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Annual Ceremony of the Pawnee
~ Medicine Men

BY
RALPH LINTON
Assistant Curator of North American Ethnology

AEP SHTY OF wp "HS LIBRARY

MAY 31 1993

FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

CHICAGO
1923

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._ FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY
CHICAGO, 1923

LEAFLET NUMBER 8

Annual Ceremony of the Pawnee
Medicine Men

A general description of the Pawnee, with an ac-
count of their religious beliefs and social organization,
has been given in Leaflet No. 5 of this series. Although
geographically a Plains tribe, they differed in several
respects from the typical tribes of the region. While
the latter were all nomadic hunters, the Pawnee were
settled agriculturists, inhabiting permanent towns and
subsisting largely on their crops. When on hunting
trips, they used the typical skin-covered tent of the
plains, but in their towns they built large houses of
wood covered with earth. A model of one of these
houses is shown in the miniature group illustrating
the annual ceremony of the Medicine Men.

The earth lodges of the Pawnee were dome-shaped,
about forty feet in diameter and fifteen feet high. The
roof was supported by two concentric rows of uprights,

T” the outer row being planted just in front of a ledge,

©Jea3

about a foot and a half high, which entirely surrounded
the inside of the lodge. The outer posts, which varied
in number according to the size of the lodge, were
about seven feet high, and were placed about the same
distance apart. The inner row of posts stood about
half way between the outer wall of the lodge and its
center, and were about twelve feet high. They varied
in number from four to ten. All the uprights were
forked and bore a row of cross beams, which supported
rafters extending from the outer uprights to a point

[53]

2 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

just over the center of the lodge, where an opening
about two feet in diameter was left as a smoke-hole.
Long willow rods, closely spaced, were laid transversely
over the rafters, and these in turn were covered with a
thick layer of bunch grass. The sides of the lodge were
built of timbers whose lower ends were planted in a
trench, while their upper ends leaned against the cross
beams of the outer uprights. The whole lodge was
then covered with earth and sod.

The entrance was protected by a covered way,
built like the lodge, which extended out from it. In all
but one of the Skidi villages this entrance faced -the
east. In the center of the floor there was a circular
fire-pit surrounded by a slight embankment. At the
west side of the lodge, opposite the entrance, a space
was always reserved. This space was called wiharu,
the garden of the Evening Star, and was considered
sacred. In it a buffalo skull was placed, facing the
entrance, and above it the sacred bundles and other
religious paraphernalia of the family were hung.
Around the north and south sides of the lodges, sleeping
platforms were built. These platforms were made of
poles whose inner ends rested on the earth ledge, while
their outer ends were supported by forked posts and
beams. Over the poles were laid willow mats, coarse
rush mats, and lastly tanned buffalo-skins. Each bed
was screened off from those adjoining by willow mats.
A lodge of ordinary size would have from eight to
ten beds on a side. Those next the altar, which were
considered most honorable, were occupied by the older
children. Next were the beds of the aunts and uncles,
then those of the parents, and lastly those of the old
people. As many as ten families, all related by blood,
sometimes occupied a single house. The sleeping plat-
forms and other furniture were removed when the
lodge was to be used for ceremonies, and are not
shown in the miniature group.

[54]

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 3

The religious ceremonies of the Pawnee were of
two sorts, ceremonies which centered around the sacred
bundles and were participated in by the whole village,
band, or tribe, and ceremonies which were performed
by societies whose members had some secret in com-
mon. In the ceremonies of the first class, the most im-
portant of which have been described in Leaflets 5-7,
an appeal was made primarily to the great heavenly
deities. In the ceremonies of the second class, the
appeal was made to the less powerful, but more inti-
mate earthly gods who were believed to have bestowed
power upon the performers. Among the ceremonies
of the second class, those of the medicine men were
the most important.

In every Indian tribe there were a number of per-
sons, called medicine men by the whites, who were
regarded as the possessors of supernatural powers
which enabled them to recognize and cure disease.
They were believed to have received their powers from —
some supernatural being either as a direct gift or as
the result of instruction by some person who had re-
ceived such powers. Although they frequently em-
ployed sleight of hand and other trickery to impress the
uninitiated, many of them believed that they really
possessed the powers attributed to them, and performed
their ceremonies in good faith. In some cases they
combined the functions of a shaman or priest with that
of a healer, and thus exercised great influence over
the people. In most of the populous tribes they were
organized into guilds or societies.

