III. The Shooting Ritual.—It might perhaps be expedient, before discussing the phenomena of “shooting” in general, to analyze what is supposed to be its precise nature among the various tribes possessing it in one form or another. Generally speaking, the essential idea lies in the simulation of being shot by a missile, and re-acting by simulating muscular contractions until the individual falls prone upon the ground. The general theory of the Ojibwa-Menominee and of the Winnebago is, that death must thereupon normally result, but that certain conditions may change this fatal effect into one of temporary unconsciousness. Among the Omaha, the simulated death is interpreted as the dramatic representation of the death of certain persons known in the ceremony of the Shell Society as “children.” Among the Santee Dakota, it seems to have had no very definite meaning.[16]
The Ojibwa,[17] Menominee,[18] Winnebago, and Dakota are at one in interpreting the effects of the shooting as the result of the magical powers inherent in the missile used. Efficiency in shooting, however, depends not merely upon the missile, but also upon the shaman using it. According to the esoteric interpretation of the Winnebago, the specific results could only be obtained by being a member of the Medicine Dance. There are indications that this specific efficacy was associated with the general magical power of shamans,—a power that had been obtained through personal visions, not in any way connected with this society. For the Ojibwa-Menominee, this latter seems to have been by far the more important source for efficacy. For example, the otter-skin bag could be used with the same effect quite apart from the performances of the Midewiwin. In the Omaha ceremonies it is not quite clear exactly what renders the shooting efficacious, and whether the result is inherent in the magical power of the missile.
In all the ritualistic complexes there are variations both as to the manner in which the shooting is done, and as to the portion of the body aimed at. Excluding the Omaha societies, these variations in all cases depend upon the status of membership. The Ojibwa-Menominee shooting is in nature and in interpretation quite similar to that of the Winnebago; while the Omaha presents a number of variations from the type.
In the Ojibwa-Menominee ceremonies the shooting ritual is always associated with the admission of a new member. This includes, of course, also the initiation of individuals into higher degrees, wherever such exist. The shooting is done principally by the newly initiated individual, because he is supposed to be trying his powers. There occurs, besides this, a general shooting, in which all members indulge, and which is supposed to increase their shooting powers. The strengthening of their power is supposed to resist the effects of the shot. Among the Omaha this general shooting is unassociated with initiation, while among the Winnebago it is found associated both with initiation and with the basic ceremony. It is therefore of considerable importance to understand what relation this general shooting ritual bears to the specific shooting associated with initiation. Shooting is either an element primarily associated with initiation, and afterwards separated, or it is some general element that has become associated with any of a large number of other cultural elements. In order to determine this, we have next to examine with what elements shooting becomes associated.
Among the Kwakiutl[19] there is a dance in which an individual (mā′maq’a) throws disease into the people. This disease is represented by some object, either a stick or a harpoon-head. The shooting has precisely the same effect as in the Medicine Dance. No association of shooting of any kind occurs with initiation into a society.
The Kwakiutl example brings up the real question involved in the shooting. To what extent is the shooting ritual of the Medicine Dance of the Winnebago merely one of the forms of disease-throwing which is so common a practice of sympathetic magic? The Central Algonkin Midewiwin are really loose associations of men and women, whose powers are obtained more from individual revelations obtained outside of the Midewiwin than from the benefits of membership in that society. Shamanistic practices appear to form an integral part of this society. But apart from this, the shooting of disease, or of any malignant power, at an enemy, is an extremely common feature among the Central Algonkin as it is among all other American shamans. The question that presents itself is, whether the shooting, as found in the Ojibwa-Menominee and Winnebago Medicine Societies, is not one aspect of this same general shamanistic practice.
To judge from the speeches and the songs of these societies, the main religious function is to obtain the power to resist the influence of the shot. The muscular contortions and the various movements the individual shot at goes through, are intended to be symbolical of this resistance. What the members expect to obtain are powers sufficiently strong to resist any malignant influences that they might meet in the general course of a lifetime; that is, we are dealing with a very general manifestation of shamanism, and we ought therefore not to be surprised to find it wherever shamanism occurs, either entirely unassociated, or associated with a large number of different elements. We find it unassociated in a large number of places scattered over North America. Among the Kwakiutl it is associated with a certain dance; among the Central Algonkin and Winnebago, with initiation. If it can now be shown that among the Omaha, and among the Winnebago also, we find it again in a different association, then the association of shooting with an initiation ritual will have to be regarded as one of a number of complexes into which shooting has entered. Whether, in a specific case, shooting, or the initiation-shooting complex, is historically related to a similar ritual among other tribes, is a question that only direct historical evidence or a strong historical probability can determine. The presence of shooting in a number of different ceremonies, however, will not in itself demonstrate any relationship between these ceremonies.
We will now examine the nature of the complex with which shooting is associated in the night division of the general ceremony of the Winnebago Medicine Dance and in the Omaha Pebble and Shell Society.
A large number of the societies among the Winnebago and Omaha are based on the common possession of revelations from the same animal. We may have a society “of those who have had communication with the Thunders,” or with the Nights, or with the Grizzly Bear, or what not. The bond of such a society is generally expressed outwardly, by the possession of some “gift” which is intimately connected with the animal, be it a head-dress, a tail, facial decorations, or the right to the use of a certain drum, etc. The only society among the Winnebago where no revelation is required for admission is the Medicine Dance. There are, however, a number of elements which connect the Medicine Dance with the other type of society so common among the Winnebago. For instance, there is an outward mark of membership; namely, the otter-skin and the “migis.”[20] On the warpath the Winnebago wraps the otter-skin around his shoulder to signify that, as a member of the Medicine Dance, he is protected from the attacks of his enemies. In the shooting ritual of the night division of the general ceremony of the Medicine Dance, and in the Medicine Feast, there are a number of features similar to those of the Winnebago Buffalo, Grizzly Bear, Night, etc., Societies. From the point of view of organization, the only difference would seem to be, that, instead of a common bond lying in a supernatural communication, it lies here in the mutual shooting. If we wished to describe the Medicine Dance in terms of Winnebago society norms, we might call it a “society of those who shoot one another.” The shooting forms an integral part of the ritualistic complex, much in the same way as do the set songs and the set speeches. In the basic ritual of the day ceremony, the shooting occurs in two combinations,—on the one hand, as an initiation-shooting-complex, set off more or less from the general ceremony; and, on the other hand, in a complex that is a repetition of one which occurs at night, and which forms unquestionably the basic portion of the entire Medicine Dance. We will return to a discussion of this subsequently.
Shooting in the Omaha Pebble and Shell Societies is associated precisely in the same manner as in the basic ritual of the Medicine Dance. In the Pebble Society we have, as a matter of fact, exactly the condition which we assumed might perhaps be the correct interpretation of the Medicine Dance. The society is named “Those who shoot the Pebble.” In the Shell Society the bond of union is similarly the shooting, the society being called “Those who shoot with a Shell.”