River was to be seen
the cottonwood, the willows of several species, and the cedar or
juniper. The appearance and habits of these trees impressed themselves
powerfully upon the mind and imagination of the Indian folk.
The cedar or juniper was wonderful because it was ever green; unlike
other trees it appeared indifferent to frost and to heat, but alike in
winter and summer retained its leaves. Also it appeared to be
withdrawn, solitary and silent, standing dark and still, like an
Indian standing upon a hill with his robe drawn over his head in
prayer and meditation. Thus it gave the suggestion, and had the
appearance of being in communion with the High Powers.
Leaves and twigs of cedar were burned as incense in ceremonial rituals
in order that evil influences might be driven away.
Willows were always found growing along watercourses, as though they
had some duty or function in the world in connection with water, the
element so immediately and constantly needful to man and to all other
living things. Water was not only imperatively necessary for vivifying
and reanimating all living things, but was an active agent in
processes of change and transmutation. In cases of disease the evil
influences which plagued the body might be driven out and thus health
might be restored through the use of water transformed into vapor by
means of heat. So the vapor bath was used. Also if a man contemplated
the undertaking of any serious project, any dangerous mission, or any
solemn enterprise, it was important first to prepare himself by
purification, by means of the vapor bath, from all evil influences.
The framework of the vapor bath lodge was made of willow poles, bent
and tied with their bark.
The willow was also mystically connected with that greatest change of
all, the departure of the spirit from the body, the change which we
call death. Willow twigs had certain uses in funeral rites.
The cottonwood was found growing over a widely extended range, under
diverse climatic conditions, appearing always self-reliant, showing
prodigious fecundity, and having wonderful means of propagation. It
provided its seed, produced in enormous number, with a device by which
they traveled on the wind to far places and so became widely
disseminated in all directions, traveling up-stream or down-stream,
and even across the plains and prairies to other streams where the new
generation might establish itself. But besides this admirable
provision to insure the perpetuation of its kind it had also another
means of propagation; though by this means it could move only
down-stream. This method of propagation is by the making of cuttings
or planting slips from its own twigs. It is well known that the
gardener may make artificial cuttings of many kinds of trees and
plants, and so increase his stock. But the cottonwood, alone among
trees, performs this operation itself. At the beginning of autumn the
cottonwood trees form layers of cork cells which gradually wedge off
part of its twigs from the parent branch, thus covering and healing
the wound of separation and also covering and healing the base of the
separated twig so that it falls off alive and protected from loss of
sap.
Falling thus to the ground just about the time that autumn rains are
about to begin, they are ready to be carried away by the rising waters
of the streams and may be thus planted in a mud or sand bank further
down stream, ready to take root and grow in the springtime.
In the springtime the opening of the cottonwood buds and pushing out
of the young leaves, even when chilly nights follow the bright breezy
days and the rapid growth of these lustrous leaves, brightly dancing
in the spring winds, their brilliant sheen and active movement
reflecting the splendour of the sun like the dancing, glinting ripples
of a lake, suggest the joy and eagerness and energy of movement of all
returning life.
The foliage of the cottonwood is peculiar and remarkable so that it
may be said the air is never so still that there is not motion of
cottonwood leaves. Even in still and sultry summer afternoons, and at
night when all else was still, ever they could hear the rustling of
cottonwood leaves by the passage of little vagrant currents of air.
Secret messages seemed ever to be passing in soft whispers among the
cottonwood leaves. And the winds themselves are the bearers of the
messages and commands of the Higher Powers, so there was constant
reminder of the mystic character of this tree.
The cottonwood was, among trees, the symbol of fidelity, one of the
four great virtues inculcated by the ethical code of the people of the
Dakota nation.
So from all these considerations, it might be expected that this tree
should have an important place in the rituals of the people for many
generations associated with it. And so it had.
The Sacred Pole of the Omaha nation was made of the cottonwood. The
Sacred Pole was an object of the greatest veneration to the people of
that nation, similarly as the Ark of the Covenant was sacred to the
Hebrew nation.
The Sacred Tree, the central object of the Sun Dance, the most
momentous religious ritual of the Dakota nation, was a cottonwood. The
tree which should be chosen to be felled and brought into camp and set
up in the lodge erected for the performance of this ritual, must be a
growing cottonwood tree, the base of whose trunk is not less than two
spans in circumference. The tree must be straight and forked at a
distance from the ground of about four times the measure of the
outstretched arms from hand to hand.
Twigs and bark of cottonwood were burned as incense to ward against
the scheming of Anog Ite, the spiteful malevolent being who foments
scandals, strife and infidelity.
Such then, were some of the relations in the philosophic thought, the
religious conceptions and the sentiments of the people of the Dakota
nation in regard to these three species of trees.
THE SONG OF THE PASQUE FLOWER
The pasque flower (=Pulsatilla patens=), has a very extensive range
upon the northern prairies, reaching from about latitude 43 degrees
north to the Great Slave Lake above 60 degrees north latitude. It is
the earliest flower to put forth its blossoms in the springtime, often
appearing before all the snow is gone. Its bluish purple flowers
gladden the bare brown hillsides with great profusion of bloom, in
earnest of returning life. For this reason it has a strong hold upon
the affections of all the native tribes throughout all its extended
range. The plant is closely related to the anemone, which is sometimes
called the wind flower.
The people of the Dakota nation have a number of pretty little folk
stories concerning the pasque flower. One story is that in the long
ago, whenever any of the people happened to pass by where these
flowers were blooming they tried to show the friendliness which they
felt for human beings by nodding their heads in the chilly spring
wind, showing their smiling faces and saying, "Good morning! Good
morning!" But the people passed them unheeding. They became abashed at
this indifference, so nowadays still feeling friendly towards the
people in spite of such rebuffs, they bashfully turn their heads to
one side as they nod and call their kindly greetings in their sweet
low voice.
