Chapter V · DAKOTA AND ASSINIBOIN CULTS. (continued 3)

§ 283. The man who shot a ghost.—In the olden time a man was traveling alone, and in a forest he killed several rabbits. After sunset he was in the midst of the forest, so he made a fire, as he had to spend the night there. He thought thus: “Should I encounter any danger by and by, I have this gun, and I am a man who ought not to regard anything.” He cooked a rabbit and satisfied his hunger. Just then he heard many voices, and they were talking about their own affairs, but the man could see nobody. So he thought, “It seems that now at length I have encountered ghosts.” Then he went and lay under a fallen tree, which was at a great distance from the fire. He loaded his gun with powder only, as he knew by this time that they were really ghosts. They came round about him and whistled, “Hyu, hyu, hyu!” “He has gone yonder,” said one of the ghosts. They came and stood around the man, just as people do when they hunt rabbits. The man lay flat beneath the fallen tree, and one ghost came and climbed on the trunk of that tree. Suddenly the ghost gave the cry uttered on hitting an enemy, “Aⁿ-he!” and he kicked the man on the back. But before the ghost could get away, the man shot at him and wounded him in the legs; so the ghost gave the male cry of pain, “Au! au! au!” And finally he went off crying as females do, “Yuŋ! yuŋ! yuŋ!” And the other ghosts said to him; “Where did he shoot?” And the wounded one said: “He shot me through the head and I have come apart.” Then the other ghosts were wailing on the hillside. The man decided to go to the place where they were wailing. So, as the day had come, he went thither, and found some graves, one of which a wolf had dug into so that the bones were visible, and there was a wound in the skull.

ASSINNIBOIN BELIEFS ABOUT GHOSTS.

§ 284. Smet says:[201]

The belief in ghosts is very profound, and common to all these tribes. Indians have often told me that they have met, seen, and conversed with them, and that they may be heard almost every night in the places where the dead are interred. They say that they speak in a kind of whistling tone. Sometimes they contract the face [of a human being whom they meet] like that of a person in an epileptic fit.[201] The Assinniboines never pronounce the name of Tchatka [i.e., Ćatka, or, Left Hand, a former chief] but with respect. They believe that his shade guards the sacred tree; that he has power to procure them abundance of buffalo and other animals, or to drive the animals from the country. Hence, whenever they pass they offer sacrifices; they present the calumet to the tutelary spirits and manes of Tchatka. He is, according to their calendar, the Wah-kon-tangka par excellence, the greatest man or genius that ever visited their nation.[202]

PRAYERS TO THE DEAD, INCLUDING ANCESTORS.

§ 285. Riggs says[203] that the Dakota pray to the spirits of their deceased relatives. [See §§ 67-71.] And in his account of the Assinniboin, Smet says:

The Assinniboines esteem greatly a religious custom of assembling once or twice a year around the graves of their immediate relatives. These graves are on scaffolds about 7 or 8 feet above the surface of the ground. The Indians call their dead by name and offer to them meats carefully dressed, which they place beside them. The ceremony of burying the dead is terminated with tears, wailings, howlings, and macerations of all present. They tear the hair, gash the legs, and at last they light the calumet, for that is the Alpha and Omega of every rite. They offer it to the shades of the departed and entreat them not to injure the living. During their ceremonious repasts, in their excursions, and even at a great distance from their graves, they send to the dead puffs of tobacco smoke and burn little pieces of meat as a sacrifice to their memory.

§ 286. Before consulting the tutelary spirits [see § 34] or addressing the dead, they begin by kindling the sacred fire. This fire must be struck from a flint, or it must reach them mysteriously by lightning, or in some other way. To light the sacred fire with a common fire would be considered among them as a grave and dangerous transgression.[204]

METAMORPHOSES AND THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS.

§ 287. They believe in transformations, such as are described in Ovid, and they think that many of the stars are men and women translated to the heavens. They believe in the transmigration of souls. Some of the medicine men profess to tell of what occurred to them in bodies previously inhabited for at least six generations back. [See §§ 260, 267.]

EXHORTATIONS TO ABSENT WARRIORS.

§ 288. Among the Teton it has been customary for those remaining at home to make songs about the absent warriors, calling them by name, as if they could hear the speakers. This Dakota custom agrees with what has been recorded of the Omaha.[205]

Bushotter has told of another Teton custom. The kindred of a slain warrior make songs in his honor, and sing them as they mourn for his death.

MYSTERIOUS MEN AND WOMEN.

