NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS Native American Rituals and Ceremonies. (http:www.legendsofamerica.comna-cermonies.html ) [304683]

UNIVERSITATEA TRANSILVANIA DIN BRAȘOV

FACULTATEA DE LITERE
DEPARTAMENTUL DE LITERATURĂ ȘI STUDII CULTURALE

LUCRARE DE DIPLOMĂ

Absolvent: [anonimizat]

2017

TRANSILVANIA UNIVERSITY OF BRAȘOV

FACULTY OF LETTERS

DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE AND CULTURAL

STUDIES

B.A. [anonimizat], Ph.D

Brasov

2017

[anonimizat] – Cheyenne – [anonimizat] – [anonimizat]. Moreover, the practical part from the end of this paper is meant to show the complexity of native American language and the interpretation of their chants.

To this end, I designed a [anonimizat], in which I wanted to measure the level of knowledge about the native American tribes of each of the interviewees. [anonimizat].

Overall, there are several conclusions which can be extracted from the paper and the topic itself. Firstly, [anonimizat]. [anonimizat], buildings and ceremonies or rituals.

Secondly, [anonimizat] a [anonimizat] – [anonimizat].

Thirdly, the white people’s [anonimizat] a [anonimizat] – [anonimizat]. [anonimizat]’s traditions and way of thinking.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

THE HISTORY OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS: [anonimizat]. [anonimizat]. [anonimizat] “Nunna daul Isunyi” or The Trail of Tears.

It was a hard time and they had to accommodate to the new environment and to start their lives again from the beginning. [anonimizat], became a much more nomadic tribe after the European contact and after the Spanish colonists brought horses in the 18th century.

Location and Tribes

The Native Americans were firstly settled in the Cheyenne River Valley as farmers in nowadays Minnesota (before 1700s), [anonimizat] a nomadic tribe. Their name comes from the Sioux word “shai-ena” meaning “strange speech people.” Also, they were speaking the Algonquian language.

[anonimizat]: The Great Plains or the Buffalo Region. [anonimizat], is located between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, and the Cheyenne tribe before 1700s was located in nowadays Montana, North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska. But this region contains some other tribes too, such as: Dakota, Powhatan, Sioux, Blackfoot/ Blackfeet, Crow, and so and so forth.

After 1800s the Cheyenne tribe moved to nowadays Colorado and divided into the Northern Cheyenne and the Southern Cheyenne. The Northern Cheyenne are located near Montana and the Southern ones in Oklahoma. But the Cheyenne tribe as we know it today, is made up of two tribes, the Tsis tsis’ tăs, or, they are also called the original Cheyenne, and the Suh’ tai, they joined the tribe after they crossed the Missouri River in the early 18th century.

Through the uncertain history – known by people – of the Cheyenne tribe, there popped up a tale according to which:

‘(…) the Cheyennes formerly lived under the ground. They were in a great cave; it was dark, but a distant light was seen, and traveling toward it they found an opening and came out upon the earth. At first the light hurt their eyes, but it was not always night. There were night and day (…)’ (Grinnell, 1972: 4).

And so they started to discover the earth, the water, the animals, plants and everything that nature offered them. After the Cheyennes accommodated with the new environment, they started travelling again and they came across and they were attacked by the Ho’ he, they were also known as Assiniboines, so they arrived to the Missouri River. Of course, that was just one of the legends told by the natives or by the people who admitted to know the original Cheyenne people.

After the Cheyenne tribe moved along the Missouri River they had to deal with smallpox and with the aggression of the Dakota Sioux. The Cheyenne decided to move westwards so they arrived on the Black Hills. Because some of them decided to settle along the Arkansas River, the Cheyenne tribe had to divide.

The Bison Region’s name comes from the predominance of bisons and buffalos, which constituted the natives’ main source of food, and also an important source for clothing, ornaments and tents, named teepee; these were made up with bison skin and had the shape of a cone. But they also hunted bears, elks, antelopes and deer.

These teepees were easily to put on and take off, by folding them, whenever they had to leave the area. After the Europeans came in and brought guns, knives and all sorts of weapons, the buffalos and the bisons herds were almost extinguished, also the climate was hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

Their clothing is very interesting, both for women and men. The women had to make the clothes worn by every member of the tribe. The clothes were made out of soft skins of deer and buffalo and were decorated with paint and beadwork; they wore very elaborated ornaments, armbands and necklaces.

Men wore, in summer, breechcloths, fringed buckskin tunics or shirts and leggings, and, in winter, they wore buffalo robes or cloaks against the cold and rain. They also wore in battles, as a symbol of courage and honor, long beaded feathered war bonnets with eagle feathers and beadwork.

Women wore knee-length dresses and leggings in the summer and in winter they wore buffalo robes for warm. They have special dresses for important occasions, decorated with lots of beads and painted with symbols which show their identity and family values. None the less, their hair was worn in two thick braids with lots of beads in its. Also:

‘The Cheyenne made clothes, such as deerskin dresses, war shirts, and leggings. They made moccasins to cover their feet. They also made tools and other objects. Their arts and crafts added beauty to everyday life. (…) they softened porcupine quills. Then they dyed them and wove them into leather for clothing. War shirts often took more than a year to complete!’ (Tieck, 2015: 16).

In terms of weapons, the Cheyenne used the hatchet axe, stone ball clubs, knives, bows and arrows, spears, jaw bone clubs and lances. They also used war shields on horse backs, both for defense in battles or during the chase for buffalo.

The Cheyenne tribe had a very rigorous social organization, it ‘was organized into 10 major bands governed by a council of 44 chiefs and seven military societies. The Dog Soldiers were the most powerful and aggressive of the military groups’ (Britannica Educational Publishing, 2011: 88). Among these rigorous organizations, there were dance societies, social societies, shamanistic and, also, medicine societies.

They, constantly, fought with the Kiowa tribe until 1840, when they decided to make peace between the two tribes. But the peace did not last for long because they started to fight with the U.S. military troops. After the massacre between them, to the Southern Cheyenne people was assigned a reservation in Oklahoma and to the Northern Cheyenne people was assigned a reservation in Southern Montana, in order to protect their lives and preserve their traditions.

When, in the mid-1800s near the Cheyenne’s territory were found several gold resources, the US Government decided to take away from the natives their sacred land and together with it the gold to exploit it. Because of that, the natives were forced to defend their land and to fight for it, but they had no chance against the US Government’s military troops. So they were forced to accept the reservations but, even so, they adapted hard to the new environment because the conditions were very poor.

Moreover, in 1876 had a famous fight named The Little Bighorn between the Cheyenne Indians and the US Government:

‘(…) the Battle of the Little Bighorn. There were other smaller fights as they were forced to move to reservations. (…) At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Cheyenne and Sioux joined to fight US Lieutenant Colonel George Custer (see Appendix number 3). Custer and his men died. So, this battle is also called Custer’s Last Stand’ (Tieck, 2015: 24).

Moving on, as a way of entertainment and education they would tell stories whenever there would take place a gathering or after a fest. Storytelling helped the new generations to maintain the traditions and to continue practicing it, in this way the Cheyenne identity would not be forgotten during the next years. Besides the storytelling with educational background, they would tell stories just for having fun too.

On the other hand, the Cherokee name comes from different tribal parts, for example: The Creek word Chelokee, it means “people of a different speech,” but in their own language they call themselves Ani yunwi ya, it means the “Principal People” or the “Real People”, the Choctaw seems to be the root for the Cherokee name and it means “Cave People.” The tribe spoke in their own dialect of Iroquoian language family. Another name for the Cherokee was Ani Kituawagi which means ‘People from Kituwah.’

The name of “Kituwah” comes from: ‘Kituwah was an ancient Cherokee town, said to be the Mother Town of all Cherokee towns. In other words, all Cherokee towns grew out of Kituwah, which is variously spelled as Kituwah, Keetoowah, and Giduwah.’ (Conley, 2011: 20). But the town was lost by the Cherokee people and for several years the white people used the land where this town was as a farming land. In 1996 the Cherokees succeeded in repossessing the sacred land where the Mother Town was once.

The Cherokee tribe is located in the Southeastern Maize Region. This region consisted of some other tribes too, such as: The Creek, Natchez, Seminole, Choctaw, Yuchi, Catawba, Chickasaw. The Cherokee were located in parts of nowadays known North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, summed up the Appalachians Mountains.

The Cherokee people were forced to move from their homeland and to move in nowadays Oklahoma in order to empty the space for the arrival of the White peoples and their colonies. They had to leave without looking back. That process was named The Trail of Tears (see Appendix number 7) – or The Removal in the South, and it was mainly written with the help of the ‘outsiders’ who told the stories – (Bowes, 2007: 70) because there were lots of people who died during that process of relocation because of diseases, hunger and exposure and because they were forced to walk for about 800 miles (1,300 km).

Because there did not exist fixed boundaries, the Cherokee always had fights with the tribes around them. On the part of Virginia, the tribe had the Powhatan and the Monacan, on the South they had battles with the Creek, on the East and Southeast side they had the Catawba and Tuscarora and Westwards they had the Chickasaw.

The Cherokees had a very troubled history about their location because after Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828, the natives – the Indians – were considered to be a problem which had to be solved as soon as possible. In consequence, the solution to that problem was to forcedly remove, relocate the Native Americans from the East and South to the West.

It was also an official act for this removal: ‘The tone of this legislation was definitely anti-Indian (…) This kind of narrow – mindedness became official government policy when Congress passed the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830’ (Fleming, 2003: 124).

The Indians did not want to leave their homeland because it was a sacred one for them, they did not accept the idea of removal and imposed resistance, the tribes which imposed the biggest resistance were the ones from the South: The Cherokee, the Creek, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, the Seminole and the Choctaws.

In order to succeed in removing the Cherokee, the U.S. Government used a so called Treaty of New Echota – it was a Treaty Party signed by 100 Cherokees who agreed and moved peacefully Westwards – in 1835 to make the removal official. In the Treaty Party there was written that the Indians exchanged the Indian territory with the East lands of the Mississippi River, money, tools and other simple stuff.

In 1838 the Cherokee were forced to move from Georgia and to relocate in Oklahoma, on the road, because of the unfavorable climate and because they had no food supplies, an important amount of them out of 15,000 people died.

The Cherokees were removed from their homes and land by several troops sent by the white invaders, it did not matter where the natives were, the squads looked up for them and emptied the space:

‘From these, squads of troops were sent to search out with rifle and bayonet every small cabin hidden away in the coves or by the sides of mountain streams, to seize and bring in as prisoners all the occupants (…) Families at dinner were startled by the sudden gleam of bayonets in the doorway and rose up to be driven with blows and oaths along the weary miles of trail that led to the stockade. Men were seized in their fields or going along the road, women were taken from their wheels and children from their play. In many cases, on turning for one last look as they crossed the ridge, they saw their homes in flames’ (Mooney, 1992: 130).

The location influenced very much the Cherokees way of living, culture and food; because the climate was very hot and humid in summer, but mild in the winter they had to accommodate to it. They hunted deer, rabbits, turkeys, but they also grew crops, such as: corn, squash and beans.

The Cherokee’s clothes are similar to The Cheyenne’s. Their clothes were made out of deer skin and bark fabric, they used mulberry bark to make fibers for clothes. The men wore breechcloths, shirts, leggings and moccasins; they also shaved their heads leaving just a scalp lock which they wore it long haired.

Men also used to paint and tattoo their entire body and face. The chief of the tribe wore ‘long, full cloaks made of feathers and feather caps’. (McLeroy, 2014: 11). Meanwhile, the women from the tribe wore ‘knee-length, wraparound skirts, and a poncho style blouse’. (McLeroy, 2014: 11). They wore these traditional clothing (see Appendix number 5) until the early 1800s, when they started wearing European clothes, such as: jackets, dresses and so on.

Their houses were more complex than the Cheyenne’s were. Instead of Teepees, the Cherokees lived in:

‘The house frame was built from river cane, wood, and vines. It was coated with clay. The clay that covered the frame dried very hard. This took time, but made a strong house. The roof was made of grass or bark. There were no windows. In one house lived eight people and there was always a fire in the center ‘(Tieck, 2015: 8).

Also, during the winter, the Cherokees build smaller houses with no windows in order to keep the people warm (see Appendix number 4). The tribe consisted in approximatively 30 to 60 – even sometimes 80 or more – houses, each family had its own house.

As weapons, the Cherokees used axes, tomahawks, spears, knives, war clubs, battle hammers, bows and arrows. While for warfare they rarely used blowguns, they used those guns for small games often. Because, the power was a very important aspect in the Cherokee culture, they had a game named stickball, where they could fight without going to war.

Unusual for other tribes which organized the society based on the father or the man of the family, the Cherokee natives, organized the society based on the mother or the woman of the family. The women were very important in these tribes of the Cherokee, they even were part of the tribe government, too.

Women, in the Cherokee tribes, were very influential because they had the property, for example the child is born in his or her mother’s clan. Also the child can have as many “mothers” as he or she wants. To sum up, the man is kind of irrelevant, moreover, if a man decides to divorce from his wife, then he must return to his clan.

The storytelling, for the Cherokee too, was very important act, because in this way they could tell their history and it would not be forgotten. After Sequoyah (see Appendix number 6) – a native Cherokee – invented the native language, they could write their history, customs and traditions in order to preserve them. This written language did not eclipse the storytelling at all, because the storytelling remained very important for the Cherokee people.

In terms of governmental organization, the Cherokees in the beginnings where a democratic tribe. The entire tribe came together and created a council; during these council, everybody could talk and who kept talking the longest won the debate. That means that when the others got tired of talking, the most vocal one was the winner.

After a while, the Cherokee decided to separate into two groups: a civil or peace organization and a war organization because while being in a war with a different tribe, the warriors became unclean if they touched a dead body or if they killed another person. Because of that, they had to be separated in order to have the rituals, ceremonies and other religious actions be done by the civil, government. The head of the civil government was the tribe chief but he was not alone, he had seven people around him: the speaker and the six counselors, who helped in maintaining the peace and the balance inside the tribe.

Also, a very important role in the military government has the War Woman or the Beloved Woman. She was the honorable woman. The widow of a formal principal chief. She decided if the captured enemy should be killed or not, and she had the right to vote if the tribe should go to war or not.

