SECTION 3.
SHAMANISM.
The term “shaman” is a corrupted form of the Sanscrit word meaning ascetic. Its original application was to the religion of certain tribes of northern Asia, but now shamanism is generally used to express several forms of religion which are founded in the supposed communion with and influence over supernatural beings by means of magic arts. The shaman or priest pretends to control by incantations and ceremonies the evil spirits to whom death, sickness, and other misfortunes are ascribed. This form or stage of religion was so prevalent among the North American Indians that the adoption of the term “shaman” here is substantially correct, and it avoids both the stupid expression “medicine man” of current literature and the indefinite title “priest,” the associations with which are not appropriate to the Indian religious practitioner. The statement that the Indians worship, or ever have worshiped, one “Great Spirit” or single overruling personal god is erroneous. That philosophical conception is beyond the stage of culture reached by them, and was not found in any tribe previous to missionary influence. Their actual philosophy can be expressed far more objectively and therefore pictorially.
The special feature of the notes now collected under the present heading relates to the claims and practices of shamans, but the immediately succeeding headings of “Charms and Amulets” and of “Religious Ceremonies” are closely connected with the same topic. It must be confessed that, as now presented, they have been arranged chiefly for mechanical convenience, to which convenience also in other parts of the present work scientific discrimination has sometimes been forced to yield without, it is hoped, much injury. Individual intercomparison, with or without cross references, is besought from any critical reader of this paper.
Feats of jugglery or pretended magic rivaling or surpassing the best of spiritualistic séances have been recounted to the present writer in many places by independent and intelligent Indian witnesses, not operators, generally of advanced age. The cumulated evidence gives an opportunity for spiritualists to argue for the genuineness of their own manifestations or manipulations as, in accordance with the degree of credence, they may be styled. Others will contend that these remarkable performances in which this hemisphere was rich before the Columbian discovery—the occidental rivaling the oriental Indians—belong to a culture stage below civilization. They will observe that the age of miracles among barbaric people has not expired, and that it still exists among outwardly civilized persons who are yet subject to superstition in its true etymologic sense of “remaining over from the past.”
The most elaborate and interesting of these stories which are known relate to a time about forty years ago, shortly before the Davenport brothers and the Fox sisters had excited interest in the civilized portions of the United States; but exhibitions of a magic character are still given among the tribes, though secretly, from fear of the Indian agents and missionaries. It is an important fact that the first French missionaries in Canada and the early settlers of New England described substantially the same performances when they first met the Indians, all of whom belonged to the Algonquian or Iroquoian stocks. So remarkable and frequent were these performances of jugglery that the French, in 1613, called the whole body of Indians on the Ottawa River, whom they met at a very early period, “The Sorcerers.” They were the tribes afterwards called Nipissing, and were the typical Algonquians. No suspicion of prestidigitation or other form of charlatanry appears to have been entertained by any of the earliest French and English writers on the subject. The severe Puritan and the ardent Catholic both considered that the exhibitions were real, and the work of Satan. It is also worth mentioning that one of the derivations of the name “Micmac” is connected with the word meaning sorcerer. The early known practices of this character, which had an important effect upon the life of the people, extended from the extreme east of the continent to the Great Lakes. They have been found later far to the south, and in a higher state of evolution.
It was obvious in cross-examining the old men of the Algonquians that the performances of jugglery were exhibitions of the pretended miraculous power of an adventurer whereby he obtained a reputation above his rivals and derived subsistence and authority by the selling of charms and pretended superhuman information. The charms and fetiches which still are bought from the few shamans who yet have a credulous clientele are of three kinds—to bring death or disease on an enemy, to lure an enemy into an ambush, and to excite a return to sexual love.
Among the Ojibwa three distinct secret societies are extant, the members of which are termed, respectively and in order of their importance, the Midē', the Jĕs'sakīd, and the Wâbĕnō. The oldest and most influential society is known as the Midē'wiwin', or Grand Medicine, and the structure in which the ceremonies are conducted is called the Midē'wigân, or Grand Medicine lodge.
The following statement of the White Earth Midē' shaman presents his views upon the origin of the rite and the objects employed in connection with ceremonies, as well as in the practices connected with medical magic and sorcery:
When Minabō'sho, the first man, had been for some time upon the earth, two great spirits told him that to be of service to his successors they would give to him several gifts, which he was to employ in prolonging life and extending assistance to those who might apply for it.
The first present consisted of a sacred drum, which was to be used at the side of the sick and when invoking the presence and assistance of the spirits. The second was a sacred rattle, with which he was enabled to prolong the life of a patient. The third gift was tobacco, which was to be an emblem of peace; and as a companion he also received a dog. He was then told to build a lodge, where he was to practice the rites of which he would receive further instruction.