Chapter V · DAKOTA AND ASSINIBOIN CULTS.

ALLEGED DAKOTA BELIEF IN A GREAT SPIRIT.

§ 92. That the Dakota tribes, before the advent of the white race, believed in one Great Spirit, has been asserted by several writers; but it can not be proved. On the contrary, even those writers who are quoted in this study as stating the Dakota belief in a Great Spirit, also tell us of beliefs in many spirits of evil. Among the earlier writers of this class is Say, who observes:

Their Wahconda seems to be a protean god; he is supposed to appear to different persons under different forms. All who are favored with his presence become medicine men and magicians in consequence of their having seen and conversed with Wahconda, and of having received from him some particular medicine of wondrous efficacy.

The same writer records that “Wahconda” appeared sometimes as a grizzly bear, sometimes as a bison, at others as a beaver, or an owl, or some other bird or animal.[84] It is plain that Say mistook the generic term, “Wahconda,” for a specific one. (See §§ 6, 21-24.)

Shea says:

Although polytheism did not exist, although they all recognized one Supreme Being, the creator of all, * * * they nowhere adored the God whom they knew. * * * The demons with which they peopled nature, these alone, in their fear they sought to appease. * * * Pure unmixed devil-worship prevailed throughout the length and breadth of the land.[85]

§ 93. Lynd made some very pertinent remarks:

A stranger coming among the Dakotas for the first time, and observing the endless variety of objects upon which they bestow their devotion, and the manifold forms which that worship assumes, at once pronounces them pantheists. A further acquaintance with them convinces him that they are pantheists of no ordinary kind—that their pantheism is negative as well as positive, and that the engraftments of religion are even more numerous than the true branches. Upon a superficial glance he sees naught but an inextricable maze of gods, demons, spirits, beliefs and counter-beliefs, earnest devotion and reckless skepticism, prayers, sacrifices, and sneers, winding and intermingling with one another, until a labyrinth of pantheism and skepticism results, and the Dakota, with all his infinity of deities appears a creature of irreligion. One speaks of the medicine dance with respect, while another smiles at the name—one makes a religion of the raw fish feast, while another stands by and laughs at his performance—and others, listening to the supposed revelations of the circle dance, with reverent attention, are sneered at by a class who deny in toto the wakan nature of that ceremony.[86]

In common with all nations of the earth the Dakotas believe in a Wakantanka or Great Spirit. But this Being is not alone in the universe. Numbers of minor deities are scattered throughout space, some of whom are placed high in the scale of power. Their ideas of the Great Spirit appear to be that He is the creator of the world and has existed from all time; but after creating the world and all that is in it He sank into silence and since then has failed to take any interest in the affairs of this planet. They never pray to Him, for they deem Him too far away to hear them, or as not being concerned in their affairs. No sacrifices are made to Him, nor dances in His honor. Of all the spirits He is the Great Spirit; but His power is only latent or negative. They swear by Him at all times, but more commonly by other divinities.[87]

Yet Lynd is not always consistent, for he says on another page (71) of the same work: “No one deity is held by them all as a superior object of worship.”

§ 94. Pond writes:

Evidence is also wanting to show that the Dakotas embraced in their religious tenents the idea of one supreme existence, whose existence is expressed by the term Great Spirit. If some clans at the present time entertain this idea it seems highly probable that it has been imparted to them by individuals of European extraction. No reference to such a being is found in their feasts, fasts, or sacrifices. Or if there is such a reference at the present time it is clear that it is of recent origin and does not belong to their system. It is indeed true that the Dakotas do sometimes appeal to the Great Spirit when in council with white men, but it is because they themselves have embraced the Christian doctrines. Still, it is generally the interpreter who makes the appeal to the Great Spirit, when the Indian speaker really appealed to the Taku Wakan, and not to the Wakantanka. It is true that * * * all the Dakota gods * * * are mortal. They are not thought of as being eternal, except it may be by succession.[88]

The author agrees with Pond in what he says about the average Indian interpreter of early days, who seldom gave a correct rendering of what was spoken in council. But at the present time great improvement has doubtless been observed.

It should be remembered that Messrs. Riggs and Pond were missionaries to the Dakotas, while Messrs. Say, Shea, and Lynd must be classed among the laity. Yet the missionaries, not the laymen, are the ones who make the positive statements about the absence of a belief in one Great Spirit.

RIGGS ON THE TAKU WAKAN.

§ 95. Riggs remarks:

The religious faith of the Dakota is not in his gods as such. It is an intangible, mysterious something of which they are only the embodiment, and that in such a measure and degree as may accord with the individual fancy of the worshiper. Each one will worship some of these divinities and neglect and despise others; but the great object of all their worship, whatever its chosen medium, is the TA-KOO WAH-KON, which is the supernatural and mysterious. No one term can express the full meaning of the Dakota’s Wakan. It comprehends all mystery, secret power, and divinity. * * * All life is Wakan. So also is everything which exhibits power, whether in action, as the winds and drifting clouds, or in passive endurance, as the bowlder by the wayside.[89]

MEANING OF “WAKAN.”

In the mind of a Dakota * * * this word Wah-kon (we write, wa-kan) covers the whole field of their fear and worship. Many things also that are neither feared nor worshiped, but are simply wonderful, come under this designation. It is related of Hennepin that when he and his two companions were taken captive by a Sioux war party, as they ascended the upper Mississippi one of the men took up his gun and shot a deer on the bank. The Indians said, “Wah-kon chi?”—Is not this mysterious? And from that day * * * the gun has been called Mah-za wah-kon, mysterious iron. This is shortened into Mah-za-kon. The same thing we may believe is true when, probably less than two centuries ago, they first saw a horse. They said “Shoon-ka wah-kon,” wonderful dog. And from that day the horse has been called by the Sioux wonderful dog, except when it has been called big dog, Shoon-ka tonka. These historical facts have satisfied us that the idea of the Great Spirit ascribed to the Indians of North America does not belong to the original theogony of the Sioux, but has come from without, like that (sic) of the horse and gun, and probably dates back only to their first hearing of the white man’s God.[90]

Taku Wakan.—This is a general term, including all that is wonderful, incomprehensible, supernatural—what is wakan; but especially covering the objects of their worship. Until used in reference to our God, it is believed that the phrase was not applied to any individual object of worship, but was equivalent to “the gods.”[91] As tuwe, who, refers to persons, and taku, what, to things, the correctness of Riggs’s conclusion can hardly be questioned, provided we add that the Dakota term, Taku Wakan, could not have conveyed to the Dakota mind the idea of a personal God, using the term person as it is commonly employed by civilized peoples.

DAIMONISM.

§ 96. Lynd says:

The divinities of evil among the Dakotas may be called legion. Their special delight is to make man miserable or to destroy him. Demons wander through the earth, causing sickness and death. Spirits of evil are ever ready to pounce upon and destroy the unwary. Spirits of earth, air, fire, and water (see § 36) surround him upon every side, and with but one great governing object in view—the misery and destruction of the human race.[92]

ANIMISM.

§ 97. Their religious system gives to everything a soul or spirit. Even the commonest sticks and clays have a spiritual essence attached to them which must needs be reverenced; for these spirits, too, vent their wrath upon mankind. Indeed, there is no object, however trivial, but has its spirit.[93]

In his article on the Mythology of the Dakotas,[94] Riggs says of the Dakota:

They pray to the sun, earth, moon, lakes, rivers, trees, plants, snakes, and all kinds of animals and vegetables—many of them say, to everything, for they pray to their guns and arrows—to any object, artificial as well as natural, for they suppose that every object, artificial as well as natural, has a spirit which may hurt or help, and so is a proper object of worship.

Lynd says:

The essentially physical cast of the Indian mind (if I may be allowed the expression) requires some outward and tangible representation of things spiritual before he can comprehend them. The god must be present, by image or in person, ere he can offer up his devotions. * * * Similar to this “belief in a spiritual essence” is the general Dakota belief that each class of animals or objects of a like kind possesses a peculiar guardian divinity, which is the mother archetype. * * * Sexuality is a prominent feature in the religion of the Dakotas. Of every species of divinity, with the exception of the Wakantanka, there is a plurality, part male and part female. Even the spirits, which are supposed to dwell in the earth, twigs, and other inanimate substances, are invested with distinctions of sex.[95]

§ 98. Pond asserts that “evidence is wanting to show that these people divide their Taku-wakan into classes of good and evil. They are all simply wakan.”[96]

PRINCIPAL DAKOTA GODS.

The gods of the Dakotas are of course innumerable; but of the superior gods these are the chief: The Unkteḣi, or god of the water; the Wakinyan, or thunder god; the Takuśkanśkan, or moving god; the Tunkan, Inyan, or stone god; the Heyoka god; the Sun; the Moon; the Armor god; the Spirit of the Medicine Sack; and the Wakantanka, who is probably an intrusive deity.[97]

MISS FLETCHER ON INDIAN RELIGION.

