Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 25, 1900, Page 18

6 Strange Thanksgiving Customs of Indians (Copyright, 190, by H. M. Converse.) Thanksgiving is generally regarded as a peculiarly American festival. The great na- tion that dominates the continent of North America holds this feast day as being of its own Invention. But centuries before the Pil- grim Fathers touched land at Plymouth Rock there were thanksgiving feasts and ceremonies in the land, celebrated by the first Americans, the once great red race that is now dying out so rapidly; and today the rites are religiously observed by the survivors, just as they were before the pale faces came and when the tomahawk and the swift arrow ruled the land. Wherever tribal customs hold and the old pagan religion stirs in the blood, there the feasts are glven in praise of the Great Spirit who made and controls the land and water and all things that live. The red man had no need of creed nor book to recite his continual thanks to the Great Spirit. The strong winds and gentle breezes hymned his ritual. The lakes, riv- ers and brooks Intoned his chants. The sun, moon and stars were the light of his altar and the whole of nature his psalm of pralse and thanksgiving. The one Eternal Spirit ruled his heaven and his earth. He-no, the Thunderer, gathered the clouds in his hands and sifted down the vivifying rains. Ga-oh, the West Wind, controlled the tempests. Jos-ke-ka ruled the seasons and awakened the day, and Ag-re-skoon inspired the war- rior to victory as he sent his great warery from the mountain peak to the valley. In no tribes did the religious rites reach a higher degree of development than among the the great federation of the five nations. The life of the Iroquois Indian was a continual thanksgiving. There wero annual feasts whereby all nature was sung and praised. Beginning with the New Year Jubllee in February, these feasts fol- lowed in succession, each resurrection of nature. In April the flow of the sap was celebrated in the Maple Feast and the Thunderer who had softened the winter's chain of ice and set the ‘‘sweet water"” flowing was giorified. In May the Plant- ing Festival announced the coming of the Then the flields were consecrated to crops. the guardian spirits of the grain. For this dedication young virgins—primitive Lady Golivas—were sent to the fleids at mid- night unclad, and with their long halr hang- ing loose, to scatter the first seed and In- voke prolific harvests. There were no “peeping Toms,” the red man held fuviolate the purity of his women, and death would have followed the footsteps of the intruder upon the sancity of this rite whereby the virgins were consesrated to the harvesis. Thanks for Good Things of Earth, In June came the First Fruit or Straw- bery Feast, the very gala of thanksgiving. The Great Spirit had ‘“‘shown” them his gitts, the lusclous fruit had blushed in the sun and the festivities of dance and song must celebrate its vine and blos- som. This berry feast included the whortleberry and raspberry and certain wild herb berries, which contained reme- dial properties and were defense agalnst disease and other vague evils. Homage was rendered to every growth of the vine under or above the ground; grapes, squash, bea potatoes and all sustaining foods that ‘‘climb up to the sun for the red man,"” w enumerated and acknowledged in this everlasting ritual of thanks. The ‘‘Green Corn" thanksgiving, usually in August, was the “Blg Thanks.” The women named the feast day and gathered a few of the first ears that ripened that the Thanksgiving fire should first receive this gift of the Great Spirit, and as the smoke of the savory grain ascended the anclent chant of consecration was intoned by the medi- cine men and women to the accompani- ment of the drum and turtle-shell rattles. Following this chant the fire was extin- guished and a new one kindled, over which, suspended from oak sticks, large iron ket- tles were swung. Within the kettles the corn soup bubbled and sputtered, forming a dull accompaniment to the weird songs ot the dancers, who were wreathed with twists of the silken tassels of corm, the velvety pods of beans and the gold trumpet blossoms of the squash, emblems which symbolized the gifts of the Great Earth Mother arrayed in all her glories. As the nelghbors of the primitive red man the animals of the forest and the birds of the air were included in the ritual of pralse. From the Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Deer, Turtle, Heron, Hawk, Snipo and Eagle the heraldry of the Iroquols was devised which determined the clan and family system of tribal division enduring bond of the Iroquols. in the of the game-fish, that they should be loyal to her and produce large numbers of their kind for her people. Great birds, as the eagle and hawk, were specially praised as having the wings of the clouds and being able to fly to the loftiest mountain top and talk to the sun. The elements were religiously sacred to the Iroquois. The fire shielded them from the winter's cold, cooked their game, lighted the council flame and ‘‘talked with” their tobaceo. The water protected thelr fish; the air held the sun, moon and stars; the earth was confederation of the Five Nations—Mohawka, THE ILLUSTRATED BEE. the dancers, guests, members of the medi- November 25, 1800. expounds the faith, enumerating with Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas