Miscellaneous RitualAlthough modern informants do not remember taboos dealing with hair combing and scratching during menstruation, they do recall being warned against combing their hair at night.“My father used to say that if we did it we'd marry out of the tribe. Mike (her husband) used to tell the same thing to our girls but they didn't listen and every one of them married out of the tribe.”The dried body of a bat, described as having several different kinds of hair (Lowie 1939, p. 332) was a powerful gambling charm. Professional Indian gamblers, who traveled about the country participating in the hand game, often carried one. Bat power was considered extremely dangerous if one did not know how to use it.“My daughter found a bat in a field one day, but an old Indian said that if she didn't know how to treat it, it would eat up her children.”Women especially were afraid of bat-talismans and of living bats. The Washo believe that a bat charm is also a powerful love medicine and that a woman once touched by such a charm is powerless in the hands of its owner.“You touch a woman with that thing and it hypnotizes her. She follow the guy and die if she don't go with him. I don't believe I ever heard of a Washo use one. We'd be too afraid. But them Paiutes and Shoshones use it.”Except for the painting of a girl during her puberty dance, painting of the face and body had little part in Washo ritualism, although its social significance may have been important (Lowie 1939, p. 304). However, certain other customs of dress and adornment appear to have had religious significance. Eagle feathers and magpie feathers, as well as a bearskin robe, conferred power. A similar notion may explain the use of the skin of the agile and wise long-tailed weasel as a binding for hair braids.The hooting of an owl or singing of birds at night was considered as a warning of danger or an omen of death.Influence Of ChristianityThe Washo have been exposed to Christianity from two main sources. Missionary groups have maintained representatives from time to time at one or another of the Washo colonies. A church dominates the appallingly dreary landscape of Dresslerville. Weather and neglect have caused the building to deteriorate. Permanent missionizing efforts apparently have been abandoned. One church group carries on a summer Bible class for children and sewing classes for women. Funerals are generally conducted by a Christian minister, but this appears to be a sop to white opinion rather than the result of any real desire on the part of the Washo to become Christians. At best they seem to have simply incorporated Christian services as another source of power. It is less than surprising that a people whose main religious emphasis seems to have been on curing or subsistence ritual should have found white doctors useful but white ministers a rather mysterious and superfluous bit of white culture.The other main source of Christian ideas has been the peyote cult, which includes a roughly Christian version of God and Christ visualized as the father and the brother. The cross, pictures of Christ, and references to Jesus play a role in peyote ceremonialism. Other investigators (d'Azevedo and Merriam 1951; Stewart 1944) have noted a shift toward Indian tradition in the Washo peyote cult, with an attending reduction of Christian ideas. The attitude of one Washo woman sums the question up quite well:“I think them peyote people [she was not a peyotist but had encouraged her son to attend a meeting to cure a back injury] believe more what they doing than the white preacher.”Her own religion is summed up in her actions. In addition to sending her son to peyote meetings, she had taken her granddaughter to the shaman and is a regular attendant at the church sewing school. She was also the person who waited until the minister left the church to repeat ancient funeral prayers.[pg 385]BibliographyAbbreviationsAA: American AnthropologistBAE: Bureau of American EthnologySI-MC: Smithsonian Institution, Miscellaneous CollectionsUC: University of California PublicationsUC-AR: Anthropological RecordsUC-PAAE: American Archaeology and EthnologyBarrett, Samuel A.1917. The Washo Indians. Bull. Milwaukee Pub. Mus., Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-52.Cartwright, W. D.1952. A Washo Girls' Puberty Ceremony. Pro. 30th Int. Cong. of Americanists, pp. 136-142. London.Dangberg, Grace1927. Washo Texts. UC-PAAE 22:391-443.d'Azevedo, Warren L., and A. P. Merriam1957. Washo Peyote Songs. AA 59:615-641.Freed, Stanley A.1960. Changing Washo Kinship. UC-AR 14:349-418.Heizer, Robert F.1950. Kutsavi, A Great Basin Indian Food. Kroeber Anthro. Papers, No. 2 (Fall), pp. 35-41.Kroeber, Alfred L.1907. Religion of the Indians of California. UC-PAA 4:319-356.Kluckhohn, Clyde, and Dorothea Leighton1947. The Navaho. Cambridge; London.Lowie, Robert H.1939. Ethnographic Notes on the Washo. UC-PAAE 36:301-352.Mooney, James1896. The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. BAE 14th Ann. Report, Part 2, pp. 641-1136.1928. Aboriginal population of America North of Mexico. SI-MC 80, No. 7, Washington, D. C.Siskin, E. E.MS The Impact of the Peyote Cult Upon Shamanism Among the Washo Indians. Ph.D. Diss. 1941. Yale Univ.Steward, Julian H.1936. Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute. UC-PAAE 34:355-440.1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIII: Nevada Shoshone. UC-AR 4:209-360.Stewart, Omer C.1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIV: Northern Paiute. UC-AR 4:361-446.1944. Washo-Northern Paiute Peyotism. UC-PAAE 40:63-142.Whiting, Beatrice Blyth1950. Paiute Sorcery, New York.