§ 289. Lynd says:

Certain men profess to have an unusual amount of the wakan or divine principle in them. By it they assume the working of miracles, laying on of hands, curing of the sick, and many wonderful operations. Some of these persons pretend to a recollection of former states of existence, even naming the particular body in which they formerly lived. Others assert their power over nature, and their faculty of seeing into futurity, and of conversing with the deities. A third class will talk of the particular animals whose bodies they intend to enter when loosed from their present existence [§§ 260, 267, 287]. In endeavoring to sustain these pretensions they occasionally go through performances which are likely to deceive the ignorant throng.[206]

Pond wrote thus of the Dakota wakaŋ men:[207]

They do not spring into existence under ordinary operations of natural laws, but, according to their faith, these men and women (for females, too, are wakan) first arouse to conscious existence in the form of winged seeds, such as the thistle, and are wafted by the * * * influence of the four winds till they are conducted to the abode of some Taku Wakan, by whom they are received into intimate communion. They remain there till they become acquainted with the character and abilities of the class of gods whose guests they happen to be, and until they have imbibed their spirits, and are acquainted with all the chants, feasts, dances, and rites which the gods deem necessary to impose on men. Thus do some of them pass through a series of inspirations with different classes of divinities, till they are fully wakanized and prepared for human incarnation. They are invested with the invisible wakan powers of the gods, their knowledge and cunning, and their omnipresent influence over mind, instinct, and passions. They are taught to inflict diseases and heal them, discover concealed causes, manufacture implements of war, and impart to them the ton-wan power of the gods; and also the art of making such an application of paints that they will protect from the powers of the enemies. This process of inspiration is called “dreaming of the gods.” Thus prepared and retaining his primitive form, the demi-god rides forth on the wings of the wind over * * * the earth, till he has carefully observed the characters and usages of the different tribes of men; then, selecting his location, he enters one about to become a mother, and, in due time, makes his appearance among men. * * * When one of these wakan men dies he returns to the abode of his god, from whom he receives a new inspiration, after which he passes through another incarnation as before, and serves another generation. In this manner they pass through four incarnations, * * * and then return to their original nothingness.

§ 290. There are different persons who regard themselves as wakaŋ, says Bushotter. Among these are those who practice medicine, those who act as Heyoka, those who boil for the grizzly bear feasts, those who take part in the mystery dance, those who foretell the future, those who detect wrong-doers and find what has been lost or stolen, and those who do various things in a cunning manner. It happens thus to them: A man hears a human voice during the day and he does what the voice directs to be done, or on a certain night a tree converses with him, and the two talk about their own affairs, and what the tree tells him to do, that he does, so he says, or, it orders him to keep some law or custom as long as he lives. Among these superstitious notions are the following: Some men direct the pipe to be handed around the lodge from the left side to the right, and others vice versa. Some men dare not gash a firebrand with a knife; and should a visitor do so heedlessly, they say that he “cuts his finger.” Others will not kill a swallow, lest thunder and hail ensue. Some do not allow a knife to be passed above a kettle.

§ 291. The wakan men claim that they are invulnerable. To prove this they assemble at stated intervals, having painted themselves in various styles. Each one has a flute suspended over the chest by a necklace. They wear long breechcloths, and march in single file. Two men armed with bows and arrows rush suddenly towards the waken men and shoot at them; but instead of wounding them they merely bend the arrows! Sometimes the men fire guns at them, but the bullets fall to the ground, and when they are examined they are flattened! No visible mark of a wound can be found on the bodies of these wakan men, though when they were hit by the bullet or arrow blood pours from their mouths. After they wash off the paint from their bodies their flesh becomes tender and is vulnerable. This is the excuse urged when an ordinary person succeeds in wounding a wakan man. It is supposed that the wakan men rub themselves with some kind of medicine known only to themselves, making them invulnerable, and that perhaps the bullets or arrows are rubbed with the medicine prior to the shooting. It is also supposed that the playing of the flute aids in rendering them invulnerable. (See § 306, etc.)