In what concerns the clans, they were very important for the Cherokee people, as Conley says in his book ‘The Cherokee’: ‘Th ere are seven Cherokee clans: Ani-waya (Wolf), Ani-kawi (Deer), Ani-tsisquah(Bird), Ani-wodi (Paint), Ani-sahoni (Blue), Ani-gatagewi (Wild Potato), and Ani-gilohi (Long Hairs)’. (Conley, 2011: 21). The clans’ role was to judge and to protect the Cherokees, just like police and courts do nowadays.

1.3 The Religion of the Native Americans

The Spiritual Universe, for the Native Americans, plays a very important role from their everyday life to the complexity of their culture. It is hard to ‘determine the beliefs of an alien race, speaking an unknown tongue, and with a wholly different inheritance, training, and viewpoint’ (Grinnell, 2008: 197).

The Supreme God has all sorts of names, it is referred to both as a man or woman. In what is concerning the Cheyenne tribe, they believe that there are two Supreme gods, one who lives above (The Wise One Above) – Heammawihio – and the other one who lives under the ground, named Ahk tun o’wihio. It is said and thought that both of them are positive figures in the spiritual universe.

The most popular Cheyenne’s god is Maheo, also known as The Wise One Above, The Divine God, The Great Spirit, The Divine Creator. The myth of Maheo is, actually, the myth of the creation of Earth:

“Shadow, a long time ago there was nothing in the great void we call the universe except the Creator, the one we call Meheo (Ma’ heo’ o). He was always been there, and he created all that you see around you on the earth and in the heavens. It has been told in the Tse Tse Stus way that water on covered the earth. There were fish and birds but no animals. All of the birds Meheo created were water birds, but they had no place to nest. (…) He commanded a great warrior to fall from the sky into the water, and commanded him to find the earth’s land (…)” (Mendoza & Strange, 1998: 12).

After Maheo created the world and all the living creatures from the earth, the ancient Tse Tse Stus made up a pipe as a ceremonial object for paying homage to the spirits. He made it up from red stone and called it the “peace pipe.” (see Appendix number 2)

This pipe is used in all sacred ceremonies in smoking, by doing that they thank the six deities: the first in Maheo, then the sky and earth, then the winds of the east, south, west and north (Mendoza & Strange, 1998: 12).

The Cheyenne Indians believe, beside The Great Spirit, in animism, too. That is why even in the Myth of Maheo the central figures are the animals and not the human beings. They think that the spirits inside the animals have mysterious powers which can be transferred to people, such as “contagious magic.”

On the other hand, the Cherokee tribe also believed in The Great Spirit, but they called it “Unetlanvhi” or the “Apportioner” or, simply, the “Creator.” This spirit created the earth for her children and it is thought to be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. She is supervising the people from the sky in order to maintain the peace and the wealth of them.

They think that the earth looks like a floating island which is anchored in the sky by some sort of four thick strings, one for each cardinal point and it is thought that when the strings will break, then the world will sink in the water and the world will disappear.

Another story was told orally by the old Cherokee natives in which is said that some Cherokee courageous men decided to visit the sky vault in order to discover what is there. After a very long trip with many difficulties encountered during it, they reached the place where the earth and the sky vault met.

They waited for a while when the earth rotated to meet the sky vault, in order to go underneath it and to arrive on the sky vault to see what is there, but, unfortunately, they did not succeed in this act because the earth and the sky vault rotated again and crushed them between its. From then on, nobody tried to visit the sky vault because of that first failed attempt.

The creation myth of the earth in the Cherokee version somehow coincides with the Cheyenne one:

‘Long ago, before there were any people, the world was young and water covered everything. The earth was a great island floating above the seas, suspended by four rawhide ropes representing the four sacred directions. It hung down from the crystal sky. There were no people, but the animals lived in a home above the rainbow. Needing space, they sent Water Beetle to search for room under the seas. (…) When he flew over the earth, he found the mud had become solid; he flapped in for a closer look. The wind from his wings created valleys and mountains, and that is why the Cherokee territory has so many mountains today. As the earth stiffened, the animals came down from the rainbow (…).’

(article entitled: Native American Myths of Creation, last accessed on: March 13, 2017 http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/mitos_creacion/esp_mitoscreacion_14.html )

Beside the Great Spirit, the Cherokees also have some other spirits to whom they pray, such as: “Ukyena” (a horned serpent), “Tianuwa” (a giant raptor), “Kana’ti” (also known as the Great Hunter), “Nunne’hi” (the spirit of the people), “Tsul ‘Kalus” (the Spirit of the Hunt, it is a slant eyed giant), “Selu” (she is the Corn Woman), and “Oonawieh Unggi” (translated as “the oldest wind”, it is the Spirit of the Wind).

1.4 Native American’s Body Paintings Meanings and Symbols

Paintings, for the Natives, play a very important role in their everyday lives and rituals. Face painting was not only a symbol for social distinction but it was also a symbol for the cultural heritage and spiritual practices. They used to paint or decorate their bodies and faces in order to hide their true identity or to communicate with the Great Spirit and to receive the power given by Him.

The colors were chosen by the person, the native because it had to merge with the person’s vision or dream. These paintings were also used in wars or battels in order to intimidate the enemy. They made the paintings out of natural materials because they thought that their lives are linked to nature and by extracting the colors from nature, they extracted the power of it too. Thus, in consequence, even the object which was painted became a person.

While the man who was painted, became another person with a new identity, new obligations everything that embodies a new-born person. The paints also gave powers to the person who wear it, such as: health, courage, strength, and so on. The native Americans treated painting and colors as a talisman, they thought that if they painted their bodies and faces, even the horses, they will be protected during the battle and they would return winners. Even the women would paint streaks on their faces during wars and battles.

In what concerns the Southeastern tribes – Cherokee, Ojibwa, and so on – the most popular traditions were the tattoos and masks, but the same importance had the body paintings, being considered a men’s embellishment during rituals and ceremonies. In the article written by the Anthropology Lover on February 9th 2013, during ceremonies and rituals, the Southeastern tribes used several colors in the first days, such as: yellow, red, black, while the white color was attributed to the last day of the rituals and ceremonies.

The black color was controversial because of the multitude of meaning it had, but most of the natives used the black paint for decorating their faces after someone died or, the black paint was also used for the retuned warrior who revenged the tribe during the battle. The family members of the dead person used to color their entire face black, while the distant relatives of the dead person used to paint black strikes on their faces. (see Appendix number 1)

Also the red color had different meanings through the natives, it was used during the war preparations symbolizing strength, blood and power. But it was also used in happy events, such as festivals, ceremonies and rituals, symbolizing happiness, joy and energy, moreover, the natives painted a portion of their hair red in order to symbolize fertility. (Anthropology Lover, February 9th, 2013)

The other colors had symbols too, like, the blue color meant confidence, the green color meant harmony and it increases the vision, the yellow color symbolized death. Yellow was used to paint the dead body of a native in order to show his intellect and his courage of fighting to the death.

The tradition of face and body painting purpose was multiple because there are many reasons why the native Americans decided to paint their faces and bodies. The war paint was used in order to intimidate the opponent, the warriors wore marks of honor for their sacrifice and their successful battles, they used colors to camouflage themselves even for wars or battles and for hunting, they used colors for celebrating rituals and ceremonies, the mental preparations, power, magic, protection, so on and so forth.

1.5 Conclusion

To summarize, both of the tribes have similarities in many ways: the clothing is almost the same – they wore clothes made out of deer skin and they were painted and decorated with beads – the Supreme God is different just by the name, the Myth of Creation is almost identical, it differs just in some details.

It is true that we tend to generalize the Native Americans’ culture, but it is a vast one, with lots of rituals and ceremonies, lots of different costumes and paintings and lots of spiritual entities. From their Great Spirit to the way they are dressing is a long and colorful journey. The clothes worn by, both the Cheyenne and the Cherokees are an important part in culture and by dressing in a certain way they are transmitting a message to the spirits, also in their everyday life they are dedicating almost everything to the spiritual universe.

Even if most of them, the Cheyenne and the Cherokee, do not exist anymore because of the different impacts which the relocation – for the Cherokees – and the reservations – for Cheyenne – had upon them, they succeeded in preserving their rituals, ceremonies, traditions and even clothes. And also they succeeded in adapting their lifestyle to the modern world, and even if they hardly succeeded in maintaining their ceremonies, they succeeded in even practicing them even nowadays.

CHAPTER TWO

THE SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE: CEREMONIES AND RITUALS

2.1 Introduction

The spiritual universe, for the Native Americans, is a very important issue, because of its emotional and cultural implication. Both of them, the Cherokee and the Cheyenne, have certain ceremonies and rituals through which they communicate with the Great Spirit (Cherokee) or with Maheo (Cheyenne).

With the help of these rituals they can thank to the spirits, they can pray for health, food, victories in wars or battles or fights. The ceremonies play a very important role in their everyday life, because in this way they can have certain dreams or predictions, or they can discover a new treatment for a certain disease.

2.2 The Bison Region: The Cheyenne’s Spiritual Universe

In these subchapters some of the Cheyenne’s most important ceremonies are described and revealed their secret symbols. The Cheyenne tribe was a very vast one in ceremonies and rituals, everyday life depended on the basis of several such rituals. The journey from life to death and its meanings will be revealed through these subchapters and their secrets and symbols will be elucidated.

2.2.1 The Renewal of the Sacred Arrows-Mahuts

It is said that in the Cheyenne’s tribe there was a woman who carried her boy in the womb for four years. The members of the tribe thought that that boy was a supernatural being. After the boy was finally born, his mother named him Motzeyout, or ‘Sweet Medicine’.

He was a boy with supernatural powers and in one day he saw a calf on the plains and decided to hunt it. He succeeded in hunting the calf but when the chief found Sweet Medicine with the calf he pushed him away. The boy was so angry and he hit him over his head and the chief died.

The children from the tribe ran away to tell everyone what happened and because of that Sweet Medicine ran away from the tribe and during his leaving he cursed starvation to the tribe. He spent a long period of time in the mountains and there he received his magical preparation and knowledge.

After he finished his preparation he returned to the tribe with four arrows given by the Great Spirit. Two of them were the ‘Man Arrows,’ these two were for warriors and fighters; and two were the ‘Bison Arrows,’ these ones were for hunting. After he returned with the four arrows he released the tribe from starvation and restored the balance of the tribe.

Moreover, after he returns in the tribe he establishes forty-four chiefs for the wellbeing of the tribe. He was a supporter of forgiveness, rehabilitation and peace. Also, they were punished if they did something bad because in this way they could be rehabilitated after they were made aware of what they did wrong.

The Renewal of the Sacred Arrows is a religious ceremony, a ritual, of four days long, done just by the men of the tribe – the women stay inside the teepees during all that period. These arrows are brought into the tribe annually, during the summer solstice for the renewal of power, tribe and for empowering the men and help them to defend the tribe and the wellness of it.

Also, there was another ritual – synonymous with the previous one – called “The Renewal of the Medicine Arrows.” These arrows were received also by Sweet Medicines while “sitting on the Ground.” This ritual consisted in the way that the men from the tribe checked those arrows’ points and changed them with new ones, the same thing they made with the twistings and feathers from the arrows.

They renewed the arrows whenever they needed it. If they had a fight and a lot of people were killed, they thought that by renewing the arrows they would end the misfortune. Or they would renew the arrows to ‘prevent anticipated evil’ (Grinnell & Fitzgerald, 2008: 221).

This renewal had not a certain time, or a period of time, during which it had to be done, it could be done even two or three times a year, it is commonly done whenever it is needed.

2.2.2 The Hoxehe-Vohomo' Ehestotse – The New Life Lodge or Sun Dance

The ceremony named The Sun Dance is a male ritual and it uses the holiest teepee from the entire tribe. It starts with a vision quest. The Cheyenne tribe was starving, the buffalo herds left the plains and starvation emerged. In order to find a solution to their problem, the people met in a ‘large teepee circle and chose a man named Erect Horns to undertake a quest for their salvation’ (Nabokov & Easton, 1989: page:168).

The chosen man together with the chief’s wife traveled for several days until they found a hollow mountain. They entered through the opening from the mountain and after a lightning storm, they saw that the interior looked like a Sun Dance lodge. (see Appendix number 12)

That is how they learnt how to perform the ceremony and how to build the teepee for it. Both of them returned victorious from their quest and built the teepee and performed the first Cheyenne Sun Dance, and miraculously the herd returned and the starvation faded.

The actual ceremony starts when a man from the tribe called ‘The Multiplier’ or ‘The Reproducer’ decides to announce that he will sponsor and organize the Sun Dance Ceremony. After the announcement, he together with his wife and the priest go inside the Lone Teepee – it is a teepee which is built as a symbol for the Sacred Mountain where Erect Horns had the vision quest and where he was instructed by the Great Spirit for performing this ritual – for four days which symbolize the time spent in the mountain by Erect Horns. While they are standing there they ‘also perform sacred rites of regeneration, such as shaping the tepee’s dirt floor into five mounds (each symbolizing the earth)’ (Hoing, Rosier & Deer, 2006: 18).

Meanwhile, the rest of the tribe is building The Sun Dance Lodge, it is made out of circular fences, between 40 and 50 feet long, connected to the central piece, cottonwood tree trunk placed in the center and by long radiating rafters. This ‘Sun Dance pole was the pivot of the cosmos, the conduit for collective prayers and individual sacrifices made inside the lodge’ (Nabokov & Easton,1989: 168).

This ceremony is performed for four days by the men from the tribe, they are sacrificing themselves by dancing continuously in order to have health and wealth for their families and for the tribe. The dance begins when the warriors are ready, their faces are painted and their bodies are decorated with different ornaments, to start. They start the dancing in the central pole lodge and they rise, continuously, up and down their toes and they also blow through eagle-bone whistles. The warriors perform this dance for four days continuously, without eating or drinking anything.

At the end of the Sun Dance performed by the warriors, the ceremony ends with a torture ritual. Some men are getting tattooed and pierced on their face, chest and other body parts. They perform this torture ritual in order to have the pity of the spirits. The other participants stay on the side and pray in order to support the dancers.