and Onondagas— cine soclety and every ‘“head of the fam- eolemn intonation each praise. If any one live on six reservations, each of which con- tains its council house, a wooden building about fifty by eighty feet. Here the old fashioned, or “‘pagan,” Indians convene for their legislative work and religious cere- monies. To the truly religious Iroquolis who honors the religion of his ancestors, these annual festivals mean a renewal of the protection of the Great Spirit as well a8 a duty for careful fulfillment. To omit one ceremony would be not only irrever- ence, but “bad luck.” To the whites and even to the Christianized Indian the rituals are unknown. They have been handed down from generation to generation, by word of mouth, and are preserved inviolably secret from the alien. To the mind of the red man praise should be denoted by a dance (their dances so misunderstood by the pale- ily” resident on the reservation wherein the festival may be held. Although the dancing is continued at in- tervals during the three days, the first day's ceremony is the most religious of all the Green Corn dance. During this dance the entire ritual of the praises of the Iroquols is recited, the band of selected dancers marching around the room in single file as the preacher intones his thanksgivings. Enumerated among the various thanks are the following (nearly literal): An Iroquois’ Prayer of Thanksgiving. “We thank the Great Spirit that we are here to praise Him. We thank Him that He has created men and women, and ordered that these beings shall always be living to multiply the earth. We thank Him for giv- Ing to our great mother, the earth, her big MOHAWK THANKING FOR THE CLAN TOTEM. their Great Mother and these elements must be named with supreme reverence. At each thanksglving dance the heraldic totem must be thanked for ‘‘building” the family clan. The wolves of the Wolf totem must thank the wolf and thus also each to- tem of bird or beast. The medicine man must acknowledge the aid of the roots and herbs and thank each one of them as his ‘“upholder.”” The huntor must thank the game and fish. The warrior must pralse war and victory. In fact the Iroquols, like all the American red men, believed himself a part and integral portion of all nature. In the return of the springtime he found a fit example of his own immortality. The res- urrection from apparent death decided his after life where everything in nature was materialized, and in the continuous produc- tion and reproduction of nature he included himself. In the various thanksglving festivals of the Iroquols the ceremonles are nearly the same, although there are dances of many kinds which are especlally adapted to the several ceremonies. Bird, beast, fish and all sorts of game; women, men, children, to- tems, fruits, vegetables, roots, herbs, each has its dance, which must be celebrated. These dances, in the old times held in the open forest, are now solemnized in the coun- cil house of each reservation, which is the legislative hall as well as the religlous gathering place of the modern Iroquois In- dians. The 4,600 Imdians in the state of New York, all who are left of the once colossal face) which is the accentuation ot the red man's religion and the expression of the duty to which the true pagan still holds in spite of the intrusions of the white men's religions, The Green Corn festival may be denom- Inated the most prominent thanksgiving feast of the Iroquois. The month when the late fruits were ripening and the green corn was in the ear seemed to the ancient Iroguois the “time"” of the Great Spirit, who was yet holding the harvest in his hands. Today the “summons” to this foast Is sent weeks In advance and so arranged that each one of the reservation festivals will not interfere with its neighbor nation. thus fulfilling the universal law of the red man’s hospitality—‘‘each must help the other.” By this the Onondagas will “hold the corn” a few days prior to the Senecas and so on, that each nation in turn may visit its nearest neighbor, thus consum- mating the religious rule that all must harmonize in the season of thanks and praise. The first rite of the green corn feast, which continues three days, is to wrap one ear of corn in the sacred to- bacco and throw it on the fire as an in- cense offering, which dedicates the festival to the Great Spirit. In this initial cere- mony medicine men and medicine women, are selected to strip and hull the corn for the feast-soup which must be set boiling the first day and boil continually until the third and final day, when beef and beans are added to it and it is distributed among RETURNING THANKS FOR GAME. heart and blg bosom that holds the moun- tains, lakes and rivers. We thank Him for all the waters that run in the woods and valleys and deep holes (seas). We thank Him for all the animals. We thank Him for the forests and sweet-water tree (maple) and for branches of the trees that hold the great shadows of our comfort. We thank Him for the beings in the air that carry the thunder and the rains. We thank Him for our oldest brother, the sun, who works for us all the time. We thank Him for our kind relations who give us light in the dark- ness, the moon and stars. We thank Him for remembering to send us game that we cannot be hungry. We thank Him for glv- ing swiftness to our feet when we pursue an enemy. We thank Him for telling us how to die bravely.” Thus these thanks go on