CONCLUDING REMARKS.
PEET ON INDIAN RELIGIONS.
§ 360. In the Journal of the Victoria Institute of Great Britain for
1888,[277] is an article containing the following statements, which
were not seen by the writer until he had completed the preceding
chapters of this paper.
Referring to Mr. Eells, the Nez Percé missionary, and to Mr. Williams,
who has been laboring among the Chippewas, Mr. Peet observes:[278]
There are four or five points on which both missionaries seem
to be agreed * * * These four doctrines--the existence of
God, immortality of the soul, the sinfulness of man, and the
necessity of sacrifice--seem to have been held in various
modified forms by all the tribes in North America.
On the next page[279] he gives a classification of native religions, by
which he means those of America. He says that these religions may be
divided by geographical districts into several classes:
(1) Shamanism, by which he seems to mean the worship of the wakan
men and women. “Among the Eskimos, Aleuts, and other hyperborean
nations, who subsist chiefly by fishing.” (2) Animism, by which he
probably means the worship of “souls” or “shades,” including ghosts,
as every object, whether animate or inanimate, is thought to have a
“shade.” This belief, he says, is found in its highest stage among
tribes that formerly dwelt in British North America, between Hudsons
Bay and the Great Lakes. These tribes subsist by hunting. (3) Animal
worship, practiced by a class partly hunters, partly farmers, dwelling,
say, between 35° and 48° N. lat. (4) Sun worship, the cult of the
tribes south of 35° N. lat., and extending to the Gulf of Mexico.
(5) Elemental worship, which he defines as “the worship of rain,
lightning, the god of war and death,” found in Mexico and New Mexico.
(6) Anthropomorphism, a religion which gave human attributes to the
divinities, but assigned to them supernatural powers. This prevailed in
Central America.
THE AUTHOR’S REPLY.
§ 361. But what do we find prevalent among the tribes under
consideration in this paper?
I. _Idea of God._--The Siouan tribes considered in this paper were not
monotheists (§§ 26, 94, 95, 311). The statement recorded in § 21 about
a crude belief in a Supreme Being, which the Omaha called Wakanda,
was accepted by the author as the belief of his informants; but we
must remember that the Omaha tribe has been in a transition state for
many years, certainly since 1855, and possibly since the days of Maj.
Long’s visits to them. (2) That these Indians believed in a Great
Spirit who was supreme over all other superhuman powers needs more
evidence. The only assertion of such a belief which the author has
gained was obtained from an Omaha (see § 22), but this assertion was
denied by two other members of that tribe. (3) In those cases alleged
as proving a belief in one Great Spirit, a closer study of the language
employed reveals the fact that a generic term has been used instead of
a specific one, and, in almost every instance, the writer who tells
of one Great Spirit supplements his account by relating what he has
learned about beliefs in many gods or spirits. (4) These tribes had
cults of many powers; everything animate and inanimate was regarded as
having a “shade.”
II. _Belief in immortality._--The author finds no traces of a belief
in the immortality of human beings. Even the gods of the Dakota were
regarded as being mortal, for they could be killed by one another
(§ 94). They were male and female; they married and died, and were
succeeded by their children. But if for “immortality” we substitute
“continuous existence as shades or ghosts” there will be no difficulty
in showing that the Siouan tribes referred to held such a belief
respecting mankind, and that they very probably entertained it in a
crude form prior to the advent of the white race to this continent (§§
67-71, 91, 338).
III. _Idea of sin._--The scriptural idea of sin seems to be wanting
among these tribes. There have been recorded by the author and others
many acts which were deemed violations of religious law, but few of
them can be compared with what the Bible declares to be sins. It was
dangerous to make a false report to the keeper of the sacred tent of
war or to the directors of the buffalo hunt, in the estimation of the
Omaha, for the offender was sure to be struck by lightning or bitten
by a snake or killed by a foe or thrown by a horse or have some other
disaster befall him.[280] It was dangerous to break the taboo of any
gens or subgens, or to violate any other ancient custom.[281] (See §§
45, 68, 222, and 286 of this paper.)
IV. _Idea of sacrifice._--The idea of sacrifice as atoning for sin has
not yet been found by the author among these Siouan tribes. In no
instance of sacrifice recorded in this paper has the author detected
any notion of expiation for sin against a just and holy Being. But
sacrifice, whether in the form of fasting, self-torture, or the
offering of property, was made in order to win the favor of a god, to
obtain a temporal advantage (§§ 28, 29, 101, 144, etc.), or to avert
the anger of demons, as when the people were suffering from famine or
an epidemic (§ 144).
V. _Shamanism._--While there have been shamans and various orders of
shamans among these tribes, no trace of a worship of shamans as gods
has yet been found. On one occasion the author met a Ponka shaman,
Cramped Hand, who exclaimed, “I am a wakanda.” But no other Ponka ever
said that he or she worshiped Cramped Hand as a wakanda.
VI. The other beliefs named by Dr. Peet have been found, in some
tribes, side by side. Animism, or a form of animism, was held by those
who worshiped the sun, animals, etc. “Everything had a soul” (§§ 97,
136, 137, 265-288, 344, etc.). Certain animals were worshiped (§§ 24,
43, 78, 92, 326, etc.). The sun was invoked, not only in the sun dance
(§§ 139-212), but on other occasions (§§ 28, 43, 73, 312, 323). Stars,
too, were regarded as gods (§§ 31, 43). Elemental worship had a wider
significance among these tribes than Dr. Peet assigns it (§§ 27, 33-35,
43, 44, 74-77, 363, etc.). And there are traces of anthropomorphism,
for some of the gods are in human form (§§ 217, 235); others are
supposed to inhale the odor of tobacco smoke, which is pleasant to
them; they eat, breathe, use weapons against one another as well as
against human beings, and on one occasion an Indian was called on to
aid one or the other of two contending gods; they hear, think, marry,
die, and are succeeded by their children (§§ 25, 29, 35, 36, 72, 75,
94, 109, 112, 117, 119, 136, 217, 322, etc.).[282]
§ 362. The cults affected the social organization of the tribes that
had gentes bearing mystic names (see §§ 57 and 82 of this paper, and
Om. Soc., in 3d An. Rept. Bur. Eth., Chap. iii, and pp. 356, 359-361);
orders of shamans and other secret societies were intimately associated
with them (§§ 43-45, 86, 87, and 89; and Om. Soc., pp. 342-355);
personal names still refer to them (§§ 31, 47, 53, 59, 74, 75, and 77;
and Om. Soc., pp. 228, 232, 236, 238-244, 246-248, 250, and 251); and
almost every act of the daily life of the people was influenced by them
(§§ 23, 24, 27, 28-30, 32, 33-36, 39-41, 54, 101, etc.; and Om. Soc.,
Chap. vi, and pp. 267, 274, 286, 287, 289-291, 293-299, 316, 319-325,
327, 328, 357, 368-370).
CULTS OF THE ELEMENTS.
§ 363. Prior to writing this paper, the author had observed what Dr.
Foster stated in his Indian Record and Historical Data respecting the
division of the Winnebago tribe into four groups, named after the
earth, air, fire, and water, respectively, i.e., Foster claimed that
the Winnebago had people named after land animals, others after birds
and the winds, others after the thunder-beings, and others after the
Waktceqi or water monsters.[283] (See § 96.)
During the year 1890 the author obtained from the three principal
Ponka chiefs the classification of their gentes by phratries, and the
character of the mystic songs peculiar to each phratry.
On comparing this information with that which has been related about
the Dakota gods, there seemed to be good reasons for inferring that
not only the Dakota tribes, but also the Omaha, Ponka, Winne-bago, and
others of the same stock, divided their gods into four classes, those
of the earth, wind-makers, fire, and water.
§ 364. Among the Omaha, Iowa, and cognate tribes, we find that when a
gens assembled as a whole, for council purposes, they sat around the
fire in the order shown in the accompanying diagram, Fig. 193:
_Legend._--1, Black Bear subgens; 2, Small Bird subgens; 3, Eagle
subgens; 4, Turtle subgens; 5, fireplace; 6, entrance.
[Illustration: FIG. 193.--The Ȼatada gentile circle.]
Places in the circle were assigned according to kinship; thus, the
Black Bear and Small Bird people are spoken of as “sitting on the same
side of the fireplace,” as they are full kin, while they are only
partially related to those who sit on the other side (Nos. 3 and 4).
That the fireplace was sacred, there being traces of a hearth cult,
has been shown in §§ 33 and 40. Furthermore, the Ȼatada circle is
remarkable not only for its arrangement according to kinship, but for
its symbolic character; because the Black Bear people are associated
with the ground or earth, as is shown by their personal names; the
Small Bird people are Thunder-beings or Fire people; the Eagle subgens
consist of “Wind-maker” people; and the Turtle subgens is composed of
Water people.
[Illustration: FIG. 194.--The four elements, etc.]
§ 365. This suggests another diagram, Fig. 194, in which the author has
put the names of four classes of Dakota gods, with what he suspects to
be their appropriate colors, _R_ standing for red, _B_ for black, _Y_
for yellow, and _Bl_ for blue.
