CHAPTER VII. CONCLUDING REMARKS.

§ 360. In the Journal of the Victoria Institute of Great Britain for 1888,[277]is an article containing the following statements, which were not seen by the writer until he had completed the preceding chapters of this paper.

Referring to Mr. Eells, the Nez Percé missionary, and to Mr. Williams, who has been laboring among the Chippewas, Mr. Peet observes:[278]

There are four or five points on which both missionaries seem to be agreed * * * These four doctrines—the existence of God, immortality of the soul, the sinfulness of man, and the necessity of sacrifice—seem to have been held in various modified forms by all the tribes in North America.

On the next page[279]he gives a classification of native religions, by which he means those of America. He says that these religions may be divided by geographical districts into several classes:

(1) Shamanism, by which he seems to mean the worship of the wakan men and women. “Among the Eskimos, Aleuts, and other hyperborean nations, who subsist chiefly by fishing.” (2) Animism, by which he probably means the worship of “souls” or “shades,” including ghosts, as every object, whether animate or inanimate, is thought to have a “shade.” This belief, he says, is found in its highest stage among tribes that formerly dwelt in British North America, between Hudsons Bay and the Great Lakes. These tribes subsist by hunting. (3) Animal worship, practiced by a class partly hunters, partly farmers, dwelling, say, between 35° and 48° N. lat. (4) Sun worship, the cult of the tribes south of 35° N. lat., and extending to the Gulf of Mexico. (5) Elemental worship, which he defines as “the worship of rain, lightning, the god of war and death,” found in Mexico and New Mexico. (6) Anthropomorphism, a religion which gave human attributes to the divinities, but assigned to them supernatural powers. This prevailed in Central America.

§ 361. But what do we find prevalent among the tribes under consideration in this paper?

I.Idea of God.—The Siouan tribes considered in this paper were not monotheists (§§ 26, 94, 95, 311). The statement recorded in § 21 about a crude belief in a Supreme Being, which the Omaha called Wakanda, was accepted by the author as the belief of his informants; but we must remember that the Omaha tribe has been in a transition state for many years, certainly since 1855, and possibly since the days of Maj. Long’s visits to them. (2) That these Indians believed in a Great Spirit who was supreme over all other superhuman powers needs more evidence. The only assertion of such a belief which the author has gained was obtained from an Omaha (see § 22), but this assertion was denied by two other members of that tribe. (3) In those cases alleged as proving a belief in one Great Spirit, a closer study of the language employed reveals the fact that a generic term has been used instead of a specific one, and, in almost every instance, the writer who tells of one Great Spirit supplements his account by relating what he has learned about beliefs in many gods or spirits. (4) These tribes had cults of many powers; everything animate and inanimate was regarded as having a “shade.”

II.Belief in immortality.—The author finds no traces of a belief in the immortality of human beings. Even the gods of the Dakota were regarded as being mortal, for they could be killed by one another (§ 94). They were male and female; they married and died, and were succeeded by their children. But if for “immortality” we substitute “continuous existence as shades or ghosts” there will be no difficulty in showing that the Siouan tribes referred to held such a belief respecting mankind, and that they very probably entertained it in a crude form prior to the advent of the white race to this continent (§§ 67-71, 91, 338).

III.Idea of sin.—The scriptural idea of sin seems to be wanting among these tribes. There have been recorded by the author and others many acts which were deemed violations of religious law, but few of them can be compared with what the Bible declares to be sins. It was dangerous to make a false report to the keeper of the sacred tent of war or to the directors of the buffalo hunt, in the estimation of the Omaha, for the offender was sure to be struck by lightning or bitten by a snake or killed by a foe or thrown by a horse or have some other disaster befall him.[280]It was dangerous to break the taboo of any gens or subgens, or to violate any other ancient custom.[281](See §§ 45, 68, 222, and 286 of this paper.)

IV.Idea of sacrifice.—The idea of sacrifice as atoning for sin has not yet been found by the author among these Siouan tribes. In noinstance of sacrifice recorded in this paper has the author detected any notion of expiation for sin against a just and holy Being. But sacrifice, whether in the form of fasting, self-torture, or the offering of property, was made in order to win the favor of a god, to obtain a temporal advantage (§§ 28, 29, 101, 144, etc.), or to avert the anger of demons, as when the people were suffering from famine or an epidemic (§ 144).

V.Shamanism.—While there have been shamans and various orders of shamans among these tribes, no trace of a worship of shamans as gods has yet been found. On one occasion the author met a Ponka shaman, Cramped Hand, who exclaimed, “I am a wakanda.” But no other Ponka ever said that he or she worshiped Cramped Hand as a wakanda.

VI. The other beliefs named by Dr. Peet have been found, in some tribes, side by side. Animism, or a form of animism, was held by those who worshiped the sun, animals, etc. “Everything had a soul” (§§ 97, 136, 137, 265-288, 344, etc.). Certain animals were worshiped (§§ 24, 43, 78, 92, 326, etc.). The sun was invoked, not only in the sun dance (§§ 139-212), but on other occasions (§§ 28, 43, 73, 312, 323). Stars, too, were regarded as gods (§§ 31, 43). Elemental worship had a wider significance among these tribes than Dr. Peet assigns it (§§ 27, 33-35, 43, 44, 74-77, 363, etc.). And there are traces of anthropomorphism, for some of the gods are in human form (§§ 217, 235); others are supposed to inhale the odor of tobacco smoke, which is pleasant to them; they eat, breathe, use weapons against one another as well as against human beings, and on one occasion an Indian was called on to aid one or the other of two contending gods; they hear, think, marry, die, and are succeeded by their children (§§ 25, 29, 35, 36, 72, 75, 94, 109, 112, 117, 119, 136, 217, 322, etc.).[282]

§ 362. The cults affected the social organization of the tribes that had gentes bearing mystic names (see §§ 57 and 82 of this paper, and Om. Soc., in 3d An. Rept. Bur. Eth., Chap. iii, and pp. 356, 359-361); orders of shamans and other secret societies were intimately associated with them (§§ 43-45, 86, 87, and 89; and Om. Soc., pp. 342-355); personal names still refer to them (§§ 31, 47, 53, 59, 74, 75, and 77; and Om. Soc., pp. 228, 232, 236, 238-244, 246-248, 250, and 251); and almost every act of the daily life of the people was influenced by them (§§ 23, 24, 27, 28-30, 32, 33-36, 39-41, 54, 101, etc.; and Om. Soc., Chap. vi, and pp. 267, 274, 286, 287, 289-291, 293-299, 316, 319-325, 327, 328, 357, 368-370).

§ 363. Prior to writing this paper, the author had observed what Dr. Foster stated in his Indian Record and Historical Data respecting the division of the Winnebago tribe into four groups, named after the earth, air, fire, and water, respectively, i.e., Foster claimed that the Winnebago had people named after land animals, others after birds andthe winds, others after the thunder-beings, and others after the Waktceqi or water monsters.[283](See § 96.)

FIG. 193.—The Ȼatada gentile circle.

During the year 1890 the author obtained from the three principal Ponka chiefs the classification of their gentes by phratries, and the character of the mystic songs peculiar to each phratry.

On comparing this information with that which has been related about the Dakota gods, there seemed to be good reasons for inferring that not only the Dakota tribes, but also the Omaha, Ponka, Winne-bago, and others of the same stock, divided their gods into four classes, those of the earth, wind-makers, fire, and water.