Miscellaneous RitualAlthough modern informants do not remember taboos dealing with hair combing and scratching during menstruation, they do recall being warned against combing their hair at night.“My father used to say that if we did it we'd marry out of the tribe. Mike (her husband) used to tell the same thing to our girls but they didn't listen and every one of them married out of the tribe.”The dried body of a bat, described as having several different kinds of hair (Lowie 1939, p. 332) was a powerful gambling charm. Professional Indian gamblers, who traveled about the country participating in the hand game, often carried one. Bat power was considered extremely dangerous if one did not know how to use it.“My daughter found a bat in a field one day, but an old Indian said that if she didn't know how to treat it, it would eat up her children.”Women especially were afraid of bat-talismans and of living bats. The Washo believe that a bat charm is also a powerful love medicine and that a woman once touched by such a charm is powerless in the hands of its owner.“You touch a woman with that thing and it hypnotizes her. She follow the guy and die if she don't go with him. I don't believe I ever heard of a Washo use one. We'd be too afraid. But them Paiutes and Shoshones use it.”Except for the painting of a girl during her puberty dance, painting of the face and body had little part in Washo ritualism, although its social significance may have been important (Lowie 1939, p. 304). However, certain other customs of dress and adornment appear to have had religious significance. Eagle feathers and magpie feathers, as well as a bearskin robe, conferred power. A similar notion may explain the use of the skin of the agile and wise long-tailed weasel as a binding for hair braids.The hooting of an owl or singing of birds at night was considered as a warning of danger or an omen of death.Influence Of ChristianityThe Washo have been exposed to Christianity from two main sources. Missionary groups have maintained representatives from time to time at one or another of the Washo colonies. A church dominates the appallingly dreary landscape of Dresslerville. Weather and neglect have caused the building to deteriorate. Permanent missionizing efforts apparently have been abandoned. One church group carries on a summer Bible class for children and sewing classes for women. Funerals are generally conducted by a Christian minister, but this appears to be a sop to white opinion rather than the result of any real desire on the part of the Washo to become Christians. At best they seem to have simply incorporated Christian services as another source of power. It is less than surprising that a people whose main religious emphasis seems to have been on curing or subsistence ritual should have found white doctors useful but white ministers a rather mysterious and superfluous bit of white culture.The other main source of Christian ideas has been the peyote cult, which includes a roughly Christian version of God and Christ visualized as the father and the brother. The cross, pictures of Christ, and references to Jesus play a role in peyote ceremonialism. Other investigators (d'Azevedo and Merriam 1951; Stewart 1944) have noted a shift toward Indian tradition in the Washo peyote cult, with an attending reduction of Christian ideas. The attitude of one Washo woman sums the question up quite well:“I think them peyote people [she was not a peyotist but had encouraged her son to attend a meeting to cure a back injury] believe more what they doing than the white preacher.”Her own religion is summed up in her actions. In addition to sending her son to peyote meetings, she had taken her granddaughter to the shaman and is a regular attendant at the church sewing school. She was also the person who waited until the minister left the church to repeat ancient funeral prayers.[pg 385]BibliographyAbbreviationsAA: American AnthropologistBAE: Bureau of American EthnologySI-MC: Smithsonian Institution, Miscellaneous CollectionsUC: University of California PublicationsUC-AR: Anthropological RecordsUC-PAAE: American Archaeology and EthnologyBarrett, Samuel A.1917. The Washo Indians. Bull. Milwaukee Pub. Mus., Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-52.Cartwright, W. D.1952. A Washo Girls' Puberty Ceremony. Pro. 30th Int. Cong. of Americanists, pp. 136-142. London.Dangberg, Grace1927. Washo Texts. UC-PAAE 22:391-443.d'Azevedo, Warren L., and A. P. Merriam1957. Washo Peyote Songs. AA 59:615-641.Freed, Stanley A.1960. Changing Washo Kinship. UC-AR 14:349-418.Heizer, Robert F.1950. Kutsavi, A Great Basin Indian Food. Kroeber Anthro. Papers, No. 2 (Fall), pp. 35-41.Kroeber, Alfred L.1907. Religion of the Indians of California. UC-PAA 4:319-356.Kluckhohn, Clyde, and Dorothea Leighton1947. The Navaho. Cambridge; London.Lowie, Robert H.1939. Ethnographic Notes on the Washo. UC-PAAE 36:301-352.Mooney, James1896. The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. BAE 14th Ann. Report, Part 2, pp. 641-1136.1928. Aboriginal population of America North of Mexico. SI-MC 80, No. 7, Washington, D. C.Siskin, E. E.MS The Impact of the Peyote Cult Upon Shamanism Among the Washo Indians. Ph.D. Diss. 1941. Yale Univ.Steward, Julian H.1936. Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute. UC-PAAE 34:355-440.1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIII: Nevada Shoshone. UC-AR 4:209-360.Stewart, Omer C.1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIV: Northern Paiute. UC-AR 4:361-446.1944. Washo-Northern Paiute Peyotism. UC-PAAE 40:63-142.Whiting, Beatrice Blyth1950. Paiute Sorcery, New York.