§ 99. The following remarks are those of a later writer, Miss Fletcher:

The Indian’s religion is generally spoken of as a nature and animal worship. The term seems too broadcast and indiscriminate. Careful inquiry and observation fail to show that the Indian actually worships the objects which are set up or mentioned by him in his ceremonies. The earth, four winds, the sun, moon, and stars, the stones, the water, the various animals, are all exponents of a mysterious life and power encompassing the Indian and filling him with vague apprehension and desire to propitiate and induce friendly relations. The latter is attempted not so much through the ideas of sacrifice as through more or less ceremonial appeals. More faith is put in ritual and a careful observance of forms than in any act of self-denial in its moral sense, as we understand it. The claim of relationship is used to strengthen the appeal, since the tie of kindred among the Indians is one which can not be ignored or disregarded, the terms grandfather and grandmother being most general and implying dependence, respect, and the recognition of authority. (See §§ 9, 100.)

One of the simplest and most picturesque explanations of the use of the varied forms of life in the Indian worship was given to me by a thoughtful Indian chief. He said: “Everything as it moves, now and then, here and there, makes stops. The bird as it flies stops in one place to make its nest, and in another to rest in its flight. A man when he goes forth stops when he wills. So the god has stopped. The sun, which is so bright and beautiful, is one place where he has stopped. The moon, the stars, the winds, he has been with. The trees, the animals, are all where he has stopped, and the Indian thinks of these places and sends his prayers there to reach the place where the god has stopped and win help and a blessing.”

The vague feeling after unity is here discernible, but it is like the cry of a child rather than the articulate speech of a man. To the Indian mind the life of the universe has not been analyzed, classified, and a great synthesis formed of the parts. To him the varied forms are equally important and noble. A devout old Indian said: “The tree is like a human being, for it has life and grows; so we pray to it and put our offerings on it that the god may help us.” In the same spirit the apology is offered over a slaughtered animal, for the life of the one is taken to supplement the life of the other, “that it may cause us to live,” one formula expresses it. These manifestations of life, stopping places of the god, can not therefore be accurately called objects of worship or symbols; they appear to be more like media of communication with the permeating occult force which is vaguely and fearfully apprehended. As a consequence, the Indian stands abreast of nature. He does not face it, and hence can not master or coerce it, or view it scientifically and apart from his own mental and emotional life. He appeals to it, but does not worship it.[98]

PRAYER.

§ 100. Every power is prayed to by some of the Dakota and Assiniboin. Among the accessories of prayer the Dakota reckons the following: (a) Ceremonial wailing or crying (ćéya, to weep, wail; whence, ćékiya, to cry, to pray, and woćékiye, prayer), sometimes accompanied by articulate speech (§§ 177, 208); (b) the action called yuwiⁿtapi (yuwiŋ´tapi) described in § 24; (c) holding the pipe with the mouthpiece toward the power invoked, as the Heyoka devotees sometimes do (§§ 223, 224); (d) the use of smoke from the pipe or the odor of burning cedar needles (§§ 159, 168); (e) the application of the kinship terms, “grandfather” (or its alternative, “venerable man”) to a male power, and “grandmother” to a female one (§§ 99, 107, 239); (f) sacrifice, or offering of goods, animals, or pieces of one’s own flesh, etc. (see § 185).

SACRIFICE.

§ 101. The radical forms of worship among the Dakota, according to Lynd, are few and simple. One of the most primitive is that of Wocnapi (Wośnapi) or Sacrifice. To every divinity that they worship they make sacrifices. Even upon the most trivial occasions the gods are either thanked or supplicated by sacrifice. The religious idea it carries with it is at the foundation of the every-day life of the Dakota. The wohduze or taboo has its origin there; the wiwaŋyag waćipi or sundance (§§ 141-211) carries with it the same idea; the wakaŋ wohaŋpi or sacred feast (feast of the first-fruits) is a practical embodiment of it; and haŋmdepi or god-seeking of the extreme western tribes is but a form of self-sacrifice. No Dakota in his worship neglects this ceremony. It enters into his religious thoughts at all times, even at the hour of death. The sacrifices made upon recovery from sickness are never composed of anything very valuable, for the poverty of the Indian will not permit this. Usually a small strip of muslin, or a piece of red cloth, a few skins of some animals, or other things of no great use or value are employed. Sometimes a pan or kettle is laid up for a sacrifice. But after a short time, the end for which the sacrifice was made is attained, and it is removed. Those in need of such things as they see offered in sacrifice may take them for their own use, being careful to substitute some other articles. Perhaps the most common forms of sacrifice are those which are made in the hunt. Particular portions of each animal killed are held sacred to the god of the chase or some other deities. If a deer is killed, the head, heart, or some other part of it is sacrificed by the person who has slain it. The part sacrificed differs with different individuals. In ducks and fowls the most common sacrifice is of the wing, though many sacrifice the heart, and a few the head. This custom is called wohduze, and is always constant with individuals, i. e., the same part is always sacrificed. The other wohduze or taboo is connected with the wotawe or armor,[99] and will be described hereafter (§ 125).

§ 102. Haŋmdepi or god-seeking.—Haŋmdepi or god-seeking is a form of religion among the Dakotas that points back to a remote antiquity. The meaning of the word, in its common acceptation, appears to be greatly misunderstood by some. Literally, it means only to dream, and is but another form of haŋma; but in its use it is applied almost wholly to the custom of seeking for a dream or revelation, practiced by the Sisitonwan, Ihanktonwanna, and Titonwan (Sioux), and by the Crow, Minnetaree, Assiniboin, and other western Dakota. In this respect it has no reference whatever to the common dreams of sleep, but means simply the form of religion practiced.

If a Dakota wishes to be particularly successful in any (to him) important undertaking, he first purifies himself by the Inipi or steam bath, and by fasting for a term of three days. During the whole of this time he avoids women and society, is secluded in his habits, and endeavors in every way to be pure enough to receive a revelation from the deity whom he invokes. When the period of fasting is passed he is ready for the sacrifice, which is made in various ways. Some, passing a knife through the breast and arms, attach thongs thereto, which are fastened at the other end to the top of a tall pole raised for that purpose; and thus they hang, suspended only by these thongs, for two, three, or even four days, gazing upon vacancy, their minds being intently fixed upon the object in which they desire to be assisted by the deity, and waiting for a vision from above. Once a day an assistant is sent to look upon the person thus sacrificing himself. If the deities have vouchsafed him a vision or revelation, he signifies the same by motions, and is released at once; if he be silent, his silence is understood, and he is left alone to his reverie.

Others attach a buffalo hair rope to the head of a buffalo just as it is severed from the animal, and to the other end affix a hook, which is then passed through the large muscles in the small of the back, and thus fastened they drag the head all over the camp, their minds meanwhile being fixed intently, as in the first instance, upon the object in which they are beseeching the deity to assist them.

A third class pass knives through the flesh in various parts of the body, and wait in silence, though with fixed mind, for a dream or revelation. A few, either not blessed with the powers of endurance or else lacking the courage of the class first named, will plant a pole upon the steep bank of a stream, and attaching ropes to the muscles of the arm and breast, as in the first instance, will stand, but not hang, gazing into space, without food or drink, for days.

Still another class practice the haŋmdepi without such horrid self-sacrifice. For weeks, nay, for months, they will fix their minds intently upon any desired object, to the exclusion of all others, frequently crying about the camp, occasionally taking a little food, but fasting for the most part, and earnestly seeking a revelation from their god.[100]

§ 103. Similar testimony has been given respecting the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, though this last tribe belongs to the Caddoan stock. Smet wrote thus about them:

They cut off their fingers and make deep incisions in the fleshy parts of the body before starting for war, in order to obtain the favors of their false gods. On my last visit to these Ricaries, Minataries, and Mandans I could not discern a single man at all advanced in years whose body had not been mutilated, or who possessed his full number of fingers.[101]

In treating of the religious opinion of the Assiniboin, Smet says:

Some burn tobacco, and present to the Great Spirit the most exquisite pieces of buffalo meat by casting them into the fire; while others make deep incisions in the fleshy parts of their bodies, and even cut off the first joints of their fingers to offer them in sacrifice.[102]

Lynd says:

§ 104. Frequently the devout Dakota will make images of bark or stone, and, after painting them in various ways and putting sacred down upon them, will fall down in worship before them, praying that all danger may be averted from him and his. It must not be understood, however, that the Dakota is an idolater. It is not the image that he worships, * * * but the spiritual essence which is represented by that image, and which is supposed to be ever near it.[103]

This plausible distinction has been made by persons of different nations at various periods in the world’s history, but it seems to be of doubtful value.

USE OF PAINT IN WORSHIP.

§ 105. In the worship of their deities paint forms an important feature. Scarlet or red is the religious color for sacrifices, while blue is used by the women in many of the ceremonies in which they participate (§§ 374, 375). This, however, is not a constant distinction of sex, for the women frequently use red or scarlet. The use of paints the Dakotas aver was taught them by the gods.[104]

For accounts of the Sun-dance and a sacrifice to the Dawn, see §§ 141, 211, 215.

THE UNKTEḢI, OR SUBAQUATIC AND SUBTERRANEAN POWERS.

