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
§ 394. The Dakota lists have several names of horned beings, as
follows: Horned Grizzly-bear, Horned Horse (4th Eth., Pl. LIV, No.
29, and Pl. LXXI, No. 193), Horned Dog, Horned Eagle, Gray Horned
Thunder-Being, Horned Deer, Black Horned Boy, and Snake Horn. No
attempt to explain these names has been made. Among the Winnebago, the
following names refer to water monsters, and belong to the Waktceqi
or Water-monster gens: Horn on one side (equivalent to the Dakota,
He-saŋnića), Horns on both sides, Two Horns, Four Horns, and
Five Horns.
The Winnebago list has the name Four Women (in one), with which compare
what has been said about the Double-Woman (§ 251).
NAMES DERIVED FROM SEVERAL HOMOGENEOUS OBJECTS OR BEINGS.
An examination of the personal name lists reveals such names as First
or One Grizzly-bear, Two Grizzly-bears, Three Grizzly-bears, Four
Grizzly-bears, Many Grizzly-bears; One Path, Two Paths, Four Paths
Female, Many Paths; One Cloud, Two Clouds, Three Clouds, Many Clouds;
One Crow, Two Crows, Three Crows, Four Crows, Many Crows. The author
suspects that these names and many others of a similar character are
symbolic of the four quarters and of the upper and lower worlds, and
that the Indian who was named after the larger number of mystic objects
enjoyed the protection of more spirits than did he whose name referred
to the smaller number. This accords with the Cherokee notion described
by Mr. Mooney in his article on the Cherokee theory and practice of
medicine:[320] The shaman is represented as calling first on the Red
Hawk from the east, then on the Blue Hawk in the north, the two hawks
accomplishing more by working together. Still more is effected when the
Black Hawk from the west joins them, and a complete victory is won when
the White Hawk from the south joins the others.
Compare with this the Osage opinion that the man who could show seven
sticks (representing seven brave or generous deeds) was of more
importance than he who could show only six sticks.
RETURN OF THE SPIRIT TO THE EPONYM.
§ 395. In two of the buffalo gentes of the Omaha (the Iñke-sabĕ
and Hañga) there is a belief that the spirits of deceased members of
those gentes return to the buffaloes. Does the abode of the disembodied
spirit differ in the gentes according to the nature of the eponymic
ancestor? For instance, is there a belief among the Elk people that
their spirits at death return to the ancestral Elk?
FUNCTIONS OF GENTES AND SUBGENTES.
§ 396. In several tribes there seems to have been a division of labor
among the gentes and subgentes, that is, each social division of the
tribe had its special religious duties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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