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Societies or brotherhoods of a secret
and usually sacred character existed among very many American
tribes, among many more, doubtless, than those from which there is
definite information.
On the Plains the larger number of these were war societies, and
they were graded in accordance with the age and attainments of the
members. The Buffalo society was a very important body devoted to
healing disease. The Omaha and Pawnee seem to have had a great
number of societies, organized for all sorts of purposes. There were
societies concerned with the religious mysteries, with the keeping
of records, and with the dramatization of myths, ethical societies,
and societies of mirth-makers, who strove in their performances to
reverse the natural order of things. We find also a society
considered able to will people to death, a society of "big-bellied
men," and among the Cheyenne a society of firewalkers, who trod upon
fires with their bare feet until the flames were extinguished.
According to Hoffman the Grand Medicine society, or Midewiwin, of
the Chippewa and neighboring tribes, was a secret society of four
degrees, or lodges, into which one could be successively inducted by
the expenditure of a greater and greater amount of property on the
accompanying feasts. As a result of these initiations the spiritual
insight and power, especially the power to cure disease, was
successively increased, while on the purely material side the
novitiate received instruction regarding the medicinal virtues of
many plants. The name of this society in the form medeu occurs in
Delaware, where it was applied to a class of healers. In the
neighborhood of New York Bay there was a body of conjurers who "had
no fixed homes, pretended to absolute continence, and both exorcised
sickness and officiated at the funeral rites." Their name is
interpreted by Brinton to mean "Great Snake," and they participated
in certain periodical festivals where "a sacrifice was prepared,
which it was believed was carried off by a huge serpent."
In the southwest each Pueblo tribe contains a number of esoteric
societies, which mediate between men and the zoomorphic beings of
Pueblo mythology. At Zuñi there are 13 of these societies, and they
have to do especially with healing, either collectively in their
ceremonies or through individual members. They also endeavor to
bring rain, but only by means of the influence which the beast gods
are able to exert over the anthropic beings who actually control it.
Rain, bringing itself is properly the function of the rain priests
and of the Kótikilli society, the latter consisting of Zuñi of the
male sex, and occasionally some females. Admission to this is
necessary in order that one may have access after death to the
dance-house of the anthropic gods. There are six divisions of the Kótikilli, holding their ceremonies in as many
kivas corresponding
to the six world-quarters, and in their performances members wear
masks representing the anthropic beings, which they are then
supposed actually to embody, although they sing to them at the same
time in order to bring showers. The Rain priesthood and the
Priesthood of the Bow are considered under the caption
Shamans and
Priests, but they may be classed also as brotherhoods concerned
respectively with rain-making and war (see Stevenson in 23d Rep. B.
A. E., 1905).
At Sia the Society of the Cougar presides over hunting, and there is
also a Warrior society. Parents apply to have their children
admitted into a society, or a person who has been cured by the
society may afterward be taken in. A person may belong to more than
one society, and most of the societies also consist of two or more
orders, the most important "being that in which the members are
endowed with the anagogics of medicine."
Since the Hopi clans have been shown by Fewkes to have been
originally independent local groups, the secret society performances
among them would appear to be nothing more than the rituals of the
various groups, the societies themselves being the members of the
groups owning such rituals and certain others that have been granted
a right to participate. The principal war society, however, has
resulted from a fusion of the warriors or war societies of all the
clans of the Hopi pueblos except one. Besides the two war societies,
and two societies devoted to the curing of diseases, all of these
brotherhoods devote themselves to bringing rain and stimulating the
growth of corn. Each is headed by a chief, who is the clan chief as
well and the oldest man in his clan, and contains several
subordinate chiefs, while the oldest woman of the clan occupies a
conspicuous place.
The Californian Maidu had a society into which certain boys chosen
by the old men were annually admitted. The societies were called
Yeponi, and included all the men of note in the tribe.
"The
ceremonies were more or less elaborate, involving fasts, instruction
in the myths and lore of the tribe by the older men, and finally a
great feast and dance at which the neophytes for the first time
performed their dances, which were probably received through
visions."
(Dixon, Maide Myths, 1902)
Each village or group of
villages commonly had a separate branch of the society under a
leader called Húku, who was one of the most important personages in
the place, being frequently called upon to settle disputes that
could not otherwise be composed, lead a war-party, or determine when
the people should go to gather acorns.