§ 106. The gods of this name, for there are many, are the most powerful of all. In their external form they are said to resemble the ox, only they are of immense proportions. They can extend their horns and tails so as to reach the skies. These are the organs of their power. According to one account the Unkteḣi inhabit all deep waters, and especially all great waterfalls. Two hundred and eleven years ago, when Hennepin and Du Luth saw the Falls of St. Anthony together, there were some buffalo robes hanging there as sacrifices to the Unkteḣi of the place.[105]

§ 107. Another account written by the same author informs us that the male Unkteḣi dwell in the water, and the spirits of the females animate the earth. Hence, when the Dakota seems to be offering sacrifices to the water or the earth, it is to this family of gods that the worship is rendered. They address the males as “grandfathers,” and the females as “grandmothers.” It is believed that one of these gods dwells under the Falls of St. Anthony, in a den of great dimensions, which is constructed of iron.[106]

§ 108. “The word Unkteḣi defies analysis, only the latter part giving us the idea of difficult [sic], and so nothing can be gathered from the name itself of the functions of these gods. But Indian legend generally describes the genesis of the earth as from the water. Some animal, as the beaver [compare the Iowa and Oto Beaver gentes, Paça and Paqça.—J. O. D.] living in the waters, brought up, from a great depth, mud to build dry land.”[107] According to the Dakota cosmogony, this was done by the Unkteḣi, called in the Teton dialect Ŭñktcexila or Uŋkćeġila. (Compare the Winnebago, Waktceqi ikikaratcada or water-monster gens, and the Wakandagi of the Omaha and Ponka, see §§ 7, 77).

§ 109. The Iowa and Oto tribes have among their nikie names, Niwaⁿcike, Water Person, and Niwaⁿcikemi, Water Person Female. If these do not refer to the beaver, they may have some connection with the water monsters or deities. An Omaha told the author a Yankton legend about these gods of the waters. The wife of the special Unkteḣi coveted an Indian child and drew it beneath the surface of the river. The father of the child had to offer a white dog to the deity in order to recover his son; but the latter died on emerging from the water, as he had eaten some of the food of the Unkteḣi during his stay with the deity. After awhile the parents lost a daughter in like manner, but as she did not eat any of the food of the Unkteḣi, she was recovered after an offering of four white dogs.[108]

Smet tells of offerings made by the Assiniboin to “the water” and “the land,” but it is probable that they were made to the Unkteḣi.[109]

§ 110. The Dakota pray to lakes and rivers, according to Riggs,[110] but he does not say whether the visible objects were worshiped or whether the worship was intended for the Unkteḣi supposed to dwell in those lakes and rivers.

POWER OF THE UNKTEḢI.

§ 111. These gods have power to send from their bodies a wakan influence which is irresistible even by the superior gods. This influence is termed “tonwan.” This power is common to all the Taku Wakan. And it is claimed that this tonwan is infused into each mystery sack which is used in the mystery dance. A little to the left of the road leading from Fort Snelling to Minnehaha, in sight of the fort, is a hill which is used at present as a burial place. This hill is known to the Dakota as “Taku Wakan tipi,” the dwelling place of the gods. It is believed that one of the Unkteḣi dwells there.

§ 112. The Unkteḣi are thought to feed on the spirits of human beings, and references to this occur in the mystic songs. The mystery feast and the mystery dance have been received from these gods. The sacrifices required by them are the soft down of the swan reddened with vermilion, deer skins, dog, mystery feast and mystery dances.

In Miss Fletcher’s article on “The Shadow or Ghost Lodge: A ceremony of the Ogallala Sioux,” we read that 2 yards of red cloth are “carried out beyond the camp, to an elevation if possible, and buried in a hole about 3 feet deep. This is an offering to the earth, and the chanted prayer asks that the life, or power in earth, will help the father” of the dead child “in keeping successfully all the requirements of the ghost lodge.”[111] (See § 146.)

SUBORDINATES OF THE UNKTEḢI.

The subordinates of the Unkteḣi are serpents, lizards, frogs, ghosts, owls, and eagles. The Unkteḣi made the earth and men, and gave the Dakota the mystery sack, and also prescribed the manner in which some of those pigments must be applied which are rubbed over the bodies of their votaries in the mystery dance, and on the warrior as he goes into action.

THE MYSTERY DANCE.

§ 113. Immediately after the production of the earth and men, the Unkteḣi gave the Indians the mystery sack and instituted the Wakan waćipi or mystery dance. They ordained that the sack should consist of the skin of the otter, raccoon, weasel, squirrel, loon, one variety of fish, and of serpents. It was also ordained that the sack should contain four species of medicines of wakan qualities, which should represent fowls, medicinal herbs, medicinal trees, and quadrupeds. The down of the female swan represents the first, and may be seen at the time of the dance inserted in the nose of the sack. Grass roots represent the second, bark from the roots of the trees the third, and hair from the back or head of a buffalo the fourth. These are carefully preserved in the sack. From this combination proceeds a wakan influence so powerful that no human being, unassisted, can resist it.

Those who violated their obligations as members of the Mystery dance, were sure of punishment. If they went into forests, the black owl was there, as a servant of the Unkteḣi; if they descended into the earth, they encountered the serpent; if they ascended into the air, the eagle would pursue and overtake them; and if they ventured into the water, there were the Unkteḣi themselves.[112] An account of the mystery or medicine dance is given by Pond, op. cit., pp. 37-41.

“Those Dakotas,” said Lynd, “who belong to the medicine dance esteem the Unkteḣi as the greatest divinity. Among the eastern Dakotas the medicine dance appears to have taken the place of these more barbarous ceremonies (i. e., the self-tortures of the hanmdepi, piercing of the flesh, etc.)—among the Winnebagoes entirely.”

The Omaha do not have the sun dance, but the wacicka aȼiⁿ, answering to the Dakota mystery dance, is said to be of ancient use among them.

“Indeed, the medicine dance, though an intrusive religious form, may be considered as an elevating and enlightening religion in comparison with the hanmdepi.”[113]

THE MINIWATU.

§ 114. The Teton Dakota tell of the Miniwatu, Wamnitu,[114] and Mini waśiću, all of which are probably names for the same class of monsters, the last meaning “Water God or Guardian Spirit.” These powers are said to be horned water monsters with four legs each. “They make waves by pushing the water toward the lowlands; therefore, the Indians prefer to encamp on or near the bluffs. They fear to swim the Missouri River on account of the water monsters, who can draw people into their mouths.” Can these be the Unkteḣi, whom the Teton call Uŋkćeġila?

§ 115. “Long ago,” according to Bushotter, “the people saw a strange thing in the Missouri River. At night there was some red object, shining like fire, making the water roar as it passed upstream. Should any one see the monster by daylight he became crazy soon after, writhing as with pain, and dying. One man who said that he saw the monster described it thus: ‘It has red hair all over, and one eye. A horn is in the middle of its forehead, and its body resembles that of a buffalo.’[115] Its backbone is like a cross-cut saw, being flat and notched like a saw or cog wheel. When one sees it he gets bewildered, and his eyes close at once. He is crazy for a day, and then he dies. The Teton think that this matter is still in the river, and they call it the Miniwatu or water monster. They think that it causes the ice on the river to break up in the spring of the year.”[116]

The Teton say that the bones of the Uŋkćeġila are now found in the bluffs of Nebraska and Dakota.

THE WAKIᴺYAᴺ (WAKIŊYAŊ), OR THUNDER-BEINGS.

§ 116. The name signifies the flying ones, from kinyan, to fly. The thunder is the sound of their voices. The lightning is the missile or tonwan of the winged monsters, who live and fly through the heavens shielded from mortal vision by thick clouds. By some of the wakan men it is said that there are four varieties of the form of their external manifestation. In essence, however they are but one. One of the varieties is black, with a long beak, and has four joints in his wing. Another is yellow, without any beak at all; with wings like the first, except that he has six quills in each wing. The third is scarlet, and remarkable chiefly for having eight joints in each of its enormous pinions. The fourth is blue and globular in form, and it is destitute of both eyes and ears. Immediately over the places where the eyes should be there is a semicircular line of lightning resembling an inverted half moon from beneath which project downward two chains of lightning diverging from each other in zigzag lines as they descend. Two plumes like soft down, coming out near the roots of the descending chains of lightning, serve for wings.[117]

These thunderers, of course, are of terrific proportions. They created the wild rice and a variety of prairie grass, the seed of which bears some resemblance to that of the rice. At the western extremity of the earth, which is supposed to be a circular plain surrounded by water, is a high mountain, on the summit of which is a beautiful mound. On this mound is the dwelling of the Wakinyan gods. The dwelling opens toward each of the four quarters of the earth, and at each doorway is stationed a sentinel. A butterfly stands at the east entrance, a bear at the west, a reindeer [sic, probably intended for a deer.—J. O. D.] at the north, and a beaver at the south [the beaver seems out of place here as a servant of the Wakinyan gods, for, judging from analogy, he ought to be the servant of the Unkteḣi (see § 108)—J. O. D.].

Except the head, each of these wakan sentinels is enveloped in scarlet down of the most extraordinary beauty.[118]

§ 117. The Teton texts of Bushotter state the belief that “some of these ancient people still dwell in the clouds. They have large curved beaks resembling bison humps, their voices are loud, they do not open their eyes except when they make lightning, hence the archaic Teton name for the lightning, Wakinyan tunwanpi, “The thunder-beings open their eyes.” They are armed with arrows and “maza wakan” or “mysterious irons” (not “guns”), the latter being of different kinds. Kaŋġitame, stones resembling coal, are found in the Bad Lands, and they are said to be the missiles of the Thunderers. When these gods so desire they kill various mysterious beings and objects, as well as human beings that are mysterious. Their ancient foes were the giant rattlesnakes and the prehistoric water monsters (Uŋkćeġila: see §§ 108, 114, 115).

