Priest and Shaman on the Plains: A False Dichotomy?*

Abstract

For a number of years, anthropologists have tended to classify religious leaders of more or less primitive peoples into shamans on the one hand, and priests on the other. Such terms are analytically useful, but like many polarities of their kind, they tend to break down when applied to “real world” situations. The Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indians of Montana provide interesting contrasts in this area, where two powerful religious themes - the tribal Sun Dance and the individual Vision Quest-- interact in various societies to produce a wide range of ceremonial expression. The literature on these two societies combines with modern field observation to suggest that in one case, shamans prevail entirely - while in the other, a real stage of separation between priest and shaman has developed, with one man serving in both capacities at various times.     

The Changing Practice Of The Oglala Medicine Man

Abstract

Among the most durable elements of tribal culture are the quasi-secret ceremonial procedures of the medicine man, surviving the Conquest, suppression, and various revivalist movements almost intact, and retaining rituals possibly dating to the Pleistocene. Consciously rejected aspects of Christian training have reappeared in modified form, as in a wedding ceremony here described. Other syncretisms can be traced to the political activism of recent years, and the impetus it has given to a resurgence of the old religion. By 1978 the Oglala medicine man, originally a healer, seer, and sage, had assumed additional roles as tribal representative to other governments, political leaders, mediator in disputes, judge and counsellor, justice-of-the-peace, mental health worker, psychotherapist, and provider of primary health care.     

Native American Resistance To Integration: Contemporary Confrontations And Religious Revitalization

Abstract

Most studies dealing with North American Indian integration often focus upon efforts directed at tribal groups by a dominant society in forced acculturation. This paper seeks to examine current trends initiated by tribal groups and members to resist integration. Aspects for consideration include confrontative efforts - Alcatraz, Wounded Knee II, and the “Longest Walk.” The recent efforts of religious revitalization as the Sioux Sun Dance, which forms a part of enhanced efforts toward developing a new “native ethic” in combatting integration and assimilation, will be assessed as an increasing ethnic marker to many Native Americans.     

The Northern Cheyenne Sun Dance and the Opening of the Sacred Medicine Hat 1959

Abstract

In 1959, after several years of teaching the Northern Cheyenne on the Tongue River Reservation in Montana, the writer was able to observe the annual Sun Dance in some detail, to photograph it, and to be present at the rare opening of the Sacred Medicine Hat Bundle which followed. This account reports the main events which took place, and establishes that the Northern Cheyenne Sun Dance has not only survived but has undergone relatively little change since it was reported by Grinnell in 1910. Marked similarity is also seen with the older Southern Cheyenne ceremony recorded by Dorsey in Oklahoma in 1903.

The Medicine Hat, still an object of much veneration, was inspected after a series of misadventures to determine whether its contents were safe, and thus was provided an opportunity to view for the first time in more than 25 years an old and famous object of significance in Plains religion.     

The So-Called Sun Dance of the Gros Ventre

Abstract

The so-called Sun Dance of the Gros Ventre was last held in about the year 1884. Informants living in 1967 have preserved in tribal legends an account of the ceremony in general and the last one in particular. One informant was an eye witness when his adopted father went through the self-torture rite. Factors of hardship, declining numbers, enforced attendance of the children at school, introduction of Christiantiy, and the severity of the rites probably all worked to bring an end to the practice of the aboriginal form of this ceremony.     

Edwards II: Report of An Excavation In Western Oklahoma

Abstract

Edwards II is located on the North Fork of the Red River in western Oklahoma. It is one of two sites excavated in 1968 by the University of Oklahoma Field School in Archaeology. The major excavation area consisted of 19 contiguous five foot squares. Two test pits were also dug to determine the limits of the site. Nine features were uncovered; all were pits which exhibited a variety of shapes. Ceramic materials and projectile points are similar to Custer and Washita River foci manifestations, but the low proportion of bison bone, and the presence of a few corner notched and stemmed points suggest placement early in the time span represented by these foci.     

George W. Hill’S Account Of The Sioux Sun Dance of 1866

Abstract

There are several published accounts of the Sioux Sun Dance. Most are those of the Oglala division of the Teton Sioux and most occurred rather late in Sioux history. In 1866, Captain George William Hill witnessed and recorded a Sioux Sun Dance published here for the first time. It is an earlier account that most others and is of interest because most of the participants were not from the Oglala division.     

Plain Facts

Abstract

The identification of an early lithic horizon in Oklahoma is made and theories concerning its cultural affiliation, site locations, distribution, and artifact typology are described.

The common characteristics of 20 sites in central Oklahoma are listed; site location - on high ground and on tributaries rather than streams; lithic debris found mostly in eroded gullies, quartzite material and core tools predominant on most sites, finished tools found in a minority of sites; Plainview points found at 2 sites and points being generally very rare; and no pottery on any sites.

The culture is equated at the technological 11level11 of the Cochise culture of southern Arizona and New Mexico.     

The Oglala (Teton Dakota) Sun Dance: Vissicitudes of its Structures and Functions

Abstract

The structure and function of the traditional Oglala Dakota Sun Dance is compared with modern versions of the dance performed at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.     

“The Skunk and the Smallpox:” Mythology and Historical Reality

Abstract

Rare is the myth which provides an understanding of the historic circumstances which brought about its creation, but a narrative collected among the Wyandot Indians of Oklahoma does lend itself to historical analysis. The myth is both etiological and medicinal in its relation of the cause and cure for smallpox. Unique features of the myth’s content relative to cause and cure can be logically and historically related to the Wyandot situation in the second decade of the 19thcentury-in’ close proximity to the white settlement at Sandusky, Ohio. Sandusky Wyandots not only observed white treatment of smallpox, but heard tales told of white exploits in the Great Northwest Trading Company. It is contended here that the Wyandots selected as the etiology of smallpox the explanation offered by whites as a result of experiences of traders on the Columbia river; and that they selected as a cure for smallpox a form based on observation of white treatment at Sandusky. The myth, therefore, had its origin about 1815, when the Wyandot were at Sandusky, Ohio.     