until all benefits to man or beast or birds have been recited and danced for. In the final dance all par- ticipate, including the extremely aged, who fold ‘their blankets around them with the dignity of their ancestors; the younger dancers being decorated with feathers and the gala attire copied from the colors of the rainbow, and the toddling infants, as stoical and earnest as the bent centenarians. The dance music is the drum and the turtle shell rattle, which accompany the voices of the trained singers, who, as they sing, sit astride a wooden bench placed in the center of the circle of dancers. There is always one pagan preacher who inherited the ‘‘dance and thank talk” and y by To every creature whereby good came to him the early Iroquols made his acknowl- edgement. He must thank the bee and the beaver for teaching him construction. The fish, which could live in water which was death to man, must be thanked for some mysterlously supreme power of life denied to human kind. The bird had a means of locomotion which was unknown to man, Hven the unerring arrow would refuse to follow the swift bird if the Great Spirit was unwilling it should die, therefore the bird must be thanked for its superior flight which, to the red man, indicated the pro- tection of the supreme spirits governing the air as well as the earth. M ying the Fish, There was a thanksglving ceremony in the olden time by which an Indlan malden was married to the fish and by this cere- monlal she must forever remain the wite SCENE AT RECENT WRECK NEAR MISSOURI VALLEY, Ia.—Photo by A, N. Brown. pserson desires to offer special thanks ths preacher announces it to the people and dancers and by their consent he or she is permitted to “lift the voice” for some blessing of the chase, war, health or home. It is the duty of every person, no matter how aged or feeble to dance once around the circle and offer the Great Spirit his own voice of thanks. ‘Ihe great confederacy of the Iroquois is dissolved and of the people of the Five Na- tions there are left but a few who continue to celebrate the religion of their fore- fathers. These adherents to the old cus- toms are limited to about one-third of the Indians now resident on the New York state reservations. The silk, or slouch, or derby hat has substituted the old-time feathered head-dress, patent leathers have taken the place of the moccasins, the buckskin shirt is forgotten, hideous high-heeled shoes and store bonnets replace the picturesque cos- tume of the women, the forests are de- parted and in their place broad fields hold the grain where the Iroquois once built the war and council fire, church spires tower above the trees, the board house stands on the land once claimed by the tepee aud the mighty days of the Iroquois are no more. In spite of the dissolution of the tribal relationship, in spite of the advancement and consequent progression of education and trade-school training there are yec those who remember to chant the Thanks- giving ritual of their forefathers; the orig- inal and real American Thanksgiving—the Thanksgiving of the American Indian. First Thanksgiving Day Mrs. Hemans. The breaking waves dashed high On a stern and rockbound coast, And the winds, against a stormy sky, Thelr glant branches tost, And the heavy night hung dark, The hills and waters o er, When a band of exiles moored their bark On the wild New England shore. Not as the conqueror comes They, the true-hearted, came; Not with the stirring roll of drums And the trumpet that sings of tame; Not as the flying come, In silence and in fear; They shook the depths of the desert gioom With their hymns of lofty cheer, Amid the storm they sang, And the stars heard, and the sea; And the sounding aisle of the dim woods rang With the anthem of the free. The ocean eagle soared From his nest by the white waves' foam, And the rocking pines of the fores( roared-— This was their welcome home. There were men with hoary halr Amid that pilgrim band; Why had they come to wither there Away from their childhood’s land? There was woman's fearless eye, Lit by the deep love's truth; There was manhood's brow serenely high, Amid the flery heart of youth, What sought they there afar? Bright jewels, or the mine? + The wealth of seas, or the spolls of war? They sought a falth's pure shrine! Aye, call it holy ground, e soil where first they trod They left unstained what there 'ound— Freedom to worship God! Pictorial Difficulties sobbed the they Detroit Journal: ‘‘Picture,’” heroine, “my distress!" The man tore his hair, impotently. ‘“Are you, then, the hero of this story?"” asked Hortense, looking shyly up at him through her tears. She had been introduced only in the last preceding chapter but one, understand, and felt herself quite a stranger. ‘Oh, no!" moaned the fellow. illustrator!” \0ld Even Then Detroit Journal: “I'm the When King Solomon broached the subject of matrimony the queen of Sheba laughed merrily. “I have a parrot that swears und a monkey that chews tobacco, so what do I want of a husband?’ she exclaimed with an arch look. “Chestnuts!"” roared Solomon, deprecat- ngly. The king also called her majesty’'s at- tention to the fact that tobacco was not et discovered, but the queen was not to e shaken in her determination. Typewriter Record AT Paris Expositions : 1878 Gold Medal 1889 Gold Medal 1900 A Grand Prix Highest Form of Award, Outranking All Medals. 1619 Farnam Street, Omaha, Releans T S