§ 118. Long ago the Teton encamped by a deep lake whose shore was inclosed by very high cliffs. They noticed that at night, even when there was no breeze, the water in the middle of the lake was constantly roaring. When one gazed in that direction, he saw a huge eye as bright as the sun, which caused him to vomit something resembling black earth moistened with water, and death soon followed. That very night the Thunderers came, and the crashing sounds were so terrible that many people fainted. The next morning the shore was covered with the bodies of all kinds of fish, some of which were larger than men, and there were also some huge serpents. The water monster which the Thunderers had fought resembled a rattlesnake, but he had short legs and rusty-yellow fur.

§ 119. The Thunderers are represented as cruel and destructive in disposition. They are ever on the war path. A mortal hatred exists between them and the family of the Unkteḣi. Neither has power to resist the tonwan of the other if it strikes him. Their attacks are never open, and neither is safe except he eludes the vigilance of the other. The Wakinyan, in turn, are often surprised and killed by the Unkteḣi. Many stories are told of the combats of these gods. Mr. Pond once listened to the relation, by an eyewitness (as he called himself), of a story in substance as follows: A Wakinyan measuring 25 to 30 yards between the tips of his wings was killed and fell on the bank of the Blue Earth river (Minnesota).

From the Wakinyan the Dakota have received their war implements, the spear and tomahawk, and many of the pigments, which, if properly applied, will shield them from the weapons of their enemies.[119]

§ 120. When a person dreams of the Thunderers, it is a sign that he and they must fight. The Wakinyan are not the only gods of war; there are also the Takuckaⁿckaⁿ (Takuśkanśkan) and the Armor gods. (See §§ 122-3, 127-9.)

Of the circle dance, Riggs says (in Amer. Antiq., II, 267): “They cut an image of the great bird from bark and suspend it at the top of the central pole, which is shot to pieces at the close of the dance.” (He probably means that the image of the great bird, a Thunder bird, is shot to pieces, not the pole.) Sacrifices are made to the Wakinyan and songs are sung both to the Wakinyan and the Unkteḣi.

§ 121. There seems to be some connection between the Heyoka gods and the Wakinyan; but it is not plain. The Heyoka god uses a small Wakinyan god as his drumstick. (See § 218.) The Wakinyan songs are sung by members of the Heyoka dancing order.

Smet was told that the Dakota—

Pretend that the thunder is an enormous bird, and that the muffled sound of the distant thunder is caused by a countless number of young (thunder) birds. The great bird, they say, gives the first sound, and the young ones repeat it; this is the cause of the reverberations. The Sioux declare that the young thunderers do all the mischief, like giddy youth who will not listen to good advice; but the old thunderer or big bird is wise and excellent; he never kills or injures any one.[120]

Next to the Sun, according to Smet, Thunder is the great deity of the Assiniboin. Every spring, at the first peal of thunder, they offer sacrifices to the Wakinyan.[121]

The Assiniboin, according to Maximilian, ascribed the thunder to an enormous bird.[122]

THE ARMOR GODS.

§ 122. As each young man comes to maturity a tutelar divinity, sometimes called “Waśićuŋ” (see § 236), is assigned to him. It is supposed to reside in the consecrated armor then given to him, consisting of a spear, an arrow, and a small bundle of paint. It is the spirit of some bird or animal, as the wolf, beaver, loon, or eagle. He must not kill this animal, but hold it ever sacred, or at least until he has proved his manhood by killing an enemy. Frequently the young man forms an image of this sacred animal and carries it about with him, regarding it as having a direct influence upon his everyday life and ultimate destiny. Parkman says (in his “Jesuits in North America,” p. LXXI, note) that the knowledge of this guardian spirit comes through dreams at the initiatory fast. If this is ever true among the Dakota, it is not the rule. This knowledge is communicated by the “war prophet.”[123] (See §§ 120, 127, 129, 305, etc.)

Ashley tells us that among the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota the warrior, as such, was forbidden by custom of law to eat the tongue, head, or heart of many beasts. There were other animals of which the heads might be eaten, but not the tongues. A warrior about to go on the war path could not have intercourse with women, but must go through the purification of the inipi or sweat bath, which lasts four days. A married warrior could not touch his own weapons until he had thus purified himself.[124]

§ 123. The Armor god and the Spirit of the mystery sack are sometimes spoken of as if they were individual and separate divinities; but they seem rather to be the god-power which is put into the armor and sack by consecration. They should be regarded as the indwelling of the Unkteḣi or of the Takuśkanśkan. A young man’s war weapons are wakan and must not be touched by a woman. A man prays to his armor in the day of battle. In the consecration of these weapons of war and the hunt a young man comes under certain taboo restrictions. Certain parts of an animal are sacred and must not be eaten until he has killed an enemy.[125]

THE WAR PROPHET.

§ 124. The war prophet has been referred to. In this capacity the wakan man is a necessity. Every male Dakota 16 years old and upward is a soldier, and is formally and mysteriously enlisted into the service of the war prophet. From him he receives the implements of war, carefully constructed after models furnished from the armory of the gods, painted after a divine prescription, and charged with a missive virtue—the tonwan—of the divinities. From him he also receives those paints which serve as an armature for the body. To obtain these necessary articles the proud applicant is required for a time to abuse himself and serve him, while he goes through a series of painful and exhausting performances which are necessary on his part to enlist the favorable notice of the gods. These performances consist chiefly of vapor baths, fastings, chants, prayers, and nightly vigils. The spear and the tomahawk being prepared and consecrated, the person who is to receive them approaches the wakan man and presents a pipe to him. He asks a favor, in substance as follows: “Pity thou me, poor and helpless, a woman, and confer on me the ability to perform manly deeds.” The prophet gives him the weapons and tells him not to forget his vows to the gods when he returns in triumph, a man. The weapons are carefully preserved by the warrior. They are wrapped in cloth, together with the sacred pigments. In fair weather they are laid outside of the lodge every day. They must never be touched by an adult female.[126]

§ 125. Lynd’s account is slightly different, though in substantial accord with the preceding one:

When a youth arrives at the age proper for going on the warpath he first purifies himself by fasting and the inipi or steam bath for three days, and then goes, with tears in his eyes, to some wakan man whose influence is undoubted, and prays that he will present him with the wotawe or consecrated armor. This wakan man is usually some old and experienced zuya wakan or sacred war leader. After a time the armor is presented to the young man, but until it is so presented he must fast and continue his purifications incessantly. It is a singular fact that nothing but the spear of this armor is ever used in battle, though it is always carried when the owner accompanies a war party. At the same time that the old man presents the armor he tells the youth to what animal it is dedicated, and enjoins upon him to hold that animal wakan. He must never harm or kill it, even though starvation threaten him. At all times and under all circumstances the taboo or wohduze is upon it, until by slaying numerous enemies it is gradually removed. By some the animal is held sacred during life, the taboo being voluntarily retained.[127] (See §§ 101, 127.)

THE SPIRITS OF THE MYSTERY SACKS.

§ 126. These are similar to the armor gods, in that they are divinities who act as guardian spirits. Each of these powers is appropriated by a single individual, protecting and aiding him, and receiving his worship. These spirits are conferred at the time of initiation into the order of the Mystery Dance, and of course are confined to the members of that order.[128] Each spirit of the mystery sack is not a separate god, but a wakan power derived from the Unkteḣi, according to a later statement of Riggs.[129]

TAKUŚKAŊŚKAŊ, THE MOVING DEITY.

§ 127. This is a form of the wakan which jugglers, so-called mystery men, and war prophets invoke. In their estimation he is the most powerful of their gods; the one most to be feared and propitiated, since, more than all others, he influences human weal and woe. He is supposed to live in the four winds, and the four black spirits of night do his bidding. The consecrated spear and tomahawk (see § 124) are its weapons. The buzzard, raven, fox, wolf, and other animals are its lieutenants, to produce disease and death.[130] (Compare this with some of the pictographs on the war chart of the Kansa tribe: Fig. 4, Wind songs; the connection between the winds and war is shown in § 33. Fig. 8, Deer songs. Fig. 9, an Elk song. Fig. 10, seven songs of the Wakanda who makes night songs. Fig. 11, five songs of the Big Rock. This is a rough red rock near Topeka, Kans. “This rock has a hard body, like that of a wakanda. May you walk like it.” Fig. 12, Wolf songs. The wolf howls at night. Fig. 13, Moon songs. Fig. 14, Crow songs. The crow flies around a dead body which it wishes to devour. Fig. 18, Shade songs. There is a Wakanda who makes shade. Fig. 20, song of the Small Rock. Fig. 22, songs of the young Moon. Fig. 23, songs of the Buffalo Bull. Fig. 27, Owl songs. The owl hoots at night.[131])

§ 128. Miss Fletcher has given us a very interesting account of “The Religious Ceremony of the Four Winds or Quarters, as observed by the Santee Sioux.” “Among the Santee (Sioux) Indians the Four Winds are symbolized by the raven and a small black stone, less than a hen’s egg in size.” “An intelligent Santee said to me: ‘The worship of the Four Winds is the most difficult to explain for it is the most complicated.’ The Four Winds are sent by the ‘Something that Moves.’”[132] There is a “Something that Moves” at each of the four directions or quarters. The winds are, therefore, the messengers or exponents of the powers which remain at the four quarters. These four quarters are spoken of as upholding the earth,[133] and are connected with thunder and lightning as well as the wind.[134] * * *

“My informant went on to tell me that the spirits of the four winds were not one, but twelve, and they are spoken of as twelve.”[135] (See § 42.)

