Chapter 3

The Work of the Devil

Summary

This chapter covers how we have dealt with American Indian medicine powers since first contacting them. The earliest contacts were made by the French Jesuit missionaries along the east coast. Later came the trappers, traders, and settlers. Because the missionaries lived among them and often witnessed their medicine powers, they came to see them as real. However the majority of the population considered them to be "savage superstition", and any witnessing of them was seen as trickery on their part. Professional anthropologists have avoided the subject, but one rare account of a believer is included (but not included in the excerpts).

Chapter Excerpts

The Coming of the Dust Eyes

Now in the beginning the Jesuits were highly condescending of the medicine people. Their medicine powers were usually seen as merely tricks of some sort, and, as such, the Jesuits most often used the French term jongluer (early English juggler), as in a circus act, for shamans. This term was passed on to the Europeans such that it became ingrained in their minds that such people were basically fraudulent. However, by the mid-1600s the word had gotten around among a few missionaries that, for certain, some of the Indian "priests" did indeed have great magical powers. Subsequently, the missionaries not only became more interested in native shamans, they also began to attend their ceremonies and document their displays of supernatural powers. Therefore, their views on this matter began to change. Operating from head mode, their first inclination was to come up with a rational explanation for such powers, and that they did. They began to declare that medicine powers were "the work of the devil" and, therefore, to be avoided. That was their map for the territory. However, the important point here is that through their personal observations they did come to believe in the reality of medicine powers. Subsequently, the priests began to show a much greater curiosity and interest in medicine people, but a healthy fear of them as well. After all, it was a time when witches and their evil powers were believed in.

One of the earliest recorded accounts comes from a Father Pijart. In May of 1637, he observed a healing ceremony among the Huron in which one of their medicine men picked up with his bare hands a glowing-red-hot rock, from a fire "hot enough to burn the cabin [ceremonial house] down." Pijart went on to report, "You will be astonished that a man can have so wide a mouth; the stone is about the size of a goose egg. Yet I saw a savage put it in his mouth so that there was more of it inside than out; he carried it some distance and, after that, it was still so hot, that when he threw it to the ground sparks of fire issued from it." After the ceremony was over Pijart inspected the interior of the medicine man's mouth and found it not burned, more than likely much to this Huron's amusement. Pijart also retrieved the stone and inspected it. Much to his amazement the shaman's teeth prints were embedded into the stone! Pijart then sent this stone on to his superior, who in turn sent it to France, where it probably still rests on some dusty shelf.

By the 1700s native medicine powers had also become well known among the general public. Trappers and traders often returned to tell how they had been healed by an Indian ceremony. Now it is interesting to note that this "work of the devil" attitude towards medicine powers persisted among the Christian clergy up through the last century. On the other hand, the general public tended to retain the original "it's a trick" point of view. For one, the public continued to use the term juggler for a medicine woman or man, which carries the connotation of trickery. I believe one of the major reasons for this is that the missionaries were living among their converts, and had ample opportunity to witness many medicine power displays. On the other hand, the general public had merely brief encounters during short visitations. So the missionaries were seeing their "works of the devil" much more often such that they firmly believed in their powers. The infrequent visitors simply tried to detect the "deceptions" of the juggler. As you might suspect, they never did figure them out.

By the latter part of the 1800s anthropologists began coming into the scene, and we finally begin to see much more recorded detail of medicine power practices. This is especially true from the 1880s to 1900, when these cultures still retained most of their traditional ways of life such that medicine powers were still quite active. However, by 1900 most of their medicine ceremonies had been declared illegal in one way or another such that the few remaining medicine people went into hiding for the most part. Therefore, much of the material recorded after 1900 was taken from elders who recalled participating in such ceremonies during their youth. Although more detailed, most of the recorded material is still quite incomplete. For one, there was a general reluctance among the American Indians to talk about them. Most natives had converted to Christianity, and didn't want to be associated with "pagan" ways. So it was embarrassing for them to talk about their earlier associations with medicine powers. Others would not talk because of long-standing taboos not to speak of such affairs least bad medicine would come their way.

A Hopi Account

We generally overlook the fact that when field anthropologists encountered some form of medicine power, more often than not, their study subjects knew about it. As such, there are some rare accounts that come not from anthropologists, but the natives themselves. Take for example the visit of anthropologist J. Walter Fewkes to the Hopi village of Walpi in the fall of 1898. Although Fewkes never reported the following incident, he did relate it to the priests of their winter Wuwuchim ceremonial in their kiva (round ceremonial adobe) the following day. The following account by Hopi native Edmond Nequatewa was first published in 1936 (Coulton: 122-123):

"Dr. Fewkes had been in the [Wuwuchim] kiva all day taking notes on what he saw going on there. Finally the men told him that he must go away and stay in his house for Masauwu [the Earth God] was coming, and that part of the ceremony was very sacred and no outside person was ever allowed to see what was going on. They told him to go into his house and lock the door, and not to try to see anything no matter what happened, or he would be dragged out and he would 'freeze' to death. So he went away into his house and he locked the door just as he had been told to do and he sat down and began to write up his notes

"Now suddenly he had a queer feeling, for he felt that there was someone in the room, and he looked up and saw a tall man standing before him, but he could not see his face for the light was not good. He felt very much surprised for he knew that he had locked the door.

"He said, 'What do you want and how did you get in here?' The man replied, 'I have come to entertain you.'

"Dr. Fewkes said, 'Go away, I am busy and I do not wish to be entertained.'

"And now as he was looking at the man, he suddenly was not there any more. Then a voice said, 'Turn your head a moment,' and when the Doctor looked again the figure stood before him once more, but this time its head was strange and dreadful to see.

"And the Doctor said, 'How did you get in?', and the man answered and said, 'I go where I please, locked doors cannot keep me out! See, I will show you how I entered,' and, as Dr. Fewkes watched, he shrank away and became like a single straw in a Hopi hair whisk and he vanished through the key hole

"Now Dr. Fewkes was very much frightened and as he was thinking what to do, there was the man back again. So he said once more to him, 'What do you want?', and the figure answered as before and said, 'I have come to entertain you.' So the Doctor offered him a cigarette and then a match, but the man laughed and said, 'Keep your match, I do not need it,' and he held the cigarette before his horrible face and blew a stream of fire from his mouth upon it and lit his cigarette. Then Dr. Fewkes was very much afraid indeed, for now he know who it was [i.e., Masauwu].

"Then the being talked and talked to him, and finally the Doctor 'gave up to him' and said he would become a Hopi and be like them and believe in Masauwu, and Masauwu cast his spell on him and they both became like little children and all night long they played around together and Masauwu gave the Doctor no rest."

In the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology annual report the director reported that Dr. Fewkes returned early to Washington, DC due to an outbreak of smallpox among the Hopi that year, but the Hopi will tell you that he returned because of his unnerving encounter with Masauwu.

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