Earth people serve or assist Fire people (§ 35 and perhaps § 36). Do
Water people ever serve Wind-maker people (see address to a stream in
time of war, § 23)? The Fire powers are hostile to the powers of the
Water (§§ 75, 77, 117-119); we have yet to learn whether, in any gens,
a subgens named after the Thunder-being sits on the same side of the
gentile fireplace with a subgens named after a power of the Water.
Is there a warfare going on between the powers of the Earth and the
Wind-makers? The Fire powers and Wind-makers are concerned in all kinds
of suffering, including war, disease, and death (§§ 117, 119, 127,
129), and there is no hostility existing between them.[284]
The Kaⁿ[s]e gens of the Osage has several names, Wind people,
South-wind people, Those who light the pipes (in council), and Fire
people.
The powers of the Earth and Water are interested in the preservation
of life, and so we may consider them the patrons of peace. “Peace,”
in Omaha, Ponka, and ┴ɔiwere, means “The land is good,” and “to make
peace” is expressed by “to make the land good.” The words for “water”
and “life” are identical in some of the Siouan languages, and they
differ but slightly in others.
It is interesting to note what has been said by Mr. Francis La
Flesche[285] about water: “Water seems to hold an important place in
the practice of this medicine society, even when roots are used for
the healing of wounds. The songs say: ‘Water was sent into the wound,’
‘Water will be sent into his wound,’ etc.” The mystic songs of the
doctors of the order of buffalo shamans tell of the pool of water in a
buffalo wallow where the wounded one shall be treated.
But we must note some apparent inconsistencies. While the Unkteḣi
created the earth and the human race (§ 112), they are believed to
feed on human spirits or ghosts; though ghosts are reckoned among the
servants of the Unkteḣi! And while the powers of the Fire and Water are
enemies, one is surprised to observe that in the war gens of the Omaha
as well as in the two war gentes of the Kansa, there is the sacred clam
shell as well as the war pipe! (See § 36 and Om. Soc., p. 226.)
THE FOUR QUARTERS.
§ 366. According to the tradition of the Iñke-sabĕ, an Omaha buffalo
people, the ancestral buffaloes found the East and South winds bad
ones; but the North and West winds were good. From this the author
infers that the Omaha associated the East with the Fire powers or the
sun, the South[286] with the Air powers, the North with the Earth
powers, and the West with the Water powers.
On the other hand, an Iowa man told Mr. Hamilton that the South
wind was a beneficent one, while the Northeast wind was maleficent
(§ 74). This variation may have been caused by a difference in the
habitats of the tribes referred to.
§ 367. Among the Kansa, Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Aliⁿkawahu, when they invoked
the four winds, began at the left (as they were Yata people) with the
East wind (Bazaⁿta, Toward the Pines), next they turned to the South
wind (Ak’a, whence one of the names of the Kaⁿze gens), then to the
West wind (Ak’a jiñga or Ak’uye), and lastly to the North wind (Hnita,
Toward the Cold).[287] (See Fig. 195.)
[Illustration: FIG. 195.--Kansa order of invoking the winds, etc.]
[Illustration: FIG. 196.--Tsiɔu (Osage) order of placing the four
sticks, etc.]
It should be noted that those Kansa war captains, Pahaⁿle-gaqli and
Aliⁿkawahu, belong to gentes on the left side of the tribal circle.
They were facing the South before they began the invocations to the
various powers including the four winds. See § 200 for the order (E, S,
W, N) observed in felling the tree to be used as a sun pole. The same
order was observed by the Dakota “priest” in the ceremonies pertaining
to the White Buffalo festival of the Hunkpapa, as related by Miss
Fletcher: in placing cherries on the plate, in pouring water on the
piles of cherries, in placing tufts of swan’s down on the plate[288],
in rotating the plate, in circling the heap of black earth[289], and
in giving the four pinches of consecrated meat to the four sons of the
owner of the white buffalo hide.[290]
§ 368. The Tciɔu old man of the Osage tribe consecrated each mystic
hearth by placing four sticks in the form of a cross, beginning at
the west, as shown in Fig. 196, then laying the sticks at the north,
east, and south, as he named the four mystic buffaloes (§ 33). This
Tsiɔu man belonged to the peace side of his tribe, and he began with
the quarters referring to the peace elements. But the Paⁿɥka old man
of the same tribe, when he consecrated the mystic fireplaces for his
half-tribe, began on the right, with the stick at the east, as shown in
Fig. 197. He belonged to the war side of the tribe, though his gens was
a peace-making gens!
§ 369. The Maⁿyiñka and ṵpaⁿ gentes of the Kansa tribe consecrated
the mystic fireplaces for their people; but we have not obtained the
particulars of the Kansa ceremony, which probably resembled that in
which the T[s]iɔu and Paⁿɥka old men took part.
According to Two Crows and the late Joseph La Flèche, there
were four sacred stones in the custody of the Maⁿȼiñka-gaxe or
Earth-lodge-makers’ gens of the Omaha: red, black, yellow, and
blue.[291]
§ 370. Whenever the Osage warriors came in sight of their village on
returning from an expedition against the enemy, they were met outside
the village by the principal man of the Kaⁿ[s]e (the Wind or South
wind gens.) This Kaⁿ[s]e man walked around the warriors, performing a
ceremony as he started from the north, repeating it at each quarter,
and ending with the east, as shown in Fig. 198.
[Illustration: FIG. 197.--Paⁿɥka (Osage) order of placing the four
sticks, etc.]
[Illustration: FIG. 198.--Kaⁿ[s]e (Osage) order of circumambulation.]
§ 371. Assuming that we have a correct grouping of the four elements in
Fig. 194, it appears that Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Aliⁿkawahu began with the
quarters associated with war; that the T[s]iɔu old man began with those
referring to peace, and the Paⁿɥka old man with those pertaining to
war, and the principal man of the Kaⁿ[s]e gens with those on the peace
side.
[Illustration: FIG. 199.--Showing how the Osage prepared the scalp for
the dance.]
§ 372. In cutting off the under skin from a scalp, the Osage war
captain--
stood facing the East * * * Holding the scalp in one hand,
with the other he placed the knife-blade across it, with the point
toward the South (see Fig. 199). Then he turned the knife with the
point toward the East. Next, with the blade resting on the scalp,
the point to the South, he moved the knife backward and forward
four times, cutting deeper into the scalp on each occasion. Then
he made four similar cuts, but with the point to the East. After
this, the flat part of the blade being on the scalp, its edge
was put against one of the four corners made by the previous
incisions (1, 2, 3, and 4), beginning with No. 1. He cut under
each corner four times, singing a sacred song each time that he
changed the position of the knife. * * * The scalp was
stretched and fastened to a bow, which was bent and formed into
a hoop. This hoop was tied to a pole, which was carried by the
principal kettle-bearer.[292]
Observe that in this ceremony the South and East were the mystic
quarters, answering to the “bad winds” of the Iñke-sabĕ tradition.
When the Dakota “priest,” referred to in § 367, wished to rotate the
plate containing the cherries and down, he grasped the plate with his
right hand (note that the right side of the Osage circle was the war
side) between the east and south piles of cherries and his left hand
(compare with custom of T[s]iɔu gens of Osage, § 368) held the plate
between the west and north piles.[293]
In the Hede-watci, the Omaha women and girls danced from the east to
the south, and thence to the west and north, while the men and boys
proceeded in a different order, beginning at the west, and dancing
toward the north, and thence toward the east and south.[294]
SYMBOLIC COLORS.
§ 373. On the tent of Hupeȼa (Pl. XLIV, E), a black bear man, were
represented four kinds of lightning--blue, red, black, and yellow. This
was a mystery decoration (§ 45), and if the colors were associated with
the four quarters, the powers were probably invoked in the order shown
in Fig. 200. (See §§ 340, 369.)
[Illustration: FIG. 200.--Omaha lightnings and the four quarters.]
§ 374. Blue is assumed to be the earth symbol for two reasons: (1)
In the decorations of those who have had visions of bears, there is
a broad blue band, representing the earth, out of which the bear is
sometimes depicted as issuing; (2) and, furthermore, the Indians seldom
distinguish between blue and green, hence, blue may symbolize grass and
other vegetation, springing from the earth. In apparent contradiction
of this use of blue, we are told by Lynd that “the Tunkan is painted
red as a sign of active worship” (see § 132), and by Riggs (§ 133)
that large bowlders were adorned with red and green paint, though the
use of the two colors may have depended on a composite cult. In this
connection attention is called to the battle standards represented on
the tent of Ԁejequta, an Omaha. These painted standards had red and
blue stripes, denoting the stripes of Indian cloth, sometimes used
instead of feathers on the real standards. The latter were carried by
the leaders of war parties, and each standard could be used on four
such expeditions. When the warriors approached the hostile camp, the
keeper of the standard removed the scarf of blue and red cloth from the
shaft and wore it around his neck as he went to steal horses (see Pl.
XLIV, A, the name Bowlder Thunder-being in § 390, also § 388).
§ 375. Red is known to be the Omaha color for the east. Among the
Dakota the spear and tomahawk, the weapons of war, were said to have
been given by the Wakinyan, the Thunder-being or Fire power; hence they
are painted red (§ 105).