§ 129. In Tah-koo Wah-kon, pp. 64, 65, Riggs says:

This god is too subtle in essence to be perceived by the senses, and is as subtle in disposition. He is present everywhere. He exerts a controlling influence over instinct, intellect, and passion. He can rob a man of the use of his rational faculties, and inspire a beast with intelligence, so that the hunter will wander idiot-like, while the game on which he hoped to feast his family at night escapes with perfect ease. Or, if he please, the god can reverse his influence. He is much gratified to see men in trouble, and is particularly glad when they die in battle or otherwise. Passionate and capricious in the highest degree, it is very difficult to retain his favor. His symbol and supposed residence is the bowlder (see Big Rock and Small Rock, § 127), as it is also of another god, the Tunkan.

Pond assigns to him the armor feast and inipi or vapor bath (called steam or sweat bath). He says:[136]

The armor feast is of ordinary occurrence when the provisions are of sufficient abundance to support it, in which the warriors assemble and exhibit the sacred implements of war, to which they burn incense around the smoking sacrifice.

§ 130. In October, 1881, the late S. D. Hinman read a paper before the Anthropological Society of Washington, entitled “The Stone God or Oracle of the Pute-temni band of Hunkpati Dakotas.” He said that this oracle had been seen by him while on an expedition with some Dakotas across the James River valley in Dakota Territory. A Hunkpati man of the party gave the history of the stone and an account of its miraculous movement from the Sacred Hill to the old dirt lodge village. This oracle was called the Takuśkaŋśkaŋ.

§ 131. But the Takuśkaŋśkaŋ assumed other shapes. Said Bushotter, in one of his Teton texts:

The Lakotas regard certain small stones or pebbles as mysterious, and it is said that in former days a man had one as his helper or servant. There are two kinds of these mysterious stones (i.e., pebbles, not rocks). One is white, resembling ice or glass (i.e., is probably translucent; compare the translucent pebbles of the Iⁿ-ʞugȼi order of the Omaha, see Om. Soc., p. 346); the other resembles ordinary stones. It is said that one of them once entered a lodge and struck a man, and people spoke of the stones sending in rattles through the smoke hole of a lodge. When anything was missed in the village the people appealed to the stones for aid, and the owner of one of the stones boiled food for a mystery feast, to which the people came. Then they told the stone of their loss and the stone helped them. It is said that the stones brought back different messages. If anyone stole horses the stones always revealed his name. Once the Omahas came to steal horses, but the stones knew about them and disappointed their secret plans; so that the Lakotas learned to prize the stones, and they decorated them with paint, wrapped them up, and hung a bunch of medicine with each one.

It is very probable that the Assiniboin also worshipped the Takuśkaŋśkaŋ; for they reverenced the four winds, as Smet tells us.[137]

TUNKAN OE INYAN, THE STONE GOD OR LINGAM.

§ 132. It has been said by Lynd[138] that the western tribes (probably the Teton, Yanktonai, Yankton, etc.), neglect the Unkteḣi, and pay their main devotion to Tunkan or Invan, answering to the Hindoo Lingam.

Tunkan, the Dakotas say, is the god that dwells in stones and rocks, and is the oldest god. If asked why he is considered the oldest, they will tell you because he is the hardest—an Indian’s reason. The usual form of the stone employed in worship is round, and it is about the size of the human head. The devout Dakota paints this Tunkan red, putting colored swan’s down upon it, and then he falls down and worships the god that is supposed to dwell in it or hover near it.[139] The Tunkan is painted red (see § 136) as a sign of active worship.[140] In cases of extremity I have ever noticed that they appeal to their Tunkan or stone god, first and last, and they do this even after the ceremonies of the medicine dance have been gone through with. All Sioux agree in saying that the Tunkan is the main recipient of their prayers; and among the Tetons, Mandans, Yanktons, and Western Dakotas they pray to that and the spirit of the buffalo almost entirely.[141]

§ 133. Riggs says:[142]

“The Inyan or Toon-kan is the symbol of the greatest force or power in the dry land. And these came to be the most common objects of worship. Large bowlders were selected and adorned with red and green (sic) paint, whither the devout Dakota might go to pray and offer his sacrifice. And smaller stones were often found, set up on end and properly painted, around which lay eagles’ feathers, tobacco, and red cloth. Once I saw a small dog that had been recently sacrificed. In all their incantations and dances, notably in the circle dance, the painted stone is the god supplicated and worshipped with fear and trembling.”

§ 134. Long tells of a gigantic stone figure resembling a human being, which he found on the bank of Kickapoo Creek. The Indians made offerings to it of tobacco and other objects.[143]

IŊYAŊ ŚA.

§ 135. Rev. Horace C. Hovey says:[144]

“It was the custom of the Dakotas to worship bowlders when in perplexity and distress. Clearing a spot from grass and brush they would roll a bowlder on it, streak it with paint, deck it with feathers and flowers, and then pray to it for needed help or deliverance. Usually when such a stone had served its purpose its sacredness was gone. But the peculiarity of the stone now described is that from generation to generation it was a shrine to which pilgrimages and offerings were made. Its Indian name, ‘Eyah Shah,’ simply means the ‘Red Rock,’ and is the same term by which they designate catlinite, or the red pipe clay. The rock itself is not naturally red, being merely a hard specimen of granite, symmetrical in shape, and about 5 feet long by 3 feet thick. The Indians also called it ‘waukon’ (mystery) and speculated as to its origin. * * * The particular clan that claimed this rude altar was known as the Mendewakantons. Although being but 2 miles below the village of the Kaposias, it was to some extent resorted to by them likewise.[145] The hunting ground of the clan was up the St. Croix, and invariably before starting they would lay an offering on Eyah Shah. Twice a year the clan would meet more formally, when they would paint the stone with vermilion, or, as some say, with blood, then trim it with flowers and feathers, and dance around it before sunrise with chants and prayers. Their last visit was in 1862, prior to the massacre that occurred in August of that year. Since that date, the stripes were renewed three years ago. I counted the stripes and found them twelve in number, each about 2 inches wide, with intervening spaces from 2 to 6 inches wide. By the compass, Eyah Shah lies exactly north and south. It is twelve paces from the main bank of the Mississippi, at a point 6 miles below St. Paul. The north end is adorned by a rude representation of the sun with fifteen rays.”

§ 136. Bushotter writes thus:

“Sometimes a stone, painted red all over, is laid within the lodge and hair is offered to it. In cases of sickness they pray to the stone, offering to it tobacco or various kinds of good things, and they think that the stone hears them when they sacrifice to it. As the steam arose when they made a fire on a stone, the Dakotas concluded that stones had life, the steam being their breath, and that it was impossible to kill them.”

MATO TIPI.

FIG. 188.—Bear Butte, South Dakota. (Copyright by Grabill, 1890.)

§ 137. Eight miles from Fort Meade, S. Dakota, is Mato tipi, Grizzly bear Lodge, known to the white people as Bear Butte. It can be seen from a distance of a hundred miles. Of this landmark Bushotter writes thus:

“The Teton used to camp at a flat-topped mountain, and pray to it. This mountain had many large rocks on it, and a pine forest at the summit. The children prayed to the rocks as if to their guardian spirits, and then placed some of the smaller ones between the branches of the pine trees. I was caused to put a stone up a tree. Some trees had as many as seven stones apiece. No child repeated the ceremony of putting a stone up in the tree; but on subsequent visits to the Butte he or she wailed for the dead, of whom the stones were tokens.” (See § 304.)

THE SUN AND MOON.

§ 138. The sun as well as the moon is called “wi” by the Dakota and Assiniboin tribes. In order to distinguish between the two bodies, the former is called aŋpetu wi, day moon, and the latter, haŋhepi wi or haŋyetu wi, night moon. The corresponding term in Ȼegiha is miⁿ, which is applied to both sun and moon, though the latter is sometimes called niaⁿba. “The moon is worshiped rather as the representative of the sun, than separately. Thus, in the sun dance, which is held in the full of the moon, the dancers at night fix their eyes on her.”[146]

§ 139. According to Smet[147]—

The sun is worshiped by the greater number of the Indian tribes as the author of light and heat. The Assiniboins consider it likewise to be the favorite residence of the Master of Life. They evidence a great respect and veneration for the sun, but rarely address it. On great occasions, they offer it their prayers, but only in a low tone. Whenever they light the calumet, they offer the sun the first whiffs of its smoke.

This last must refer to what Smet describes on p. 136 as the great “festival lasting several days,” during which the “high priest” offers the calumet to “the Great Spirit, to the sun, to each of the four cardinal points, to the water, and to the land, with words analogous to the benefits which they obtain from each.

§ 140. Bushotter, in his Teton text, says:

They prayed to the sun, and they thought that with his yellow eye he saw all things, and that when he desired he went under the ground.

Riggs states in Tah-koo Wah-kon (p. 69):

Although as a divinity, the sun is not represented as a malignant being, yet the worship given him is the most dreadful which the Dakotas offer. Aside from the sun dance, there is another proof of the divine character ascribed to the sun in the oath taken by some of the Dakotas: “As the sun hears me, this is so.”

THE SUN DANCE.