§ 292. Bushotter names two kinds of Dakota doctors—the Mato wapiya, or Grizzly Bear doctor, who is very wakan, and the Peźuta wapiya, or Peźuta wićaśa, the doctor who prescribes roots. The person who practices medicine claims to have had interviews with the spirits, but he never reveals what the spirits have told him, though he says that immediately after the revelation made him by the spirit he begins to act according to its directions. And in some cases of sickness this doctor takes the flesh of the patient into his mouth and makes a sucking sound while inhaling, and from the patient’s side he pretends to remove something. When he has made the sucking sound after taking the flesh into his mouth, or when he has taken blood or something else from the side of the patient, he spits it from his mouth. Then he sees the patient’s mother, whom he tells what is the cause of the disease, and whether the patient will recover or die. Such doctors pretend to have within themselves one of the following: A small red hawk, a common woodpecker, a real buffalo, a rattlesnake, or a grizzly bear. And when one of these doctors kicks on the ground there is heard something within him, singing in a beautiful voice; and so the people believe what the doctors say about diseases.

§ 293. When the doctor has sucked the patient’s flesh a long time without removing anything, he asks a favor of the mysterious being dwelling within himself, and then that being cries out often, and the doctor succeeds in his efforts. It is by the aid of these mysterious beings that the doctors are enabled to practice medicine. In the olden time one of the doctors was very mysterious. Once, when he was practicing, a bowl of water was set down before him. He vomited into the bowl and a water-snake appeared in it. But when the doctor opened his mouth again the snake glided gently into it and disappeared down his throat. Such exhibitions by the doctors have been observed by the Indians, who are constrained to believe what the doctors claim for themselves. And because they believe that the doctors are very mysterious, the latter are able to gather together many possessions as pay for their services. Therefore the men and women doctors try to excel one another in their skill, as it pays them so well.

§ 294. A “peźuta wicaśa” told Bushotter to say to his step-father that his son, Bushotter’s younger brother, had been made crazy by a ghost. The doctor came and fumigated the patient, and after he felt a little better he sucked at the boy’s chest and drew out some blood. He resumed the operation, and then declared that there was in the boy’s side a flat object resembling a serpent, the removal of which would insure the boy’s recovery. The doctor was promised a horse if he would attend the patient until he cured him. Acting by his directions, Bushotter’s elder brother caught a large catfish, of the species called “howasapa,” and handed it to his step-father, who offered a prayer and marked the fish with a knife on the top of the head. After this the fish was cooked, and the sick boy ate it and recovered his health. It was after this that the same boy was cured by invoking the Dawn and offering sacrifice, as related in § 215.

GOPHER LORE.

§ 295. Scrofulous sores on the neck under the jaw are said to be caused by gophers. These animals can shoot at persons in a magical way with the tip of a species of grass, wounding them very mysteriously, the injured person being unconscious of the harm done till some time has elapsed. The place swells, splits open, and becomes very bad, affecting even the face of the sufferer. Few doctors can cure it. He who can relieve the patient pretends to extract pieces of grass from the neck, and then the person begins to recover. The people are so afraid of gophers that they go around the camp with their hands over their jaws. No one dares to go near a gopher hill except he or she be a mysterious person. Such a one can go near it and even touch it with impunity, as he has different remedies at his command.

CAUSES OF BOILS AND SORES.

§ 296. Whoever gets into the habit of eating the large intestine of cattle, known as the taśiyaka, is sure to “be hit by śiyaka,” i. e., he will have a boil.[208] Śiyaka is the name of the grebe or dabchick, but what connection there is between the bird and the boil has not been learned. The boil will be on some covered part of the body, not on the hands or face. The Teton fear to go outside of their lodges at night lest the cause of boils be blown to them. If a man eats the liver of a female dog, or if a woman eats that of a male dog, the face of the offender will break out in sores.

RESULTS OF LYING, STEALING, ETC.

§ 297. Warts betray a bad person, one given to stealing. If the skin of the hard palate peels off, it is said that the person is untruthful. When the Teton doubt a man’s word, they ask him to open his mouth and let them see his hard palate. He who makes a practice of eating the calves of the legs of any species of animal will have a cramp in the muscles of his own legs. When one wishes to extract the marrow from a bone, he takes care not to split the bone in two, lest his own legs should be in frequent pain, or he should become lame.

SECRET SOCIETIES.

§ 298. The Dakota use “ihaŋbla” or “ihaŋmda” as the Omaha and Ponka do “iȼa‘eȼĕ,” to describe the mysterious communications received from the animals and spirits (§§ 8, 43-52).