The late Dr. S. R. Riggs informs us that--
In the tiyotipi were placed the bundles of the black and red
sticks of the soldiers.[295]
Toward the rear of the tent, but near enough to the fire for
convenient use, is a large pipe placed by the symbols of power.
These are two bundles of shaved sticks about 6 inches long. The
sticks in one bundle are painted black and in the other red. The
black bundle represents the real men of the camp--those who have
made their mark on the warpath. The red bundle represents the boys
and such men as wear no eagle feathers.[296]
They shave out small round sticks all of the same length, and
paint them red, and they are given out to the men. These are to
constitute the tiyotipi. * * * Of all the round shaved
sticks, some of which were painted black and some painted red,
four were especially marked. They are the four chiefs of the
tiyotipi that were made.[297]
§ 376. Black is assumed to be the symbolic color for the Takuśkanśkan,
the Wind-makers, whose servants are the four winds and the four black
spirits of night. Black as a war color is put on the face[298] of the
warrior. The Santee Dakota consider the raven (a black bird) and a
small black stone, less than a hen’s egg in size, symbols of the four
winds or quarters. Among the Teton Dakota, the Takuśkanśkan symbols,
are small pebbles of two kinds, one white, and, according to the
description, translucent; the other “resembles ordinary pebbles,”
probably in being opaque.
§ 377. Yellow is assumed to be the color symbolizing water, the west,
and the setting sun. The Dakota, Omaha, Ponka, and ┴ɔiwere tribes have
been familiar for years with the color of the water in the Missouri
river. In a Yankton Dakota legend[299] recorded by the author it is
said that when two mystery men prepared themselves to visit a spirit
of the water in order to recover an Indian boy, one of the men painted
his entire body black, and the other painted himself yellow (this seems
to refer to the south and west, the windmakers and the spirits of the
waters).
In certain Omaha tent decorations we find that the tent of a Turtle
man (Fig. 161) has a yellow ground. A similar yellow ground on the
tent of Maⁿtcu-naⁿba of the Hañga gens (Fig. 174) may be connected with
the tradition that the Hañga gens came originally from beneath the
water. Too much stress, however, must not be placed upon the colors of
such mystery decorations, as they may be found hereafter to have had
another origin. It is conceivable, although we have no means of proving
it, that he who had a vision, depicted on his robe and tent not only
the colors pertaining to the objects seen in the vision, but also the
color peculiar to the eponymic ancestor or power that was the “nikie”
(§ 53). As some men were members of more than one order of shamans,
their tent and robe decorations may refer to the one order rather than
to the other, and sometimes there may be a reference to both orders.
The yellow on the top of the tent of Frog, an Ictasanda man, was said
to refer to a grizzly bear vision (_fide_ George Miller, an Omaha--see
Fig. 177.) But when we compare it with Pl. XLIV, D, showing the tent of
a Hañga man, who was a Buffalo shaman as well as a Grizzly Bear shaman,
we find that the top of the latter tent has a yellow band (apparently
pointing to the Hañga tradition of an aquatic origin), as well as a
blue band at the bottom (referring to the grizzly bear vision).
§ 378. From what has been said respecting the figures 194-199, we are
led to make the following provisional coördinations:
+------------------------------------------------------+
| Dakota god. | Element. | Quarter. | Color. |
+--------------------+-------------+----------+--------+
|Tunkan | Earth | North | Blue |
|Wakinyan | Fire | East | Red |
|Takuśkanśkan | Wind-makers | South | Black |
|Unkteḣi | Water | West | Yellow |
+--------------------+-------------+----------+--------+
NOTE.--The names of the Dakota gods are given because we have
more information about them, and the exact Omaha equivalent for
Takuśkanśkan has not been obtained.
§ 379. Miss Fletcher gave, in 1884, a list of symbolic colors, which
differs somewhat from that which the author has suggested in the
preceding section. She said:
White, blue, red, and yellow possess different meaning, yet are
not very clearly determined by all tribes.[300] Among the Dakotas
the following interpretation prevails: White is seldom used
artificially; when it occurs in nature, as the white buffalo,
deer, rabbit, etc., and on the plumage of birds, it indicates
consecration. The sacred feathers and down are always white,[301]
the former being taken from the underpart of the eagle’s wing
and are soft and downy. This meaning of white holds good with
the Omahas, Poncas, etc., and seems to have a wide application
among the Indians. Blue represents the winds, the west, the moon,
the water, the thunder, and sometimes the lightning. * * *
Red indicates the sun, the stone, the forms of animal and
vegetable life, the procreative force. Yellow represents sunlight
as distinguished from the fructifying power of the sun.[302]
The author has never observed this use of white as a symbolic color.
In speaking of albino animals, we infer that to the Siouan mind they
are consecrated because they are rare. In fact, Miss Fletcher says:
The white buffalo is rare and generally remains near the center of
the herd, which makes it difficult of approach. It is therefore
considered as the chief or sacred one of the herd; and it is
consequently greatly prized by the Indians.[303]
While the author is convinced of the great value of Miss Fletcher’s
investigations, he inquires concerning the veracity of her
interpreters. He would like to see more detailed evidence before
he accepts as the Dakota classification one which puts in the same
category not only the winds and thunder, but also the water, the west,
and the moon. He also asks why should the moon be separated from the
sun (see § 138), and why should the west be the only quarter symbolized
by a color? Besides, the Dakota shamans say that the Thunder-beings are
of four colors, black, yellow, scarlet, and blue (see § 116).
In response to the wish of the author, Miss Fletcher has kindly
furnished him with the following letter of explanation, received after
the rest of the paper had been written:
Consecration as applied to the color white in the article you have
quoted needs a few words of explanation.
The almost universal appropriation of white animals to religious
ceremonies is unquestionable; whether this selection rests wholly
upon the rarity of this color is a little doubtful. The unusual
is generally wakan; this feeling, however, is not confined to
a color, and although the white buffalo and the white deer are
not often met with, other white animals, as the rabbit, are not
uncommon, nor are white feathers. It is true these white feathers
are often colored for ceremonial uses, but the added colors have
their particular meanings, and these do not seem to override the
primal signification that the feathers selected to bear these
symbolic colors are white. The natural suggestion that a white
ground would best serve to set off the added lines may have been
in the distant past the simple reason why white feathers were
chosen; and this choice adhered to for generations would at last
become clothed with a mysterious significance. If this were ever
true, this reason for choosing white feathers is not recognized
to-day. I have been frequently told, the feathers must be white.
While I should now hesitate to say that white symbolizes
consecration, still, after continued study, I find the idea
clinging about the color, which, as I said then, is seldom
artificially used.
Various symbolic colors are not infrequently placed upon one
object, so that the combining of symbols,[304] or even their
occasional exchange, does not seem discordant to the Indian mind;
this fact among others renders it difficult to draw a hard and
fast line about any one color or symbol.
Further research has shown me that green and blue and black are
related and that to a degree green and blue are interchangeable.
Blue is regarded as a darkened green; that is, green removed
from the light, not deepened in hue. Blue, therefore, stands
intermediate between green which has the light on it; and blue
shaded into black, which has no light on it. In some ceremonies
green typifies the earth; in others blue is the symbol. The sky is
sometimes represented by green, and again blue is used, while blue
darkened to black stands for the destructive elements of the air.
I have found a subtle connection between the elements of earth and
air that answers somewhat to the blending of the symbolic colors
just spoken of. This connection is revealed in the reciprocal or
complementary functions of gentes belonging to these two great
divisions represented in the tribal structure, as well as in the
reactionary character of the elements themselves as portrayed in
the myths and typified in some ceremonies. For instance, the eagle
mythically belongs to the air, and is allied to the destructive
powers of the element and to wars upon the earth, yet the Eagle
gens, although connected with the air division of the gentes, is
in some tribes a peace gens. An enemy escaping to the tent of
an Eagle man is safe and cannot be molested. In symbols eagle
feathers are not only the pride and emblem of the warrior but they
are essential in certain ceremonies of amity and peace-making.
A study of the position of gentes belonging to the divisions of
earth and air, their tribal and ceremonial duties, together with
their mythological significance, shows lines connecting the gentes
of the earth with the gentes of the air which are vertical, so
to speak, and might be represented as running north and south on
the tribal circle, and indicating mediating offices as between
contending or opposite forces.
It would occupy too much space to fully set forth my reasons for
thinking blue-black to be the symbol of the thunder rather than
red and yellow. Although thunder is allied to the four quarters,
to the four elemental divisions and partakes of their symbolism,
still a study of thunder myths, thunder-names, and the tribal
offices of thunder gentes seems to me, at my present understanding
of them, to indicate the blue-black as the persistent symbol.
I would not at this date make any unqualified statement giving
green, blue, or black as the symbol of the west, the water, or
the moon; and although in some instances these colors occur in
connection with these objects of reverence, I am now inclined to
class these as incidental rather than as representative of the
color symbols.