§ 364. Among the Omaha, Iowa, and cognate tribes, we find that when a gens assembled as a whole, for council purposes, they sat around the fire in the order shown in the accompanying diagram, Fig. 193:

Legend.—1, Black Bear subgens; 2, Small Bird subgens; 3, Eagle subgens; 4, Turtle subgens; 5, fireplace; 6, entrance.

Places in the circle were assigned according to kinship; thus, the Black Bear and Small Bird people are spoken of as “sitting on the same side of the fireplace,” as they are full kin, while they are only partially related to those who sit on the other side (Nos. 3 and 4). That the fireplace was sacred, there being traces of a hearth cult, has been shown in §§ 33 and 40. Furthermore, the Ȼatada circle is remarkable not only for its arrangement according to kinship, but for its symbolic character; because the Black Bear people are associated with the ground or earth, as is shown by their personal names; the Small Bird people are Thunder-beings or Fire people; the Eagle subgens consist of “Wind-maker” people; and the Turtle subgens is composed of Water people.

FIG. 194.—The four elements, etc.

§ 365. This suggests another diagram, Fig. 194, in which the author has put the names of four classes of Dakota gods, with what he suspects to be their appropriate colors,Rstanding for red,Bfor black,Yfor yellow, andBlfor blue.

Earth people serve or assist Fire people (§ 35 and perhaps § 36). Do Water people ever serve Wind-maker people (see address to a stream in time of war, § 23)? The Fire powers are hostile to the powers of the Water (§§ 75, 77, 117-119); we have yet to learn whether, in any gens, a subgens named after the Thunder-being sits on the same side of the gentile fireplace with a subgens named after a power of the Water. Is there a warfare going on between the powers of the Earth and the Wind-makers? The Fire powers and Wind-makers are concerned in all kinds of suffering, including war, disease, and death (§§ 117, 119, 127, 129), and there is no hostility existing between them.[284]

The Kaⁿ[s]e gens of the Osage has several names, Wind people, South-wind people, Those who light the pipes (in council), and Fire people.

The powers of the Earth and Water are interested in the preservation of life, and so we may consider them the patrons of peace. “Peace,” in Omaha, Ponka, and ┴ɔiwere, means “The land is good,” and “to make peace” is expressed by “to make the land good.” The words for “water” and “life” are identical in some of the Siouan languages, and they differ but slightly in others.

It is interesting to note what has been said by Mr. Francis La Flesche[285]about water: “Water seems to hold an important place in the practice of this medicine society, even when roots are used for the healing of wounds. The songs say: ‘Water was sent into the wound,’ ‘Water will be sent into his wound,’ etc.” The mystic songs of the doctors of the order of buffalo shamans tell of the pool of water in a buffalo wallow where the wounded one shall be treated.

But we must note some apparent inconsistencies. While the Unkteḣi created the earth and the human race (§ 112), they are believed to feed on human spirits or ghosts; though ghosts are reckoned among the servants of the Unkteḣi! And while the powers of the Fire and Water are enemies, one is surprised to observe that in the war gens of the Omaha as well as in the two war gentes of the Kansa, there is the sacred clam shell as well as the war pipe! (See § 36 and Om. Soc., p. 226.)

§ 366. According to the tradition of the Iñke-sabĕ, an Omaha buffalo people, the ancestral buffaloes found the East and South winds bad ones; but the North and West winds were good. From this the author infers that the Omaha associated the East with the Fire powers or the sun, the South[286]with the Air powers, the North with the Earth powers, and the West with the Water powers.

On the other hand, an Iowa man told Mr. Hamilton that the Southwind was a beneficent one, while the Northeast wind was maleficent (§ 74). This variation may have been caused by a difference in the habitats of the tribes referred to.

§ 367. Among the Kansa, Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Aliⁿkawahu, when they invoked the four winds, began at the left (as they were Yata people) with the East wind (Bazaⁿta, Toward the Pines), next they turned to the South wind (Ak’a, whence one of the names of the Kaⁿze gens), then to the West wind (Ak’a jiñga or Ak’uye), and lastly to the North wind (Hnita, Toward the Cold).[287](See Fig. 195.)

FIG. 195.—Kansa order of invoking the winds, etc.

FIG. 196.—Tsiɔu (Osage) order of placing the four sticks, etc.

It should be noted that those Kansa war captains, Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Aliⁿkawahu, belong to gentes on the left side of the tribal circle. They were facing the South before they began the invocations to the various powers including the four winds. See § 200 for the order (E, S, W, N) observed in felling the tree to be used as a sun pole. The same order was observed by the Dakota “priest” in the ceremonies pertaining to the White Buffalo festival of the Hunkpapa, as related by Miss Fletcher: in placing cherries on the plate, in pouring water on the piles of cherries, in placing tufts of swan’s down on the plate[288], in rotating the plate, in circling the heap of black earth[289], and in giving the four pinches of consecrated meat to the four sons of the owner of the white buffalo hide.[290]

§ 368. The Tciɔu old man of the Osage tribe consecrated each mystic hearth by placing four sticks in the form of a cross, beginning at the west, as shown in Fig. 196, then laying the sticks at the north, east, and south, as he named the four mystic buffaloes (§ 33). This Tsiɔu man belonged to the peace side of his tribe, and he began with the quarters referring to the peace elements. But the Paⁿɥka old man of the same tribe, when he consecrated the mystic fireplaces for his half-tribe, began on the right, with the stick at the east, as shown in Fig. 197. He belonged to the war side of the tribe, though his gens was a peace-making gens!

§ 369. The Maⁿyiñka and ṵpaⁿ gentes of the Kansa tribe consecrated the mystic fireplaces for their people; but we have not obtained the particulars of the Kansa ceremony, which probably resembled that in which the T[s]iɔu and Paⁿɥka old men took part.

According to Two Crows and the late Joseph La Flèche, there were four sacred stones in the custody of the Maⁿȼiñka-gaxe or Earth-lodge-makers’ gens of the Omaha: red, black, yellow, and blue.[291]

§ 370. Whenever the Osage warriors came in sight of their village on returning from an expedition against the enemy, they were met outside the village by the principal man of the Kaⁿ[s]e (the Wind or South wind gens.) This Kaⁿ[s]e man walked around the warriors, performing a ceremony as he started from the north, repeating it at each quarter, and ending with the east, as shown in Fig. 198.

FIG. 197.—Paⁿɥka (Osage) order of placing the four sticks, etc.

FIG. 198.—Kaⁿse (Osage) order of circumambulation.]

§ 371. Assuming that we have a correct grouping of the four elements in Fig. 194, it appears that Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Aliⁿkawahu began with the quarters associated with war; that the T[s]iɔu old man began with those referring to peace, and the Paⁿɥka old man with those pertaining to war, and the principal man of the Kaⁿ[s]e gens with those on the peace side.

FIG. 199.—Showing how the Osage prepared the scalp for the dance.

§ 372. In cutting off the under skin from a scalp, the Osage war captain—

stood facing the East * * * Holding the scalp in one hand, with the other he placed the knife-blade across it, with the point toward the South (see Fig. 199). Then he turned the knife with the point toward the East. Next, with the blade resting on the scalp, the point to the South, he moved the knife backward and forward four times, cutting deeper into the scalp on each occasion. Then he made four similar cuts, but with the point to the East. After this, the flat part of the bladebeing on the scalp, its edge was put against one of the four corners made by the previous incisions (1, 2, 3, and 4), beginning with No. 1. He cut under each corner four times, singing a sacred song each time that he changed the position of the knife. * * * The scalp was stretched and fastened to a bow, which was bent and formed into a hoop. This hoop was tied to a pole, which was carried by the principal kettle-bearer.[292]

Observe that in this ceremony the South and East were the mystic quarters, answering to the “bad winds” of the Iñke-sabĕ tradition.

