§ 72. The Rev. William Hamilton, who was a missionary to the Iowa and Sac Indians of Nebraska, from 1837 to 1853, is the authority for most of the Iowa material in this chapter. About the year 1848, he published a series of letters about the Iowa Indians in a Presbyterian weekly newspaper, and with his permission the present writer transcribed these letters in 1879, for his own future use. Other information about the three ┴ɔiwere tribes (Iowa, Oto and Missouri) was obtained by the author from Ke-ʞre[ç]e, an Oto; Ckaʇɔinye, a Missouri; and the delegation of Iowa chiefs that visited Washington in 1882. The principal Winnebago authority was James Alexander, a full-blood and a member of the Wolf gens. TERM “GREAT SPIRIT” NEVER HEARD AMONG THE IOWA. Mr. Hamilton wrote thus in one of his letters: It is often said that the Indians are not idolaters, and that they believe in one Supreme Being, whom they call the Great Spirit. I do not now recollect that I ever heard the Iowas use the term Great Spirit since I have been among them. They speak of God (Wakanta), and sometimes of the Great God or Bad God. But of the true character of God they are entirely ignorant. Many of them speak of God as the creator of all things, and use a term that signifies “Creator of the earth.” Sometimes they call him “Grandfather” (hiⁿtuka). But they imagine him to be possessed of like passions with themselves, and pleased with their war parties, scalp dances, thefts, and such like sin. * * * They sometimes speak of the sun as a god, because it gives light and heat. The moon they sometimes speak of as a god, because it seems to be to the night what the sun is to the day. I asked an Indian the other day how many gods the Iowas had, and he promptly replied, ‘Seven.’ THE SUN A WAKANTA. § 73. An Iowa told Mr. Hamilton that he had once killed a bear, which he offered to the sun, allowing the animal to lie where he had killed it. THE WINDS AS WAKANTAS. § 74. An Iowa told Mr. Hamilton that Tatce, or Wind, was one of the seven great gods of his tribe. Another told him that he had made offerings to the South Wind, who was considered a beneficent Wakanta. But the North-east Wind was a maleficent one. Judging from some of the Winnebago personal names, it is probable that the winds were regarded as powers by that people. THE THUNDER-BEING A WAKANTA. § 75. Among the Iowa and Oto, the Tcexita is the eagle and thunderbird gens, and Mr. Hamilton was told by the Iowa that the Thunder-being was called Tcexita, and Wakanta, the latter being its peculiar title. “They supposed the Thunder-being to be a large bird. When they first hear the thunder in the spring of the year, they have a sacred feast in honor of this god.”