One word regarding red and yellow. Red not only represents the
sun and the procreative forces (yet black is sometimes used in
the latter), but the color carries with it the idea of hope, the
continuation of life. The dawn of the day, the east, is almost
without exception in these tribes denoted by red. This red line,
forceful, aggressive, yet life giving and hope-inspiring, starts
from a war division of the tribal circle and fades into yellow as
it passes into an opposite peace division in the west. Red and
yellow bear to each other a relation somewhat resembling that
of blue and black, only reversed; the red loses its intensity
in yellow, the aggressive force symbolized in the red is not
expressed in the yellow. If the Indian’s world were arched with
his symbolic colors, we should see a brilliant band of red start
from the east and fade to yellow in the west; while the green-blue
line from the north would deepen to the black of the south. In the
first the intense color would rush from war into the mild light of
peace; the second bright hue would spring from peace to be lost
in the darkness of war. Thus the two hold the tribe within the
opposing yet complementary forces which constitute the mystery of
the relation between life and death.
I will not go further into this interesting subject nor revert
to the revolution of these symbolic colors as throwing light on
tribal migrations and history.
Thanking you for this opportunity to modify some of my statements
written nine years ago,
I remain, cordially yours,
ALICE C. FLETCHER.
PEABODY MUSEUM,
_Cambridge, Mass., January 3, 1891_.
In the Word Carrier of November, 1890, published by A. L. Riggs, at
Santee Agency, Nebr., is an article on page 30, from Mary C. Collins,
who is evidently one of the mission workers. She says: “I went into
the sacred tent and talked with Sitting Bull. He sat * * * opposite
the tent door. Hands and wrists were painted yellow and green; face
painted red, green, and white.” (Did the four colors refer to the
elements?) “As I started toward him he said, ‘Winona,[305] approach me
on the left side and shake my left hand with your left hand.’” (Does
the gens of Sitting Bull camp on the left side of the tribal circle,
occasioning the use of the left in all ceremonies, as among the Tsiɔu
gentes of the Osage? Or is the left the war side among the people of
Sitting Bull, as among the Kansa? See §§ 33 and 368.)
§ 380. The following are the symbolic colors of the North Carolina
Cherokee, the Ojibwa, the Navajo, the Apache, the Zuñi, and the Aztec:
-----------+-----------+-----------------+----------------------+
| | Ojibwa. | Navajo. |
Quarter, | Cherokee. +--------+--------+------------+---------+
etc. | [a] | [b] | [c] | [d] | [e] |
-----------+-----------+--------+--------+------------+---------+
| | | | | |
East | Red, 1. | White. | Red. | White, 1. | Yellow. |
South | White, 4. | Green. | Green. | Blue, 2. | Red. |
| | | | | |
West | Black, 8. | Red. | White. | Yellow, 3. | Blue. |
North | Blue, 2. | Black. | Black. | Black, 4. | White. |
Upperworld | ... | ... | ... | Blue. | ... |
| | | | | |
Lowerworld | ... | ... | ... | White and | ... |
| | | | black in | |
| | | | spots. | |
Sunlight | ... | ... | ... | Red. | ... |
-----------+-----------+--------+--------+------------+---------+
_a_ Mooney, in Jour. Am. Folklore, Vol. III, No. 8, Jan.-Mar.,
1890, pp. 49, 50.
_b_ Hoffman, in Am. Anthropologist, July, 1889, pp. 217, 218; from
Sicosige, a second-degree Mide of White Earth, Minn.
_c_ Hoffman, in ibid., p. 218; from Ojibwa, a fourth-degree Mide,
from another locality.
_d_ Matthews, in 5th An. Rept. Bur. Eth., p. 449.
_e_ Mallery, from Thos. V. Keam’s catalogue of relics of the
ancient buildings of the southwest table-lands--quoted in Trans.
Anthrop. Soc. of Washington, Vol. III, 141, 1885.
-----------+--------------------+------------+---------
| Apache. | |
Quarter, |---------+----------+ Zuñi. | Aztec.
etc. | [f] | [g] | [h] | [i]
-----------+---------+----------+------------+---------
| | | |
East | Black. | Yellow. | White, 4. | Yellow.
South | White. | Green | Red, 3. | White.
| | or Blue. | |
West | Yellow. | Black. | Blue, 2. | Blue.
North | Blue. | White. | Yellow, 1. | Red.
Upperworld | ... | ... | All |
| | | colors, 5. |
Lowerworld | ... | ... | Black, 6. |
Sunlight | ... | ... | ... |
-----------+---------+----------+------------+---------
_f_ Gatschet, on Chiricahua Apache sun circle, in Trans. Anthrop.
Soc. of Washington, Vol. III, 147, 1885.
_g_ Capt. J. G. Bourke, in a letter to the author, Dec. 4, 1890.
In Nov., 1885, he obtained from a San Carlos (Pinal) Apache green
as the color for the north.
_h_ Mrs. M. C. Stevenson, in 5th An. Rept. Bur. Eth., p. 548.
According to Dr. J. Walter Fowkes the Hopi or Moki have a similar
order of colors, the west having green (or blue).
_i_ Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, Vol. VII (_fide_ Capt. J.
G. Bourke).
According to Gatschet the Chiricahua Apache call the sun, when in the
east, “the black sun,” and a tornado or gust of wind also is called
“black.” (See § 378.)
Matthews says that in rare cases white is assigned to the north and
black to the east, and that black represents the male and blue the
female among the Navajo. (See § 105 of this paper.)
§ 381. The author calls special attention to the colors of the four
sacred stones of the Omaha Wolf gens, red, black, yellow, and blue i.
e., E., S., W., N.; (see § 369), and to those on the tent of an Omaha
Black Bear man (see § 373, and PL. XLIV, E, where the colors are given
in the order N., E., S., W.). He has not yet gained the colors for
the upper and lower worlds, though the Omaha offer the pipe to the
“venerable man sitting above” and to the “venerable man below lying on
his back.” (§ 27.)
In the tradition of the T[s]iɔu wactaʞe gens of the Osage there is an
account of the finding of four kinds of rocks, black, blue or green,
red, and white. And from the left hind legs of four buffalo bulls
there dropped to the ground four ears of corn and four pumpkins.[306]
The corn and pumpkin from the first buffalo were red, those from the
second were spotted, those from the third were ca[p]e, i.e., dark or
distant-black, and those from the fourth were white.
Green, black, white, and gray are the traditional colors of the
ancestral wolves, according to the Wolf people of the Winnebago, though
for “green” we may substitute “blue,” as the corresponding name for the
first son in that gens is Blue Sky. Among the personal names in the
Thunder-being subgens of the Winnebago are the four color names, Green
Thunder-being, Black Thunder-being, White Thunder-being, and Yellow
Thunder-being (instead of Gray). James Alexander, a member of the Wolf
gens, said that these four Thunder-being names did not refer to the
four quarters. This seems probable, unless white be the Winnebago color
for the east and gray or yellow that for the west.
In November, 1893, more than two years after the preceding sentence was
written, a Winnebago told the author that among his people white was
associated with the north, red with the west, and green with the south.
Of these he was certain. He thought that blue was the color for the
east, but he was not positive about it.
COLORS IN PERSONAL NAMES.
§ 382. The following shows the color combinations in a list of
forty-six objects taken from the census schedules of the Dakota,
Hidatsa, and Mandan tribes (U. S. Census of 1880), the lists of Dakota
names given in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp.
175, 177-180, and the list of Winnebago names collected by the author.
Blue or green, (chiefly blue), 26; red, 25; black, 31; yellow, 30;
scarlet, 38; white, 37; gray, 18; saŋ or distant-white (whitish), 4;
rusty-yellow or brown (ġi), 18; spotted, 17; and striped, 8. Objects
combined with two colors, 7; with three colors, 7; with four colors,
4; with five colors, 5; with six colors, 5; with seven colors, 6; with
eight colors, 6; with nine colors, 5; with ten colors, 1; with all
eleven colors, none. It should, however, be remembered that the lists
consulted did not contain all the personal names of the Siouan tribes
which have been mentioned, and that it is probable there would be found
more color combinations if all the census schedules were accessible. We
can not say whether each of the colors (including spotted and striped)
has a mystic significance in the Siouan mind. Perhaps further study
may show that red (śa) and scarlet (duta, luta) have the same symbolic
meaning, and rusty-yellow (ġi) may be an equivalent of yellow (zi).
THE EARTH POWERS.
§ 383. The Tunkan or bowlder, the Dakota name for the Earth powers, is
also called the Lingam by Riggs (§ 132), as if connected with a phallic
cult (§§ 164, etc.). The Earth powers (Tunkan) and the Wind-makers
(Takuśkanśkan) are said by the Dakota to have a common symbol; but
is not the symbol of the Takuśkanśkan a pebble (§ 376)? In the Kansa
war chart (see § 127) does the large (red) rock refer to the Earth
powers? And does the small rock refer to the Wind-makers? The Earth
powers and the Wind-makers seem to be associated in some degree: (_a_)
In the use of the rock symbol (if the Takuśkanśkan symbol be a true
rock), and (_b_) in the use, among the Omaha, of eagle birth names in
the social divisions called “Keepers of the pipes.” This latter rests
upon the assumption that the Iñke-sabĕ is a buffalo gens which should
be regarded as having some connection with the Earth cult. When the
Omaha chiefs assembled in council the two sacred pipes were filled by
the Ictasanda keeper (a member of a Fire and Water gens); but they were
carried around the council lodge by the Iñke-sabĕ and ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ
keepers. The Iñke-sabĕ keeper started around the lodge with one of the
pipes; when he had gone halfway (i.e., as far as the entrance) the
┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ keeper started from the back of the lodge with the other
pipe, taking care to keep behind the Iñke-sabĕ keeper just half the
circumference of the circle.[307] The ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ man belonged to
the Eagle or Wind-makers subgens and the Iñke-sabĕ man to one that we
term provisionally an Earth gens. (See Fig. 194.) The Iñke-sabĕ, it is
true, have a tradition that they came originally from the water; but
the buffalo is specially associated with the earth. Among the Dakota
the buffalo and the earth are regarded as one. (§ 239.)