Among the Pawnee, the medicine men ranked
socially next to the chiefs and priests. They usually
wore a distinctive costume consisting of a buffalo robe
with the hair out, a bear’s-claw necklace, and a cap of
beaver skin. They also wore charms or amulets con-
sisting of the tail and claws of the wild cat, badger, or
bear, bear’s ears, miniature pipes, and downy feathers,

[55]

4 FIELD MuseuM OF NATURAL HISTORY

attached to a bandoleer of beads or seeds. Instead of
the bandoleer a gaming ring containing charms was
sometimes worn on the arm. Each medicine man had
a bag, generally made from the skin of an animal
tanned whole, in which he kept his roots, paints, white
clay, and other objects used in working his cures. The
latter varied with the individual, but usually consisted
of deer tails, the leg bones and claws of eagles, human
bones, dried fingers, and very often the maw stone of
a buffalo. The last was greatly valued, as it-was sup-
posed to contain the life or soul of the buffalo. The
medicine men’s bags with their contents were usually
handed down from father to son, or were given to a
newly initiated medicine man by his instructor.

The methods used to work cures varied with the
nature of the disease and the customs of the medicine
man. Diseases of unknown origin and those ascribed
to witchcraft could only be treated by some one who
could work a counter spell. Such diseases were usu-
ally eradicated by sucking a feather, small stone,
blood, or some other object from the patient, singing
and the shaking of a rattle being part of the perform-
ance. The object sucked out was always thrown into
the fire and consumed so that the seat or cause of the
trouble could not enter again into the patient or into
any one else. All medicine men knew more or less of
roots and herbs, which they administered as teas or in
powdered form. The pay of the medicine man, which
was given him when his services were no longer re- °
quired, varied with the wealth of the patient. It some-
times consisted of buffalo robes and parfleches of dried
meat, but was more often a sack of corn or a few
strands of dried, braided pumpkins. He was paid even
when he failed to work a cure.

The supernatural beings from whom the Pawnee
medicine men derived their powers were, for the most
part, identified with animals. Not all animals were

[56]

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 5

able or willing to confer power, and there are some
indications that all those recognized as guardians were
related to one or another of the four supernatural
beings in the west, the messengers of the Evening Star.
It was believed that every man passed at birth under
the influence of some supernatural being. No one
knew who this guardian was, but he would manifest
himself later in the man’s career. He was usually
discovered when the man fell sick during childhood.
Medicine men were sent for, and the guardian of the
one who was to be able to make the cure was thereby
- shown to be the guardian of the child. If, on reaching
manhood, the boy desired to become a medicine man,
he would seek to acquire powers from his guardian.
The powers conferred by the supernatural beings
were of three sorts, power to cure the sick, power to
perform feats of magic, and power of a third sort,
called pikawiu, for which there is no equivalent in
English. Of these, the curative power was considered
by far the most important. The ability to perform
feats of magic was simply a tangible evidence that the
medicine man possessed the knowledge whiche would
enable him to cure the sick. The third sort of power ©
resembled hypnotism in some of its manifestations.
By it the medicine man was enabled to subjugate the
will of another to his own and to render his patient
passive during ceremonies so that his power could go
to the soul of the patient and remove the evil influence
which was at the root of the disease. The pikawiu
power was also likened to an arrow or bullet in its abili-
ty to cut off life. Medicine men could throw this power
into an enemy as one would shoot an arrow, and the
individual attacked in this way was helpless until
some other medicine man, who understood the power,
exercised his magic to draw it out. Among the Pawnee
there was a class of men and women, not true medicine
men, who possessed this power and used it for evil
[57]

6 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

purposes. Their guardians were certain animals which
were conceived of as having evil spirits. They were
recruited from the lower classes in the tribe, and were
feared and disliked by the better element. Like the
medicine men, they were organized into a society, but
nothing is known of their ceremonies.

The Pawnee medicine men were organized into a
number of societies which were united by certain
secrets which they had in common. In addition to
these secrets, which were known to all medicine men,
but concealed from the rest of the tribe, each society
and even each member had individual secrets. The
oldest of these societies was that of the Pumpkin Vine
village all of whose members were said to have origi-
nally been medicine men. Its members derived their
powers from a number of different guardians. In the
other medicine societies, which were organized at a
later date, all the members derived their powers from
the same guardian. A man might become a medicine
man as the result of a supernatural experience during
which powers were conferred upon him directly by his
guardian. Such experiences were sought through long
continued prayer and fasting. More commonly, when
a man desired to become a medicine man and had de-
termined his guardian, he applied to some medicine
man who had derived his powers from that being, and
asked for instruction. If the medicine man believed
him to be sincere and was willing to accept the gifts
which he offered in payment, he received him as a pupil
and, at the next meeting of the medicine lodge, took
him into the lodge with him and instructed him. The
lodge sometimes continued in session two months; and
during this time, as part payment, the medicine man
exercised the rights of a husband toward his pupil’s
wife. Often a medicine man would have several pupils
whose wives would remain with him in his booth in
the medicine lodge. He might instruct them also if he

[58]