Sun Dance requires a substantial amount of physical and mental energy in order to perform the ceremony. The preparations for it starts even one year before the exact date of the ceremony. The chief name of a small group is in charge with the preparations and all the details of the ceremony. They are often helped and advised by the tribe’s elders in order to have no mistakes on the great day of the ceremony.

2.2.3 The Massaum – The Animal Dance

The Animal Dance is a hunting ceremony or ritual taught by the Sweet Medicine in his quest to the Sacred Mountain. After he returned to the tribe he taught the people to practice this ritual in order to provide food. This ritual is annual and it lasts for five days.

During the first four days the people are preparing the ritual, both men and women – unlike during the Renewal of the Sacred Arrows and the Sun Dance, where only men were allowed to help and participate in or prepare the ceremony. They paint a wolf skin which will be worn by the pledger, and also they build a corral.

The name of the ceremony comes from the word massa’ne which means crazy or foolish. The Cheyennes believe that this ritual was ‘brought to the tribe by one of the two similarly dressed young men who went into the earth and brought out food – the one who represented the Tsistsistas’ (Grinnell, 1972: 285). One was Sweet Medicine – he brought the medicine arrows – and the other one was Erect Horns – he brought the buffalo cap. After the two men retuned with the “gifts” received from inside the earth by the spirits, they started learning the people and instruct them.

This ceremony also has a story under these festive and busy days of preparing it. It is said that, during this ceremony a race takes place between buffaloes and men. This competition symbolizes the most powerful being, the right to eat the other one, and if the men wins that means that people have the right to eat the buffalo from then on, but if the buffalo wins, then, the animal has the right to eat the man from then on. But this is just a story, a tale which is said during the ceremony.

During the fifth day, everybody is celebrating the ceremony. The men dress up like animals and others are hunting them herding them into the corral made during the first four days. Because during the Animal Dance men are acting silly and are clowning, the ones that are watching them are very amused. This is the reason why this ceremony was also known as the ‘Crazy Dance’ (Waldman, 2006: page: 57).

Although the Natives took very seriously the ceremonies and its practices and rituals from, they do not forget to have fun and to maintain the tribe’s joy and happiness and the peace between the people inside it. Thus even a serious ceremony such as the Animal Dance has a fun part too.

2.2.4 The Wedding Ceremony

The Cheyenne Wedding Ceremony is a pretty simple one:

“If a young man liked a young woman, he waited for her when she went with the other woman to get food or water. He tried to talk to her. If she liked him, she talked to him for several hours. If they decide to marry, the man took the bracelet the woman wore on her wrist. She allowed him to keep it as a sign that she was promised to him” (De Capua, 2007: 28).

During the wedding ceremony, the bride and the groom did not exchange vows, but the woman was carried on a blanket to the groom’s teepee. Being her wedding, she was dressed in her most beautiful clothes. The other people from the tribe have a rich feast while the bride and groom’s families exchange gifts in the honor of the new formed couple.

In the Cheyenne tribe, a man could have several wives, but each of them had her one teepee for her and her children. Despite the rare self-decided marriages, most of them were family arranged ones because the Cheyennes believe in the “price of the bride”.

First of all, the groom’s family must make the offer for the bride’s family, after the bride’s father thinks about the offer and accepts it, the groom moves into the bride’s house in order to test the future marriage. They stay engaged as long as they feel it is necessary. If they will like living together, then, they will be married officially, but if they decide that they are not compatible, then, they breakup and try to find another mate.

2.2.5 The Burial Ceremony

When a person died in the Cheyenne tribe, it was a tragedy for his or her family. The mourning was so serious than the person who mourns loses his or her will to live. The body of the deceased person is prepared for the funeral by being dressed with his most beautiful clothes and, additionally, he is wrapped in robes or blankets.

After the body is ready, the people sing and pray for it. If the deceased person is a man – a husband – then, is widow together with the women from her family cut their hair and cut themselves across the legs with hunting knives. But if the person who died is a woman – a wife – her widower, together with the other males from the family, do not cut themselves, but they unbraid their hair.

For the peace of the soul, people make food offerings and the deceased’s horse is killed in order to guide the soul through the journey to the afterlife. Because the Cheyennes are afraid of the soul ghost:

“A deceased person’s body was placed in the branches of a tree or on a high platform made of branches and logs. In some cases, the body was hidden in a cave or buried under a pile of rocks. The soul would follow a path that led to the camp of the dead. There, the person’s soul would join the souls of departed friends and family members” (De Capua, 2007: 32).

In the Cheyenne culture, death was considered to be a rite of passage, after death, the spirit of the man would continue to be a part of the tribe but as a dream visitor by giving advices or guiding the people or giving power to them.

2. 3 The Southeastern Maize Region: The Cherokee’s Ceremonies

In this chapter there will be described several rituals of the Cherokee tribe, such as: The Great New Moon Ceremony, Propitiation of Cementation Ceremony (Friendship Ceremony), Bouncing Bush Ceremony (Exalting Bush Festival), First New Moon of Spring Ceremony, Green Corn Ceremony, Ripe Corn Ceremony and the Chief Dance (UKU Ceremony). It will be presented how the Cherokee natives manage to perform these rituals and what are their meanings.

Also the number seven is a sacred one in the Cherokees culture. Because of that they have seven women who serve as counselors for their government, they have the seven clans – Aniwadi (Paint Clan), Anigategewi (Raccoon or Blind Savannah, Shawnee or Wild Potato Clan), Ani-sahoni (Blue, Panther or Wild Cat Clan), Ani-gilohi (Long Hair or hair hanging down, or Wind Clan), Anitsiskwa (Bird Clan), Aniwahiya (Wolf Clan), Ani-awi (Deer Clan) – and each of the clan has a separated side with seats. Even in the matter of life, there are some Cherokees who think the world has seven dimensions.

Additionally, to the four cardinal points or to the four dimensions: North, South, East and West they added the upper, lower and central dimensions: ‘The upper world was ruled by birds, the lower world by insects and rattlesnakes, and the center world by animals’ (Lassiter, 1998: 157). This may be the reason why the native Americans want to keep a close connection with all these worlds, in order to maintain the Earth’s peace.

2.3.1 The Great New Moon Ceremony

The Great New Moon Ceremony is considered to be the new year ceremony. It starts in October at the first new moon which appears in the sky because the Cherokees believe that this was the time of the year when the world was created. The original name for this ritual ‘was Nuwatiegwa, meaning “big medicine”, but it was also called the Great New Moon Ceremony’ (Thomas, Lewis & Kneberg, 1958: 182).

Together with the preparations of the ceremony, every family from the tribe had to bring goods from their own fields, such as: beans, corns and other products. At the end of the ceremony there is a feast and the food brought by people is split between the feast and the poor families of the tribe whom harvest was an insufficient one that year.

At the time in the night when the moon appears, all women from the tribe start performing a religious dance. During that night the only ones that are allowed to sleep are the babies, the other people have to stay awake until dawn. After the dance is finished, everybody – including the babies – go to the river together with the priest. Before the sun rises the priest arranges the people in a line and after the sun rises, the priest, signals the people to dive in the water with the babies too, for seven times.

Meanwhile, on a special stand near the river, the priest places the sacred quartz crystal and every people, after the seven dives in the river, comes and looks in the crystal. If the reflection of him or her is in lied down, that means that he or she will die until spring. But if the reflection of his or her image in the crystal is straight, that means that he or she will survive the winter.

After the ritual ends, the ones that saw their reflection lying down remain on the edge of the river, while the lucky ones change into dry clothes and return to the temple where the priest makes the same sacrifice of a deer’s tongue and the feast begins. The ceremony continues with the religious dance performed by the women and the only ones that were allowed to sleep were the babies.

But, the unlucky ones were not forgotten, because before sunset they have to repeat the ritual along the river and dive in for another seven times and come again to the sacred crystal to see their reflection, if the reflection changed its position and became straight, that meant that the person was considered safe and had to repeat the seven dives in again.

But, if the second reflection was the same, lying down, they had another change to escape from the danger. They can participate in the Friendship Ceremony which will help them escaping the cruel fate.

2.3.2 Propitiation or Cementation or Friendship Ceremony

The original name of this ceremony was Atahoona, nowadays it is also known as Propitiation or Cementation Ceremony. This ceremony was performed by two men; they – in the name of the sacred friendship – had to change their clothes between them. That act symbolizes the eternal friendship between them, from now on they were brothers. During this ceremony the Yowah chant was sung the only time.

After finishing the first part of the ceremony by changing their clothes between them, there comes the second part of the ritual. Seven men are selected from the tribe and they have the mission to clean the council house by beating the sticks made out of the Sycamore wood against the roof’s edge.

This ceremony was about love and friendship, its role is to maintain the peace and the wealth of the tribe. It helps in reconsolidating the friendship between the people from the tribe and it helps in bringing joy and amusement.

The friendship ceremony was also known as The Propitiation of Cementation Ceremony. This ritual is performed in order to reestablish the unity between people and the Creator and also between people of opposite or same sex. Here they use:

‘A sacred fire containing seven different types of wood to represent the seven clans is prepared and lit prior to ceremony according to sacred rites. Direction of movement around the sacred fire during Cherokee ceremony is counter-clockwise. A complete, unbroken circle of ‘Red Heart' people around the fire produces powerful energy of Creator's presence, carried by the positive attitudes in the hearts of the participants’ (http://www.pahanalives.com/ceremonies.html)

It is celebrated ten days after the Great New Moon Ceremony and it symbolizes the eternal paternal and fraternal relationship between people among them and between them and the creator. This ceremony was perceived as being a purification of both the body and the mind.

2.3.3 The Bouncing Bush Ceremony – The Exalting Bush Festival

This ceremony is also a Creator-thanking and his helper’s-thanking ritual performed by the Cherokee natives. The people expressed their unconstrained joy by thanking to the Great Spirit or the Creator and his helpers. This thanking consisted in abound feasting and throwing the sacred tobacco in the sacred fire.

Before the arrival of winter, in September, this ceremony performed by the Cherokee tribe somehow prepared the people both mentally and physically for the cruel winter. After finishing the feast and the dancing, the ceremony ends with the people surrounding the sacred fire, crushing some tobacco leaves and throwing them into the sacred fire.

By performing this ceremony, the Cherokee tribe is not only thanking to the Great Spirit and his helpers for the wealth of the tribe, for divine protection, peace and for abounded food but also for receiving the blessings from the Creator and from the other spirits in order to succeed in maintaining the peace and the prosperity of the tribe and the people.

2.3.4 The First New Moon of the Spring Ceremony

The First New Moon of Spring is a ceremony held in March when the first new moon of spring begins. The seven Principal Counselors try to determine when the moon will appear and announce the other people when the festival would take place. Before the beginning of the ceremony, the chosen hunters have to bring the food for the feast.

This festival is mostly performed by men, there are seven men in charge with the food, the preparation of the white deer skins and the other dressings of deer skins. During the first evening of the ceremony, the chosen women held the friendship dance; in the second day, the entire tribe performed the purification ritual by rinsing in the water. After this, they would start a new life which started with a religious dance.

Afterwards, a new sacred fire was lighted and the old ones were put out. The Medicine Men had to prepare medicine for the people in order to perform the scratching ceremony, and at the end, the white deer skins were presented to the Festival Priests.

2.3.5 The Green Corn Ceremony

The Green Corn ceremony, also known as puskita is one of the most important rituals among the Cherokee people. It is held during the late June or early July and it lasts around four days. This ceremony was split into two parts: New Green Corn Ceremony and Mature Green Corn Ceremony.

The New Green Corn Ceremony’s date depends on when – for the first time of the year – the corn ripens. The ritual consisted in performing several traditional dances, such as: Buffalo Dances, Stomp Dance and Feather Dance. During the ceremony, at certain moments, the people fasted, took medicine, played games as stickball and had corn sacrificing. After the fasting was over, everybody would feast again.

Also as another ritual performed during this ceremony was to rinse themselves in the water while praying in order to wash and clean their souls and their deeds; in this way they could start a new better life. This ritual was held by the priest, and after the ritual ends they would fast again and pray.

The Mature Green Corn Ceremony was held forty-five days after the New Green Corn Ceremony and lasted for four days. But unlike the first ceremony, this one had the honorable women who decided the date in which the ceremony would take place and who performed the religious dance. During the ceremony an arch was built up with green branches, making an arbor.

A night before the ceremony, every family of the tribe had to take a branch which they would use during the next day’s noon ritual. All of the ceremony’s participants had to drink a special tea made out of several plants, named “Black Dink.” This tea was considered to be a purifying and a cleansing one. After the rituals were over, the Cherokees continued to feast and dance for the remaining time of the ceremony.

2.3.6 The Chief Dance (UKU Ceremony)

The Chief Dance, also known as the UKU Ceremony, was one of the most important ceremonies of the Cherokee tribe. Every seventh year, The Chief Dance replace the Great New Moon Ceremony. This ritual is performed mainly by the tribe’s chief; it symbolizes thanks giving.

After four days of ceremony, the chief’s right-hand man redresses him as a chief and reinvests his civil and religious powers. ‘Uku was one of several titles conferred upon him. During “Friends Made” ceremony, for example, his title meant “one who renews heart and bod”’ (Lewis & Kneberg, 1998: 185).

Before the chief’s dance begin, he had a religious bath performed by his councilors with the water warmed by the honored woman. After this ritual he wore special clothes and his regalia and performed the UKU Ceremony. on the way to the square ground where the dance take place, he was carried on a white painted throne.

He performs his dance in a circle and moving slowly towards the people and incline his head in sense of respect; the people were doing the same thing back to him. After the ceremony ended, they feasted and continued the celebration.

2.3.7 The Wedding Ceremony

The Cherokee Wedding Ceremony is a very complex one, there are rules even in selecting the bride and the groom. There is ‘forbidden to marry within one’s own clan. Because the woman holds her family clan, she is represented at the ceremony by both her mother (or clan mother) and oldest brother’ (McLeroy, 2014: 61). The brother’s presence near the bride is a symbol or a vow for taking the responsibility for his sister’s children; he has to teach term the spiritual and the religious matters because that is the role of the uncle (e-du-tsi).