When the Dakota “priest,” referred to in § 367, wished to rotate the plate containing the cherries and down, he grasped the plate with his right hand (note that the right side of the Osage circle was the war side) between the east and south piles of cherries and his left hand (compare with custom of T[s]iɔu gens of Osage, § 368) held the plate between the west and north piles.[293]

In the Hede-watci, the Omaha women and girls danced from the east to the south, and thence to the west and north, while the men and boys proceeded in a different order, beginning at the west, and dancing toward the north, and thence toward the east and south.[294]

§ 373. On the tent of Hupeȼa (Pl. XLIV, E), a black bear man, were represented four kinds of lightning—blue, red, black, and yellow. This was a mystery decoration (§ 45), and if the colors were associated with the four quarters, the powers were probably invoked in the order shown in Fig. 200. (See §§ 340, 369.)

FIG. 200.—Omaha lightnings and the four quarters.

§ 374. Blue is assumed to be the earth symbol for two reasons: (1) In the decorations of those who have had visions of bears, there is a broad blue band, representing the earth, out of which the bear is sometimes depicted as issuing; (2) and, furthermore, the Indians seldom distinguish between blue and green, hence, blue may symbolize grass and other vegetation, springing from the earth. In apparent contradiction of this use of blue, we are told by Lynd that “the Tunkan is painted red as a sign of active worship” (see § 132), and by Riggs (§ 133) that large bowlders were adorned with red and green paint, though the use of the two colors may have depended on a composite cult. In this connection attention is called to the battle standards represented on the tent of Ԁejequta, an Omaha. These painted standards had red and blue stripes, denoting the stripes ofIndian cloth, sometimes used instead of feathers on the real standards. The latter were carried by the leaders of war parties, and each standard could be used on four such expeditions. When the warriors approached the hostile camp, the keeper of the standard removed the scarf of blue and red cloth from the shaft and wore it around his neck as he went to steal horses (see Pl. XLIV, A, the name Bowlder Thunder-being in § 390, also § 388).

§ 375. Red is known to be the Omaha color for the east. Among the Dakota the spear and tomahawk, the weapons of war, were said to have been given by the Wakinyan, the Thunder-being or Fire power; hence they are painted red (§ 105).

The late Dr. S. R. Riggs informs us that—

In the tiyotipi were placed the bundles of the black and red sticks of the soldiers.[295]Toward the rear of the tent, but near enough to the fire for convenient use, is a large pipe placed by the symbols of power. These are two bundles of shaved sticks about 6 inches long. The sticks in one bundle are painted black and in the other red. The black bundle represents the real men of the camp—those who have made their mark on the warpath. The red bundle represents the boys and such men as wear no eagle feathers.[296]They shave out small round sticks all of the same length, and paint them red, and they are given out to the men. These are to constitute the tiyotipi. * * * Of all the round shaved sticks, some of which were painted black and some painted red, four were especially marked. They are the four chiefs of the tiyotipi that were made.[297]

In the tiyotipi were placed the bundles of the black and red sticks of the soldiers.[295]

Toward the rear of the tent, but near enough to the fire for convenient use, is a large pipe placed by the symbols of power. These are two bundles of shaved sticks about 6 inches long. The sticks in one bundle are painted black and in the other red. The black bundle represents the real men of the camp—those who have made their mark on the warpath. The red bundle represents the boys and such men as wear no eagle feathers.[296]

They shave out small round sticks all of the same length, and paint them red, and they are given out to the men. These are to constitute the tiyotipi. * * * Of all the round shaved sticks, some of which were painted black and some painted red, four were especially marked. They are the four chiefs of the tiyotipi that were made.[297]

§ 376. Black is assumed to be the symbolic color for the Takuśkanśkan, the Wind-makers, whose servants are the four winds and the four black spirits of night. Black as a war color is put on the face[298]of the warrior. The Santee Dakota consider the raven (a black bird) and a small black stone, less than a hen’s egg in size, symbols of the four winds or quarters. Among the Teton Dakota, the Takuśkanśkan symbols, are small pebbles of two kinds, one white, and, according to the description, translucent; the other “resembles ordinary pebbles,” probably in being opaque.

§ 377. Yellow is assumed to be the color symbolizing water, the west, and the setting sun. The Dakota, Omaha, Ponka, and ┴ɔiwere tribes have been familiar for years with the color of the water in the Missouri river. In a Yankton Dakota legend[299]recorded by the author it is said that when two mystery men prepared themselves to visit a spirit of the water in order to recover an Indian boy, one of the men painted his entire body black, and the other painted himself yellow (this seems to refer to the south and west, the windmakers and the spirits of the waters).

In certain Omaha tent decorations we find that the tent of a Turtle man (Fig. 161) has a yellow ground. A similar yellow ground on thetent of Maⁿtcu-naⁿba of the Hañga gens (Fig. 174) may be connected with the tradition that the Hañga gens came originally from beneath the water. Too much stress, however, must not be placed upon the colors of such mystery decorations, as they may be found hereafter to have had another origin. It is conceivable, although we have no means of proving it, that he who had a vision, depicted on his robe and tent not only the colors pertaining to the objects seen in the vision, but also the color peculiar to the eponymic ancestor or power that was the “nikie” (§ 53). As some men were members of more than one order of shamans, their tent and robe decorations may refer to the one order rather than to the other, and sometimes there may be a reference to both orders. The yellow on the top of the tent of Frog, an Ictasanda man, was said to refer to a grizzly bear vision (fideGeorge Miller, an Omaha—see Fig. 177.) But when we compare it with Pl. XLIV, D, showing the tent of a Hañga man, who was a Buffalo shaman as well as a Grizzly Bear shaman, we find that the top of the latter tent has a yellow band (apparently pointing to the Hañga tradition of an aquatic origin), as well as a blue band at the bottom (referring to the grizzly bear vision).

§ 378. From what has been said respecting the figures 194-199, we are led to make the following provisional coördinations:

Dakota god.Element.Quarter.Color.TunkanEarthNorthBlueWakinyanFireEastRedTakuśkanśkanWind-makersSouthBlackUnkteḣiWaterWestYellow

NOTE.—The names of the Dakota gods are given because we have more information about them, and the exact Omaha equivalent for Takuśkanśkan has not been obtained.

§ 379. Miss Fletcher gave, in 1884, a list of symbolic colors, which differs somewhat from that which the author has suggested in the preceding section. She said:

White, blue, red, and yellow possess different meaning, yet are not very clearly determined by all tribes.[300]Among the Dakotas the following interpretation prevails: White is seldom used artificially; when it occurs in nature, as the white buffalo, deer, rabbit, etc., and on the plumage of birds, it indicates consecration. The sacred feathers and down are always white,[301]the former being taken from the underpart of the eagle’s wing and are soft and downy. This meaning of white holds good with the Omahas, Poncas, etc., and seems to have a wide application among the Indians. Blue represents the winds, the west, the moon, the water, the thunder, and sometimes the lightning. * * * Red indicates the sun, the stone, the forms of animal and vegetable life, the procreative force. Yellow represents sunlight as distinguished from the fructifying power of the sun.[302]

The author has never observed this use of white as a symbolic color. In speaking of albino animals, we infer that to the Siouan mind they are consecrated because they are rare. In fact, Miss Fletcher says:

The white buffalo is rare and generally remains near the center of the herd, which makes it difficult of approach. It is therefore considered as the chief or sacred one of the herd; and it is consequently greatly prized by the Indians.[303]

While the author is convinced of the great value of Miss Fletcher’s investigations, he inquires concerning the veracity of her interpreters. He would like to see more detailed evidence before he accepts as the Dakota classification one which puts in the same category not only the winds and thunder, but also the water, the west, and the moon. He also asks why should the moon be separated from the sun (see § 138), and why should the west be the only quarter symbolized by a color? Besides, the Dakota shamans say that the Thunder-beings are of four colors, black, yellow, scarlet, and blue (see § 116).