He was usually a shaman also, and was
then considered more powerful than any other, for which reason he
was looked to, to make rain, insure good supplies of acorns and
salmon, keep his people in good health, and destroy their enemies by
means of diseases. He was the keeper of a sacred cape made of
feathers, shells, and pieces of stone, which was made for him by the
previous leader and would kill anyone else who touched it. He was
appointed by the most noted shaman in the society, who pretended
that he had been instructed in a dream, and usually held office as
long as he chose, though he might be deposed. Powers quotes a local
authority to the effect that there was a secret society among
the
Porno which conjured up infernal horrors for the purpose of "keeping
their women in subjection," and they are also said to have had
regular assembly houses, but the account of this society is
evidently garbled and distorted.
The sense of supernatural as distinguished from purely secular
relationships received its logical recognition among the Kwakiutl of
the coast of British Columbia in a division of the year into a
sacred and a profane period, during each of which the social
organization and along with it personal appellations of the tribe
changed completely. In the first place, a distinction was made
between present members of the secret societies, called "seals," and
the quéqutsa, those who were for the time being outside of them.
These latter were furthermore divided, in accordance with sex, age,
and social standing, into several bodies which received names
generally referring to animals.
The "seals," on the other hand, were subdivided into societies in
accordance with the supernatural beings supposed to inspire the
various members. All of those whose ancestors had had an encounter
with the same supernatural being were thus banded together, and,
since only one person might represent each ancestor, the number in a
society was limited, and one might join only on the retirement of a
member. Every secret society had its own dances, songs, whistles,
and cedar bark rings. The right to a position in a secret society
might be acquired by killing a person of some foreign tribe and
taking his paraphernalia, or for one's son by marrying the daughter
of him who possessed it. At the time of initiation the novice was
supposed to be carried away for a season by the spirit which came to
him. and after his return he usually went through the different
houses in the town accompanied by other members of the society who
had been initiated previously. In case his spirit were a violent
one, he might break up boxes, canoes, etc., which the giver of the
feast had to replace. The most important part of these societies
were the ones inspired by the cannibal spirit, the origin of which
has been traced by Boas to the Heiltsuk tribe and to customs
connected with war.
From the Kwakiutl and Heiltsuk these secret society dances spread
northward and southward. The Nootka are said to have had two
principal secret society performances, the Dukwally (i. e. Lu'koala),
or Thunder-bird ceremony, supposed to have been obtained from the
wolves, and the Tsáyeq (Kwakiutl Ts'a'eqa), or Tsiahk, into which a
patient was initiated when the shaman had not succeeded in curing
him. According to Swan the latter was performed after the patient
had seen a dwarfish spirit with long, yellowish hair and four horns
on his head who promised relief if the ceremonies were performed.
The Songish of British Columbia have two societies called
Tcivi'wan
and XAnxAni'tAl, obtained from the Nootka. The first is open to
anybody and consists of five subordinate societies. That to which a
man belongs depends on the dream he has after retiring into the
woods. Unlike the other, only rich people can become members of the
XAnxAni'tAl, as heavy payments are exacted for initiation.
The XAnxAni'tAl novice also obtains his
guardian spirit in the woods, after which he performs his first
dance with masks and cedar-bark ornaments. Among the coast Salish of
Fraser valley is found a brotherhood or society called
Sqoíaqi,
which enjoys special prerogatives and possesses certain emblems and
dances. Bellacoola secret societies are closely bound up with the
festivals and the tribal organization. They are of two varieties,
the Sisaúk, obtained from a being of that name who resides in the
sun, and the Kfu'siut, which were derived from a female spirit who
lives in a cave in the woods and comes out only in winter when the
feasts are about to be held. He who sees her has to invite people to
dance the Kfu'siut. There are several different societies or degrees
of this, however, corresponding to the highest ones among the
Kwakiutl. The dances, masks, etc., used at such times, and only
then, seem to be the special property of the different clans, but
right to wear them has to he acquired by ,the individuals.
The Tsimshian societies were all received from the Heiltsuk through
Kitkatla, but according to Niska tradition they were obtained by the
former from a man who went to live among the bears. There are said
to have been five or six of these societies among the latter people,
and the number of places in each was limited. The performances were
similar to those seen among the Kwakiutl, except that they were not
so elaborate.
The Haida have had secret societies only during the last 100 to 150
years. The entire performance consisted in the supposed possession
of the novice by some one of a number of spirits, who carried the
youth away and made him act the way the spirit himself was supposed
to act. Tome of these ways of acting were introduced, while others
were in accordance with native conceptions. They were largely the
property of certain chiefs who would allow only their own families
to use them. Among the Tlingit the society appears to have been
employed in a very similar manner, but with the northern Tlingit
they had barely made their appearance.
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