The location (council house) chose for the wedding ceremony was blessed for seven consecutive days. On the wedding day, the bride and the groom wear blue blankets which symbolize their old lives. The priest guides the groom to an end of the council house and the bride is guided by another priest to the opposite end, and the priest who officiates the ceremony is facing the east, the door of the council house.

The bride and the groom are encouraged to meet in the center of the council house, near the sacred fire – the sacred fire is made up with seven different types of wood and stones. Both of the two mothers – groom’s mother and bride’s mother – stand near her child by holding the gift which they will exchange: the groom’s mother holds a blanket, leather or sometimes fur while the bride’s mother holds corn and a blanket, leather or fur, too. Also the bride has her brother near her, his presence shows that he accepts his role as uncle and “teacher” for his sister’s children,

After the blessings were made, the bride gives to her husband a red and black belt made by herself which has his new unique identity pattern on it. Both of the mothers give the gifts to her child in order to exchange its between them.

The couple try on the blankets and knot them together in order to support their marriage. Both of them drink – form the East to the West and to the North to the South – from a double-sided wedding vase a corn drink in order to bless the earth. After that the vase is thrown down in order to break it, this act symbolizes the wedding vows and their unity, and the vase is returned to the mother earth.

The wife and husband’s blue blankets are removed and replaced with white ones which symbolize their happiness, peace and fulfillment. After all these rituals, there is a feast for everybody, and the songs and dances begin. The stomp dancers perform a prayer to end the wedding ceremony in the couple’s honor.

2.3.8 The Burial Ceremony

The burial ceremony was a sad and grief one. The entire tribe together with the religious chief meet at the deceased person. After the person gave his last breath the women from the tribe sang his name over and over again in a lamentable way while the men put ash on their heads.

Immediately after the person died, his body was washed – the wash was made with boiled willow root, water or lavender – and oiled with lavender oil by a family member, because it was thought that they have to clean it in order to rest in peace. Also, the house and the other family members had to be cleaned.

The mourning last for about seven days, on the last two days the deceased’s family goes to the grave site where the women mourned. Also his (the dead person) personal objects of the deceased person were buried with him or they were burned near the grave. During the last day the family of the death person together with the people from the tribe go to the council house to have a meal. After that the people performed a ceremonial dance in order to offer their condolences to the pained family.

In the Cherokee’s culture, the burial ceremony could take place both indoor and outdoor. In the indoor burial ceremony, the dead person was buried in the same day in which he died or the very next day and the person who had the right to bury him was only the tribe’s chief. If the person was a simple man from the tribe, then, his body was buried in floor of his house or outside near the house. But if the chief died, he was buried under his throne in the council house.

Meanwhile, in the outdoor burial ceremony, the one who had to deal with the dead body was not only the priest, but he had a helper, a family member of the deceased person. The body was buried in a grave facing the West, and above the grave were put stones in order to keep the animals away from it. In the case of an adult dead body, its forehead and the back of his head were flattened before burial – in what concerned the children, this ritual was not performed – and he was buried with shells, perforated animal bones, turtle-shells, and so on.

2.4 Conclusion

To conclude, all these ceremonies have certain common things and also different ones, but the most important thing is that the Native Americans, both The Cheyenne and The Cherokees managed to accommodate to the new homeland and to maintain their traditions, ceremonies and rituals. Their colorful way of life together with their ceremonies and rituals, is considered to be a symbol (for some if us) and, maybe, for others might be just boring stuff.

These things play a very important role in their day to day lives, these ceremonies define them as a peoples, unique tribes. The Great Spirit is always in their ceremonies, their prayers and their lives. Everything they do is for Him. Their ceremonies have a certain symbol and a meaning, they can demand food, wealth, peace or wining in war.

Also, a very important role plays the marriage and the burial ceremonies, because in this way they unite their lives in order to enhance the tribe and to make it larger and larger full of happiness, peace and wealth. Making new relatives by marrying with people from other clans and tribes they would not have so many wars and fights, and the peace will rule their lives and tribes.

CHAPTER THREE

THE APPROACH OF DAY AND NIGHT DREAMING

3.1 Introduction

This chapter is about, as the title suggests, dreams. This is, even nowadays, a semi unknown field. Even scientifically the act of dreaming was described and analyzed several times, the meaning and the human subconscious is, in a considerable part, a mystery. In what concerns the native Americans, they consider the act of dreaming a way to receive advices and even powers by the Great Spirit. This spirit drives them through their harsh life’s journey.

3.2 Bison Region: Cheyenne’s Dreams

These subchapters deal with the day dreaming and night dreaming of the Cheyenne people and also with the meanings of those dreams and the objects disclosed in them. The importance and the risks encountered during these dreaming rituals.

3.2.1 Day Dreaming and its Dangers

We all have that feeling, or even state, of daydreaming and every time when we had that state we heard our mother or someone else who told us that it is not a good thing or even that it is dangerous. Well, for us – the modern people, who dream about fantasies – the dangers of daydreaming are the following: the loss of attention for several minutes which can cause, to the working place, low productivity and mistakes, but daydreaming it can have a major impact for the people who are having suicidal intentions, because their daydreams are negative, and they can be decisive in they life.

It was discovered that:

“the actual developmental pattern coexistent, creative Euro-Americans appears to be emphatically left-hemisphere dominant. If we consider the centrality of dreaming and imagistic experience within the Plains religious worldview, it seems evident that Native American culture has a strong right-hemispheric emphasis in its epistemic base” (Irwin. 1994: 17)

That means that the natives place more emphasis on the spiritual and mythic overview than the others. Because this emphasis was interpreted in a wrong way or even ignored, the interpretation of the natives was not fully possible.

The Cheyenne people think that within this world, the visible one which all of us can see it, there are several other worlds which are invisible. The dream is the tool used by the people in order to connect with those worlds and the entities or spirits from there. Moreover, the spiritual and the physical are the two parts of the world and the dream is the bridge which connects them.

Daydreaming, or the spontaneous visions, were a way of power acquisition. Its could take place during rituals – which were very popular among the nineteenth century – and its were an important way of empowering the individual, or its could take place during the night sleep. Because of these many spontaneous visions and because its preserved the belief in spirits and their desire to connect with the natives through dreams, and even meet them, people decided to convert these spontaneous visions into a religious vision quests.

The Vision Quest is the most known and common ritual among the Native Americans. It is performed by the young men who are entering into the adult life. These boys had to go alone into the woods, in mountains and fast for several days and they had to cope with the suffering and the harsh weather in order to have a certain dream or vision.

The dream consisted in unveiling the boy’s future life work or his animal totem or even his status among the other people from the tribe. This vision was very important for his future life because, without it he could not return to the tribe as an adult and start his new life.

The aim of the religion engaging in with the vision quests focused on the link created by the person who has the vision and, how Lee Irwin called it, the ‘primary source of spirituality empowerment’ (Irwin, 1994:79). Basically, the Cheyenne individual who received the power from the Great Spirit or from an ancestor – who is not alive anymore – could be guided into different forms, such as: crafts, fighting skills, healing power or shamanistic ability which is the highest status or the greatest gift received from the spirits.

Even if there were many people within the tribe who have had those visions, they did not share all of them with the others because it was believed that if they share it than they would lose their power. But, they could share it with the ones who were ‘members’ (emphasized by myself) of the same ‘visionary societies’ (emphasized by the author – Irwin L.) having exceptional powers. Also, their powers were split in two: the good ones and the bad or harmful ones. Not even them, the bad ones, did not share their secrets and vision quests.

The aim of these dreams and visions is to predict future, preserve the health and to communicate with the Great Spirit. The stereotype of these visions or daydreams would be for the person who is having it to enter in a state in which his soul leaves this body and meet with the spirit and receive guidance or a certain message or even an answer which helps the tribe to solve a problem, it could also be a warning message too.

These daydreams or visions could be also used for answering to the personal issues, such as finding his personal totem or what should be his future work. These dreams could also take place during the night and the dreamer would wake up immediately and try to decipher it’s meaning.

The vision quests can also be dangerous for the ones who perform them because if the vision quest is not fulfilled rightly, then the person has to go in the mountain and starve in order to receive forgiveness from the Great Spirit and from the ancestors, the person stays there as long as it takes to be forgave.

3.2.2 Night Dreaming and its Interpretations

In terms of night dreaming the Cheyenne, together with the other native American tribes, gave a significant importance to their interpretations. They linked the idea of dreaming with prophecies. One very known prophecy is the one that the Sioux Chef, Crazy Horse, had:

‘(…) one-day Crazy Horse was walking in the prairie and he came upon a dead eagle. He then went back to his teepee and sat for many, many hours. Noticeably upset and deeply affected, he was asked what was the matter. He responded by saying that he had just found his dead body on the prairie nearby. A few nights later he had a vision of riding a white pony on an elevated plateau. Surrounded by his enemies armed with guns, he was killed and left on the prairie. But his body would not die of a bullet wound, he would die by other means. Several days later, Crazy Horse was surrounded by over 20 soldiers and was stabbed with a bayonet. A white pony was standing by one just outside of the circle of soldiers.’ (Andrews, last accessed on April 24th 2017).

This kind of vision, or dream, is predicting the future or warning in this case. Crazy Horse received a warning from his spiritual guide, the eagle, that he will be murdered by his enemies. Because he did not take into consideration this warning and he decided to continue going alone on the prairie he encountered with the soldiers. Unfortunately, this prophecy was right and he died stabbed by one of the soldiers.

Furthermore, these visions can also be told by a Shaman or by another important member of the tribe and they could be misinterpreted. And by the time the people figure out that they were wrong in interpreting the vision it can be too late to change anything, thus, they have to cope with the consequences. Such an example gave Terry J. Andrews in his article Living by The Dream where one of the main characters is named Pocahontas.

When I hear this name, the first thing that comes into my mind is the Disney tale entitled the same. But coming back to the vision, the Chief Powhatan – he was also named Wa-hun-sen-a-cawh – lived in 1500s and one day the tribe’s Shaman came to him to tell that he had a visions according to which from Chesapeake Bay will rise a nation which will destroy Powhatan’s tribe.

When he heard that, he instantly started a war against a westward tribe and until 1607 he almost destroyed it. But, he focused on the wrong tribe, because the true enemies were a small group of English men who were living in Jamestown as well. After many ears of fights and troubles, Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas – a thirteen-year-old girl – came face-to-face with John Smith, the Jamestown leader or chief, in order to save him from death. Because he was almost murdered by her father’s warriors.

Powhatan released John Smith in order to make peace but in 1613 Virginia’s governor took her hostage in order to have his people released from Powhatan’s possession. But the governor lied Powhatan and he did not give Pocahontas back to her father, he married her with John Rolfe, an English man, and she died after giving birth to her son, named Thomas, at the age of twenty-one.

Because of all these incidents and the misinterpretation of the Shaman’s vision, Powhatan lost his daughter and had to tolerate the strangers living with his people. This is a danger of night dreaming as well, or in dreaming in general, the misinterpretation of the visions, dreams and so on, which can lead to success or on the same level can lead to destruction and death.

Because the native Americans drove dreaming to an extreme extent, they started using ‘mind-alternating herbs’ as Andrews called them, in his article, an example is Mescal or, it was also named as ‘the plant that shows the way’. This hallucinogenic substance is extracted from the peyote cactus and it is used to help day dreaming, night dreaming and also lucid dreaming.

This plant was used as a drug but just during religious rituals, it was considered sacred by the Kiowa Indians and it was considered by the Cheyenne people a plant used by the witch people in order to make them crazy. Nowadays, this plant is forbidden among the Native Americans, but even so, there are some of them who use it and they risk their liberty doing that.

Another example in which dreaming played an important role is the illness of a Cheyenne child for who, his father decided that in order to heal him, he has to make a sacrifice. The father had several dreams which lead him through every single step that he had to do in order to fulfil his sacrifice. He dreamed that he had to be hung from a sun pole and to be pierced. The sacrifice was made to the sun, and the father asked and prayed for his son’s health while he was hanging from the sun pole while being pierced.

An important tool which helped the dreamers, was and still is, the Dream Catcher or the Dream Net. It is not clearly delimitated which was the tribe that came first with it, so it is considered to be a symbol of the entire native American tribes. the Dream Catcher has also a legend which started from the Ojibwe tribe, as Terry J. Andrews tells in ‘Living by The Dream’:

‘Long ago when the ancient world of the Ojibwe nation was strong, all clans were located on Turtle Island. It is said that Spider Woman (Asibikaahi) helped to being the sun (giizis) back to the people. The Ojibwe nation started to fulfill a prophecy that the people were to disperse to the four corners of what is today North America. Spider Woman had a difficult time making the journey to all cradle boards of the new children, which she had done to protect the people from evils, and instead she asked for all mothers and grandmothers to weave webs of eight strings, such as her own webs. The magical nets were made of willow loops (the tree of love) and sinew and it was made into a circle to represent how sun travels across the sky each day.’ (Andrews, last accessed on: April 24th 2017).

The Dream Catcher had to be hung above baby’s head in order to sort the dreams, the good dreams were allowed to pass through the net while the bad ones were captured through the net’s wires and they would disappear at sunrise. Even nowadays, this symbol remained in the tribes’ traditions and it spread all over the world. We can find a dream catcher even in Asia or Europe.

3.3 Southeastern Maize Region: Cherokee’s Dreams

These subchapters describe the Cherokee ways of dreaming and the dangers while daydreaming and the interpretations of the several dreams. It is very important which are the differences between night dreaming and day dreaming and what are the important factors that lead to the rituals in which dreaming plays the main role.

3.3.1 Day Dreaming and its Dangers

Day dreaming is a very important part of a Cherokee’s life, it helps the natives to follow and discover their path, their future. Just like it is for the Cheyennes. They are empowered and helped during these visions which they have, or even warned by the ancestors or the Great Spirit.