Miscellaneous RitualAlthough modern informants do not remember taboos dealing with hair combing and scratching during menstruation, they do recall being warned against combing their hair at night.“My father used to say that if we did it we'd marry out of the tribe. Mike (her husband) used to tell the same thing to our girls but they didn't listen and every one of them married out of the tribe.”The dried body of a bat, described as having several different kinds of hair (Lowie 1939, p. 332) was a powerful gambling charm. Professional Indian gamblers, who traveled about the country participating in the hand game, often carried one. Bat power was considered extremely dangerous if one did not know how to use it.“My daughter found a bat in a field one day, but an old Indian said that if she didn't know how to treat it, it would eat up her children.”Women especially were afraid of bat-talismans and of living bats. The Washo believe that a bat charm is also a powerful love medicine and that a woman once touched by such a charm is powerless in the hands of its owner.“You touch a woman with that thing and it hypnotizes her. She follow the guy and die if she don't go with him. I don't believe I ever heard of a Washo use one. We'd be too afraid. But them Paiutes and Shoshones use it.”Except for the painting of a girl during her puberty dance, painting of the face and body had little part in Washo ritualism, although its social significance may have been important (Lowie 1939, p. 304). However, certain other customs of dress and adornment appear to have had religious significance. Eagle feathers and magpie feathers, as well as a bearskin robe, conferred power. A similar notion may explain the use of the skin of the agile and wise long-tailed weasel as a binding for hair braids.The hooting of an owl or singing of birds at night was considered as a warning of danger or an omen of death.
Although modern informants do not remember taboos dealing with hair combing and scratching during menstruation, they do recall being warned against combing their hair at night.“My father used to say that if we did it we'd marry out of the tribe. Mike (her husband) used to tell the same thing to our girls but they didn't listen and every one of them married out of the tribe.”
The dried body of a bat, described as having several different kinds of hair (Lowie 1939, p. 332) was a powerful gambling charm. Professional Indian gamblers, who traveled about the country participating in the hand game, often carried one. Bat power was considered extremely dangerous if one did not know how to use it.“My daughter found a bat in a field one day, but an old Indian said that if she didn't know how to treat it, it would eat up her children.”Women especially were afraid of bat-talismans and of living bats. The Washo believe that a bat charm is also a powerful love medicine and that a woman once touched by such a charm is powerless in the hands of its owner.“You touch a woman with that thing and it hypnotizes her. She follow the guy and die if she don't go with him. I don't believe I ever heard of a Washo use one. We'd be too afraid. But them Paiutes and Shoshones use it.”
Except for the painting of a girl during her puberty dance, painting of the face and body had little part in Washo ritualism, although its social significance may have been important (Lowie 1939, p. 304). However, certain other customs of dress and adornment appear to have had religious significance. Eagle feathers and magpie feathers, as well as a bearskin robe, conferred power. A similar notion may explain the use of the skin of the agile and wise long-tailed weasel as a binding for hair braids.
The hooting of an owl or singing of birds at night was considered as a warning of danger or an omen of death.
