THE AUTHOR’S REPLY.
§ 361. But what do we find prevalent among the tribes under consideration in this paper?
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.)
IV. Idea of sacrifice.—The idea of sacrifice as atoning for sin has not yet been found by the author among these Siouan tribes. In no instance of sacrifice recorded in this paper has the author detected any notion of expiation for sin against a just and holy Being. But sacrifice, whether in the form of fasting, self-torture, or the offering of property, was made in order to win the favor of a god, to obtain a temporal advantage (§§ 28, 29, 101, 144, etc.), or to avert the anger of demons, as when the people were suffering from famine or an epidemic (§ 144).
V. Shamanism.—While there have been shamans and various orders of shamans among these tribes, no trace of a worship of shamans as gods has yet been found. On one occasion the author met a Ponka shaman, Cramped Hand, who exclaimed, “I am a wakanda.” But no other Ponka ever said that he or she worshiped Cramped Hand as a wakanda.
VI. The other beliefs named by Dr. Peet have been found, in some tribes, side by side. Animism, or a form of animism, was held by those who worshiped the sun, animals, etc. “Everything had a soul” (§§ 97, 136, 137, 265-288, 344, etc.). Certain animals were worshiped (§§ 24, 43, 78, 92, 326, etc.). The sun was invoked, not only in the sun dance (§§ 139-212), but on other occasions (§§ 28, 43, 73, 312, 323). Stars, too, were regarded as gods (§§ 31, 43). Elemental worship had a wider significance among these tribes than Dr. Peet assigns it (§§ 27, 33-35, 43, 44, 74-77, 363, etc.). And there are traces of anthropomorphism, for some of the gods are in human form (§§ 217, 235); others are supposed to inhale the odor of tobacco smoke, which is pleasant to them; they eat, breathe, use weapons against one another as well as against human beings, and on one occasion an Indian was called on to aid one or the other of two contending gods; they hear, think, marry, die, and are succeeded by their children (§§ 25, 29, 35, 36, 72, 75, 94, 109, 112, 117, 119, 136, 217, 322, etc.).[282]
§ 362. The cults affected the social organization of the tribes that had gentes bearing mystic names (see §§ 57 and 82 of this paper, and Om. Soc., in 3d An. Rept. Bur. Eth., Chap. iii, and pp. 356, 359-361); orders of shamans and other secret societies were intimately associated with them (§§ 43-45, 86, 87, and 89; and Om. Soc., pp. 342-355); personal names still refer to them (§§ 31, 47, 53, 59, 74, 75, and 77; and Om. Soc., pp. 228, 232, 236, 238-244, 246-248, 250, and 251); and almost every act of the daily life of the people was influenced by them (§§ 23, 24, 27, 28-30, 32, 33-36, 39-41, 54, 101, etc.; and Om. Soc., Chap. vi, and pp. 267, 274, 286, 287, 289-291, 293-299, 316, 319-325, 327, 328, 357, 368-370).