An example for a vision or daydream is provided by Neihardt. He speaks about a native American, Black Elk, from the Sioux tribe, who is a gifted boy even from the day he was born. At the age of nine, he started hearing a voice who dictated him what to do. Black Elk starts telling what this voices tell him:

‘(…) While I was eating, a voice came and said: “It is time; now they are calling you”. The voice was so loud and clear that I believed it, and I thought I would just go where it wanted me to go. So I got right up and started. As I came out of the tepee, both my thighs began to hurt me, and suddenly it was like walking from a dream, and there wasn.t any voice.’ (Neihardt, 2008: 18)

This was how everything started and how Black Elk had his Great Vision. But the vision did not stop there, it continued and the boy started feeling bad as days were passing, his legs started hurting him, his arms were inflated and even his face was puffed up.

When the natives stopped to rest a little bit, Black Elk was sitting is his parent’s teepee laid down with his parent’s watching him. He started looking up at the top of the teepee and his vision continued:

‘I could see out through the opening, and there two men were coming from the clouds. Headfirst like arrows slanting down, and I knew they were the same that I had seen before. Each now carried a long spear. And from the points of these jagged lightning flashed. They came clear down to the ground this time and stood a little way off and looked at me and said: “Hurry! Come! Your Grandfathers are calling you!” Then they turned and left the ground like arrows slanting upward from the bow’ (Neihardt, 2008: 18)

After Black Elk heard that words, he stood up and leaved the teepee following the two men but they disappeared on a cloud. He started looking upwards and saw a cloud rushing towards him. He got up on it and looked back to his parents feeling sorry that he was leaving them. He saw the two men again and his cloud was following them.

He arrived in where the Thunder Beings were living and where was a blue plain with clouds all over the place, the clouds were like mountains which were watching him. They kept going and arrived on a cloud land, everything there was white, there was nothing but white mountains and clouds and whispers, he started hearing whispers everywhere.

There he saw a bay horse who told him that he needs to see his life story, and then he got up on the horse and went ‘to where the sun goes down’ (Neihardt, 2008: 19). There were twelve black horses wearing necklaces made of bison hoofs. After that he went towards the cardinal part: North – where the ‘great white giant lives’ – South – the place toward you are always looking to – East – where the sun always shines – encountering different horses, wearing different jewelry.

After visiting the three cardinal points, the bay horse told Black Elk that his Grandfathers are having a council and he has to be courageous. Then the different types of horses came together into a formation ‘four abreast – the blacks, the whites, the sorrels, and the buckskins’ (Neihardt, 2008: 20). After a while he arrived in front of a big cloud which changed in a teepee shape and which has a rainbow as it’s door or opening. There, Black Elk had the two men beside him and he saw, inside the teepee, six old men who were sitting in a raw.

The boy heard a kind voice, coming from the oldest Grandfather, who invited him inside the teepee fearless. He entered and now he was standing face-to-face with the oldest men from the entire time. The oldest men spoke again and told him kindly that the Grandfathers from every corner of the world were reunited having a council to which they wanted Black Elk to assist in order to be thought by them.

Black Elk associated the six old Grandfathers with the six ‘Powers of the World’, as he called them, and he started enumerated as he saw them: ‘The Power of the West, The Power of the North, The Power of the East, The Power of the South, The Power of the Sky and The Power of the Earth’ (Neihardt, 2008: 20-21). After the oldest men started speaking, he gave some ‘gifts’ (emphasize by myself) to Black Elk. He gave him a cup made out of wood which was filled with water in which was the sky, that was the power to make live, then he gave him a bow, it was the power of destruction. And the last gift was Black Elk’s spirit, the Grandfather named it Eagle Wing Stretches.

The second Grandfather, the one of the North, gave him courage to lead a nation and the power of the ‘white giant’s wing, the cleansing wing’ and the old man started singing:

‘They are appearing, may you behold! / They are appearing, may you behold! / The thunder nation is appearing, behold! // They are appearing, may you behold! / They are appearing, may you behold! / The white geese nation is appearing, behold!’ (Neihardt, 2008: 22)

After he received the two gifts, Black Elk was feeling proud and he looked at the Grandfather of where is always sunshine, the old man gave him also courage but he gave him the peace pipe which had an animated eagle which was looking towards the boy. With that peace pipe he could cure himself and he could walk over the earth.

The Grandfather of the South gave him a branch beneath it were villages of people with birds and plants, where everybody was leaving peacefully and happy. He told to Black Elk that he must make the branch blossom, he must be in the center of that nation and rule over it wisely.

The old man also showed him that the branch which he received as a gift, transformed into a tree back on earth, from which he could see two roads, a red one and a black one, the Grandfather told him that the red road goes from the North to the South and it is the good road, with peace and happiness, and that he must go on that way.

While the black road goes from the West to the East and it is the bad road, with despair, fights, wars and blood, but he must also go on that way because he had the power and courage to lead his people and succeed. So the Grandfather of the South told him that he should walk his nation all over the earth no matter what he encounters on his journey because with the gifts which he received from the ancestors he should be successful.

Moving on to the Grandfather of the Sky who also gave the boy a gift, the eagle, he was watching Black Elk together with every wing from the sky. The last man, who was not as old as the other ones, seemed familiar to Black Elk, the Grandfather started becoming younger and younger as the boy was staring at him and at the end, he became a boy and Black Elk recognized himself in the face of the Grandfather. The old man gave him the power to make the other living thing to fear of him.

After receiving all these gifts, the bay horse drove Black Elk nearer to the earth and he say above three waters a blue man. The living things: plants, animals, and so on, felt weak and afraid, as they saw the boy they cheered and they asked him for help.

Black Elk had the cup of water in one hand and in the other the arrow, he stubbed the blue man in the heart, the dead body turned into a turtle and the place rebirth and every living thing regained their life and happiness and peace, thanks to the courageous boy.

The Black Elk’s spiritual journey came to an end and he came back on earth where he planted the branch and a tall tree grew up and then he showed the other gifts as well and the people started following him on the red road known as the good one. He followed the steps and the voices which he heard and lead his nation to success, peace and happiness.

After he wake up from his daydream his parents gave him some water because a wise man told them that the boy is coming back and he needs a little water in order to wake up. After he drank the water he realized that his parents would never know about his spiritual journey and about his gifts. He was sad but in the same time happy to reunite with his family and accomplish his destiny. But daydreaming is very dangerous even it seems that it is not. it can lead to madness, sickness or even death.

3.3.2 Night Dreaming and its Interpretations

As important as the daydreaming is the night one. Even if they were strange dreams, just like ours, or like their daydreams or visions. The Cherokees were able to remember every detail of their dreams. It is unusual for the nowadays majority of people because we do not pay attention to dreams and lesser on their interpretation.

They used in a special ritual for dreaming seven rocks, or memory rocks, which helped the dreamers to remember the forgotten pieces from the dream. The Cherokees had a set of symbols which were a guide for their interpretation of dreams. For example, in someone had a dream and saw the sign of death or illness, it did not matter anymore the rest of the dream, it was certain that someone would die or get sick. But the Cherokees also had some good dreams, not just bad ones. They had religious dreams in order to reconnect with the ancestors and the Great Spirit. Also some of the dreams could fail because they were not interpreted in the right way.

The first category of dreams which Mails provides us with some examples are the ones which predict death:

‘Seeing any person going towards the west is a sign that that person would soon die. / Seeing anyone with an eagle feather in his hand, or to dream of possessing such feathers, was a sign of death. / Hearing and seeing any family member or any number of individuals singing and dancing was a sure sign they would all die soon. / seeing anyone floating down a stream of high water foretold the death of that person.’ (Mails, 1992: 135)

Also these are not the only signs which predict death, also dreaming about a person’s house burning to the ground means that that person will die inside that house, or dreaming of someone having very clean clothes meant the death of that person, and so on and so forth.

Another types of dreams were the ones who dealt with sickness. If in the tribe was a family which had a sick member, and someone, on the one hand, dreamt clear water, that meant that the sick person will soon get better, but, on the other hand, if someone dreamt growing water that meant that the sickness will get worse or that another member of the family will get sick too.

Also if a Cherokee dreamt about seeing a dead body or a dead animal meant that a person will become ill in a short period of time. Moreover, dreaming about seeing a woman on the field meant that the tribe will have to deal will fever and malaria. Dreaming about someone’s clothes being burnt meant that that man will be ill soon.

There were also dreams which implied food and meant illness, such as dreaming that a person ate meat was a sign of illness, or there were dreams which implied snakes, like, dreaming about a snake was witchery and that meant that the snake was sent by an evil person to harm somebody and produce illness.

And the third category which Mails brought to light, was the one coping with the hunters. A man, basically a hunter, who dreamt any kind of fruit or bread, meant that they soon will hunt and be successful in bring home a nice fat deer. Because this particular dream was a ‘productive’ (emphasize by myself) one, the hunters made special prayers and incantations in order to have this kind of dreams. But, a hunter could also dream about his hunting tools being broke and that meant that in the net winter he would not be successful in hunting anything.

Finally, the fourth category is the one which implies greatness. If someone dreamt about flying that meant that that person will live longer and happier. Also a Cherokee woman dreamt about her only son transforming into an eagle and flying all over the place, when she told what she just dreamt, everybody told her that the dream means that her son will become one of the greatest warriors from the tribe.

Also there were also some other things which a Cherokee dreamt about and its instantly became meaningful, like, dreaming eggs, that meant that the person who dreamt about that, in his family or tribe will soon come a baby. Or if someone dreamt about the moon, that meant that someone will try to cheat that person.

David Cornsilk, in a discussion about the Cherokee culture on e-mail, said that:

‘After I married, my mother-in-law, a full blood, would dream about walking through the forest and spying a nest of eggs. If she reached down and touched or picked up the eggs, a grandchild was coming. If she walked on by, it meant nothing. She was 100 percent accurate, always knowing when one of her daughters was pregnant before they knew it themselves.’ (Cornsilk, 2006)

Dreaming, for the Cherokees and not only, is a very important part of their identity as a tribe. These dreams are a way to communicate with the Great Spirit and its’ are a guide for harsh times or for taking decisions, truth revelators. These can be the answer to impossible questions, dreams can reveal the future and can warn the people about any good or bad thing that might or will happen.

For the Cherokee people every dream was important, even if it sound stupid just like this one:

‘(…) at age ten, when he dreamed the location of his father’s Jersey cow missing for over a week. The dream was clear and impressed him that the cow had a newborn red bull calf and was trapped and hidden by a fallen tree in a dry streambed behind a large limestone boulder. (…) Guided by the dream, he found the cow in the dry streambed he had dreamed, behind a huge limestone boulder, trapped against a cliff of rock by an oak tree felled by a strong wind.’ (Dufner, 2007: 2-4)

This was a happy-ended situation where the cow was found with the help of the guidance gave by the dream the person had. This is not the only case, there were several ones. But the important fact is that the dreamer has to believe in what he or she dreams about and have the faith that by following the steps revealed in the dream he r he would be successful.

3.4 Conclusion

Dreams play an important role in every part of the world, even nowadays. Dreams are associated with the other worlds and they help the people connect with their ancestors and the Great Spirit, and also with the spiritual journeys which every Cherokee or Cheyenne or every native American should make.

The symbols of death, greatness, illness and so on, can be encountered during these visions or dreams but they also can be misinterpreted and that leads to destruction and death. The dreams are divided into day dreams and night dreams. The distinction between them is the moment of dreaming and the environment.

In day dreaming the person can use different hallucinogen herbs to induce the dreaming state in special rituals or it can occur spontaneously for the ‘chosen people’ (emphasize by myself). While on the other hand, night dreaming is a normal state of the mind and body because the person sleeps in order to function in the right form, but, the dreams occur always while sleeping.

Because not everybody can remember every detail from the dream, the natives perform a ritual in order to remember what the Great Spirit told them or what where the dream about in order to interpret and to predict the future actions. In this way, to the dreamer, it can be revealed the future job, the status in the tribe or the health state of a family’s member.

The dreams are a bridge between the visible world and the invisible, or the spiritual world. This is the way in which the ancestors communicate with the people and in which they guide their future moves and actions, or warn them about a hidden enemy or a future war or battle.

CHAPTER FOUR

POWERS CONFERRED ON THE MEDICINE MEN OR WOMEN

4.1 Introduction

This chapter deals with everything which means healing and medicine for the native American tribes, both Cheyenne and Cherokees but other tribes as well. Serval methods and ceremonies performed by the shamans and medicine men or women will be described and presented. The powers conferred by the spirits on the medicine men or women and their connection will be revealed and they will not be a secret anymore.

4.2 Bison Region: Cheyenne’s Healing and Purification Techniques

These subchapters deal with the healing ceremonies, the sweat lodge and the curing techniques used by the Cheyenne tribe. They will be described and explained in order to understand their purpose and, why these healing techniques and rituals were so important for the natives and how did the Great Spirit helped them to stay sane and healthy.

4.2.1 Healing Ceremonies

Healing played a very important role in native Indians lives, just like it plays a significant role in our lives too. Because if we are unable to heal, then we are insignificant when it comes to diseases. In what concerns the native Americans, they named their medicine man or woman, a shaman, or a holy man. (see Appendix number 11)

The shaman is one of the most important person from a tribe, he helps the people by predicting some future events, such as wars or fights through his or her dreams or visions. They are also the ‘doctors’ (emphasize by myself) of the tribe because they are the only ones who received the healing power from the Great Spirit and the wisdom to collect the right herbs in order to provide the cure.

The native Americans believe in animal spirits, totems, and other related things. They believe that when a member of the tribe has the Great Vision, where the ancestors or The Great Spirit gives him his totem and his new name, then the person achieved the adult status and his guardian spirit animal. His entire life, work, marriage, is gravitating around this totem and the guardian spirit.

In what concerns the Cheyenne Indians, they have a multitude of ceremonies and rituals which include healing, such as the Vision Quest, the Spiritual Journey, the Sweat Lodge and so on. Each of it include the medicinal herbs and the hallucinogen plants, totems and spirits, and the last but the most important, the shaman.

The Cheyenne, and not only, often purify their souls, their spirit, body and even tools or weapons. They do this by burning some sacred plants and using the smoke as a purifying tool. The purification ritual can take place inside the sweat lodge or outside, on the prairies. This ritual is done by the shaman and while he burns all those plants he is praying and calling the healing spirits to help them and give the power to the shaman to complete the ritual of purification.