In response to the wish of the author, Miss Fletcher has kindly furnished him with the following letter of explanation, received after the rest of the paper had been written:

Consecration as applied to the color white in the article you have quoted needs a few words of explanation.The almost universal appropriation of white animals to religious ceremonies is unquestionable; whether this selection rests wholly upon the rarity of this color is a little doubtful. The unusual is generally wakan; this feeling, however, is not confined to a color, and although the white buffalo and the white deer are not often met with, other white animals, as the rabbit, are not uncommon, nor are white feathers. It is true these white feathers are often colored for ceremonial uses, but the added colors have their particular meanings, and these do not seem to override the primal signification that the feathers selected to bear these symbolic colors are white. The natural suggestion that a white ground would best serve to set off the added lines may have been in the distant past the simple reason why white feathers were chosen; and this choice adhered to for generations would at last become clothed with a mysterious significance. If this were ever true, this reason for choosing white feathers is not recognized to-day. I have been frequently told, the feathers must be white.While I should now hesitate to say that white symbolizes consecration, still, after continued study, I find the idea clinging about the color, which, as I said then, is seldom artificially used.Various symbolic colors are not infrequently placed upon one object, so that the combining of symbols,[304]or even their occasional exchange, does not seem discordant to the Indian mind; this fact among others renders it difficult to draw a hard and fast line about any one color or symbol.Further research has shown me that green and blue and black are related and that to a degree green and blue are interchangeable. Blue is regarded as a darkened green; that is, green removed from the light, not deepened in hue. Blue, therefore, stands intermediate between green which has the light on it; and blue shaded into black, which has no light on it. In some ceremonies green typifies the earth; in others blue is the symbol. The sky is sometimes represented by green, and again blue is used, while blue darkened to black stands for the destructive elements of the air.I have found a subtle connection between the elements of earth and air that answers somewhat to the blending of the symbolic colors just spoken of. This connection is revealed in the reciprocal or complementary functions of gentes belonging to these two great divisions represented in the tribal structure, as well as in the reactionary character of the elements themselves as portrayed in the myths and typified in some ceremonies. For instance, the eagle mythically belongs to the air, and is allied to the destructive powers of the element and to wars upon the earth, yet the Eagle gens, although connected with the air division of the gentes, is in some tribes a peace gens. An enemy escaping to the tent of an Eagle man is safe and cannot be molested. In symbols eagle feathers are not only the pride and emblem of the warrior but they are essential in certain ceremonies of amity and peace-making.A study of the position of gentes belonging to the divisions of earth and air, their tribal and ceremonial duties, together with their mythological significance, shows lines connecting the gentes of the earth with the gentes of the air which are vertical, so to speak, and might be represented as running north and south on the tribal circle, and indicating mediating offices as between contending or opposite forces.It would occupy too much space to fully set forth my reasons for thinking blue-black to be the symbol of the thunder rather than red and yellow. Although thunder is allied to the four quarters, to the four elemental divisions and partakes of their symbolism, still a study of thunder myths, thunder-names, and the tribal offices of thunder gentes seems to me, at my present understanding of them, to indicate the blue-black as the persistent symbol.I would not at this date make any unqualified statement giving green, blue, or black as the symbol of the west, the water, or the moon; and although in some instances these colors occur in connection with these objects of reverence, I am now inclined to class these as incidental rather than as representative of the color symbols.One word regarding red and yellow. Red not only represents the sun and the procreative forces (yet black is sometimes used in the latter), but the color carries with it the idea of hope, the continuation of life. The dawn of the day, the east, is almost without exception in these tribes denoted by red. This red line, forceful, aggressive, yet life giving and hope-inspiring, starts from a war division of the tribal circle and fades into yellow as it passes into an opposite peace division in the west. Red and yellow bear to each other a relation somewhat resembling that of blue and black, only reversed; the red loses its intensity in yellow, the aggressive force symbolized in the red is not expressed in the yellow. If the Indian’s world were arched with his symbolic colors, we should see a brilliant band of red start from the east and fade to yellow in the west; while the green-blue line from the north would deepen to the black of the south. In the first the intense color would rush from war into the mild light of peace; the second bright hue would spring from peace to be lost in the darkness of war. Thus the two hold the tribe within the opposing yet complementary forces which constitute the mystery of the relation between life and death.I will not go further into this interesting subject nor revert to the revolution of these symbolic colors as throwing light on tribal migrations and history.Thanking you for this opportunity to modify some of my statements written nine years ago,I remain, cordially yours,ALICE C. FLETCHER.PEABODY MUSEUM,Cambridge, Mass., January 3, 1891.

Consecration as applied to the color white in the article you have quoted needs a few words of explanation.

The almost universal appropriation of white animals to religious ceremonies is unquestionable; whether this selection rests wholly upon the rarity of this color is a little doubtful. The unusual is generally wakan; this feeling, however, is not confined to a color, and although the white buffalo and the white deer are not often met with, other white animals, as the rabbit, are not uncommon, nor are white feathers. It is true these white feathers are often colored for ceremonial uses, but the added colors have their particular meanings, and these do not seem to override the primal signification that the feathers selected to bear these symbolic colors are white. The natural suggestion that a white ground would best serve to set off the added lines may have been in the distant past the simple reason why white feathers were chosen; and this choice adhered to for generations would at last become clothed with a mysterious significance. If this were ever true, this reason for choosing white feathers is not recognized to-day. I have been frequently told, the feathers must be white.

While I should now hesitate to say that white symbolizes consecration, still, after continued study, I find the idea clinging about the color, which, as I said then, is seldom artificially used.

Various symbolic colors are not infrequently placed upon one object, so that the combining of symbols,[304]or even their occasional exchange, does not seem discordant to the Indian mind; this fact among others renders it difficult to draw a hard and fast line about any one color or symbol.

Further research has shown me that green and blue and black are related and that to a degree green and blue are interchangeable. Blue is regarded as a darkened green; that is, green removed from the light, not deepened in hue. Blue, therefore, stands intermediate between green which has the light on it; and blue shaded into black, which has no light on it. In some ceremonies green typifies the earth; in others blue is the symbol. The sky is sometimes represented by green, and again blue is used, while blue darkened to black stands for the destructive elements of the air.I have found a subtle connection between the elements of earth and air that answers somewhat to the blending of the symbolic colors just spoken of. This connection is revealed in the reciprocal or complementary functions of gentes belonging to these two great divisions represented in the tribal structure, as well as in the reactionary character of the elements themselves as portrayed in the myths and typified in some ceremonies. For instance, the eagle mythically belongs to the air, and is allied to the destructive powers of the element and to wars upon the earth, yet the Eagle gens, although connected with the air division of the gentes, is in some tribes a peace gens. An enemy escaping to the tent of an Eagle man is safe and cannot be molested. In symbols eagle feathers are not only the pride and emblem of the warrior but they are essential in certain ceremonies of amity and peace-making.

A study of the position of gentes belonging to the divisions of earth and air, their tribal and ceremonial duties, together with their mythological significance, shows lines connecting the gentes of the earth with the gentes of the air which are vertical, so to speak, and might be represented as running north and south on the tribal circle, and indicating mediating offices as between contending or opposite forces.