Among the Siouan family of Indians there are societies, religious in character, which are distinguished by the name of some animal. Each society has a ritual composed of chants and songs to be sung during different parts of the ceremonies, having words describing in simple and direct terms the act which accompanies the music. These musical rituals, it is often claimed, have been received in a mysterious or supernatural manner, and are therefore regarded as possessing a religious power * * * Some societies admit women to membership, through their own visions, or occasionally by those of their husbands’, but more generally by means of the visions of male relatives. * * * Membership in these societies is not confined to any particular gens, or grouping of gentes, but depends upon supernatural indications over which the individual has no control. The animal which appears to a man in a vision during his religious fasting determines to which society he must belong.[209]

§ 299. Those having visions or revelations from ghosts are called Wanaġi ihaŋblapi kiŋ. It is such persons who can draw pictures of ghosts with impunity. It is also said that the only persons who have their faces drawn awry by the ghosts are the members of this order. (See § 275.)

§ 300. Bushotter’s step-father belongs to the Tataŋg ihaŋblapi kiŋ, or the Society of those who have Revelations from the Buffalo, answering to the Omaha ┴e iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma (§§ 43, 50). In one of his visions he saw a buffalo with cocklebur down in his hair, so the man subsequently put such down in his own hair in imitation of the buffalo. One night he saw (probably in a vision) a bison going toward the south with a hoop on his head. So the man painted a small hoop red all over and wore it on his head, giving his nephew the name Ćaŋgleśka waŋyaŋg mani, He Walks In-sight-of a Hoop.

§ 301. Some Dakota belong to the Hećiŋśkayapi ihaŋblapi kiŋ, or the Society of those who have Revelations from Goats. Goats are very mysterious, as they walk on cliffs and other high places; and those who dream of goats or have revelations from them imitate their actions. Such men can find their way up and down cliffs, the rocks get soft under their feet, enabling them to maintain a foothold, but they close up behind them, leaving no trail. Members of the Wakaŋ waćipi, or the Order of the Mystery Dance, commonly called the medicine dance, are also reckoned among the mysterious or “wakaŋ” people (see § 113). One of Bushotter’s texts relates to this order. Another of his articles tells of the Miwatani okolakićiye kiŋ or The Mandan Society, which used to be called Ćaŋte ṭiŋza okolakićiye, or Society of the Stout Hearted Ones. It is now known as Kaŋġi yuha, Keeps the Raven. For a notice of this order, see §§ 194, 195.

§ 302. The report of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology for 1884 contains an article on the Elk Mystery or Festival of the Oglala, a division of the Teton Dakota (pp. 276-288). Those who have visions of the elk are the Heḣaka ihaŋblapi kiŋ. Bushotter has recorded articles on different societies as follows: Big Belly Society, Iḣoka and Tokala (animal) Societies, Dog Society, Kaṭela or Taniġa iću Society, Grizzly Bear Dance, and Night Dance; but we have no means of learning whether any or all of them are composed of persons who had visions of animals.

FETICHISM.

PUBLIC OR TRIBAL FETICHES.

§ 303. Among these may be included the Bear Butte, referred to in § 137; and any white buffalo hide, such as has been described in “The White Buffalo Festival of the Uncpapas.”[210]

Smet gives a description of a gathering of all the Assiniboin, and a religious festival lasting several days:

Offerings are placed on perches that are fastened to the tops of posts supporting certain buffalo skin lodges. A tall pole is erected in the middle of the circle (it is between 30 and 40 feet high), and to it they fasten the medicine bags, containing the idols, their arrows, quivers, trophies won from their enemies, especially scalps. Men, women, and children join in raising and planting the pole, amid the acclamations of the tribe.[211]

PRIVATE OR PERSONAL FETICHES.

§ 304. Smet also tells us that “A Sioux chief has his war wakaŋ, the colored picture of the Russian general, Diebitsch.”[212] In speaking of the Assinniboin, the same author states:

Each savage who considers himself a chief or warrior possesses what he calls his wah-kon, in which he appears to place all his confidence. This consists of a stuffed bird, a weasel’s skin, or some little bone or the tooth of an animal; sometimes it is a little stone or a fantastical figure, represented by little beads or by a coarsely painted picture. These charms or talismans accompany them on all their expeditions for war or hunting—they never lay them aside. In every difficulty or peril they invoke the protection and assistance of their wah-kon, as though these idols could really preserve them from all misfortunes. If any accident befalls an idol or charm, if it is broken or lost, it is enough to arrest the most intrepid chief or warrior in his expedition, and make him abandon the most important enterprise in which he may be engaged.[213]

We may also reckon among the personal fetiches the wohduze of each warrior (see the Armor god, §§ 122-5), and perhaps the use of the initipi or sweat lodge, and the wild sage or Artemisia, by each of which personal purification is supposed to be effected.