Also, in Montana, the natives:

‘burned sweetgrass as incense of its spiritually purifying and protective properties. It was especially beneficent to Cheyenne Indians. (…) During healing ceremonies, Cheyenne doctors passed the rattle through sweetgrass smoke to purify it.’ (Hart, 2007: 55).

They were very into the purification techniques and they purified not only the tools or weapons, but clothes and people too.

A well-known shaman among the Northern Cheyenne was White Bull – also called Ice Bear – who was the son of Black Moccasin. As Richard G. Hardorff tells us in his book:

‘He acquired the healing powers of the bear, the antelope, and the wild hog, and he was instructed by the Thunder Beings in the making of several protective war bonnets, including the one worn by the celebrated warrior, Roman Nose.’ (Hardorff, 1995: 37)

Because he received, through a vision his healing powers, from the Thunder Beings, he became a popular shaman. He married a remarkable Cheyenne Indian’s daughter – Frog’s daughter – named Wool Woman, and he had a son named Noisy Walking. After the white colonists come and conquered the native’s territory, White Bull created a partnership with a colonel and stood by his side from then on.

When the Custer Battle started, the shaman – White Bull – performed a healing ceremony for an injured Cheyenne, heard the spirits from the sacred mountain, who were saying that he will come victorious from the future war. When he heard that, he decided to join the people in that battle and to come victorious. (Hardorff, 1995: 37).

Furthermore, an important aspect of becoming a shaman was the initiation. Peter J. Powell briefly describes in his book the initiation in medicine of one hostage took by the Cheyenne Indians:

‘Enemy Captive continued to relate that, in 1914, he had sought instructions in becoming a Buffalo doctor, a medicine man. Following his initial instructions in the healing ceremonies, a feast was given. (…) the oldest priest warned Enemy Captive “not to get cold feet.” He told the younger man that he must leave his wife, Emma, with Fred Iron Shirt, a senior priest of the Buffalo Society. Then Iron Shirt had used her as the sacred woman was used in the Suhtai ceremonies.’ (Powell, 1998: 334)

After the woman came back, she had in her mouth some sacred herbs and she had to give them to her husband from her mouth into his. When he had the herbs into his mouth he spitted it because he thought that it was poisoned. The initiation of Enemy Captive finished with a sweat bath. But, as Powell mentioned, this initiation costed Enemy Captive pretty much: ‘ten horses, over a hundred dollars in money, plus supplies and sustenance.’ (Powell, 1998: 334). That shows that even in becoming a Cheyenne doctor you have to pay.

4.2.2 The Sweat Lodge

The Sweat Lodge ceremony is not just a Cheyenne ritual, this ceremony is performed by the majority of the native Americans because it is connected to their Spiritual Universe and medicine. The natives started adapting the ceremony after the contact with the white people, because, this ceremony is associated with the sweat bath which is common to the European countries too.

The white people, when they came of the native’s territory, they brought with themselves alcohol, diseases and many other negative influences. Because of that, the native American’s felt the need to purify themselves more often because in this way they could reconnect with the Great Spirit and their ancestors.

The natives, helped by the Medicine Men and Women, could purify their spirits and their bodies and, also, rebuild the spiritual connection with the Great Spirit. The actual sweat lodge building is a place where they could heal their minds and their souls. There, they could ask their ancestors for advice and guidance. (Windwalker, October 13th, 2002)

A traditional Sweat Lodge is described in Barefoot Windwalker’s article being built up like this:

‘A traditional Sweat Lodge is a wickiup made up of slender withes of aspen or willow, or other supple saplings, lashed together with raw hide, or grass or root cordage, although in some areas the lodge was constructed of whatever materials were at hand, from a mud roofed pit house to a cedar bark and plank lodge. The ends of the withes are set into the ground in a circle, approximately 10 feet in diameter, although there is no set size for a Sweat Lodge. That is determined by the location, materials available and the builder. The withes are bent over and lashed to form a low domed framework approximately 4 – 5 feet high at the center. The pit in the center is about 2 feet in diameter and a foot deep. The floor of the lodge may be clean swept dirt, or natural grassy turf, or may be covered with a mat of sweetgrass, soft cedar boughs, or sage leaves for comfort and cleanliness, kept away from the central pit.’ (Windwalker, October 13th, 2002)

Also, the sweat lodge was covered with buffalo skin or other animal skin. But, after the encounter with the white people, the skin was replaced with plastic or with blankets. The door opening was towards the East, just like the sacred fire which was burning outside the lodge.

Between the fire and the actual ‘building’ (emphasize by myself), the natives put a buffalo skull on a stick in order to prevent the performers of the ceremony to get burned by the sacred fire when they enter and leave the sweat lodge. This stick with a buffalo skull on it and at its ground having a small altar is considered sacred and on it, people place pipes, feathers and other sacred objects.

The Sweat lodge ceremony starts with the people who have fasted for a full day while contemplated their purification and connection with the ancestors. Before entering into the sweat lodge, they perform the smudge ritual, where they are purified with the smoke of burnt sweetgrass, cedar or sage.

After that, they are allowed to wring with themselves only natural objects, such as: medicine pouches, eagle feathers or whistles. If they have any other personal object they would not be allowed to enter the lodge only after they renounce at it. (Windwalker, 2002)

After every person is inside the sweat lodge, they offer the sacred peace pipe in which smoke is their question or problem which will be received by the Great Spirit and he will be healed and helped in his problem and purification. After that, they close the lodge and as soon as one of them cannot resist inside anymore because of the smoke, he has to go out in silence in the clockwise direction.

The shaman asks the keepers of the fire to bring the sacred stones which were heated by the sacred fire outside and swept with cedar. He places four stones, one in each cardinal part of the sweat lodge: North, South, East and West, and one stone is placed in the center of the lodge.

After the stones are placed, the keeper of the fire leaves the lodge and closes the door opening. The ceremony starts with the sweat leader who invokes the spirits and pours water over the hot stones until the spirits tell him to stop. After that he starts singing and praying:

‘Grandfather, Mysterious One, / We search for you along this / Great Red Road you have set us on. / Sky Father, Tunkashila, / We thank you for this world. / We thank you for our own existence. / We ask only for your blessing and for your instruction. / Grandfather, Sacred One, / Put our feet on the holy path that leads to you, / and give us the strength and the will / to lead ourselves and our children / past the darkness we have entered. / Teach us to heal ourselves, / to heal each other and to heal the world. / Let us begin this very day, / this very hour, / the Great Healing to come. / Let us walk the Red Road in Peace.’ (Windwalker, October 13th, 2002)

After almost a half an hour of standing and inhaling the smoke, the leader announces that the door is open and the first session is over. During this ceremony, there are four sessions. The first session is for the guide spirit and for the West, the second session is for courage, purity and strength, and for the North.

The third session is for the red road, for the East, and for knowledge, and the last one, the fourth session is for healing and for the South. After the four sessions are completed, the ceremony is over and the participants feel themselves purified and reconnected with their spirits, the Great Spirit and the ancestors.

4.2.3 Curing Techniques

Cheyenne’s medicine is based on herbs, rituals and shamanism. As I already mentioned, the Shaman is one of the most important people from any tribe. He is thought to be able to fly over the world, to the spirits and back, also he is thought to have super powers, which an ordinary man or woman would not have. And because of that:

‘The shaman is often able to overcome the contradictions between binary oppositions (man/woman, human/animal, human/spirit, living/dead), through playing with ambiguity, paradox, and transgression, in order to manage illness, misfortune, and other crises.’ (Walter and Fridman, 2004: 161)

That is the reason why the shaman is so popular among the native Americans and why he is associated with magic.

All of use is trying to find a cure for something, a disease, wrinkles, and so on. But we never asked ourselves how did the diseases came into our world. The Cheyenne thought that the diseases come from some sort of invisible arrows shot, during the spring, by some spirits and which remain in their bodies and cause illness.

If the ‘injured’ (emphasize by myself) person does not go to the medicine man or to the shaman to heal him and to remove that invisible arrow, then the person dies:

‘Where doctors cure such sick people by taking out the cause of the disease, this cause sometimes appears as a small stone. These spirits are called Ground People: Ho ho' ta ma ĭtsĭ hyo' ist — “live in the ground.” They are particularly active at night. If offended, the supernatural powers, maiyun, which often dwell in peculiar-looking bluffs, or hills, or peaks, may cause sickness. They are not necessarily malignant, and may be made favorable by prayers and sacrifices, or if neglected or ill-treated, may be rendered ill-disposed, and may cause sickness or even death.’ (Grinnell, 2008: 181)

So, it is vital for the persons who have been shot by a spirit with the ‘infected arrow’ (emphasize by myself) to go to the medicine man or woman to save his or her life and take out that arrow.

Because they thought that the disease came by some sort of magic, obviously, the remedy for these diseases is magical too. And in order to produce the remedies, the natives started gathering herbs and toots and while making the plant remedy from them, they would sing and pray and invoke the spirits to help them with their supernatural healing powers.

Moreover, healing an ill person was not very easy how it may appear, a family member of that person had to go to the medicine man or woman carrying a filled pipe and offering it to the ‘doctor’ (emphasize by myself) and sitting down by his side saying: ‘I wish you to come and doctor my child.’ (Grinnell, 2008: 182).

After that, if he would not accept the pipe, that meant that he does not want to heal that person, but, if the doctor accepted the pipe meant that he is willing to help the person in need:

‘If willing to go, however, he held the palms of his hands toward the sky, and then placing them on the ground, took up the pipe with both hands, and holding it in his left hand, again held the right palm upward; then placed it on the ground, and finally rubbed the hand over the pipestem, from left to right, away from the bowl. Then he lighted the pipe and smoked—thereby consenting— and after the pipe was smoked out, accompanied the petitioner to his lodge.’ (Grinnell, 2008: 182)

As soon as they arrive at the patient, the medicine man starts with the purification ritual for both of the, the ill persona and himself. After he started burning the herbs, he poured them over a hot kohl and after keeping his hand over the smoke to receive the power, the heat and the smell of the herbs, he would place his hands over the ill part of patient’s body in order to fulfill the healing process.

While healing, the medicine man shook the rattle which he had in his hands and sang, prayed and invoked the spirits. This rattle was made out of buffalo skin and tied up with sweetgrass and inside it has small stones which while were shook made noise. After this ritual was completed, the ill person would recover very soon.

4.3 Southeastern Maize Region: Cherokee’s Remedies

In the following subchapters, the Cherokee way of treatment and their medicine will be described and compared to the Cheyenne tribe’s one. The medicinal herbs play an essential role in Cherokee’s lives too. They perform different healing rituals using different sacred plants and invoking different spiritual powers in order to be successful.

4.3.1 Medicinal Herbs

The medicinal herbs are important not just for the Cherokees, but for every tribe and nation. Garrett tells in his book related to the medicinal herbs that:

‘A Cherokee elder puts his hand on a plant at the edge of the Oconaluftee River at Toe String on a cool fall morning. “This is a plant that the old ones used for thrush in the mouth and sore throat,” he says. “This is the one you can take for that hoarseness that keeps bothering you.” He is pointing to yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissima) as he continues. “Some of the old people used this in a formula for easing childbirth. Here, scratch the bark with your knife. You see the yellow stem? That’s how you recognize it.” He cuts a piece. “Just chew on this, and it will help your throat.”’ (Garrett, 2003: 1)

There we can see that the herbs and plants did not change at all, but the eyes who see them changed. Just an older person can now recognize the old fashioned way of healing with the help of the natural remedies.

The Cherokees were well known for their medicine, but not the primary one, the healing of a burn or a cut, but for the potions for love, peace, founding people or lost objects. They believe that medicine is split into four parts, the cardinal points, or the Four Directions: the first one being the Spiritual Direction – the East – the second one being the Natural Direction – South – the third one being the Physical Direction – West – and the fourth one being the Mental Direction – North.

The four cardinal points cannot function one without another, so, that means that in order to have a balance in their lives and to be able to heal, the Cherokees had to combine the mental, the natural, the physical and the spiritual, in order to be successful and their lives to be harmonious. (Garrett, 2003: 21).

The Cherokees believed that the healing was basically the way by which a person in need has to be reconnected with the spirits, to remind his harmony and balance in nature. The herbs played an important role in this process because they were superstitious in what meant numbers.

So they used the number four and seven in everything. Also while they were outside, searching for certain plants, they would pray in order to have a vision in which the guide spirit would tell them what herbs they need for a certain illness.

In what concerned the four dimensions, the Cherokees do not pay too much attention to the leaves form or dimension, they took them by their deeper meaning, for example, the South Medicines (as Garrett call it) ‘works’ (emphasize by myself) with the colors green and white, being the nature involved and it is compared with the young child, the South Medicine has the colors red and yellow because these are the sun’s colors which represent spirituality.

The West Medicine has the color black, because it is related to the Moon which is considered sacred, and the fourth one, the North Medicine has the sky’s colors: blue, purple, it represents the sky being calm, which is compared with the adult who teacher the child (the South) and the people should be the same as it.

During the healing ceremonies, the Cherokees, just like Cheyennes, used hallucinogen herbs in order to have visions which would help them in finding the cure for a certain disease. Also, during those rituals the tobacco was used by the medicine man or woman in his or her prayers for the life of the sick individual.

Almost every person from the tribe had a bundle full of medicinal herbs and all sorts of plants for different affections and diseases, which were a secret. She or he would not tell to anyone what remedies she found, just in a serious case, when a person is about to die and he or she know which is the right herb to heal, the person would share the secret.

Also, here was included the black magic too. Because some of the people from the tribe, thought that a person received much more power than the healing, thus, he or she would have the power to take someone’s life, and they were not seen well inside the tribe. They were called witches or black magic users.

4.3.2 Methods of Treatment

As methods of treatment, the Cherokees also used the Sweat Lodge too. But, the Cherokees are also very secret-type of people because they do not share their healing techniques or herbs too easily. They think that if the secret is told too easily and too early, then, the spiritual power of the plant or of the method is diminished.

The methods of treatment can consist in: sweat lodges, praying, fasting, smudge, taking hallucinogen plants (Peyote), smoking or chewing tobacco, chanting, singing, and doing any other thing which would help them in finding a new method of treatment.