It would occupy too much space to fully set forth my reasons for thinking blue-black to be the symbol of the thunder rather than red and yellow. Although thunder is allied to the four quarters, to the four elemental divisions and partakes of their symbolism, still a study of thunder myths, thunder-names, and the tribal offices of thunder gentes seems to me, at my present understanding of them, to indicate the blue-black as the persistent symbol.

I would not at this date make any unqualified statement giving green, blue, or black as the symbol of the west, the water, or the moon; and although in some instances these colors occur in connection with these objects of reverence, I am now inclined to class these as incidental rather than as representative of the color symbols.

One word regarding red and yellow. Red not only represents the sun and the procreative forces (yet black is sometimes used in the latter), but the color carries with it the idea of hope, the continuation of life. The dawn of the day, the east, is almost without exception in these tribes denoted by red. This red line, forceful, aggressive, yet life giving and hope-inspiring, starts from a war division of the tribal circle and fades into yellow as it passes into an opposite peace division in the west. Red and yellow bear to each other a relation somewhat resembling that of blue and black, only reversed; the red loses its intensity in yellow, the aggressive force symbolized in the red is not expressed in the yellow. If the Indian’s world were arched with his symbolic colors, we should see a brilliant band of red start from the east and fade to yellow in the west; while the green-blue line from the north would deepen to the black of the south. In the first the intense color would rush from war into the mild light of peace; the second bright hue would spring from peace to be lost in the darkness of war. Thus the two hold the tribe within the opposing yet complementary forces which constitute the mystery of the relation between life and death.

I will not go further into this interesting subject nor revert to the revolution of these symbolic colors as throwing light on tribal migrations and history.

Thanking you for this opportunity to modify some of my statements written nine years ago,

I remain, cordially yours,

ALICE C. FLETCHER.

PEABODY MUSEUM,Cambridge, Mass., January 3, 1891.

In the Word Carrier of November, 1890, published by A. L. Riggs, at Santee Agency, Nebr., is an article on page 30, from Mary C. Collins, who is evidently one of the mission workers. She says: “I went into the sacred tent and talked with Sitting Bull. He sat * * * opposite the tent door. Hands and wrists were painted yellow and green;face painted red, green, and white.” (Did the four colors refer to the elements?) “As I started toward him he said, ‘Winona,[305]approach me on the left side and shake my left hand with your left hand.’” (Does the gens of Sitting Bull camp on the left side of the tribal circle, occasioning the use of the left in all ceremonies, as among the Tsiɔu gentes of the Osage? Or is the left the war side among the people of Sitting Bull, as among the Kansa? See §§ 33 and 368.)

§ 380. The following are the symbolic colors of the North Carolina Cherokee, the Ojibwa, the Navajo, the Apache, the Zuñi, and the Aztec:

aMooney, in Jour. Am. Folklore, Vol. III, No. 8, Jan.-Mar., 1890, pp. 49, 50.bHoffman, in Am. Anthropologist, July, 1889, pp. 217, 218; from Sicosige, a second-degree Mide of White Earth, Minn.cHoffman, in ibid., p. 218; from Ojibwa, a fourth-degree Mide, from another locality.dMatthews, in 5th An. Rept. Bur. Eth., p. 449.eMallery, from Thos. V. Keam’s catalogue of relics of the ancient buildings of the southwest table-lands—quoted in Trans. Anthrop. Soc. of Washington, Vol. III, 141, 1885.fGatschet, on Chiricahua Apache sun circle, in Trans. Anthrop. Soc. of Washington, Vol. III, 147, 1885.gCapt. J. G. Bourke, in a letter to the author, Dec. 4, 1890. In Nov., 1885, he obtained from a San Carlos (Pinal) Apache green as the color for the north.hMrs. M. C. Stevenson, in 5th An. Rept. Bur. Eth., p. 548. According to Dr. J. Walter Fowkes the Hopi or Moki have a similar order of colors, the west having green (or blue).iKingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, Vol. VII (fideCapt. J. G. Bourke).

aMooney, in Jour. Am. Folklore, Vol. III, No. 8, Jan.-Mar., 1890, pp. 49, 50.

bHoffman, in Am. Anthropologist, July, 1889, pp. 217, 218; from Sicosige, a second-degree Mide of White Earth, Minn.

cHoffman, in ibid., p. 218; from Ojibwa, a fourth-degree Mide, from another locality.

dMatthews, in 5th An. Rept. Bur. Eth., p. 449.

eMallery, from Thos. V. Keam’s catalogue of relics of the ancient buildings of the southwest table-lands—quoted in Trans. Anthrop. Soc. of Washington, Vol. III, 141, 1885.

fGatschet, on Chiricahua Apache sun circle, in Trans. Anthrop. Soc. of Washington, Vol. III, 147, 1885.

gCapt. J. G. Bourke, in a letter to the author, Dec. 4, 1890. In Nov., 1885, he obtained from a San Carlos (Pinal) Apache green as the color for the north.

hMrs. M. C. Stevenson, in 5th An. Rept. Bur. Eth., p. 548. According to Dr. J. Walter Fowkes the Hopi or Moki have a similar order of colors, the west having green (or blue).

iKingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, Vol. VII (fideCapt. J. G. Bourke).

According to Gatschet the Chiricahua Apache call the sun, when in the east, “the black sun,” and a tornado or gust of wind also is called “black.” (See § 378.)

Matthews says that in rare cases white is assigned to the north and black to the east, and that black represents the male and blue the female among the Navajo. (See § 105 of this paper.)

§ 381. The author calls special attention to the colors of the four sacred stones of the Omaha Wolf gens, red, black, yellow, and blue i. e., E., S., W., N.; (see § 369), and to those on the tent of an Omaha Black Bear man (see § 373, and PL. XLIV, E, where the colors are given in the order N., E., S., W.). He has not yet gained the colors for the upper and lower worlds, though the Omaha offer the pipe to the “venerableman sitting above” and to the “venerable man below lying on his back.” (§ 27.)

In the tradition of the T[s]iɔu wactaʞe gens of the Osage there is an account of the finding of four kinds of rocks, black, blue or green, red, and white. And from the left hind legs of four buffalo bulls there dropped to the ground four ears of corn and four pumpkins.[306]The corn and pumpkin from the first buffalo were red, those from the second were spotted, those from the third were ca[p]e, i.e., dark or distant-black, and those from the fourth were white.

Green, black, white, and gray are the traditional colors of the ancestral wolves, according to the Wolf people of the Winnebago, though for “green” we may substitute “blue,” as the corresponding name for the first son in that gens is Blue Sky. Among the personal names in the Thunder-being subgens of the Winnebago are the four color names, Green Thunder-being, Black Thunder-being, White Thunder-being, and Yellow Thunder-being (instead of Gray). James Alexander, a member of the Wolf gens, said that these four Thunder-being names did not refer to the four quarters. This seems probable, unless white be the Winnebago color for the east and gray or yellow that for the west.

In November, 1893, more than two years after the preceding sentence was written, a Winnebago told the author that among his people white was associated with the north, red with the west, and green with the south. Of these he was certain. He thought that blue was the color for the east, but he was not positive about it.