§ 141. Pond[148] gave an account of the sun dance obtained from Riggs, in which occurs the following: “The ceremonies of the sun dance commence in the evening. I have been under the impression that the time of the full moon was selected, but I am now (1867) informed that it is not essential.” Neither Capt. Bourke (§§ 197-210) nor Bushotter speaks of the time of the full moon. In Miss Fletcher’s account of the Oglala sun dance of 1882,[149] she says: “The festival generally occurs in the latter part of June or early in July and lasts about six days. The time is fixed by the budding of the Artemisia ludoviciana.” (See §§ 138, 150.)

§ 142. Lynd writes:[150]

The wiwanyag wacipi, or worship of the sun as a divinity, is evidently one of the most radical bases of Dakota religion. It has a subordinate origin in the wihanmnapi, or dreaming, and is intimately connected with the hanmdepi, or vision hunting. This most ancient of all worships, though it is of very frequent occurrence among the Dakotas, does not take place at stated intervals, as among the old nations of the East, nor does the whole tribe participate in the ceremonies. It is performed by one person alone, such of his relatives and friends assisting in the ceremonies as may deem fit or as he may designate. Preparatory to this, as to all the other sacred ceremonies of the Dakotas, are fasting and purification. The dance commences with the rising of the sun and continues for three days, or until such time as the dreaming worshiper shall receive a vision from the spirit or divinity of the sun. He faces the sun constantly, turning as it turns, and keeping up a constant blowing with a wooden whistle. A rude drum is beaten at intervals, to which he keeps time with his feet, raising one after the other, and bending his body towards the sun. Short intervals of rest are given during the dance. The mind of the worshiper is fixed intently upon some great desire that he has, and is, as it were, isolated from the body. In this state the dancer is said to receive revelations from the sun, and to hold direct intercourse with that deity. If the worshiper of this luminary, however, should fail to receive the desired revelation before the close of the ceremonies, then self-sacrifice is resorted to, and the ceremonies of the hanmdepi become a part of the worship of the sun.

A DAKOTA’S ACCOUNT OF THE SUN DANCE.

§ 143. Several accounts of the sun dance have been published within the past twenty years, but they have, without exception, been written by white persons. The following differs in one respect from all which have preceded it; it was written in the Teton dialect of the Dakota, by George Bushotter, a Teton. As he did not furnish his description of the dance in a single text, but in several, which were written on different occasions, it devolved on the present writer to undertake an arrangement of the material after translating it. The accompanying illustrations were made by Mr. Bushotter.

§ 144. Object of the sun dance.—The Dakota name for the sun dance is “Wi waⁿ-yañg wa-tci-pi (Wi waŋyaŋg waćipi),” literally, “Sun looking-at they-dance.” The following are assigned as the reasons for celebrating this dance: During any winter when the people suffer from famine or an epidemic, or when they wish to kill any enemy, or they desire horses or an abundance of fruits and vegetables during the coming summer, different Indians pray mentally to the sun, and each one says, “Well, I will pray to Wakantanka early in the summer.” Throughout the winter all those men who have made such vows take frequent baths in sweat lodges. Each of these devotees or candidates invites persons to a feast, on which occasion he joins his guests in drinking great quantities of various kinds of herb teas. Then the host notifies the guests of his vow, and from that time forward the people treat him with great respect.

§ 145. Rules observed by households.—The members of the households of the devotees always abstain from loud talking and from bad acts of various kinds. The following rules must be observed in the lodge of each devotee: A piece of the soil is cut off between the back of the lodge and the fireplace, and when virgin earth is reached vermilion is scattered over the exposed place. When the men smoke their pipes and have burned out all of the tobacco in their pipe bowls, they must not throw away the ashes as they would common refuse; they must be careful to empty the ashes on the exposed earth at the back of the lodge. No one ventures to step on that virgin earth, and not even a hand is ever stretched toward it. Only the man who expects to participate in the sun-dance can empty the ashes there, and after so doing he returns each pipe to its owner.

§ 146. The “U-ma-ne.”—“The mellowed earth space, U-ma-ne in Dakota, and called by some peculiar names in other tribes, has never been absent from any religions exercise I have yet seen or learned of from the Indians. It represents the unappropriated life or power of the earth, hence man may obtain it. The square or oblong, with the four lines standing out, is invariably interpreted to mean the earth or land with the four winds standing toward it. The cross, whether diagonal or upright, always symbolizes the four winds or four quarters.”[151]

FIG. 189.—The “U-ma-ne” symbol.

Miss Fletcher uses this term, “U-ma-ne,” to denote two things: the mellowed earth space (probably answering to the u-jé-ʇi of the Omaha and Ponka) and the symbol of the earth and the four winds made within that mellowed earth space. A sketch of the latter symbol is shown in Fig. 189. (See §§ 112, 155, etc.; also Contr. N. A. Ethn., Vol. VI,—471-475.)

§ 147. Rules observed by the devotee.—During the time of preparation the devotee goes hunting, and if he kills a deer or buffalo he cuts up the body in a “wakan” manner. He skins it, but leaves the horns attached to the skull. He reddens the skin all over, and in the rear of the lodge, in the open air, he prepares a bed of wild sage (Artemisia), on which he lays the skull. He erects a post, on which he hangs a tobacco pouch and a robe that is to be offered as a sacrifice. When the devotee takes a meal everything which he touches must be perfectly clean. He uses a new knife, which no one else dares to handle. Whatever he eats must be prepared in the best possible manner by the other members of the household. They make for him a new pipe ornamented with porcupine work, a new tobacco pouch, and a stick for pushing the tobacco down into the bowl, both ornamented in like manner.

§ 148. The devotee must not go swimming, but he can enter the sweat-lodge. There he rubs his body all over with wild sage; he cannot use calico or cotton for that purpose. No unclean person of either sex must go near him. The devotee is prohibited from fighting, even should the camp be attacked. He must not act hastily, but at all times must he proceed leisurely. He has his regular periods for crying and praying.[152]

§ 149. All his female kindred make many pairs of moccasins and collect money and an abundance of all kinds of goods, in order to give presents to poor people at the time of the sun dance. Then they can make gifts to whomsoever they please, and on that account they will win the right to have a child’s ears pierced. The goods or horses, on account of which the child’s ears are to be pierced, are reserved for that occasion at some other place. The man whose office it will be to pierce the children’s ears has to be notified in advance that his services will be required. (See § 205.)

TRIBES INVITED TO THE SUN-DANCE.

§ 150. When the devotees have performed all the preliminary duties required of them, messages are sent to all the neighboring tribes, i. e., the Omaha, Pawnee Loup, Cheyenne, Ree, Hidatsa, Blackfeet, Nez Percé, Winnebago, Yankton, and Santee. The latter part of June is fixed upon as the time for the dance. (See §§ 138, 141.) The visitors from the different nations begin to come together in the spring, each visiting tribe forming its separate camp. Though some of the visitors are hereditary enemies, it matters not during the sun-dance; they visit one another; they shake hands and form alliances. In this manner several weeks are spent very pleasantly.

DISCIPLINE MAINTAINED.

§ 151. Policemen are appointed, and a crier proclaims to each lodge that at a specified place there is a broad and pleasant prairie where all are expected to pitch their tents. The overseers or masters of ceremonies have guns, and their orders are obeyed; for if one disobeys his horses and dogs are killed by the policemen. This punishment is called akićita wićaktepi, or, in common parlance, “soldier-killing.”

All who join the camp must erect the upright (or conical) tents, as no low rush or mat tents, such as are found among the Osage and Winnebago, are allowed in the camp circle.

CAMPING CIRCLE FORMED.

§ 152. At length orders are given for all the people to pitch their tents in the form of a tribal circle, with an opening to the north.[153] (See Pl. XLV.) It takes several days to accomplish this, and then all the men and youths are required to take spades and go carefully over the whole area within the circle and fill up all the holes and uneven places which might cause the horses to stumble and fall.

MEN SELECTED TO SEEK THE MYSTERY TREE.

§ 153. Though Bushotter has written that this work requires several days, it is probable, judging from what follows in his manuscript, that only two days are required for such work. For he continues thus:

On the third day some men are selected to go in search of the Ćan-wakan or Mystery Tree, out of which they are to form the sun pole.[154] These men must be selected from those who are known to be brave, men acquainted with the war path, men who have overcome difficulties, men who have been wounded in battle, men of considerable experience.

§ 154. The men selected to fell the mystery tree ride very swift horses, and they decorate their horses and attire themselves just as if they were going to battle. They put on their feather war bonnets. They race their horses to a hill and then back again. In former days it was customary on such occasions for any women who had lost children during some previous attack on the camp, to wail often as they ran towards the mounted men, and to sing at intervals as they went. But that is not the custom at the present day. Three times do the mounted men tell of their brave deeds in imitation of the warriors of the olden times, and then they undertake to represent their own deeds in pantomime.

§ 155. On the fourth day, the selected men go to search for the mystery tree. They return to camp together, and if they have found a suitable tree, they cut out pieces of the soil within the camping circle, going down to virgin earth. (See § 146.) This exposed earth extends over a considerable area. On it they place a species of sweet-smelling grass (a trailing variety) and wild sage, on which they lay the buffalo skull.

TENT OF PREPARATION.

§ 156. After this there is set up within the camping circle a good tent known as the tent of preparation.[155] When the managers wish to set up the tent of preparation, they borrow tent skins here and there. Part of these tent skins they use for covering the smoke hole, and part were used as curtains, for when they decorate the candidates they use the curtains for shutting them in from the gaze of the people and when they finish painting them they throw down the curtains.