ORDEALS OR MODES OF SWEARING.

§ 305. While there are no oaths or curses as we have them, the Teton can invoke higher powers. Thus one may say: “The Thunderers hear me” (Waʞiŋ´yaŋ namáḣuŋwe ló, The Flying one really hears me!), and if he is lying the Thunderers or one of their number will be sure to kill him. Sometimes the man will put a knife in his mouth, and then if he lies he will be stuck by a knife thereafter, and death must follow. Or, he will say, “The horse heard me” (Śuŋ´kawakaŋ´ namáḣuŋ we ló), knowing that the penalty for falsehood will be certain death from a horse that will throw him and break his neck. When one says, “The Earth hears me” (Maká kiŋ lé namáḣuŋ we ló), and he lies, he is sure to die miserably in a short time, and his family will also be afflicted.

Smet says:[214]

The objects by which an Assinniboine swears are his gun, the skin of a rattlesnake, a bear’s claw, and the wah-kon that the Indian interrogates. These various articles are placed before him, and he says, “In case my declaration prove false, may my gun fire and kill me, may the serpent bite me, may the bears tear and devour my flesh, and may my wah-kon overwhelm me with misery.” In extraordinary and very important affairs, which demand formal promises, they call upon the Thunder to witness their resolution of accomplishing the articles proposed and accepted.

SORCERY AND JUGGLERY.

§ 306. As among the Omaha and other Siouan tribes, so among the Dakota do we find traces of the practice of sorcery, and there is a special word in the Dakota dictionary: “ḣmuŋġa, to cause sickness or death, as the Dakotas pretend to be able to do, in a supernatural way—to bewitch—kill by enchantment.” The syllable “ḣmuŋ” seems to convey the idea of humming, buzzing, or muttering.

Jugglery or sleight-of-hand performances are resorted to by the mysterious men and women. (See §§ 64-66, 291-4.) Some of these practitioners claim to possess the art of making love-charms, such potions being sold to women who desire to attract particular men of their acquaintance. When a woman obtains such a medicine, she uses it in one of two ways. Sometimes she touches the man on his blanket with the medicine, at others she persuades the man to give her a piece of chewing gum, which she touches with the medicine. Then she seizes him, and he can not escape from her, even should he wish to leave her. So he is obliged to marry her.

OMENS.

BODILY OMENS.

§ 307. Ringing in one ear signifies one of two things. Some one will come without his family, and he must be entertained, or you will hear news. The direction whence the person or news will come is shown by the ear that is affected.

If the eye twitches involuntarily some one will weep. If any other part of the body twitches involuntarily some one will hit the person there or he will be stabbed or shot there. If the palm of the hand twitches often he will soon strike some one, or else he will become angry. When a woman has a son sick somewhere, or if he has been killed on the way home, her breasts are often very painful.

If one sneezes once his special friend or fellow, his son or his wife has named him; so the sneezer calls out, “My son.” If he sneezes twice he exclaims, “My son and his mother!”

ANIMAL OMENS.

§ 308. When whip-poor wills sing together at night, saying, “Hohiŋ, hohiŋ,” one says in reply, “No.” Should the birds stop at once it is a sign that the answering person must die soon. But if the birds continue singing the man will live a long time.[215]

The uŋgnaġíćala (gray screech owl) fortells cold weather. When the night is to be very cold this owl cries out, so the Teton say, just as if a person’s teeth chattered. When its cry is heard, all the people wrap themselves in their thickest robes and put plenty of wood on the fires.

The Ski-bi-bi-la is a small gray bird, with a black head, and spotted here and there on the breast. It dwells in the forest, and is said to answer the person who calls to it. When this bird says, “Glí huŋ wó,” i.e., “Has it returned?” the people rejoice, knowing that the spring is near. When a boy hears this bird ask the question, he runs to his mother and learns from her that he must reply, “No; it has not yet returned.” The reason for giving this reply has not been obtained.

When the people first hear the cry of the night hawk in the spring, they begin to talk of going to hunt the buffalo, because when the night hawks return the buffalo have become fat again, and the birds bring the news, for they never cry in vain.

OMENS FROM DREAMS.

§ 309. There are some animals which are esteemed as bringing better fortunes than others. Hawks are lucky. Bears are not so good, as the bear is slow and clumsy, and apt to be wounded; and although savage when cornered, is not as likely as some animals to escape harm. Among some tribes in this family of Indians to dream of the moon is regarded as a grave calamity.[216] See § 30.