§ 382. The following shows the color combinations in a list of forty-six objects taken from the census schedules of the Dakota, Hidatsa, and Mandan tribes (U. S. Census of 1880), the lists of Dakota names given in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 175, 177-180, and the list of Winnebago names collected by the author. Blue or green, (chiefly blue), 26; red, 25; black, 31; yellow, 30; scarlet, 38; white, 37; gray, 18; saŋ or distant-white (whitish), 4; rusty-yellow or brown (ġi), 18; spotted, 17; and striped, 8. Objects combined with two colors, 7; with three colors, 7; with four colors, 4; with five colors, 5; with six colors, 5; with seven colors, 6; with eight colors, 6; with nine colors, 5; with ten colors, 1; with all eleven colors, none. It should, however, be remembered that the lists consulted did not contain all the personal names of the Siouan tribes which have been mentioned, and that it is probable there would be found more color combinations if all the census schedules were accessible. We can not say whether each of the colors (including spotted and striped) has a mystic significance in the Siouan mind. Perhaps further study may show that red (śa) and scarlet (duta, luta) have the same symbolic meaning, and rusty-yellow (ġi) may be an equivalent of yellow (zi).

§ 383. The Tunkan or bowlder, the Dakota name for the Earth powers, is also called the Lingam by Riggs ( § 132), as if connected with a phallic cult (§§ 164, etc.). The Earth powers (Tunkan) and the Wind-makers (Takuśkanśkan) are said by the Dakota to have a common symbol; but is not the symbol of the Takuśkanśkan a pebble (§ 376)? In the Kansa war chart (see § 127) does the large (red) rock refer to the Earth powers? And does the small rock refer to the Wind-makers? The Earth powers and the Wind-makers seem to be associated in some degree: (a) In the use of the rock symbol (if the Takuśkanśkan symbol be a true rock), and (b) in the use, among the Omaha, of eagle birth names in the social divisions called “Keepers of the pipes.” This latter rests upon the assumption that the Iñke-sabĕ is a buffalo gens which should be regarded as having some connection with the Earth cult. When the Omaha chiefs assembled in council the two sacred pipes were filled by the Ictasanda keeper (a member of a Fire and Water gens); but they were carried around the council lodge by the Iñke-sabĕ and ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ keepers. The Iñke-sabĕ keeper started around the lodge with one of the pipes; when he had gone halfway (i.e., as far as the entrance) the ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ keeper started from the back of the lodge with the other pipe, taking care to keep behind the Iñke-sabĕ keeper just half the circumference of the circle.[307]The ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ man belonged to the Eagle or Wind-makers subgens and the Iñke-sabĕ man to one that we term provisionally an Earth gens. (See Fig. 194.) The Iñke-sabĕ, it is true, have a tradition that they came originally from the water; but the buffalo is specially associated with the earth. Among the Dakota the buffalo and the earth are regarded as one. (§ 239.)

The Earth gentes, as far as we can judge, are as follows: Iñke-sabĕ and Hañga (?), two Buffalo gentes, and the Wasabe-hit‘ajĭ, a Black bear subgens, among the Omaha; the Wacabe and Makaⁿ (Buffalo gentes,) among the Ponka; the Maⁿyiñka (Earth) and Wasabe (Black bear), of the Kansa; the Earth and Black bear of the Osage; Black bear, and perhaps Wolf, among the Iowa and Oto; Black bear, of the Missouri; and Black bear and Wolf of the Winnebago. The Black bear people of the Winnebago were the only men of that tribe who enforced discipline in time of war and acted as policemen when there was peace. The tradition of the Winnebago Wolf gens names four brothers that were created. The first was green [sic] and was named Blue Sky (referring to day). The second was black, and his name referred to night. The third was white and the fourth was gray. The green, black, and white wolves have remained in their subterraneanabodes. They are never seen by mankind. The gray wolf was the ancestor of all the wolves which are seen above ground. (See § 90.) These four colors are evidently symbolic; but the author has not yet learned whether they have any reference to the four quarters. (See § 75.)

§ 384. Among these were the Thunder-beings and the Sun. The former were usually considered maleficent powers, as distinguished from the Sun, the beneficent Fire power; but occasionally the Thunder-beings were addressed as “grandfathers,” who could be induced to gratify the wishes of the suppliants by granting them success in war (§§ 35, 36). It was probably with reference to the Sun that the East was considered the source of light and life, the West being associated with the taking of life in the chase or on the war path (see § 28). Red among the Omaha is the color symbol of the East, but red is also symbolic of war. The “fire paint” among the T[s]iɔu gentes of the Osage tribe is red. It is applied when the fire prayers are said. Red is a war color among the Dakota, Omaha, Kansa, and Osage. The T[s]iɔu crier received in his left hand a knife with the handle painted red. The Hañʞa crier received in his right hand a hatchet with the handle reddened. On the death of a comrade the surviving Osage removed the bark from a post oak, say, about 5 feet from the ground, painted the blazed tree red, broke four arrows and left them and some paint by the tree.[308]Whenever the author saw Pahaⁿle-gaqli, one of the war chiefs of the Kansa, he noticed that the man’s face was painted red all over. In the middle of the war chart of Pahaⁿle-gaqli was a fire symbol; but the chief feared to represent it in the copy which he made for the author. It probably consisted of the four firebrands placed at right angles and meeting at a common center. The Omaha must have had such a symbol at one time (see § 33). The Osage had it, according to their tradition (see §§ 40, 365). The successful warriors among the Omaha could redden their weapons when they joined in the dance.[309]

The Dakota give the following as the sentinels for the Wakinyan: The deer at the north, the butterfly at the east, the beaver at the south, and the bear at the west (§ 116). If these were arranged to conform to the order of Fig. 194 the bear would be at the north, the beaver at the west, the deer at the east, and the butterfly at the south. But there may be a special order of grouping the servants of each class of powers differing from the order of the four powers themselves. The Dakota wakan men say that the Wakinyan are of four colors, black, yellow, scarlet, and blue (§ 116). The Thunder men of the Omaha legend had hair of different colors, the first having white hair, the second red, the third yellow, and the fourth green hair.[310]

The following appear to be the Fire gentes: Thunder-being people of the Omaha tribe, Elk gens, Small-bird subgens, Deer, and Ictasanda (Reptile and Thunder-being) gentes; the Hisada and Black bear gentes of the Ponka; the Lṵ or Gray hawk people (also called Thunder-being people) of the Kansa tribe, with whom are associated the Deer and Buffalo gentes in the singing of the Thunder songs (§ 36); the [K]ȼŭⁿ[311]or Thunder-being gens, on the Tsiɔu, Buffalo, or Peace side of the Osage tribe (!!), perhaps the Tcexiʇa, a bird gens of the Iowa tribe; part of the Tcexiʇa gens of the Oto and Missouri tribes; and the Wakaⁿtcară or Thunder-being subgens of the Winnebago.

Four Thunder-beings were invoked by the Ictasanda gens (§ 35): Ȼigȼize-maⁿȼiⁿ, Ȼiaⁿba-tigȼe, Ȼiaⁿba-gi-naⁿ, and Gaagigȼedaⁿ. Was each of these supposed to dwell at one of the four quarters?

Among the Osage and Kansa tribes there is a gens known as the Miⁿ k’iⁿ (from miⁿ, the sun, and k’iⁿ, to carry a load on the back), rendered “Sun Carriers.” Some of the Osage insisted that this name referred to the buffalo instead of the sun, as that animal carries a robe or plenty of hair on his back; and they maintained that the Miⁿ k’iⁿ was a buffalo gens. That there is some connection in the Indian mind between the sun and the buffalo is shown in the sun dance, in which the figure of a buffalo bull (§ 164) and buffalo skulls (§§ 147, 173, 176, 177, 181, and 198, and Pl. XLVIII) play important parts.