EARTH GENTES.
The Earth gentes, as far as we can judge, are as follows: Iñke-sabĕ and
Hañga (_?_), two Buffalo gentes, and the Wasabe-hit‘ajĭ, a Black bear
subgens, among the Omaha; the Wacabe and Makaⁿ (Buffalo gentes,) among
the Ponka; the Maⁿyiñka (Earth) and Wasabe (Black bear), of the Kansa;
the Earth and Black bear of the Osage; Black bear, and perhaps Wolf,
among the Iowa and Oto; Black bear, of the Missouri; and Black bear
and Wolf of the Winnebago. The Black bear people of the Winnebago were
the only men of that tribe who enforced discipline in time of war and
acted as policemen when there was peace. The tradition of the Winnebago
Wolf gens names four brothers that were created. The first was green
[sic] and was named Blue Sky (referring to day). The second was black,
and his name referred to night. The third was white and the fourth
was gray. The green, black, and white wolves have remained in their
subterranean abodes. They are never seen by mankind. The gray wolf was
the ancestor of all the wolves which are seen above ground. (See § 90.)
These four colors are evidently symbolic; but the author has not yet
learned whether they have any reference to the four quarters. (See §
75.)
THE FIRE POWERS.
§ 384. Among these were the Thunder-beings and the Sun. The former were
usually considered maleficent powers, as distinguished from the Sun,
the beneficent Fire power; but occasionally the Thunder-beings were
addressed as “grandfathers,” who could be induced to gratify the wishes
of the suppliants by granting them success in war (§§ 35, 36). It was
probably with reference to the Sun that the East was considered the
source of light and life, the West being associated with the taking of
life in the chase or on the war path (see § 28). Red among the Omaha
is the color symbol of the East, but red is also symbolic of war. The
“fire paint” among the T[s]iɔu gentes of the Osage tribe is red. It
is applied when the fire prayers are said. Red is a war color among
the Dakota, Omaha, Kansa, and Osage. The T[s]iɔu crier received in his
left hand a knife with the handle painted red. The Hañʞa crier received
in his right hand a hatchet with the handle reddened. On the death
of a comrade the surviving Osage removed the bark from a post oak,
say, about 5 feet from the ground, painted the blazed tree red, broke
four arrows and left them and some paint by the tree.[308] Whenever
the author saw Pahaⁿle-gaqli, one of the war chiefs of the Kansa, he
noticed that the man’s face was painted red all over. In the middle of
the war chart of Pahaⁿle-gaqli was a fire symbol; but the chief feared
to represent it in the copy which he made for the author. It probably
consisted of the four firebrands placed at right angles and meeting at
a common center. The Omaha must have had such a symbol at one time (see
§ 33). The Osage had it, according to their tradition (see §§ 40, 365).
The successful warriors among the Omaha could redden their weapons when
they joined in the dance.[309]
The Dakota give the following as the sentinels for the Wakinyan: The
deer at the north, the butterfly at the east, the beaver at the south,
and the bear at the west (§ 116). If these were arranged to conform to
the order of Fig. 194 the bear would be at the north, the beaver at the
west, the deer at the east, and the butterfly at the south. But there
may be a special order of grouping the servants of each class of powers
differing from the order of the four powers themselves. The Dakota
wakan men say that the Wakinyan are of four colors, black, yellow,
scarlet, and blue (§ 116). The Thunder men of the Omaha legend had hair
of different colors, the first having white hair, the second red, the
third yellow, and the fourth green hair.[310]
FIRE GENTES.
The following appear to be the Fire gentes: Thunder-being people of the
Omaha tribe, Elk gens, Small-bird subgens, Deer, and Ictasanda (Reptile
and Thunder-being) gentes; the Hisada and Black bear gentes of the
Ponka; the Lṵ or Gray hawk people (also called Thunder-being people)
of the Kansa tribe, with whom are associated the Deer and Buffalo
gentes in the singing of the Thunder songs (§ 36); the [K]ȼŭⁿ[311] or
Thunder-being gens, on the Tsiɔu, Buffalo, or Peace side of the Osage
tribe (!!), perhaps the Tcexiʇa, a bird gens of the Iowa tribe; part of
the Tcexiʇa gens of the Oto and Missouri tribes; and the Wakaⁿtcară or
Thunder-being subgens of the Winnebago.
Four Thunder-beings were invoked by the Ictasanda gens (§ 35):
Ȼigȼize-maⁿȼiⁿ, Ȼiaⁿba-tigȼe, Ȼiaⁿba-gi-naⁿ, and Gaagigȼedaⁿ. Was each
of these supposed to dwell at one of the four quarters?
Among the Osage and Kansa tribes there is a gens known as the Miⁿ k’iⁿ
(from miⁿ, the sun, and k’iⁿ, to carry a load on the back), rendered
“Sun Carriers.” Some of the Osage insisted that this name referred
to the buffalo instead of the sun, as that animal carries a robe or
plenty of hair on his back; and they maintained that the Miⁿ k’iⁿ was a
buffalo gens. That there is some connection in the Indian mind between
the sun and the buffalo is shown in the sun dance, in which the figure
of a buffalo bull (§ 164) and buffalo skulls (§§ 147, 173, 176, 177,
181, and 198, and Pl. XLVIII) play important parts.
THE WIND-MAKERS.
§ 385. The Takuśkanśkan of the Dakotas has been described in a previous
chapter (§§ 127-131). The Omaha tribe has the order of the Iⁿ-kugȼi or
the translucent stone, in which order the Wind-makers were probably
invoked. The T[s]iɔu old man addressed the four winds and as many
mystic buffaloes when he laid down the four firebrands. And at a
similar ceremony the old man of the Paⁿɥka gens addressed the four
winds and as many mystic deer (§ 33). The Omaha evidently had a prayer,
“Ho, ye four firebrands that meet at a common point!” (§ 40.) With this
there may have been addresses to the winds. Four firebrands were used
in a Winnebago ceremony (§ 84).
The Iñke-sabĕ (Omaha) belief as to the four winds has been related in
§ 366.[312] The winds and the sun were associated in the ceremony of
raising the sun pole, judging from what Bushotter has written (§ 167).
There was also some connection in the Dakota mind between the winds
and the buffalo. Compare the figure of the winds on a buffalo skull as
described by Miss Fletcher[313] in her account of the sun dance.
WIND GENTES.
The following social divisions are assigned to this category:
The [K]aⁿze, or Wind people, and the ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ,
Touch-not-a-buffalo-skull, or Eagle people, of the Omaha tribe; the
Ȼixida and Nika[p]aɔna gentes of the Ponka; the Kaⁿze (Wind or South
Wind-people), Qüya (White eagle), Ghost, and perhaps the Large Hañga
(Black eagle), among the Kansa; the Kaⁿ[s]e (also called the Wind and
South Wind people), and perhaps the Hañʞa utaȼanʇ[s]e (Black eagle)
gens of the Osage; the Pigeon and Buffalo gentes of the Iowa and Oto
tribes; the Hawk and Momi (Small bird) subgentes of the Missouri tribe;
the Eagle and Pigeon, and perhaps the Hawk subgens of the Winnebago
Bird gens.
EACH QUARTER RECKONED AS THREE.
Each wind or quarter is reckoned as three by the Dakota[314] and
presumably by the Osage (see § 42), making the four quarters equal to
twelve. Can there be any reference here to a belief in three worlds,
the one in which we live, an upper world, and a world beneath this
one? Or were the winds divided into three classes, those close to the
ground, those in mid air, and those very high in the air? The Kansa
seem to make some such distinction, judging from the names of the
divisions of the Kaⁿze or Wind gens of that tribe.
NAMES REFERRING TO OTHER WORLDS.
References to a world supposed to be above that one in which we
dwell occur in some of the personal names of the Dakota, in the U.
S. Census list of 1880. There we find such names as, Wolf Up-above,
Hawk Up-above, Grizzly-bear Up-above, and Buffalo-bull Up-above.
Grizzly-bear Up-above should be taken in connection with the tradition
of the Black-bear people of the Osage tribe. These people tell how
their ancestors descended from the upper world, bringing fire.[315]
The tradition of the Wolf people of the Winnebago tribe tells of the
creation of their ancestors as wolves in a subterranean world, and of
a belief that many wolves remain there still. The Winnebago have, too,
the name, Second Earth Person, referring to a waktceqi or watermonster,
as the waktceqi are supposed to dwell in the world beneath this one.