How the Tiwi Construct the Deceased’s Postself in Mortuary Ritual

ABSTRACT

In this paper I will discuss Tiwi mortuary rites as a transformative, relational process in which the deceased’s postself is created. The deceased’s self is fashioned and manifested after death through a series of ritual practices performed by specific relatives. This approach allows me not only to stress the concern Tiwi people show about being remembered after death but also how this concern defines each participant’s ceremonial role and constitutes one of the mortuary ritual’s major aims. The deceased will be remembered as portrayed in the final rites.     

The Kickapoo Whistle System: A Speech Surrogate

Abstract

The Mexican and Oklahoma whistle and flute languages are presented as dual surrogates which have been maintained and utilized as communications systems for over 100 years.     

The Henry Davis Drum Rite: An Unusual Drum Religion Variant of the Minnesota Ojibwa

Abstract

The Drum religion or Dream dance is basically a variant of the ceremonial Grass dance which has been modified into a religion. Though definitely a revitalization movement, it has no connection with the Ghost dance or “Messiah cult”. The religion is instead accommodative in nature, stressing brotherhood and good will between Indians and Whites. Though presently obsolescent the religion was once practiced by a large number of Midwestern tribes. The Henry Davis drum rite, witnessed in 1963, is a variant of the seasonal drum ceremonies practiced by the Ojibwa at Mille Lacs, Minnesota. It is somewhat unusual, even in terms of the Drum religion, in the large number of Christian elements incorporated into the rite.     

The Identity and Demography of the Plains-Ojibwa

Abstract

One of the largest Indian tribes of the northern praries is the Bungi or Plains-Ojibwa, Despite their importance in the historic period they go unmentioned in most histories. In large part this is due to semantic confusion in their identification by writers and official agencies.

In language, social organization, art, ceremonial, and costume the Plains Ojibwa is a distinct ethnic group. Although they are descended from Woodland groups, 150 years of separate political and cultural existence has made them a distinct tribe.

The gradual migration of small Ojibwa groups unto the Plains began near the end of the 18th century. By 1800 those living west of the Red River of the North were beginning to be thought of as a distinct group. However, confusion as to their irlentity has persisted.

At present 2 ethnic groups make up the Plains-Ojibwa, a “full-blood” minority group and a metis group which, although basically PlainsOjibwa with some Cree admixture, has a large amount of French as well as other European blood.     

Influence of the Observer on the Frequency of the ‘Morning-Dance’ in the Arabian Babbler

The Arabian babbler, Turdoides squamiceps, displays an unusual behaviour, the ‘morning-dance’. This article examines the influence of the presence and behaviour of an observer on the dance frequency. The results are the summary of more than 3 yr of study by 12 observers, who performed 1335 observations and witnessed 286 dances that took place among 15 groups of babblers. Different experiments were carried out on 148 additional mornings. Different observers witnessed different dance frequencies. Dance frequency witnessed by an observer decreased with observer's experience. Observers watching groups of babblers on single days witnessed more dances than those who watched the same groups for several consecutive days. Dance frequency was higher on the first day of a series of observations than on the following days in the same series. If a group of babblers remained unobserved for one day, the frequency of dancing increased. An evening observation considerably decreased the frequency of dancing the following morning. Feeding experiments did not elevate dance frequency. Experimental disturbance at the roost before dawn increased dance frequency while permanent disturbance and frightening experiments did not. Change in the observer's presence and behaviour caused the babblers to react by dancing. The hypothesis that the observer's presence and behaviour influences different group members differently, and therefore alters the relationships among them, is offered to explain the results that observers can affect the dance frequency.     

Admixture and population replacement of the sells Papago Indians: Three strategies

Abstract

Changes in rates of admixture on the Sells Papago Indian reservation over the last century are shown to reflect ethnohistorically recorded events of extra‐tribal contact. Three distinct strategies providing, in varying degrees, for the preservation of group identity were identified. It is argued that strategies favoring maximum preservation of ethnic identity have threatened the survival of the reservation breeding units because traditional patterns of mate selection are inconsistent with present settlement patterns and result in delay of mate selection and childbearing early in reproductive life.     

The Homeodomain Iroquois Proteins Control Cell Cycle Progression and Regulate the Size of Developmental Fields

During development, proper differentiation and final organ size rely on the control of territorial specification and cell proliferation. Although many regulators of these processes have been identified, how both are coordinated remains largely unknown. The homeodomain Iroquois/Irx proteins play a key, evolutionarily conserved, role in territorial specification. Here we show that in the imaginal discs, reduced function of Iroquois genes promotes cell proliferation by accelerating the G1 to S transition. Conversely, their increased expression causes cell-cycle arrest, down-regulating the activity of the Cyclin E/Cdk2 complex. We demonstrate that physical interaction of the Iroquois protein Caupolican with Cyclin E-containing protein complexes, through its IRO box and Cyclin-binding domains, underlies its activity in cell-cycle control. Thus, Drosophila Iroquois proteins are able to regulate cell-autonomously the growth of the territories they specify. Moreover, our results provide a molecular mechanism for a role of Iroquois/Irx genes as tumour suppressors.     

Review essay

Body Language in the Context of Culture Human Action Signs in Cultural Context: The Visible and the Invisible in Movement and Dance. Edited by Brenda Farnell. Metuchen, N.J.; The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1995. Name index, subject index. 313 pp. $42.50, hardcover.