§ 385. The Takuśkanśkan of the Dakotas has been described in a previous chapter (§§ 127-131). The Omaha tribe has the order of the Iⁿ-kugȼi or the translucent stone, in which order the Wind-makers were probably invoked. The T[s]iɔu old man addressed the four winds and as many mystic buffaloes when he laid down the four firebrands. And at a similar ceremony the old man of the Paⁿɥka gens addressed the four winds and as many mystic deer (§ 33). The Omaha evidently had a prayer, “Ho, ye four firebrands that meet at a common point!” (§ 40.) With this there may have been addresses to the winds. Four firebrands were used in a Winnebago ceremony (§ 84).

The Iñke-sabĕ (Omaha) belief as to the four winds has been related in § 366.[312]The winds and the sun were associated in the ceremony of raising the sun pole, judging from what Bushotter has written (§ 167). There was also some connection in the Dakota mind between the winds and the buffalo. Compare the figure of the winds on a buffalo skull as described by Miss Fletcher[313]in her account of the sun dance.

The following social divisions are assigned to this category: The [K]aⁿze, or Wind people, and the ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ, Touch-not-a-buffalo-skull, or Eagle people, of the Omaha tribe; the Ȼixida and Nika[p]aɔna gentes of the Ponka; the Kaⁿze (Wind or South Wind-people), Qüya (White eagle), Ghost, and perhaps the Large Hañga (Black eagle), among the Kansa; the Kaⁿ[s]e (also called the Wind and South Wind people), and perhaps the Hañʞa utaȼanʇ[s]e (Black eagle) gens of the Osage; the Pigeon and Buffalo gentes of the Iowa and Oto tribes; the Hawk and Momi (Small bird) subgentes of the Missouri tribe; the Eagle and Pigeon, and perhaps the Hawk subgens of the Winnebago Bird gens.

Each wind or quarter is reckoned as three by the Dakota[314]and presumably by the Osage (see § 42), making the four quarters equal to twelve. Can there be any reference here to a belief in three worlds, the one in which we live, an upper world, and a world beneath this one? Or were the winds divided into three classes, those close to the ground, those in mid air, and those very high in the air? The Kansa seem to make some such distinction, judging from the names of the divisions of the Kaⁿze or Wind gens of that tribe.

References to a world supposed to be above that one in which we dwell occur in some of the personal names of the Dakota, in the U. S. Census list of 1880. There we find such names as, Wolf Up-above, Hawk Up-above, Grizzly-bear Up-above, and Buffalo-bull Up-above. Grizzly-bear Up-above should be taken in connection with the tradition of the Black-bear people of the Osage tribe. These people tell how their ancestors descended from the upper world, bringing fire.[315]The tradition of the Wolf people of the Winnebago tribe tells of the creation of their ancestors as wolves in a subterranean world, and of a belief that many wolves remain there still. The Winnebago have, too, the name, Second Earth Person, referring to a waktceqi or watermonster, as the waktceqi are supposed to dwell in the world beneath this one. They call this world The First World, and the subterranean one The Second World.

§ 386. The Unkteḣi of the Dakota answers to the Wakandagi of the Omaha and Ponka, and the Waktceqi of the Winnebago. One of the Omaha myths relates to a Wakandagi with seven heads. The Waktceqi have the Loon as a servant, and in this respect they resemble the tyrantU-twa´-ʞe of the ┴ɔiwere myth. The name utwaʞe is now given to the muskrat. The male Water powers inhabit streams, and the females dwell under the ground, presumably in subterranean streams. According to Winnebago belief, they support the weight of the hills. Some of the Omaha thought that these powers dwelt under the hills (§§ 77, 107). The monsters supposed to inhabit bogs were probably a species of water spirits (§ 254). Streams were invoked as “Wakanda” by the Omaha (§ 23). Though the natural habitat of the buffalo is the surface of the earth, and the Dakota believe the animal to be of subterranean origin, he is of subaquatic origin according to the traditions of the Iñke-sabĕ and Hañga gentes of the Omaha.[316]But no traces of such a belief have been found among the buffalo gentes of cognate tribes. “One day, when the principal man of the people not known as the Waȼigije subgens of the Iñke-sabĕ, was fasting and praying to the sun-god,[317]he saw the ghost of a buffalo, visible from the flank up, arising from a spring.”[318]

The Water people among the Omaha are the Turtle subgens, parts (if not all) of the Iñke-sabĕ and Hañga (Buffalo) gentes, and perhaps a part of the Ictasanda gens. Those among the Ponka have not yet been ascertained; but they may be the Wajaje and part of the Hisada. Among the Kansa they are the Turtle people. In the Osage tribe are the Turtle Carriers, Ke ʞatsü (said to be a turtle, but probably a Water-monster), Fish, Beaver, and, perhaps, the Tsewaȼe or Pond Lily people. Among the Iowa and Oto are the Beaver gentes. And the Winnebago have the Water-monster gens.

§ 387. There are many gentes and subgentes which can not be assigned to any of the four categories of elemental powers for want of evidence. It is unsafe to argue that, because two buffalo gentes of the Omaha claim a subaquatic origin, all buffalo gentes should be regarded as Water people. Certain cautions should be kept in mind.

§ 388. The power of each of the four classes of elemental gods extends beyond its special element. For instance, the Unkteḣi, who rules in the water, has for his servants or allies, the black owl in the forest (Query: Has this any connection with the fire or thunder?), eagles in the air, and serpents in the earth. And the Thunder-beings have as their servants, the bear, whose abode is in the ground, the beaver, who is associated with the water, the butterfly, who lives in the air; and the deer.

§ 389. The servants of a class of elemental gods do not necessarily belong to that element which those gods regulate. Thus, the Blackbear people of the Omaha, an earth people, assist the Elk people in the worship of the Thunder; and among the Kansa, the Buffalo people perform a similar service for the Lṵ or Thunder-being people (§§ 35, 36).

Those who belong to the same phratry, belong to the same social division; but while they “sing the mystery songs together,” they need not be assigned to the same elemental category.

§ 390. As the order of Thunder shamans is composed of those who have had dreams or visions of the sun, moon, stars, Thunder-beings, or some other superterrestial objects or phenomena, may not all superterrestial beings, including those of the “upper world,” be regarded as Thunder-beings by the Indians? (See § 45 and the Thunder-being names in § 393.)

That is to say, may not the eagles, and other birds of the “upper world” be Eagle Thunder-beings, Crow Thunder-beings, etc., though their special element is not the fire but the “wind-makers,” and the grizzly bears who reside under ground in that upper world, have given rise to the personal name, Grizzly-bear Thunder-being? If this be correct, then Bowlder Thunder-being may refer to a bowlder in the upper world, unless the supposition respecting composite names (in § 392) be true.

§ 391. The following appears at first sight to be the proper classification of the subgentes of a Bird gens in a few of the Siouan tribes: Thunder-bird, Eagle, Hawk, and Pigeon. But a study of personal names has led to a modification of this grouping: for we find such names as Eagle Thunder-being, Hawk Thunder-being, and Pigeon Thunder-being, as distinguished from ordinary eagles, hawks, and pigeons. Hence, we may find on further study that in some tribes there are eagle, hawk, and pigeon names for gentes and subgentes whose patron gods are Thunder-beings. For instance, the Lṵ gens of the Kansa tribe has two names for itself, Ledaⁿ nikaciⁿga, Gray hawk People, and Lṵ nikaciⁿga, Thunder-being People.

§ 392. There are other composite names, most of which are found in the census lists of the Dakota tribes, whose gentes are said to have no animal names, and a few have been obtained from the personal name lists of the Omaha, Ponka, and Kansa, and the census lists of the Mandan, and Hidatsa, that give animal names to some or all of their gentes. In the Winnebago name list no such personal names have been found, though that people has animal names for its gentes.