They call this world The First World, and the subterranean one The
Second World.
THE WATER POWERS.
§ 386. The Unkteḣi of the Dakota answers to the Wakandagi of the Omaha
and Ponka, and the Waktceqi of the Winnebago. One of the Omaha myths
relates to a Wakandagi with seven heads. The Waktceqi have the Loon as
a servant, and in this respect they resemble the tyrant U-twa´-ʞe of
the ┴ɔiwere myth. The name utwaʞe is now given to the muskrat. The male
Water powers inhabit streams, and the females dwell under the ground,
presumably in subterranean streams. According to Winnebago belief, they
support the weight of the hills. Some of the Omaha thought that these
powers dwelt under the hills (§§ 77, 107). The monsters supposed to
inhabit bogs were probably a species of water spirits (§ 254). Streams
were invoked as “Wakanda” by the Omaha (§ 23). Though the natural
habitat of the buffalo is the surface of the earth, and the Dakota
believe the animal to be of subterranean origin, he is of subaquatic
origin according to the traditions of the Iñke-sabĕ and Hañga gentes of
the Omaha.[316] But no traces of such a belief have been found among
the buffalo gentes of cognate tribes. “One day, when the principal man
of the people not known as the Waȼigije subgens of the Iñke-sabĕ, was
fasting and praying to the sun-god,[317] he saw the ghost of a buffalo,
visible from the flank up, arising from a spring.”[318]
WATER PEOPLE.
The Water people among the Omaha are the Turtle subgens, parts (if
not all) of the Iñke-sabĕ and Hañga (Buffalo) gentes, and perhaps
a part of the Ictasanda gens. Those among the Ponka have not yet
been ascertained; but they may be the Wajaje and part of the Hisada.
Among the Kansa they are the Turtle people. In the Osage tribe are
the Turtle Carriers, Ke ʞatsü (said to be a turtle, but probably a
Water-monster), Fish, Beaver, and, perhaps, the Tsewaȼe or Pond Lily
people. Among the Iowa and Oto are the Beaver gentes. And the Winnebago
have the Water-monster gens.
CAUTIONS AND QUERIES.
§ 387. There are many gentes and subgentes which can not be assigned to
any of the four categories of elemental powers for want of evidence. It
is unsafe to argue that, because two buffalo gentes of the Omaha claim
a subaquatic origin, all buffalo gentes should be regarded as Water
people. Certain cautions should be kept in mind.
§ 388. The power of each of the four classes of elemental gods extends
beyond its special element. For instance, the Unkteḣi, who rules in
the water, has for his servants or allies, the black owl in the forest
(Query: Has this any connection with the fire or thunder?), eagles in
the air, and serpents in the earth. And the Thunder-beings have as
their servants, the bear, whose abode is in the ground, the beaver, who
is associated with the water, the butterfly, who lives in the air; and
the deer.
§ 389. The servants of a class of elemental gods do not necessarily
belong to that element which those gods regulate. Thus, the Black
bear people of the Omaha, an earth people, assist the Elk people in
the worship of the Thunder; and among the Kansa, the Buffalo people
perform a similar service for the Lṵ or Thunder-being people (§§ 35,
36).
Those who belong to the same phratry, belong to the same social
division; but while they “sing the mystery songs together,” they need
not be assigned to the same elemental category.
§ 390. As the order of Thunder shamans is composed of those who have
had dreams or visions of the sun, moon, stars, Thunder-beings, or some
other superterrestial objects or phenomena, may not all superterrestial
beings, including those of the “upper world,” be regarded as
Thunder-beings by the Indians? (See § 45 and the Thunder-being names in
§ 393.)
That is to say, may not the eagles, and other birds of the “upper
world” be Eagle Thunder-beings, Crow Thunder-beings, etc., though their
special element is not the fire but the “wind-makers,” and the grizzly
bears who reside under ground in that upper world, have given rise to
the personal name, Grizzly-bear Thunder-being? If this be correct, then
Bowlder Thunder-being may refer to a bowlder in the upper world, unless
the supposition respecting composite names (in § 392) be true.
§ 391. The following appears at first sight to be the proper
classification of the subgentes of a Bird gens in a few of the
Siouan tribes: Thunder-bird, Eagle, Hawk, and Pigeon. But a study of
personal names has led to a modification of this grouping: for we find
such names as Eagle Thunder-being, Hawk Thunder-being, and Pigeon
Thunder-being, as distinguished from ordinary eagles, hawks, and
pigeons. Hence, we may find on further study that in some tribes there
are eagle, hawk, and pigeon names for gentes and subgentes whose patron
gods are Thunder-beings. For instance, the Lṵ gens of the Kansa tribe
has two names for itself, Ledaⁿ nikaciⁿga, Gray hawk People, and Lṵ
nikaciⁿga, Thunder-being People.
COMPOSITE NAMES.
§ 392. There are other composite names, most of which are found in the
census lists of the Dakota tribes, whose gentes are said to have no
animal names, and a few have been obtained from the personal name lists
of the Omaha, Ponka, and Kansa, and the census lists of the Mandan, and
Hidatsa, that give animal names to some or all of their gentes. In the
Winnebago name list no such personal names have been found, though that
people has animal names for its gentes.
Each of these composite names may refer to a vision of a composite
being, who was subsequently regarded as the guardian spirit of the
person who had the dream or vision. Or the bearer of such a name may
have had a dream or vision of two distinct powers. In the pictograph of
such a name, the powers (or symbols of the two powers) represented in
the name are joined (see § 374).
§ 393. The following is a list of composite names which may be found
to symbolize the four elements. The elements are designated by their
respective abbreviations: E for earth, F for fire; A for air, and W for
water. The interrogation mark after any name denotes a provisional or
conjectural assignment.
Turtle Grizzly-bear (W + E).
Grizzly-bear Small-bird (E + A).
Cloud Grizzly-bear (F? + E).
Grizzly-bear Buffalo-bull (E + ?).
Fire Grizzly-bear (F + E).
Sun Grizzly-bear (F + E).
Ghost Grizzly-bear (? + E).
Grizzly-bear Weasel, given as “Weasel Bear” in 4th An. Rept. Bur.
Eth., Pl. LXIX, No. 174.
Iron Grizzly-bear (“Iron” is generally denoted by blue in the
Dakota pictographs. See § 107.)
Bald-eagle Grizzly-bear (A? + E).
Shield Grizzly-bear. (The shield is on the bear’s side, 4th Eth.,
Pl. LXIII, No. 62.)
Crow Grizzly-bear.
Whirlwind Grizzly-bear. (The whirlwind precedes in the pictograph,
4th Eth., Pl. LVIII, No. 77.)
Hawk Thunder-being.
Pigeon Thunder-being. (A ┴ɔiwere name--not yet found in Dakota.)
Buffalo-bull Thunder-being.
Grizzly-bear Thunder-being (E + F).
Fire Thunder-being (F + F).
Elk Thunder-being.
Pipe Thunder-being. (4th Eth., Pl. LXXI, No. 179, a winged pipe.)
Cloud Thunder-being.
Horse Thunder-being.
Iron Thunder-being. (See § 107.)
Earth Thunder-being (E + F.)
Black-Bird Eagle.
Eagle Hawk. (4th Eth., Pl. LVI, No. 53.)
Eagle Small-bird. (4th Eth., Pl. LXVI, No. 116.)
Grizzly-bear Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LXIX, No. 170; a bear with an
eagle’s tail.)
Horse Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LXVIII, No. 153; horse body and
eagle’s tail.)
Dog Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LII, No. 9; dog with eagle’s tail.)
Eagle Swallow. (4th Eth., Pl. LXXIX, No. 282; eagle with forked
tail of a swallow).
Cloud Eagle.
Iron Deer.
Cloud Dog.
Buffalo-bull Small-bird.
Mountain Buffalo-bull.
Crow Buffalo-bull.
Buffalo-bull Dog.
Cloud Buffalo-bull.
Buffalo-bull Man (i. e., Indian).
Buffalo-bull Ghost.
Stone Buffalo-bull.
Buffalo-bull Buffalo-cow (the only name in which both sexes are
given).
Iron Buffalo-bull. (See § 107.)
Buffalo-bull Wind.
Buffalo-cow Eagle.
Iron Buffalo. (N. B.--It is uncertain to which element the buffalo
should be assigned. He seems to be associated with all of them.)
Sun-dog (F? + E?).
Eagle Thunder-Being (A? + F).
Elk Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LXX, No. 178; an elk’s horns and eagle’s
tail.)
Sun Eagle (F + A).
Star Eagle (F? + A).
Stone Eagle (E? + A).
Iron Eagle.
Crow Eagle.
Owl Eagle.
Weasel Eagle.
Grizzly-bear Hawk.
Fire Hawk.
Scarlet Hawk Whirlwind.
Hawk Ghost.
Iron Hawk. (4th Eth., Pl. LVI, No. 47; the hawk is blue.)
Iron Wolf.
Wolf Ghost.
Fire Wind (F + A).
Fire Lightning.
Iron Lightning.
Iron Star.
Iron Boy. (4th Eth., Pl. LVIII, No. 81; a boy painted blue.)