Influence Of ChristianityThe Washo have been exposed to Christianity from two main sources. Missionary groups have maintained representatives from time to time at one or another of the Washo colonies. A church dominates the appallingly dreary landscape of Dresslerville. Weather and neglect have caused the building to deteriorate. Permanent missionizing efforts apparently have been abandoned. One church group carries on a summer Bible class for children and sewing classes for women. Funerals are generally conducted by a Christian minister, but this appears to be a sop to white opinion rather than the result of any real desire on the part of the Washo to become Christians. At best they seem to have simply incorporated Christian services as another source of power. It is less than surprising that a people whose main religious emphasis seems to have been on curing or subsistence ritual should have found white doctors useful but white ministers a rather mysterious and superfluous bit of white culture.The other main source of Christian ideas has been the peyote cult, which includes a roughly Christian version of God and Christ visualized as the father and the brother. The cross, pictures of Christ, and references to Jesus play a role in peyote ceremonialism. Other investigators (d'Azevedo and Merriam 1951; Stewart 1944) have noted a shift toward Indian tradition in the Washo peyote cult, with an attending reduction of Christian ideas. The attitude of one Washo woman sums the question up quite well:“I think them peyote people [she was not a peyotist but had encouraged her son to attend a meeting to cure a back injury] believe more what they doing than the white preacher.”Her own religion is summed up in her actions. In addition to sending her son to peyote meetings, she had taken her granddaughter to the shaman and is a regular attendant at the church sewing school. She was also the person who waited until the minister left the church to repeat ancient funeral prayers.
The Washo have been exposed to Christianity from two main sources. Missionary groups have maintained representatives from time to time at one or another of the Washo colonies. A church dominates the appallingly dreary landscape of Dresslerville. Weather and neglect have caused the building to deteriorate. Permanent missionizing efforts apparently have been abandoned. One church group carries on a summer Bible class for children and sewing classes for women. Funerals are generally conducted by a Christian minister, but this appears to be a sop to white opinion rather than the result of any real desire on the part of the Washo to become Christians. At best they seem to have simply incorporated Christian services as another source of power. It is less than surprising that a people whose main religious emphasis seems to have been on curing or subsistence ritual should have found white doctors useful but white ministers a rather mysterious and superfluous bit of white culture.
The other main source of Christian ideas has been the peyote cult, which includes a roughly Christian version of God and Christ visualized as the father and the brother. The cross, pictures of Christ, and references to Jesus play a role in peyote ceremonialism. Other investigators (d'Azevedo and Merriam 1951; Stewart 1944) have noted a shift toward Indian tradition in the Washo peyote cult, with an attending reduction of Christian ideas. The attitude of one Washo woman sums the question up quite well:“I think them peyote people [she was not a peyotist but had encouraged her son to attend a meeting to cure a back injury] believe more what they doing than the white preacher.”Her own religion is summed up in her actions. In addition to sending her son to peyote meetings, she had taken her granddaughter to the shaman and is a regular attendant at the church sewing school. She was also the person who waited until the minister left the church to repeat ancient funeral prayers.
BibliographyAbbreviationsAA: American AnthropologistBAE: Bureau of American EthnologySI-MC: Smithsonian Institution, Miscellaneous CollectionsUC: University of California PublicationsUC-AR: Anthropological RecordsUC-PAAE: American Archaeology and EthnologyBarrett, Samuel A.1917. The Washo Indians. Bull. Milwaukee Pub. Mus., Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-52.Cartwright, W. D.1952. A Washo Girls' Puberty Ceremony. Pro. 30th Int. Cong. of Americanists, pp. 136-142. London.Dangberg, Grace1927. Washo Texts. UC-PAAE 22:391-443.d'Azevedo, Warren L., and A. P. Merriam1957. Washo Peyote Songs. AA 59:615-641.Freed, Stanley A.1960. Changing Washo Kinship. UC-AR 14:349-418.Heizer, Robert F.1950. Kutsavi, A Great Basin Indian Food. Kroeber Anthro. Papers, No. 2 (Fall), pp. 35-41.Kroeber, Alfred L.1907. Religion of the Indians of California. UC-PAA 4:319-356.Kluckhohn, Clyde, and Dorothea Leighton1947. The Navaho. Cambridge; London.Lowie, Robert H.1939. Ethnographic Notes on the Washo. UC-PAAE 36:301-352.Mooney, James1896. The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. BAE 14th Ann. Report, Part 2, pp. 641-1136.1928. Aboriginal population of America North of Mexico. SI-MC 80, No. 7, Washington, D. C.Siskin, E. E.MS The Impact of the Peyote Cult Upon Shamanism Among the Washo Indians. Ph.D. Diss. 1941. Yale Univ.Steward, Julian H.1936. Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute. UC-PAAE 34:355-440.1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIII: Nevada Shoshone. UC-AR 4:209-360.Stewart, Omer C.1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIV: Northern Paiute. UC-AR 4:361-446.1944. Washo-Northern Paiute Peyotism. UC-PAAE 40:63-142.Whiting, Beatrice Blyth1950. Paiute Sorcery, New York.