The Cherokee Sweat Lodge is a little different from the Cheyenne one. It is a part of the traditional healing process which helps the people to reconnect with their spirits and improve their health state. In order to light the sacred fire, they go and search seven different wood types and when they find them, come back and start the ceremony. The fire is placed outside, symbolizing the head of a turtle and the lodge is representing the body of the turtle.

After finishing the sacred fire, every person has to throw into the fire tobacco and other sacred plants, but they also leave some plants until the lodge. They do this ‘trail’ (emphasize by myself) for the spirits to follow it and accompany them through the ritual. The lodge has to be built near a river because in this way is easier for the performers to bath after the ritual.

The leader of the sweat lodge lets the fire keeper to bring the seven hot rock and place them into the lodge and asks the participants to come in, after everybody is inside, the fire keeper seals the door opening and the ceremony starts. The leader pours water over the hot rocks, which release smoke:

‘When you go into the lodge, it represents the same thing as going back into the mother’s womb. ’Cause we go in there without any clothes on, and whenever we sit on the earth we get all muddy and connected to the earth again. And so whenever we crawl out it’s like we’re a new person. Born again. Cleansed. And no longer carrying a lot of the garbage that we took in with us.”’ (Article: Cherokee Healing, last accessed on: April 14th, 2017 http://moh.ncdcr.gov/exhibits/healthandhealing/topic/9/ )

After the ritual is over and the prayers and chants were said, the participants get out from the lodge and go in the river in order to take a bath and cool themselves.

Divination is also a practice, performed by the Cherokee people in order to give a diagnose. This ritual is performed by a medicine man or woman or a shaman who goes near a river having in his or her hand three sacred beads.

The medicine man while praying and enchanting, rolls continually the three beads which need to show him the answer by their arrangement. The medicine man does that until he finds the right remedy for the ill person.

4.4 Conclusion

Both the Cheyenne and the Cherokee, are very complex tribes with a variety of medicinal herbs, plants and rituals and everything which is included in the medical field. They use the Sweat Lodge and the Smudge ceremony in order to purify their lives, bodies, spirits, souls, minds and every other thing.

The shaman plays a very important role in their lives and in the life of the tribe. If the shaman does not use his powers for the good health of the members of the tribe and for maintaining the harmony among them, then, the tribe is in danger.

The hallucinogen plants, such as Peyote, helped them in inducing the daydream state, or it helped them in having a vision, in which they could communicate with the ancestors, Great Spirit or the other spirits, in order to ask for advice and guidance in collecting the right herbs and plants for preparing the remedy for the ill person.

Even if the natives did not want to get along with the white people and with their customs, traditions and everything else, they had no choice. And this ‘union’ (emphasize by myself) brought to the natives’ diseases which were no longer treatable with their traditional herbs and plants and rituals, they had to start communicating with the ‘enemies’ (emphasize by myself) in order to buy their pills and medicines in order to get well.

After the Native Americans were forced to move from their sacred lands and places, their health condition got worse because they were no longer able to find the plants to which they were accustomed to and that meant the death of much more people than the white colonists would think.

They were not able to defend and to fight back because of the lack of fire arms, and that was the perfect time for the invaders to attack them and take their lands. After they were relocated in reservations, nothing was the same and they lost the majority of their methods of treatment, herbs, plants, rituals and ceremonies.

CHAPTER FIVE

OPINIONS ON THE NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES’ HISTORY, CEREMONIES/ RITUALS, DREAMS AND MEDICINE

5.1 Questionnaire

In order to find out the level of knowledge of different age groups of people about the history, the ceremonies and rituals, the dreams and the medicine of Native American tribes, more precise the Cherokee and Cheyenne tribes, I suggest the following questionnaire:

Age: 18-25-year-old

Sex: Male and Female

Occupations:

Students

Studies:

Residence environment:

Rural area

Urban area

Nationality:

Romanian

Religion:

Catholic

Orthodox

Where do you think the Cheyenne tribe is located?

Northeastern Maize Region;

Europe;

Bison Region;

Southeastern Maize Region.

Where do you think the Cherokee tribe is located?

Europe;

Southeastern Maize Region;

Bison Region;

There is no tribe with this name.

What is ‘The Trail of Tears’?

a process through which the Native Americans – the Cherokee – were relocated on reservations;

a process through which the Native Americans – the Cheyenne – were relocated on reservations,

a process through which the animals were relocated on reservations;

a trail where people cried when they crossed it.

Why do you think the Native Americans paint their faces and bodies?

to connect with the spirits;

to connect with the ancestors;

to perform rituals;

all of the above.

Which is the most important spirit for the Native Americans?

the Great Spirit;

the Thunder Beings;

the Ancestors;

the Shaman.

Which is the ritual through which Sweet Medicine released his tribe from starvation?

the Sun Dance;

the Renewal of the Sacred Arrows;

the Animal Dance;

none of the above.

What is the Sun Dance ceremony?

a ceremony in which the natives dance in the sun light;

a ceremony which is performed by men for keeping the wealth of the tribe while dancing continuously;

a ceremony where the people get pierced and tattooed;

a ceremony performed by women for the wealth of the tribe.

Which is the Cherokee’s new year ceremony?

the Great New Moon Ceremony;

the Bouncing Bush Ceremony;

the Sun Dance Ceremony;

the First New Moon Ceremony.

Which is the Cherokee’s ceremony that was held every seventh year?

the Chief Dance Ceremony;

the Sun Dance Ceremony;

the Great New Moon Ceremony;

the Animal Dance Ceremony.

How long did the mourning for the Cherokee Native Americans last?

seven days;

four days;

one days;

they did not mourn their dead people.

What is daydreaming for the Native Americans?

a process which occurs spontaneously or not and which helps the person to receive guidance from the spirits;

a process which occurs in rituals and which helps the person to stay healthy;

a process through which the person reconnects with his or her ancestors;

none of the above.

What is the Vision Quest?

a ritual through which the young boys enter the adulthood;

a ritual through which the young girls become women;

a ritual through which the people could reconnect with the spirits;

a ritual through which the people got their bodies painted.

Which was the herb used by the Native Americans in order to have visions and daydreams?

peyote;

marijuana;

ganja;

tobacco.

Which of the following predicted a good coming hunt?

a hunter who dreamt any kind of fruit or bread;

a hunter who dreamt that he was flying;

a hunter who dreamt clear water;

a hunter who dreamt about someone’s house burning.

Which of the following predicted death?

dreaming about seeing any person going towards the west is a sign that that person would soon die;

dreaming clear water was a sure sign of death;

dreaming about someone’s clothes burning was a sign of death;

dreaming about a person being bitten by a snake was a sign of death.

What was the role of the shaman?

to maintain the peace inside the tribe;

to heal the people;

to facilitate people to marry;

to lead the tribe.

What is the Sweat Lodge Ceremony?

a ceremony in which the people from the tribe stay inside a lodge and sweat in order to purify their bodies and souls;

a ceremony in which the people from the tribe dance and feast;

a ceremony in which the people from the tribe assist to the marriage of a couple;

a ceremony in which the people from the tribe assist to a burial ceremony.

What thought the Cherokees that healing basically meant?

the way in which a person in need has to reconnect with the spirits;

the way in which a person take care of himself or herself;

the way in which people behaved with the others;

the way in which the person hunts.

How was considered a shaman who decided to use his powers in a bad way?

a trader;

a wise man;

a witch;

an ill person.

What gender could have a shaman?

male;

female;

male or female;

none of the above.

5.2 The subjects of the questionnaire

The questionnaire from above has been handed to a number of twenty-five subjects aged between 18 and 40 plus-year-old as follows:

the subjects between 18 and 25 year-old represent 15.60%

the subjects between 26 and 30 year-old represent 5.20%

the subjects between 30 and 40 year-old represent 3.12 %

the subjects over 40 years old represent 2.8%

as it can be seen in Figure 1, from below:

Figure 1. Subjects’ Age

An important detail about the subjects who accepted to take this questionnaire is their sex: out of the 25 subjects, 10 are males subjects representing 40% and 15 are female subjects representing 60% as it can be seen in Figure 2 from below:

Figure 2. Subjects’ Sex

In what concerns the subjects’ occupation, out of the 25 subjects 20 are students, but out of them 10 have also jobs, such as: reception-clerk, cashier, web designer, cashier, customer agent, all these representing 40%. Out of the 25 subjects 5 are only workers they representing 20 %. And the other 10 subjects out of the 25 are only students representing 40%.

Thus, they have been divided into three categories: the first category is represented by those subjects who are only students, basically, 10 students representing 40%, the second category is represented by those students who both study and work,10 students representing 40% and, the last category, the third one, is represented by those subjects who only work representing 20%, as you can see in Figure 3, from below:

Figure 3. Subjects’ Occupation

In what concerns the subjects’ studies, it is important to say that out of 25 subjects, only five of them have already graduate from another higher education institution representing 20%, the other 20 being students at present, standing for 80% as you can see in Figure 4, from below:

Figure 4. Students’ Studies

Concerning the subjects’ nationality, we can see pretty diverse categories. Out of the 25 subjects, one subject has Australian nationality – 4%, another subject has Dominican nationality – 4%, 2 subjects have American nationality – 8%, and the 21 subjects have Romanian nationality – 84% as it is presented in Figure 5, from below:

Figure 5. Subjects’ Nationality

Concerning the subjects’ religion status, as shown in Figure 6, we can see that out of 25 subjects, one subject is Atheist – 4%, another subject is Baptist – 4%, 2 subjects are Catholics – 8% and the other 21 subjects are Christians (Orthodox) – 84%.

Figure 6. Subjects’ Religion

According to the subjects’ statements concerning the residence environment as it is shown in Figure 7, it results that out of 25 subjects, 8 live in the rural area – 32% and the other 17 live in the urban area – 68%.

Figure 7. Residence environment

To sum up, except for the fact that five out of 25 subjects are only workers and they finished their studies, the other 20 are still students of the Cultural Studies program and the Literature program, we can say that the level of knowledge in what concerns the Native Americans was tested through a different range of categories, such as: religion, residence environment, occupation, age, studies, sex and nationality.

5.3 The interpretation of the questionnaire’s results

As you can see from the model of questionnaire presented in subchapter 5.1, it is realized under the form of 20 questions. Each question has four different variants of answers and each subject has to choose one answer.

The 25 questions can be divided into four categories, such as: the first set of five questions is focused on the general information about The History of Native Americans, the second set of five questions is focused on the Spiritual Universe of the Native Americans, ceremonies and rituals– Cheyenne and Cherokee – the third set of questions is focused on the Approach of Day and Night Dreaming, and the fourth set of questions in focused on the Native American’s Medicine.

5.3.1 Interpretation of the data on the history of the Native Americans

At the first question from the questionnaire about the location of the Cheyenne tribe, a number of 17 subjects (68%) chose the variant c) considering that the Cheyenne tribe is located in the Bison Region, 6 subjects (24%) chose the variant a) considering that the Cheyenne tribe is located in the Northeastern Maize Region, 2 subjects (8%) chose the variant d) thinking that the Cheyenne tribe is located in the Southeastern Maize Region, and none of the subjects chose the variant b) which affirms that the Cheyenne tribe is located in Europe.

At the second question from the questionnaire about the location of the Cherokee tribe, a number of 21 subjects (84%) chose the variant b) considering that the Cherokee tribe is located in the Southeastern Maize Region, 4 subjects chose the variant c) thinking that the Cherokee tribe is located in the Bison Region (16%) and none of the variants a) and d) was chosen by the subjects.

At the third question ‘What is “The Trail of Tears?”’, 23 subjects (92%) chose the variant a) considering that the Trail of Tears is the process through which the Cherokee tribe was relocated on reservations, 2 subjects (8%) chose the variant b) considering that The Trail of Tears was a process through which the Cheyenne tribe was relocate don reservations, and none of the variants c) and d) was chosen by the subjects.

The fourth question is concerned with the Native Americans’ reason to paint their faces, 13 subjects (52%) chose the variant d) considering that the natives paint their faces in order to connect with their spirits and ancestors and to perform rituals, 11 subjects (44%) chose variant a) considering that the natives paint their faces in order to connect with their spirits, one subject chose (4%) variant b) thinking that the natives paint their faces in order to connect with their ancestors and none of the subjects chose the variant c) which affirms that the natives paint their faces in order to perform rituals.

At the fifth question, and the last one belonging to the first set, which was concerned with the most important spirit for the Native Americans, 23 subjects (92%) chose variant a) considering that the most important spirit for the Native Americans is The Great Spirit, one subject (4%) chose variant b) considering that the Thunder Beings are the most important spirit for the natives, one subject (4%) chose variant c) thinking that the Ancestors are the most important spirits for the Native Americans.

Figure 8. Interpretation of Data on the History of the Native Americans: The Cheyenne and The Cherokee – Questions: 1 – 5

As we can see in the Figure 8 from above, there were several cases in which one or more variants were not chosen by the subjects.

The first case refers to the first question. Nobody chose variant b). This means that nobody considers that the Cheyenne tribe is located in Europe.

The second case refers to the second question. Nobody chose variants a) and d). This means that nobody thinks that the Cherokee tribe is located in Europe or that there is no tribe with this name.

The third case refers to the third question. Nobody chose variants c) and d). That means that nobody considers that The Trail of Tears is a process through which the animals were relocated on reservations or that it is a trail where people cried when they crossed it.

The fourth case refers to the fourth question. Nobody chose variant c). That means that nobody thinks that the natives paint their faces in order to perform rituals.

The last case, the fifth one, refers to the fifth question. Nobody chose variant d). That means that nobody thinks that the most important spirit of the natives is the shaman.

5.3.2 Interpretation of the data on the Spiritual Universe: Ceremonies and Rituals

The second set of questions, formed by the next five questions from the sixth to the tenth one, is focused on the ceremonies and rituals of the Native Americans – Cheyenne and Cherokee – and also on their Spiritual Universe.

At the sixth question concerning the ritual through which Sweet Medicine succeeded in releasing his tribe from starvation, 16 subjects (64%) chose variant b) considering that the ceremony through which he succeeded is the Renewal of the Sacred Arrows, 6 subjects (24%) chose variant a) thinking that the ceremony is the Sun Dance, 2 subjects (8%) chose variant c) considering that the ceremony is the Animal Dance, and one subject (4%) chose variant d) thinking that none of the above rituals was the right one.

