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
In the Omaha tribe we find the following: the Elk gens regulated war;
it kept the war tent, war pipes, and the bag containing poisons; it
invoked the Thunder-being, who was supposed to be the god of war, and
it sent out the scouts. The Iñke-sabĕ and Hañga gentes were the leading
peace gentes; they regulated the buffalo hunt and the cultivation
of the soil. The Hañga gens had the control of the peace pipes, and
a member of that gens lighted the pipes on all ceremonial occasions
except at the time of the anointing of the sacred pole.[321] The
Iñke-sabĕ gens kept the peace pipes, and a member of that gens acted as
crier on many occasions, the other crier being a member of the [K]aⁿze
or Wind gens. An Ictasanda man usually filled and emptied the pipes;
but a Hañga man filled them when the sacred pole was anointed. The
┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ keeper of a sacred pipe really kept instead the sacred
tobacco pouch and buffalo skull. The Iñke-sabĕ and ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ
keepers carried the two pipes around the circle of chiefs. The Black
bear people aided the Elk people in the worship of the Thunder-being in
the spring of the year.
§ 397. The following division of labor existed in the Ponka tribe:
The Wasabe-hit‘ajĭ and Hisada gentes led in the worship of the
Thunder-being. The Ȼixida and Nika[p]aɔna gentes led in war. The
Wacabe, Makaⁿ, and Nuqe, all buffalo gentes, regulated the buffalo
hunt. The Wajaje (Reptile people) with whom used to be the Necta or Owl
people, appear to have been servants of the subaquatic powers.
§ 398. In the Kansa tribe we find that the Earth Lodge and Elk
gentes consecrated the mystic fireplaces whenever a new village was
established; that the Earth Lodge people consecrated the corn, and
regulated the buffalo hunt as well as farming; that the Elk people
directed the attack on the buffalo herd; that the Ghost people
announced all deaths; that the two Hañga gentes led in war and in
mourning for the dead; that the Tciju wactage was a peace-making gens;
that a member of the Deer gens was the crier for the tribe; that the
member of the Lṵ or Thunder-being gens could not take part in the
waqpele gaxe. (§ 28) and must remain in the rear of the other warriors
on such an occasion; and that the Wind people, who had to pitch their
tents in the rear of the other gentes had a ceremony which they
performed whenever there was a blizzard (§ 55).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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