Iron Crow. (4th Eth., Pl. LVI, No. 47; a crow painted blue.)
Crow Ghost.
Iron Elk.
Female-elk Boy. (4th Eth., Pl. LVII, No. 66; the head and
shoulders of a boy joined to a female elk.)
Iron Dog.
Dog Ghost.
Bowlder Thunder-Being (E + F).
Iron Whirlwind.
Iron Beaver.
Small-bird Beaver.
Iron Owl.
Cloud Hail.
Iron Cloud.
Fire Cloud.
Iron Wind.
Stone Ghost.
Cloud Black-bear.
Hermaphrodite Ghost(!)
Iron Kingfisher.
Cloud Horse.
Iron Horse.
Lightning Horse.
Earth (or Ground) Horse.
Wind Horse.
Fire Horse.
Black-bird Horse.
Small-bird Man (or, Indian; 4th Eth., Pl. LIV, No. 28; bird’s head
and wings on a man’s body).
Dog Rattlesnake.
There are several “Waśićun” names: Cloud Waśićun, Fire
Waśićun, Night Waśićun, and Iron Waśićun. The last
one has for its pictograph a man with a hat, i. e., a white man, and
can hardly have any mystic significance. The name, Waśićun,
originally meant “guardian spirit,” but it is now applied to white
people (§ 122). In the absence of the pictographs, we can not
tell whether Cloud Waśićun, Fire Waśićun, and Night
Waśićun refer to guardian spirits (in which case they are mystic
names connected with cults) or to white men.
Most of the above names are taken from the Dakota census lists. The
┴ɔiwere lists furnish only two composite names of this character: Iron
Hawk Female, and Pigeon Thunder-being. The Kansa list has Moon Hawk
and Moon Hawk Female, the latter name, which is found in the Omaha
and Ponka list, suggesting the Egyptian figure of a woman’s body with
a hawk’s head, surmounted by a crescent moon. Horse Eagle appears to
be a sort of Pegasus. Buffalo-bull Eagle may refer to the myth of the
Orphan and the Buffalo-woman, in which we learn that the Buffalo people
ascended through the air to the upper world.[319]
PERSONAL NAMES FROM HORNED BEINGS.
§ 394. The Dakota lists have several names of horned beings, as
follows: Horned Grizzly-bear, Horned Horse (4th Eth., Pl. LIV, No.
29, and Pl. LXXI, No. 193), Horned Dog, Horned Eagle, Gray Horned
Thunder-Being, Horned Deer, Black Horned Boy, and Snake Horn. No
attempt to explain these names has been made. Among the Winnebago, the
following names refer to water monsters, and belong to the Waktceqi
or Water-monster gens: Horn on one side (equivalent to the Dakota,
He-saŋnića), Horns on both sides, Two Horns, Four Horns, and
Five Horns.
The Winnebago list has the name Four Women (in one), with which compare
what has been said about the Double-Woman (§ 251).
NAMES DERIVED FROM SEVERAL HOMOGENEOUS OBJECTS OR BEINGS.
An examination of the personal name lists reveals such names as First
or One Grizzly-bear, Two Grizzly-bears, Three Grizzly-bears, Four
Grizzly-bears, Many Grizzly-bears; One Path, Two Paths, Four Paths
Female, Many Paths; One Cloud, Two Clouds, Three Clouds, Many Clouds;
One Crow, Two Crows, Three Crows, Four Crows, Many Crows. The author
suspects that these names and many others of a similar character are
symbolic of the four quarters and of the upper and lower worlds, and
that the Indian who was named after the larger number of mystic objects
enjoyed the protection of more spirits than did he whose name referred
to the smaller number. This accords with the Cherokee notion described
by Mr. Mooney in his article on the Cherokee theory and practice of
medicine:[320] The shaman is represented as calling first on the Red
Hawk from the east, then on the Blue Hawk in the north, the two hawks
accomplishing more by working together. Still more is effected when the
Black Hawk from the west joins them, and a complete victory is won when
the White Hawk from the south joins the others.
Compare with this the Osage opinion that the man who could show seven
sticks (representing seven brave or generous deeds) was of more
importance than he who could show only six sticks.
RETURN OF THE SPIRIT TO THE EPONYM.
§ 395. In two of the buffalo gentes of the Omaha (the Iñke-sabĕ
and Hañga) there is a belief that the spirits of deceased members of
those gentes return to the buffaloes. Does the abode of the disembodied
spirit differ in the gentes according to the nature of the eponymic
ancestor? For instance, is there a belief among the Elk people that
their spirits at death return to the ancestral Elk?
FUNCTIONS OF GENTES AND SUBGENTES.
§ 396. In several tribes there seems to have been a division of labor
among the gentes and subgentes, that is, each social division of the
tribe had its special religious duties.
In the Omaha tribe we find the following: the Elk gens regulated war;
it kept the war tent, war pipes, and the bag containing poisons; it
invoked the Thunder-being, who was supposed to be the god of war, and
it sent out the scouts. The Iñke-sabĕ and Hañga gentes were the leading
peace gentes; they regulated the buffalo hunt and the cultivation
of the soil. The Hañga gens had the control of the peace pipes, and
a member of that gens lighted the pipes on all ceremonial occasions
except at the time of the anointing of the sacred pole.[321] The
Iñke-sabĕ gens kept the peace pipes, and a member of that gens acted as
crier on many occasions, the other crier being a member of the [K]aⁿze
or Wind gens. An Ictasanda man usually filled and emptied the pipes;
but a Hañga man filled them when the sacred pole was anointed. The
┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ keeper of a sacred pipe really kept instead the sacred
tobacco pouch and buffalo skull. The Iñke-sabĕ and ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ
keepers carried the two pipes around the circle of chiefs. The Black
bear people aided the Elk people in the worship of the Thunder-being in
the spring of the year.
§ 397. The following division of labor existed in the Ponka tribe:
The Wasabe-hit‘ajĭ and Hisada gentes led in the worship of the
Thunder-being. The Ȼixida and Nika[p]aɔna gentes led in war. The
Wacabe, Makaⁿ, and Nuqe, all buffalo gentes, regulated the buffalo
hunt. The Wajaje (Reptile people) with whom used to be the Necta or Owl
people, appear to have been servants of the subaquatic powers.
§ 398. In the Kansa tribe we find that the Earth Lodge and Elk
gentes consecrated the mystic fireplaces whenever a new village was
established; that the Earth Lodge people consecrated the corn, and
regulated the buffalo hunt as well as farming; that the Elk people
directed the attack on the buffalo herd; that the Ghost people
announced all deaths; that the two Hañga gentes led in war and in
mourning for the dead; that the Tciju wactage was a peace-making gens;
that a member of the Deer gens was the crier for the tribe; that the
member of the Lṵ or Thunder-being gens could not take part in the
waqpele gaxe. (§ 28) and must remain in the rear of the other warriors
on such an occasion; and that the Wind people, who had to pitch their
tents in the rear of the other gentes had a ceremony which they
performed whenever there was a blizzard (§ 55).
§ 399. In the author’s account of Osage war customs he relates the
following incidents: On the first day of preparation for the warpath
the Black bear people bring willows and kindle a fire outside the war
tent. On the same day some other Hañʞa people deposit branches of dried
willow in some place out of sight of the war tent, and the Ȼuqe men
(part of the Buffalo-bull gens) bring in those branches. On the next
day men of the Night gens (a sort of Black bear people) set the willow
branches on fire, and they and the Elder Osage people say prayers.
After this there is a struggle to secure pieces of the charcoal. An
Elk man and a Kaⁿ[s]e man act as criers. On the third day an Osage man
brings in the sacred bag for the Hañʞa or Waɔaɔe mourner (the gens of
each man is not specified, but both men belong to the right or war
side of the tribe), and a Sinʇ[s]aʞȼe man brings in a like bag for the
mourner belonging to the T[s]iɔu or peace side of the tribe. On the
fourth day a woman of a Buffalo gens on the right or Hañʞa side of the
tribe lays down two strips of buffalo hide so that the warriors may
take the first step on the warpath. After the warriors start, a Ȼuqe
man is taken ahead of them in order to perform some ceremony which has
not been recorded.
On the return of the war party the warriors are met outside of the
village by an old man of the Kaⁿ[s]e or Wind gens. He performs certain
ceremonies as he walks around the party (beginning at the north and
ending at the east), and then he tells them whether they can enter the
village. The clothing of the returning warriors becomes the property of
the old Kaⁿ[s]e man and his attendant.
The Kaⁿ[s]e gens of the Osage tribe is called the I[p]ats‘ĕ, because
it devolves on a member of that gens to fill the peace pipes. The
corresponding gens of the Kaⁿze tribe is called Ibatc‘ĕ or Hañga-jiñga.
THE “MESSIAH CRAZE.”
§ 400. Since the present article was begun there has arisen the
so-called “Messiah craze” among the Dakota and other tribes of Indians.
The author does not feel competent to describe this new form of Indian
religion, but he suspects that some features of it are either willful
or accidental perversions of the teachings of the missionaries.