At the seventh question referring to what is the Sun Dance ceremony, 23 subjects (92%) chose variant b) considering that the Sun Dance is a ceremony which is performed by men for keeping the wealth of the tribe while dancing continuously, 2 subjects (8%) chose variant c) considering that the Sun Dance ceremony is a ceremony where the people get pierced and tattooed, none of the subjects chose variants a) and d) which affirm that the Sun Dance could be a ceremony in which the natives dance in the sun light or a ceremony performed by women for the wealth of the tribe.

The eighth question ‘Which is the Cherokee’s new year ceremony?’, 15 subjects (60%) chose variant a) considering that the ceremony name is the Great New Moon Ceremony, 8 subjects (32%) chose variant d) considering that the ceremony name is the First New Moon Ceremony, one subject (4%) chose variant b) thinking that the ceremony was the Bouncing Bush Ceremony, and one subject (4%) chose variant c) thinking that the ceremony is the Sun Dance.

The ninth question ‘Which is the Cherokee’s ceremony that was held every seventh year?’, 15 subjects (60%) chose variant a) saying that the ceremony name is the Chief Dance Ceremony, 6 subjects (24%) chose variant c) considering that the ceremony is the Great New Moon Ceremony, 3 subjects (12%) chose variant b) considering that the ceremony’s name is the Sun Dance Ceremony, and one subject (4%) chose variant d) saying that the ceremony was the Animal Dance.

At the last question of this second set, referring to the period of mourning for the Cherokee tribe, 17 subjects (68%) chose variant a) considering that the Native Americans mourn their dead people for seven days, 6 subjects (24%) chose variant d) considering that the natives do not mourn their dead people, 2 subjects (8%) subjects chose variant b) thinking that the Cherokees mourn their dead people for four days, none of the subjects chose the variant c) which affirms that the natives mourn their dead people for one day.

Figure 9. Interpretation of Data on the Spiritual Universe: Ceremonies and Rituals – Questions: 6 – 10

As it can be seen in the Figure 9 from above, there have been only two cases representing three answers, which were not chose by the subjects.

The first case refers to the seventh question. Nobody chose variant a) and d). That means that nobody thought that the Sun Dance could be a ceremony in which the natives dance in the sun light or a ceremony performed by women for the wealth of the tribe.

The second case refers to the tenth question. Nobody chose variant c). That means that none of the subjects thought that the natives mourn their dead people for only one day.

5.3.3 Interpretation of the data on the Approach of Day and Night Dreaming

The third set of questions, starting with the eleventh question and ending with the fifth one, is formed by the next set of five questions which are focused on the Native Americans’ approach of day and night dreaming.

The eleventh question which is concerned with the meaning of daydreaming. Out of 25 subjects, 22 subjects (88%) chose the variant a) which assumes that daydreaming is a process which occurs spontaneously or not and which helps the person to receive guidance from the spirits, 2 subjects (8%) chose the variant c) which says that daydreaming is a process a process through which the person reconnects with his or her ancestors, one subject (4%) chose the variant b) which considers that daydreaming is a process which occurs in rituals and which helps the person to stay healthy, and none of the subjects chose variant d) which assumes that none of the definitions is correct.

The twelfth question is concerned with the definition of a Vision Quest. Out of the 25 subjects, 18 of them (72%) chose variant a) which says that the Vision Quest is a ritual through which the young boys enter the adulthood, 6 subjects (24%) chose the variant c) which assumes that the Vision Quest is a ritual through which the people could reconnect with the spirits, one subject (4%) chose the variant b) which says that the Vision Quest is a ritual through which the young girls become women, and none of the subjects chose variant d) which affirms that the Vision Quest is a ritual through which the people got their bodies painted.

At the thirteenth question ‘Which was the herb used by the Native Americans in order to have visions and daydreams?’, 16 subjects (64%) chose the variant a) which says that peyote is the herb used by the natives for having visions, 4 subjects (16%) chose the variant d) which says that the herb is tobacco, 3 subjects (12%) chose the variant c) which says that ganja is the herb used by the natives to facilitate the visions, 2 subjects (8%) chose the variant b) which affirms that marijuana is used by the natives in order to have visions.

The fourteenth question is concerned with what predicts a good coming hunt. Out of the 25 subjects, 18 subjects (72%) chose the variant a) thinking that a good coming hunt is predicted by dreaming bread or any kind of fruit, 4 subjects (16%) chose the variant c) considering that the hunter who dreamt of clear water was a sign of a good coming hunt, 3 subjects (12%) chose the variant b) thinking that the good coming hunt is predicted by dreaming of flying, and none of the subjects chose the variant d) which affirms that a hunter who dreamt about someone’s house burning was a sign of a good coming hunt.

At the fifteenth question ‘Which of the following predicted death?’, 19 subjects (76%) chose the variant a) considering that dreaming about seeing any person going towards the west is a sign that that person would soon die, 4 subjects (16%) chose the variant d) thinking that dreaming about a person being bitten by a snake was a sign of death, one subject (4%) chose the variant b) assuming that dreaming clear water was a sure sign of death, and one subject (4%) chose the variant c) considering that dreaming about someone’s clothes burning was a sign of death.

Figure 10. Interpretation of Data on The Approach of Day and Night Dreaming– Questions: 11 – 15

As it can be seen in the Figure 10 from above, there have been three cases representing three answers, which were not chose by the subjects.

The first case refers to the eleventh question. Nobody chose variant d). That means that everybody thought that none of the definitions presented as variants of answers for what means daydreaming is correct

The second case refers to the twelfth question. Nobody chose variant d). That means that nobody thought that the Vision Quest is a ritual through which the people got their bodies painted.

And the third case refers to the fourteenth question. None of the subjects chose the variant d). That means that nobody thought that a good coming hunt can be predicted by dreaming someone’s house burning.

5.3.4 Interpretation of the data on the Powers Conferred on the Medicine Men and Women

The last set of questions, the fourth one, starting with the sixteenth question and ending with the twelfth one, is formed by the last set of five questions which are focused on the Powers Conferred on the Medicine Men and Women.

At the sixteenth question which refers to what is the role of the shaman in a Native American tribe, 22 subjects (88%) chose the variant b) considering that the shaman’s role is to heal the people, 2 subjects (8%) chose the variant d) assuming that the shaman’s role is to lead the tribe, one subject (4%) chose the variant c) thinking that the shaman’s role within the natives’ tribes is to facilitate people to marry, and none of the subjects chose the variant a) which referred to the shaman as a person who had to maintain the peace inside the tribe.

The seventeenth question is concerned with what is the Sweat Lodge Ceremony, to this question, 20 subjects (80%) chose the variant a) thinking that the Sweat Lodge is a ceremony in which the people from the tribe stay inside a lodge and sweat in order to purify their bodies and souls, 3 subjects (12%) chose the variant b) considering that the Sweat Lodge is a ceremony in which the people from the tribe dance and feast, 2 subjects (8%) chose the variant c) thinking that the Sweat Lodge is a ceremony in which the people from the tribe assist to the marriage of a couple, and none of the subjects chose the variant d) which says that the Sweat Lodge is a ceremony in which the people from the tribe assist to a burial ceremony.

At the eighteenth question ‘What thought the Cherokees that healing basically meant?’, 23 subjects (92%) chose the variant a) considering that healing, for the Cherokees, means the way in which a person in need has to reconnect with the spirits, one subject (4%) chose the variant b) saying that healing is a way in which a person takes care of himself or herself, one subject (4%) chose the variant d) thinking that healing’s meaning is the way in which the person hunts, and none of the subjects chose the variant c) which assumes that healing’s meaning may be the way in which people behaved with the other people.

At the nineteenth question which is concerned with how is named the shaman who decided to use his powers in a bad way, 23 subjects (92%) out of the 25 chose the variant c) thinking that a witch is the right answer, one subject (4%) chose the variant b) considering that the shaman who decided to misuse his powers is named a wise man, one subject (4%) out of the 25 subjects chose the variant a) considering that a trader was the right answer, and none of the subjects chose variant d) which assumes that a shaman who does not use his powers in a good way is considered an ill person.

At the last question of the questionnaire, the twelfth, question ‘What gender could have a shaman?’, 12 subjects (48%) chose the variant a) thinking that the shaman’s gender can be only male, 12 subjects (48%) chose the variant c) considering that the shaman can be male or female, one subject (4%) chose the variant d) assuming that none of the variants was correct, and none of the subjects chose the variant b) which says that the shaman’s gender can be only female.

Figure 11. Interpretation of Data on The Powers Conferred on the Medicine Man and Women– Questions: 16 – 20

As it can be seen above, in the Figure 11, there are five cases representing five answers which were not chosen by any of the 25 subjects of the questionnaire.

The first case refers to the first question which is concerned with the shaman’s role in a tribe. None of the subjects chose the variant a) which referred to the shaman as a person who had to maintain the peace inside the tribe.

The second case refers to the seventeenth question which is focused on the meaning of a Swear Lodge ceremony. None of the subjects chose the variant d) which says that the Sweat Lodge is a ceremony in which the people from the tribe assist to a burial ceremony.

The third case refers to the eighteenth question which is concerned with the meaning of healing for the Cherokees. None of the subjects chose the variant c) which assumes that healing’s meaning may be the way in which people behaved with the other people.

The fourth case refers to the nineteenth question which is focused on how is considered a shaman who decided to use his powers in a bad way. None of the subjects chose the variant d) which assumes that a shaman who does not use his powers in a good way is considered an ill person.

The last case, the fifteenth, refers to the twelfth question which is focused on the shaman’s gender. None of the subjects chose the variant b) which says that the shaman’s gender can be only female.

5.4 Conclusion

The conclusion after the interpretation of the questionnaire about the level of knowledge about the Native Americans’ history, Spiritual Universe, Dreaming and Medicine, applied to 25 subjects, is presented in the following lines.

Firstly, in what concerns the history and location of the Native Americans, after we interpreted the answers, there can be easily seen the following general tendencies of the 25 subjects of the questionnaire:

the Cheyenne tribe is located in the Bison region, while the Cherokee tribe is located in the Southeastern Maize Region;

the majority of the subjects decided that The Trail of Tears is a process through which the Native Americans – Cherokee – were relocated on reservations;

the Native Americans paint their faces and bodies in order to connect with the spirits, to connect with the ancestors and to perform rituals;

the majority of the subjects think that the most important spirit for the Native Americans is the Great Spirit.

Secondly, concerning the Spiritual Universe of both of the tribes, the Cheyenne and the Cherokee, and the ceremonies and rituals which they perform for different occasions and for different purposes, although there were a range of different answers, we can see that the majority of the subjects think that:

the ritual through which Sweet Medicine released his tribe from starvation is the Renewal of the Sacred Arrows;

the Sun Dance ceremony is that ritual which is performed by men for keeping the wealth of the tribe while dancing continuously;

the Cherokee’s New Year ceremony, the majority of the subjects think it is the Great New Moon Ceremony;

the Cherokee’s ceremony which was held every seventh year is the Chief Dance Ceremony;

the Native Americans, more precise the Cherokees, mourn their dead people for seven days.

Thirdly, concerning the Approach of the Day and Night Dreaming of the Native Americans, although there were a vast range of answers, the subjects of the questionnaire decided upon precise answers which are presented below:

daydreaming for the Native Americans is a process which occurs spontaneously or not and which helps the person to receive guidance from the spirits;

the Vision Quest is a ritual through which the young boys enter the adulthood;

the herb used by the Native Americans in order to have visions and daydreams is peyote;

the hunter who dreamt any kind of fruit or bread, was predictive dream which’s interpretation is that that hunter will have a good hunt soon;

dreaming about seeing any person going towards the west is a sign that that person would soon die.

Fourthly, concerning the Powers Conferred on the Medicine Man and Women, although there we can see a variety of answers, the major part of the participants to the questionnaire think the following:

the shaman’s role inside a Native American tribe is to heal the people;

the Sweat Lodge ceremony is a ritual in which the people from the tribe stay inside a lodge and sweat in order to purify their bodies and souls;

the Cherokees actually thought that healing basically meant the way in which a person in need has to reconnect with the spirits;

a shaman who decided to use his powers in a bad way was consider being a witch;

the gender of the shaman is either only male or female.

CONCLUSION

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Web references

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Cherokee_Prophecies-Cherokee.html

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/mitos_creacion/esp_mitoscreacion_14.html

http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/native-american-cultures

https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/cheyenne-tribe.htm

https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/cherokee-tribe.htm

http://moh.ncdcr.gov/exhibits/healthandhealing/topic/9/

https://books.google.ro/books?id=G9bnhN6iDL4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+native+americans+cherokee+religion&hl=ro&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5lvCVkrrSAhWHfxoKHSoOBb0Q6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=the%20native%20americans%20cherokee%20religion&f=false.html (GLOSAR Cherokee)

APPENDIX

Appendix number 1

Chapter 1

source: https://anthropologylover.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/native-american-face-paint-customs-colors-designs/

Appendix number 2

Chapter 1

Peace pipe

Source: Sarah Tieck

Appendix number 3

Chapter 1

US Lieutenant Colonel George Custer

Source: Sarah Tieck

Appendix number 4

Cherokee house

Chapter 1

Source: Sarah Tieck

Appendix number 5

Chapter 1

Cherokee traditional clothing

Source: Sarah Tieck

Appendix number 6

Chapter 1

Sequoyah

Source: Sarah Tieck

Appendix number 7

Chapter 1

Trail of tears

Source: Conley, J. R.

Appendix number 12

Chapter 2

Source: google images

Appendix number 8

Cheyenne Medicine Man and Spiritual Healing

Chapter 3

Source: https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-culture/spiritual-healing.htm

Appendix number 9

White Bull – Prominent Cheyenne Shaman

Chapter: 4

Source: (eds.) Hardorff, R. G.

Appendix number 10

Sweat Lodge

Chapter 4

Source: https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-culture/spiritual-healing.htm

Appendix number 11

Hupa Female Shaman

Chapter 4

Source: Encyclopedia of Shamanism