Each of these composite names may refer to a vision of a composite being, who was subsequently regarded as the guardian spirit of the person who had the dream or vision. Or the bearer of such a name may have had a dream or vision of two distinct powers. In the pictograph of such a name, the powers (or symbols of the two powers) represented in the name are joined (see § 374).

§ 393. The following is a list of composite names which may be found to symbolize the four elements. The elements are designated by their respective abbreviations: E for earth, F for fire; A for air, and W for water. The interrogation mark after any name denotes a provisional or conjectural assignment.

Turtle Grizzly-bear (W + E).Grizzly-bear Small-bird (E + A).Cloud Grizzly-bear (F? + E).Grizzly-bear Buffalo-bull (E + ?).Fire Grizzly-bear (F + E).Sun Grizzly-bear (F + E).Ghost Grizzly-bear (? + E).Grizzly-bear Weasel, given as “Weasel Bear” in 4th An. Rept. Bur.Eth., Pl. LXIX, No. 174.Iron Grizzly-bear (“Iron” is generally denoted by blue in the Dakota pictographs. See § 107.)Bald-eagle Grizzly-bear (A? + E).Shield Grizzly-bear. (The shield is on the bear’s side, 4th Eth., Pl. LXIII, No. 62.)Crow Grizzly-bear.Whirlwind Grizzly-bear. (The whirlwind precedes in the pictograph, 4th Eth., Pl. LVIII, No. 77.)Hawk Thunder-being.Pigeon Thunder-being. (A ┴ɔiwere name—not yet found in Dakota.)Buffalo-bull Thunder-being.Grizzly-bear Thunder-being (E + F).Fire Thunder-being (F + F).Elk Thunder-being.Pipe Thunder-being. (4th Eth., Pl. LXXI, No. 179, a winged pipe.)Cloud Thunder-being.Horse Thunder-being.Iron Thunder-being. (See § 107.)Earth Thunder-being (E + F.)Black-Bird Eagle.Eagle Hawk. (4th Eth., Pl. LVI, No. 53.)Eagle Small-bird. (4th Eth., Pl. LXVI, No. 116.)Grizzly-bear Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LXIX, No. 170; a bear with aneagle’s tail.)Horse Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LXVIII, No. 153; horse body and eagle’s tail.)Dog Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LII, No. 9; dog with eagle’s tail.)Eagle Swallow. (4th Eth., Pl. LXXIX, No. 282; eagle with forked tail of a swallow).Cloud Eagle.Iron Deer.Cloud Dog.Buffalo-bull Small-bird.Mountain Buffalo-bull.Crow Buffalo-bull.Buffalo-bull Dog.Cloud Buffalo-bull.Buffalo-bull Man (i. e., Indian).Buffalo-bull Ghost.Stone Buffalo-bull.Buffalo-bull Buffalo-cow (the only name in which both sexes are given).Iron Buffalo-bull. (See § 107.)Buffalo-bull Wind.Buffalo-cow Eagle.Iron Buffalo. (N. B.—It is uncertain to which element the buffalo should be assigned. He seems to be associated with all of them.)Sun-dog (F? + E?).Eagle Thunder-Being (A? + F).Elk Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LXX, No. 178; an elk’s horns and eagle’s tail.)Sun Eagle (F + A).Star Eagle (F? + A).Stone Eagle (E? + A).Iron Eagle.Crow Eagle.Owl Eagle.Weasel Eagle.Grizzly-bear Hawk.Fire Hawk.Scarlet Hawk Whirlwind.Hawk Ghost.Iron Hawk. (4th Eth., Pl. LVI, No. 47; the hawk is blue.)Iron Wolf.Wolf Ghost.Fire Wind (F + A).Fire Lightning.Iron Lightning.Iron Star.Iron Boy. (4th Eth., Pl. LVIII, No. 81; a boy painted blue.)Iron Crow. (4th Eth., Pl. LVI, No. 47; a crow painted blue.)Crow Ghost.Iron Elk.Female-elk Boy. (4th Eth., Pl. LVII, No. 66; the head and shoulders of a boy joined to a female elk.)Iron Dog.Dog Ghost.Bowlder Thunder-Being (E + F).Iron Whirlwind.Iron Beaver.Small-bird Beaver.Iron Owl.Cloud Hail.Iron Cloud.Fire Cloud.Iron Wind.Stone Ghost.Cloud Black-bear.Hermaphrodite Ghost(!)Iron Kingfisher.Cloud Horse.Iron Horse.Lightning Horse.Earth (or Ground) Horse.Wind Horse.Fire Horse.Black-bird Horse.Small-bird Man (or, Indian; 4th Eth., Pl. LIV, No. 28; bird’s head and wings on a man’s body).Dog Rattlesnake.

Grizzly-bear Weasel, given as “Weasel Bear” in 4th An. Rept. Bur.

Iron Grizzly-bear (“Iron” is generally denoted by blue in the Dakota pictographs. See § 107.)

Shield Grizzly-bear. (The shield is on the bear’s side, 4th Eth., Pl. LXIII, No. 62.)

Whirlwind Grizzly-bear. (The whirlwind precedes in the pictograph, 4th Eth., Pl. LVIII, No. 77.)

Pigeon Thunder-being. (A ┴ɔiwere name—not yet found in Dakota.)

Eagle Small-bird. (4th Eth., Pl. LXVI, No. 116.)

Horse Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LXVIII, No. 153; horse body and eagle’s tail.)

Dog Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LII, No. 9; dog with eagle’s tail.)

Eagle Swallow. (4th Eth., Pl. LXXIX, No. 282; eagle with forked tail of a swallow).

Buffalo-bull Buffalo-cow (the only name in which both sexes are given).

Iron Buffalo. (N. B.—It is uncertain to which element the buffalo should be assigned. He seems to be associated with all of them.)

Elk Eagle. (4th Eth., Pl. LXX, No. 178; an elk’s horns and eagle’s tail.)

Iron Hawk. (4th Eth., Pl. LVI, No. 47; the hawk is blue.)

Iron Boy. (4th Eth., Pl. LVIII, No. 81; a boy painted blue.)

Iron Crow. (4th Eth., Pl. LVI, No. 47; a crow painted blue.)

Female-elk Boy. (4th Eth., Pl. LVII, No. 66; the head and shoulders of a boy joined to a female elk.)

Small-bird Man (or, Indian; 4th Eth., Pl. LIV, No. 28; bird’s head and wings on a man’s body).

There are several “Waśićun” names: Cloud Waśićun, Fire Waśićun, Night Waśićun, and Iron Waśićun. The last one has for its pictograph a man with a hat, i. e., a white man, and can hardly have any mystic significance. The name, Waśićun, originally meant “guardian spirit,” but it is now applied to white people (§ 122). In the absence of the pictographs, we can not tell whether Cloud Waśićun, Fire Waśićun, and Night Waśićun refer to guardian spirits (in which case they are mystic names connected with cults) or to white men.

Most of the above names are taken from the Dakota census lists. The ┴ɔiwere lists furnish only two composite names of this character: Iron Hawk Female, and Pigeon Thunder-being. The Kansa list has Moon Hawk and Moon Hawk Female, the latter name, which is found in the Omaha and Ponka list, suggesting the Egyptian figure of a woman’s body with a hawk’s head, surmounted by a crescent moon. Horse Eagle appears to be a sort of Pegasus. Buffalo-bull Eagle may refer to the myth of the Orphan and the Buffalo-woman, in which we learn that the Buffalo people ascended through the air to the upper world.[319]

Back to Index Next