In the back part of this tent of preparation are placed the buffalo skulls, one for each candidate. A new knife which has never been used is exposed to smoke. A new ax, too, is reddened and smoked.

§ 157. Wild sage (Artemisia) is used in various ways prior to and during the sun dance. Some of it they spread on the ground to serve as couches, and with some they wipe the tears from their faces. They fumigate with the plant known as “ćaŋ śilśilya,” or else they use “walipe waśtema,” sweet-smelling leaves. Day after day they fumigate themselves with “waćaŋġa,” a sweet-smelling grass. They hold every object which they use over the smoke of one of these grasses. They wear a kind of medicine on their necks, and that keeps them from being hungry or thirsty, for occasionally they chew a small quantity of it. Or if they tie some of this medicine to their feet they do not get weary so soon.[156]

§ 158. When the tent of preparation is erected, there are provided for it new tent pins, new sticks for fastening the tent skins together above the entrance, and new poles for pushing out the flaps beside the smoke hole. These objects and all others, which had to be used, are brought into the tent of preparation and fumigated over a fire into which the medicine has been dropped. By this time another day has been spent. Now all the candidates assemble in the tent of preparation, each one wearing a buffalo robe with the hair outside. One who acts as leader sits in the place of honor at the back part of the tent, and the others sit on either side of him around the fireplace. They smoke their pipes. When night comes they select one of the songs of the sun dance, in order to rehearse it. Certain men have been chosen as singers of the dancing songs, and, when one set of them rest, there are others to take their places. The drummers beat the drum rapidly, but softly (as the Teton call it, kpaŋkpaŋyela, the act of several drummers hitting in quick succession).

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CAMPING CIRCLE AT THE TIME OF THE SUN-DANCE.

Three times do they beat the drums in that manner, and then they beat it rapidly, as at the beginning of the sun dance. At this juncture, as many as have flutes—made of the bones of eagles’ wings, ornamented with porcupine quills, and hung around their necks, with cords similarly ornamented, with some eagle down at the tip ends of the flutes—blow them often and forcibly as they dance. While the drum is beaten three times in succession (kpaŋkpaŋyela, as has been described), all the candidates cry aloud (ćeya), but when it is beaten the fourth time, they cry or wail no longer, but dance and blow their flutes or whistles.

FIG. 190.—Eaglewing flute. (From original, loaned by Capt. J. G. Bourke, U. S. A.)

§ 159. When the candidates take their seats in the tent of preparation, they select a man to fill the pipe with tobacco. When they wish to smoke, this man passes along the line of candidates. He holds the pipe with the mouthpiece toward each man, who smokes without grasping the pipe stem.[157]

When the candidates are allowed to eat, the attendant feeds them. No one can be loquacious within the tent of preparation. If a dog or person approaches the tent, the offender is chased away before he can reach it. No spectators are allowed to enter the tent. And this regulation is enforced by blows, whenever anyone attempts to violate it.

EXPEDITION TO THE MYSTERY TREE.

§ 160. The next morning, which is that of the fifth day, they prepare to go after the tree that is to serve as the sun pole.[158] The married and single men, the boys, and even the women, are all ordered to go horseback. Whoever is able to move rapidly accompanies the party. When the chosen persons go to fell the mystery tree they rush on it as they would upon a real enemy, just as tradition relates that the Omaha and Ponka rushed on their sacred tree. (See § 42.)[159] Then they turn quickly and run from it until they arrive at the other side of the hill (nearest to the mystery tree), after which they return to the tree.[160] They tie leaves together very tightly, making a mark of the bundle, assaulting it in turn as a foe.

§ 161. The tree is reached by noon. The persons chosen to fell it whisper to one another as they assemble around it. They approach some one who has a child, and take hold of him. Then they bring robes and other goods which they spread on the ground, and on the pile they seat the child, who is sometimes a small girl, or even a large one.

FELLING THE TREE.

§ 162. Each of the chosen men takes his turn in striking the tree. Every one must first tell his exploits, then he brandishes the ax three times without striking a blow, after which he strikes the tree once, and only once, making a gash. He leaves the ax sticking in the tree, whence it is removed by the next man. He who leaves the ax in the tree is by this act considered to make a present of a horse to some one. As soon as he gives the blow, his father (or some near kinsman) approaches and hands him a stick, whereupon the young man returns it, asking him to give it to such a one, calling him by name. For instance, let us suppose that a young man, Mato ćuwi maza, Grizzly bear with an Iron Side, requests that his stick be given to Psića waŋkantuya, or Leaping High. The old man who is employed as the crier goes to the camp and sings thus: “Mato ćuwi maza í-ya-ha-he+! Mato ćuwi maza í-ya-ha-he+!”. The last word is a sign of a brave deed on the part of the donor, and it is so understood by every one. On reaching the tent of the other man, the crier says, “Psića waŋkantuya śuŋkawakaŋ waŋ hiyo u ye+! Mato ćuwi maza ćaŋ-wakaŋ kaksa ȼa taśuŋke waŋ hiyo u ye+!” i. e., “O Leaping High, a horse is brought to you! A horse is brought to you because Mato ćuwi maza has given a blow to the mystery tree!” On hearing this, Psića waŋkantuya says, “Há-ye,” or “Thanks!” as he extends his hands with the palms towards the crier; and he brings them down toward the ground and takes the stick representing the horse. Then the crier passes along around the circle, singing the praises of the donor, and naming the man who has received the present.

§ 163. After all the chosen men have told of their deeds, and have performed their parts, the women select a man to speak of what generous things they have done, and when he has spoken, the larger women who are able to fell trees rise to their feet, and take their turns in giving one blow apiece to the tree. By the time that all the women have struck the tree it falls, and all present shout and sing. Many presents are made, and some of the people wail, making the entire forest echo their voices. Then those men who are selected for that purpose cut off all the limbs of the tree except the highest one, and they do not disturb the tree top. Wherever a branch is cut off they rub red paint on the wound.

§ 164. They make a bundle of some wood in imitation of that for which they have prayed, and hang it crosswise from the fork of the tree. Above the bundle they suspend a scarlet blanket, a buffalo robe or a weasel skin, and under the bundle they fasten two pieces of dried buffalo hide, one being cut in the shape of a buffalo, and the other in that of a man.

Though Bushotter did not state the circumstance, it is remarkable that both the figures have the membrum virile rigid. The author learned about this from two trustworthy persons, who obtained all the paraphernalia of the sun dance, and one of them, Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. Army, showed him the figures of the man and buffalo used at the sun dance at Red Cloud Agency, in 1882. In the former figure, the lingam is of abnormal size. The connection between the phallic cult and the sun is obvious to the student. (See §§ 19, 132, 146, 155, 169, 170, 176).

THE TREE TAKEN TO CAMP.

§ 165. No one of the company dare to touch the sun pole as they take it to the camp. Before wagons were available, they made a horse carry most of the weight of the pole, part of it being on one side of him and part on the other, while the wakaŋ men chosen for the purpose walked on both sides of the horse in order to support the ends of the pole. (See § 317.) At the present day, a wagon is used for transporting the sun pole to the camp.[161] While they are on the way no person dares to go in advance of the pole, for whoever violates the law is in danger of being thrown from his horse and having his neck broken.

The married men and youths carry leaf shields on their backs, and some of the riders make their horses race as far as they are able. Any member of the party can appropriate the small branches which have been cut from the mystery tree.

When they reach the camp circle, all of the party who carry branches and leaves drop them in the places where they intend erecting their respective tents.

§ 166. Judging from Mr. Bushotter’s first text, the tents are not pitched when the people return with the sun pole. But as soon as they lay the pole in the place where it is to be erected, the tents are pitched again. Then all the objects that are to be attached to the sun pole are tied to it, and some of the men take leather straps, such as the women use when they carry wood and other burdens, and fasten them to the sun pole in order to raise it into position.

RAISING THE SUN POLE.

§ 167. This raising of the sun pole seems to be symbolic of the four winds, the tatúye tópa, or “the four quarters of the heavens,” as Dr. Riggs translates the Dakota term. Those who assist in raising the sun pole must be men who have distinguished themselves. They raise the pole a short distance from the ground, and then they shout, making an indistinct sound; they rest awhile and pull it a little higher, shouting again; resting a second time, they renew their efforts, pulling it higher still. They shout the third time, rest again, and at the fourth pull the pole is perpendicular. Then the men around the camping circle fire guns, making the horses flee. Those who raised the pole have a new spade, and they use it one after another in throwing a sufficient quantity of earth around the base of the pole, pressing the earth down firmly in order to steady the pole.

BUILDING OF DANCING LODGE.

§ 168. Next follows the building of the dancing lodge. (See Pl. XLVI. and § 317.) Forked posts are set in the ground in two concentric circles. Those posts forming the circle nearer the sun pole are a few feet higher than the posts in the outer circle, thus making a slant sufficient for a roof. From the inner circle of posts to the sun pole there is no roof, as the dancers who stand near the pole must see the sun and moon. From each forked post to the next one in the same circle is laid a tent pole; and on the two series of these horizontal tent-poles are placed the saplings or poles forming the roof. In constructing the wall of the dancing lodge they use the leaf shields, and probably some poles or branches of trees, the shields and leaves stuck in the wall here and there, in no regular order, leaving interstices through which the spectators can peep at the dancers. A very wide entrance is made, through which can be taken a horse, as well as the numerous offerings brought to be given away to the poor. Then they smoke the pipe, as in that manner they think that they can induce their Great Mysterious One to smoke.