Abbreviations
AA: American AnthropologistBAE: Bureau of American EthnologySI-MC: Smithsonian Institution, Miscellaneous CollectionsUC: University of California PublicationsUC-AR: Anthropological RecordsUC-PAAE: American Archaeology and Ethnology
AA: American Anthropologist
BAE: Bureau of American Ethnology
SI-MC: Smithsonian Institution, Miscellaneous Collections
UC: University of California Publications
UC-AR: Anthropological Records
UC-PAAE: American Archaeology and Ethnology
Barrett, Samuel A.1917. The Washo Indians. Bull. Milwaukee Pub. Mus., Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-52.
Barrett, Samuel A.
1917. The Washo Indians. Bull. Milwaukee Pub. Mus., Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-52.
Cartwright, W. D.1952. A Washo Girls' Puberty Ceremony. Pro. 30th Int. Cong. of Americanists, pp. 136-142. London.
Cartwright, W. D.
1952. A Washo Girls' Puberty Ceremony. Pro. 30th Int. Cong. of Americanists, pp. 136-142. London.
Dangberg, Grace1927. Washo Texts. UC-PAAE 22:391-443.
Dangberg, Grace
1927. Washo Texts. UC-PAAE 22:391-443.
d'Azevedo, Warren L., and A. P. Merriam1957. Washo Peyote Songs. AA 59:615-641.
d'Azevedo, Warren L., and A. P. Merriam
1957. Washo Peyote Songs. AA 59:615-641.
Freed, Stanley A.1960. Changing Washo Kinship. UC-AR 14:349-418.
Freed, Stanley A.
1960. Changing Washo Kinship. UC-AR 14:349-418.
Heizer, Robert F.1950. Kutsavi, A Great Basin Indian Food. Kroeber Anthro. Papers, No. 2 (Fall), pp. 35-41.
Heizer, Robert F.
1950. Kutsavi, A Great Basin Indian Food. Kroeber Anthro. Papers, No. 2 (Fall), pp. 35-41.
Kroeber, Alfred L.1907. Religion of the Indians of California. UC-PAA 4:319-356.
Kroeber, Alfred L.
1907. Religion of the Indians of California. UC-PAA 4:319-356.
Kluckhohn, Clyde, and Dorothea Leighton1947. The Navaho. Cambridge; London.
Kluckhohn, Clyde, and Dorothea Leighton
1947. The Navaho. Cambridge; London.
Lowie, Robert H.1939. Ethnographic Notes on the Washo. UC-PAAE 36:301-352.
Lowie, Robert H.
1939. Ethnographic Notes on the Washo. UC-PAAE 36:301-352.
Mooney, James1896. The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. BAE 14th Ann. Report, Part 2, pp. 641-1136.1928. Aboriginal population of America North of Mexico. SI-MC 80, No. 7, Washington, D. C.
Mooney, James
1896. The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. BAE 14th Ann. Report, Part 2, pp. 641-1136.
1928. Aboriginal population of America North of Mexico. SI-MC 80, No. 7, Washington, D. C.
Siskin, E. E.MS The Impact of the Peyote Cult Upon Shamanism Among the Washo Indians. Ph.D. Diss. 1941. Yale Univ.
Siskin, E. E.
MS The Impact of the Peyote Cult Upon Shamanism Among the Washo Indians. Ph.D. Diss. 1941. Yale Univ.
Steward, Julian H.1936. Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute. UC-PAAE 34:355-440.1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIII: Nevada Shoshone. UC-AR 4:209-360.
Steward, Julian H.
1936. Myths of the Owens Valley Paiute. UC-PAAE 34:355-440.
1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIII: Nevada Shoshone. UC-AR 4:209-360.
Stewart, Omer C.1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIV: Northern Paiute. UC-AR 4:361-446.1944. Washo-Northern Paiute Peyotism. UC-PAAE 40:63-142.
Stewart, Omer C.
1941. Culture Element Distribution, XIV: Northern Paiute. UC-AR 4:361-446.
1944. Washo-Northern Paiute Peyotism. UC-PAAE 40:63-142.
Whiting, Beatrice Blyth1950. Paiute Sorcery, New York.
Whiting, Beatrice Blyth
1950. Paiute Sorcery, New York.