* * * * *
§ 401. In presenting this study of Siouan cults to the scientific world
the author has a painful sense of its incompleteness, but he hopes
that the facts here fragmentarily collated may prove helpful to future
investigators. The inferences, provisional assumptions, and suggestive
queries in this chapter are not published as final results. Even should
any of them prove to be erroneous the author’s labor will not be in
vain, for through the correction of his mistakes additional information
will be collected, tending to the attainment of the truth, which should
be the aim of all mankind.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 277: Rev. S. D. Peet, on the tradition of aborigines of North
America, in Jour. Vict. Inst., Vol. XXI, pp. 229-247.]
[Footnote 278: Ibid., p. 232.]
[Footnote 279: Ibid., p. 233.]
[Footnote 280: Om. Soc., 3d Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethnol., §§ 136, 137.]
[Footnote 281: Ibid., §§ 19, 21, 31, 97, etc.]
[Footnote 282: See Am. Naturalist, July, 1885, pp. 673, 674, Figs. 3
and 4.]
[Footnote 283: The reader is cautioned against supposing that “air” as
used in this section is employed in the scientific sense, because the
Indians were ignorant of the nature of the atmosphere. They distinguish
between the “Something-that-moves” (which we term the “Wind-maker,”
“Wind-makers” in the plural) and the winds, and they also had distinct
names for the clouds and “upper world.” They also had special names for
the Four Quarters (Dakota, tatuye topa; Ȼegiha, tade uiȼĕ dubaha).]
[Footnote 284: See § 33 where there is an account of the invocation of
the winds at the consecration of the fireplaces.]
[Footnote 285: The Omaha Buffalo Medicine-Men, in Jour. Amer.
Folk-lore, No. X, p. 219, and note.]
[Footnote 286: It is interesting to observe in this connection that the
Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, in an address entitled “Outlines
of the philosophy of the North American Indians.” New York, 1877, (p.
10), spoke of “the god of the south, whose breath is the winds.”]
[Footnote 287: Am. Naturalist, July, 1885, p. 676.]
[Footnote 288: An. Rept. Peabody Museum, vol. III, p. 267.]
[Footnote 289: Ibid, p. 268.]
[Footnote 290: Ibid, pp. 272, 273.]
[Footnote 291: Om. Soc., 3d An. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 242.]
[Footnote 292: Osage War Customs, in Am. Naturalist, Feb., 1884, pp.
131, 132.]
[Footnote 293: The west and north are supposed to be the peace
quarters, and the east and south the war quarters. See Fig. 194 and §
378.]
[Footnote 294: Om. Soc., p. 299.]
[Footnote 295: Contr. to N. A. Ethnol., vol. IX, Dakota Grammar, Texts,
and Ethnography, p. 193.]
[Footnote 296: Ibid., p. 197.]
[Footnote 297: From Renville’s account of the tiyotipi, in ibid., pp.
200, 202.]
[Footnote 298: Om. Soc., p. 317. Osage War Customs, pp. 118, 119, 124,
131.]
[Footnote 299: Contr. N. A. Ethnol., vol. VI, The Ȼegiha Language, p.
375.]
[Footnote 300: The author accepts this without hesitation.]
[Footnote 301: Yet these feathers and down are often colored: see §§
112, 116, 132, 239, 242, and 263.]
[Footnote 302: An. Rept. Peabody Museum, Vol. III, p. 285, note 10.
Written in 1882.]
[Footnote 303: An. Rept. Peabody Museum, Vol. III, p. 260.]
[Footnote 304: As it was customary for gentes of the same phratry to
exchange personal names, a (Kansa) Deer name, for instance, being given
to a (Kansa) Buffalo man, and _vice versa_, the author thinks that an
exchange of symbolic colors might be expected. Compare what Matthews
tells about the exchange of white and black among the Navajo, in § 380.]
[Footnote 305: Winona, name of the first child if a daughter, not
“first daughter.”]
[Footnote 306: Osage Traditions, in 6th An. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 379.]
[Footnote 307: Om. Soc., in 3d An. Rept. Bur. Ethn., pp. 223, 224.]
[Footnote 308: Osage war customs, in Am. Naturalist, Feb., 1884, pp.
118, 126, 132.]
[Footnote 309: Om. Soc., in 3d An. Rept. Bur. Ethn., pp. 329, 330.]
[Footnote 310: Contr. N. A. Ethn., Vol. VI, p. 187.]
[Footnote 311: A Kansa saying: Lṵ, Tcedŭñga, Taqtci aba cki wanaxe
kinukiye, abe au, _They say that the Thunder-being, Buffalo, and Deer
gentes cause a ghost to “kinu,”_ referring to some effect on a ghost
which can not be explained.]
[Footnote 312: Om. Soc., in 3d An. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 229.]
[Footnote 313: Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci. Proc., Vol. 31, p. 583. See, too,
An. Rept. Peabody Museum, Vol. III, p. 262, lines 15-18.]
[Footnote 314: Compare An. Rept. Peabody Museum, Vol. 3, p. 289, note
1.]
[Footnote 315: Osage War Customs, in Amer. Naturalist, Feb. 1884, p.
133.]
[Footnote 316: Om. Soc., in 3d. An. Rept. Bur. Ethn., pp. 229, 233.]
[Footnote 317: Symbolizing the fire.]
[Footnote 318: This seems to point to a subaquatic origin. See Om.
Soc., p. 231.]
[Footnote 319: Contr. N. A. Ethn., Vol. VI, pp. 142, 146.]
[Footnote 320: Jour. Am. Folk-lore, Vol. III, No. VIII, pp. 49, 50.]
[Footnote 321: Om. Soc., in 3d An. Rept. Bur. Ethn., pp. 222, 223.]
* * * * *
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
In the Indian language as presented here, as in English, there are
hyphenated words. In the original, some hyphens occurred at the end
of a line. E.g., in § 28., there appears the word ‘gü´aⁿyakiyé-’ at
the end of a line, followed on the next line by ‘daⁿ’. In cases like
this, where it is not possible to determine by looking at similar words
whether the word contained a hyphen or was simply split over two lines,
the hyphen has been retained and a note has been added.
Inconsistencies in diacritical marks have been corrected when there is
an overwhelming majority of examples of a given word having the same
marks, as in the case of “Uuçita” which appears three times with a dot
under the “c” and once without, and left as is otherwise.
The same is true for inconsistencies in spelling.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained.
Obvious mistakes in punctuation have been corrected.
Most of the sections in the original started with a section sign (§)
followed by a space followed by the section number. A few were missing
the space; the space has been put in all sections, for consistency.
Some of the illustrations had explanatory text both above and below
the image; that is depicted here like this:
[Illustration:
[Text which was above the image]
“[image]”
[Text which was below the image]]
In Footnote 4 there is a reference to what must be “Myth, Ritual, and
Religion” by Andrew Lang; the original has “Myth. Ritual, and
Religion”.
On p. 376 there is a quotation starting “On one occasion...” Because of
injudicious use of quotation marks, it is impossible to tell where the
quotation ends.
On p. 375, the quotation of Samuel Fremont about the word “abicude” is
not closed; it cannot be determined whether he spoke one sentence or
two.
In footnote 27 there is a mark after the ‘k’ in the third word. It may
be an accent mark or it may be the closing single quote used to
describe an “exploded k” as described in § 3. It does not look much
like either. But as there are no other instances of an accent mark
after a ‘k’ in the book, it has arbitrarily been made a closing single
quote.
On p. 384, the “Translation” had a double-quote (”) at the end but not
at the beginning; as there are double-quotes within the translation,
the double-quote at the end has been removed.
On p. 390, in § 41, the phrase “you do not acquire personal mysterious
power” had “myterious” in the original.
On p. 391, in § 42, the phrase “what Matthews tells about the Hidatsa
reverence” had “tell” in the original.
On p. 402, in § 48, the phrase “they themselves have not had visions of
the objects” had “obects” in the original.
On p. 410, about “OMAHA NIKIE CUSTOMS”, there were seven footnotes,
numbered 1 to 7, but the anchors appeared in the order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 5. They are now numbered 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, and 66, and the
anchors appear in the order 60. 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 64. That
is, two separate places in the text have pointers to footnote 64.
On p. 431, in § 93, the word “counter-beliefs” was split over two
lines: “counter-” and “beliefs”. “Counter-beliefs” was arbitrarily
chosen over “counterbeliefs”.
On p. 436, in § 101, the phrase “some other part of it is sacrificed by
the person” had “sacrified” in the original.
On p. 436, in § 101, in the phrase “and is always constant with
individuals” had “individuls” in the original.
On p. 449 there is a quotation from Smet starting “the Great Spirit, to
the sun”; there is no ending quotation mark for this.
On p. 455, in § 160, the word “horseback” was split over two lines in
the original: “horse-” and “back”. “horseback” was arbitrarily chosen
over “horse-back”.
In footnote 157 the original had “Bept.” instead of “Rept.”
Footnote 201, “Western Missions and Missionaries, p. 140” has two
anchors.
On p. 479, there is a section numbered 231 between section 249 and
section 250. It starts: “One of the Dakota myths tells how Unktomi
killed himself”.
End of Project Gutenberg's A Study of Siouan Cults, by James Owen Dorsey