§ 169. All having been made ready, the aged men and the chief men of the camp kick off their leggins and moccasins, and as many as have pistols take them to the dancing lodge, around the interior of which they perform a dance. As they pass around the sun pole, all shoot at once at the objects suspended from the pole (§ 164), knocking them aside suddenly. Leaving the dancing lodge, they dance around the interior of the camping circle till they reach their respective tents.

THE UUȻITA.

§ 170. This is followed by the “uuȼita.” Each man ties up the tail of his horse and dresses himself in his best attire. When they are ready, they proceed two abreast around the interior of the camping circle, shooting into the ground as they pass along, and filling the entire area with smoke. There are so many of them that they extend almost around the entire circle. If any of the riders are thrown from their horses as they dash along, the others pay no attention to them, but step over them, regarding nothing but the center of the camping circle. (See Pl. XLV.)

§ 171. By this time it is nearly sunset. The young men and young women mount horses and proceed in pairs, a young man beside a young woman, singing as they pass slowly around the circle. The young men sing first, and the young women respond, acting as a chorus. That night the tent of preparation is again erected. The candidates dance there. The people gaze towards that tent, for it is rumored that the candidates will march forth from it.

Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report. Plate XLVI

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THE DANCING LODGE.

DECORATION OF CANDIDATES OR DEVOTEES.

§ 172. The candidates spend the night in decorating themselves. Each one wears a fine scarlet blanket arranged as a skirt and with a good belt fastened around his waist. From the waist up he is nude, and on his chest he paints some design. Sometimes the design is a sunflower. A man can paint the designs referring to the brave deeds of his father, his mother’s brother, or of some other kinsman, if he himself has done nothing worthy of commemoration. If a man has killed an animal, he can paint the sign of the animal on his chest, and some hold between their lips the tails of animals, signifying that they have scalped their enemies. Others show by their designs that they have stolen horses from enemies.

§ 173. Each one allows his hair to hang loosely down his back. Some wear head-dresses consisting of the skins of buffalo heads with the horns attached. Others wear eagle war-bonnets. Each candidate wears a buffalo robe with the thick hair outside. He fills his pipe, which is a new one ornamented with porcupine work, and he holds it with the stem pointing in front of him. Thus do all the candidates appear as they come out of the tent of preparation. As they march to the dancing lodge the leader goes first, the others march abreast after him. He who acts as leader carries a buffalo skull painted red. All cry as they march, and on the way they are joined by a woman who takes the place of her “hakata,” or cousin; and sometimes they are joined by a horse that is highly prized by his owner.

OFFERINGS OF CANDIDATES.

§ 174. The first time that they emerge from the tent where they sleep they march around it four times, and they make offerings of four blankets, which they suspend from as many posts set up in the form of a square within which the tent is erected. When they proceed from the tent of preparation to the dancing lodge, one of their servants sets up sticks at intervals, forming a straight line from the tent of preparation to the dancing lodge, and on these sticks he places their offerings of blankets and tobacco pouches. After the gifts are thus suspended, none of the spectators can cross the line of sticks.

FIG. 191.—The tent of preparation and the dancing lodge.

§ 175. Capt. J. G. Bourke has a wand that was used by one of the heralds, or criers, during the sun dance. It was about 5 feet long, and was decorated with beadwork and a tuft of horse hair at the superior extremity. Whenever the crier raised this wand the people fell back, leaving an open space of the required area.

CEREMONIES AT THE DANCING LODGE.

§ 176. On reaching the dancing lodge, the candidates pass slowly around the exterior, starting at the left side of the lodge and turning towards the right. They do this four times and then enter the lodge. They stretch their hands towards the four quarters of the heavens as they walk around the interior of the lodge. They sit down at the back part of the lodge, and then they sing.

Between them and the pole they cut out the soil in the shape of a half-moon, going down to virgin earth, and on this bare spot they place all the buffalo skulls. After this they paint themselves anew with red paint, on completing which they are lifted to their feet by their attendants. Again they walk around the interior of the lodge, stretching out their hands towards the four quarters of the heavens.

§ 177. A song of the sun dance is started by one of the candidates, and the others join him, one after another, until all are singing. Meanwhile the men who have been selected for the purpose redden their entire hands, and it devolves on them to dance without touching anything, such as the withes connected with the sun pole or the buffalo skulls; all that they are required to do is to extend their hands towards the sun, with the palms turned from them.

At this time all the candidates are raised again to their feet, and brought to the back part of the lodge, where they are placed in a row. They soon begin to cry, and they are joined by the woman who has taken the place of her elder brother.

§ 178. It is customary, when a man is too poor to take part himself in the sun dance, for a female relation to take his place, if such a woman pities him. She suffers as the male candidates do, except in one respect—her flesh is not scarified. This woman wears a buckskin skirt, and she lets her hair fall loosely down her back. She carries the pipe of her brother or kinsman in whose place she is dancing.

§ 179. As the drums beat, the candidates dance and blow their flutes. The woman stands, dancing slowly, with her head bent downward, but with shoulders erect, and she is shaking her head and body by bending her knees often without raising her feet from the ground. She abstains from food and drink, just as her brother or kinsman would have done had he participated in the dance. In fact, all the candidates have to fast from the time that the sun pole is cut, and from that time they cry and dance at intervals.

§ 180. If the owner of a horse decides that his steed must take part in the dance, he ties the horse to one of the thongs fastened to the sun pole, and stands near the animal. Whenever he wishes he approaches the horse, takes him by the lower jaw as he stands and cries, and then he, too, joins in the dance. This horse is decorated in the finest manner; he is painted red, his tail is rolled up into a bundle and tied together, and he wears feathers in the tail and forelock.

§ 181. Candidates scarified. When the time comes for scarifying the candidates,[162] if one wishes to dance in the manner about to be described, he is made to stand between four posts arranged in the form of a square, and his flesh on his back being scarified in two places, thongs are run through them and fastened to them and to the posts behind him. His chest is also scarified in two places, thongs are inserted and tied, and then fastened to the two posts in front of him (see Pl. XLVII, 1, Okaśka naźin, or “He stands fastened to” or “within”). Bushotter says nothing about the skewers used in torturing the dancers; but Capt. Bourke obtained three ornamental ones which had been run through the wounds of some of the devotees, in order to be stained with blood and kept thereafter as souvenirs of the bravery of the dancers. Besides these were the regular skewers which were thrust horizontally through the flesh; and to the ends of these skewers were fastened the thongs that were secured by the opposite ends to the sun pole. The last dance allowed by the Government was in 1883, and it would be difficult now to find any of these skewers. (See § 204.)

Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report. Plate XLVII

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1. PTEPA KIN WACI.—2. OKASKA NAZIN.

Another man has his back scarified and a thong inserted, from which a buffalo skull is suspended, as shown in Pl. XLVII, 2, Pte-pa ḳin waći, or “He dances carrying a buffalo skull on his back.” He dances thus, thinking that the weight of the skull will soon cause the thong to break through the flesh. The blood runs in stripes down his back.

§ 182. Another man decides to be fastened to the sun pole. For the use of such dancers there are eight leather thongs hanging down from the pole, being fastened to the pole at a point about midway from the top. For each man tied to the pole it is the rule to take two of the thongs and run them through his flesh after the holes are made with the knife (see Pl. XLVIII). After the thongs are fastened to him, the dancer is required to look upward. When the candidate is a short man, his back is scarified and his attendants push him up high enough from the ground for the thongs to be inserted and tied. In this case the weight of the man stretches the skin where the thongs are tied, and for a long time he remains there without falling (see Pl. XLIX).

§ 183. A very long time ago it happened that the friends of such a short man pitied him, so they gave a horse to another man, whom they directed to release their friend by pulling at the thongs until they broke out. So the other man approached the dancer, telling of his own deeds. He grasped the short man around the body, threw himself violently to the ground, breaking off the thong, which flew upward, and bringing the short man to the ground. Then the kindred of the short man brought presents of calico or moccasins and another horse, with other property, and they made the old women of the camp scramble for the possession of the gifts. The horse was given away by the act called “Kaḣol yeyapi,” or “They threw it off suddenly.” The father of the dancer stood at the entrance of his tent, holding a stick in his hand. He threw the stick into the air, and the bystanders struggled for its possession. Whoever grasped the stick, and succeeded in holding it, won the horse. If a forked stick is thrown up and caught it entitles the holder to a mare and her colt.

§ 184. When a young man has his flesh pierced for him, if he is beloved by his female relations, they furnish him with many objects decorated with porcupine quills, and these objects are suspended from the pierced places of his flesh, this being considered as a mark of respect shown by the women to their kinsman. Very often the women by such acts deprive themselves of all their property.

§ 185. Pieces of flesh offered.—When the candidates have their flesh pierced for the insertion of the thongs, a number of men who do not intend to dance approach the sun pole and take seats near it. With a new knife small pieces of flesh are cut out in a row from the shoulders of each of these men, who hold up the pieces of their own flesh, showing them to the pole. They also cover the base of the pole with earth. If some of the women desire to offer pieces of their flesh, they come and do so.