A Study of Siouan Cults: Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1890, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1861, pages 351-544Dorsey, James Owen
Religion
A Study of Siouan Cults: Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1890, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1861, pages 351-544
Dorsey, James Owen
Siouan Indians -- Religion
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.)
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