There is another pretty conceit connected with the pasque flower.
Indians generally are keenly observant of all things in nature, and
reverent towards them. They feel reverence for all living creatures,
whether plant or animal. They have songs and stories about most of the
species of plants and animals with which they are acquainted, the
specific song being the expression of the life or soul of the species
to which it pertains. The song of the pasque flower, translated out of
the Dakota language into English runs something like this:
"I wish to encourage the children of other flower nations
Which are now appearing over all the land;
So while they waken from sleep and rise from the bosom
Of Mother Earth, I stand here old and gray-headed."
[Illustration: Map of Geographical Distribution of Pasque Flower]
The saying: "I wish to encourage the children of other flower
nations," refers to the very early prevernal blossoming of this plant
and its consequent ripening while the other flower species (nations)
are just peeping through the ground. The entire plant is hairy, and
when mature its seed head is plumose and white, similar to the
clematis head, suggesting the head of a very old man with long white
hair. This explains the allusion in "I stand here old and
gray-headed."
When in springtime an old man of the Dakota nation first finds one of
these flowers it reminds him of his childhood, when he wandered over
the hills at play as free from sorrow and care as the birds and the
flowers. He sits down near the flower, upon the lap of Mother Earth,
takes out his pipe and fills it with tobacco. Then he reverently holds
the pipe towards the earth, then towards the sky, then towards the
north, the east, the south and the west. After this act of silent
invocation and thanksgiving, he smokes. Tobacco was sacred and was
used ceremonially as an incense. The pipe was therefore a sort of
censer, and was accordingly treated with respect and reverence. In
smoking, Indians did not seize the pipestem in the teeth. Such an act
would be sacrilegious. The mouthpiece of the pipestem was gently
presented to the lips and the breath drawn through. By this
inspiration the smoker united the mystery of the tobacco, the mystery
of fire and the mystery of the breath of life.
While the old man sits by the flower and smokes he meditates upon all
the changing scenes of his lifetime; his joys and sorrows, his
youthful hopes, his accomplishments, his disappointments, and upon the
guidance of the Unseen Powers accorded to him thus far upon the
journey of life, and he is encouraged to believe that he will be
guided to the end of life's journey "beyond the fourth hill" of life;
as he has been guided over the hill of childhood, the hill of youth,
and the hill of manhood's prime, that he will also be guided over the
last hill, the hill of old age.
After finishing his pipe he empties the ashes reverently upon the
ground near the pasque flower which he has been contemplating. Then he
rises and plucks the flower prayerfully and carries it carefully home
to show to his grandchildren, singing as he goes, the song of the
pasque flower, which he learned as a child and which he now teaches to
his grandchildren, commending to them the example of the flower in its
courage and endurance and its faithfulness.
THE SONG OF THE PASQUE FLOWER
By Rev. Ignatius Forster, O. S. B.
Mount Marty, Yankton, South Dakota.
February 1, 1921.
Lovely Pasque Flower,
Herald of Spring,
Proclaiming the hour,
Gladly to sing.
Gently thou greetest
The wintry sun;
Boldly thou peepest
If snow is gone.
Callest thy playmates
Who still do sleep:
"Arise, lo, spring waits!
No longer weep."
Slowly they waken,
Lowly they sigh:
"Wasn't that beckon
Pasque Flower's cry?"
They rise in raiments
Of colors bright;
Pasque Flower's garments
Are hoary white.
Noble thy preaching,
Pasque flower brave;
"Work," is thy teaching,
"Unto the grave."
Lovely Pasque Flower,
Herald of Spring
Proclaiming the hour
To work and sing.
Father Forster was moved to write this delightful little song upon
reading one evening, (February 1, 1921), the foregoing prose account
of the Dakota (Sioux) Song of the Pasque Flower or Hoksi-Cekpa Wahca.
THE PRAIRIE ROSE
The prairie was gray and drab, no beautiful flowers brightened it, it
had only dull greenish-gray herbs and grasses, and Mother Earth's
heart was sad because her robe was lacking in beauty and brightness.
Then the Holy Earth, our mother, sighed and said, "Ah, my robe is not
beautiful, it is sombre and dull. I wish it might be bright and
beautiful with flowers and splendid with color. I have many beautiful,
sweet and dainty flowers in my heart. I wish to have them upon my
robe. I wish to have upon my robe flowers blue like the clear sky in
fair weather. I wish also to have flowers white like the pure snow of
winter and like the high white cloudlets of a quiet summer day. I wish
also to have brilliant yellow flowers like the splendor of the sun at
noon of a summer day. And I wish to have delicate pink flowers like
the color of the dawn light of a joyous day in springtime. I would
also have flowers red like the clouds at evening when the sun is going
down below the western edge of the world. All these beautiful flowers
are in my heart, but I am sad when I look upon my old dull, gray and
brown robe."
Then a sweet little pink flower said, "Do not grieve mother, I will go
up upon your robe and beautify it." So the little pink flower came up
from the heart of Mother Earth to be upon the sad prairie of her
mother's robe.
Now when the Wind Demon saw the pink flower there he said, "Indeed she
is pretty, but I will not have her trespassing in my playground." So
the Wind Demon rushed at her shouting and roaring and blew out her
life, but her spirit returned to the heart of Mother Earth.
And when the other flowers ventured, one after another to come out
upon the prairie which was Mother Earth's robe, the Wind Demon
destroyed them also and their spirits returned to the heart of Holy
Mother Earth.