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN x §

wished, and in this way the women learned his secrets
and became able themselves to practice medicine. The
origin of the medicine societies is described in the fol-
lowing legend :—

“Once there was a man who lived alone, and did
not mingle with the rest of the tribe. One night he
had a wonderful dream. He dreamed that he stood on
the bank of a wide river, and that a water monster
came to the surface and spoke to him. He was so much
impressed by this dream that he decided to seek for
the river. He had several pairs of moccasins made,
filled them with dried meat and parched corn, and
started out, traveling eastward. He traveled for many
days until he came to a great stream of water which he
called Kits-ta-rux-ti (‘the Wonderful River’). He stood
upon the bank looking down, and all at once the water
monster he had seen in his dream rose to the surface.
It was very large and long. On its head was hair of
many colors, and around its mouth were many-colored
feelers. It did not speak to him, but dived, and the
man leaped into the river after it. He found himself
in a lodge of animals. Beside the altar were an owl
and a beaver, while all the other animals sat around in
a circle. Near the entrance were two ponds and by
each of these two big geese. In the west of the lodge
sat a woman. The water monster which had led him
to the lodge of the animals lay to the south of the
entrance, and acted as spokesman for the other animals.
He said, ‘My son, I come to you from the Big Waters.
I was sent to you by Tirawa to instruct you and to tell
these animals to instruct you in their mysteries. When
you go home, tell your people to make an image of me
and lay it in the lodge as I am now lying. The fireplace
you see is not a fireplace, but a wonderful turtle. The
woman sitting in the west is not a woman, but a thing
of clay. She is a witch woman. The geese that stand
by the ponds, when they flap their wings, make a noise

[59]

8 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

that can be heard in the heavens. Their noise wakens
the gods to a remembrance of their promise to pity
mankind and give them power.’

“When the water monster had told the man these
things, the other animals came forward one by one, and
also taught him their mysteries. When all had finished,
the water monster told the man to go home and build
a lodge like the lodge he was then in. He was to live
in this lodge alone, and the water monster would come
to him in his dreams and tell him what to do next. The
man left the animals’ lodge and went home. He built
himself a lodge of willows, and in it he made an image
of the water monster. The image was complete except
for one thing. The monster had something white on
its head, and the man did not know what to use for this.
In the night the monster came to him in a dream and
told him that he must go upon a high hill and catch
eagles. He was to dig a pit three or four feet deep and
cover it with branches. He must then kill several rab-
bits, skin them, and lay them on the branches. He was
then to craw] into the hole and wait there until an eagle
came down to seize the rabbits.

“The man did all this and he was crouching in
the hole when he heard a noise like the wind. He
looked up through the branches and saw it was an
eagle flying down to get the rabbits. When it settled
and began to eat, the man slipped his hand between
the branches and grasped its legs. He drew it down
into the pit and wrung its neck, then straightened the
branches and waited for another. After a time a
second came, and he killed that also. Then he carried
them home and stuck their downy white feathers on
the head of the image with blue mud. The image was
thus completed.

“Every night after this the man slept in the lodge
with the image and had dreams of the monster. In
these dreams the monster told him how the cere-

[60]

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN — 9

monies of the medicine lodge were to be performed. At
last it told him to prepare for another journey. He
must go east again, but to a different place, and there
the animals would give him many things. The next day
the man set out and went east until he came to the place
where Freemont, Nebraska, now is. There he camped
on the high bank of the Platte River.

“There was an island in the river, and the man
saw, as soon as it was dark, that sparks of fire were
coming up from it. He heard mysterious noises of
drumming, singing and shouting, and then the rhythm
of a dance. In the water he could see fish swimming
about with fire in their mouths. He watched and lis-
tened for a long time, then he fell asleep. The island
was another lodge of the animals, and when he awak-
ened, he found himself inside. In the lodge he saw the
beaver, the owl, the otter, the ermine, the bear, the
buffalo, the wolf, the mountain lion, the wild cat, and
all sorts of birds. He stayed with them for many
days, and they taught him more mysteries. At
last they told him to go to a nearby hill where
they had cleared a site for a medicine lodge.
The deer led him from the animals’ lodge and put him
safe on the dry land. When he came to the place for
the medicine lodge, he found everything ready. All the
animals had cleared away the grass. The badgers had
dug the holes for the posts, the beavers had cut them
down and peeled them, and the bears and mountain
lions had carried them up the hill. The animals helped
him to raise the framework and told him how to lay on
the willows and grass and cover the whole with earth.
They then told him to return to his village and to tell
the chiefs to bring the people to the new place, which
had been selected for them by the animals.

“When the man arrived at the village, he sent
some one to ask the chiefs to come to his lodge. When
they had entered it, he told them that he had a mes-

[61]

10 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

sage for them from the animals. They were to bring
the village to the new place. The man told what the
animals had done for him, and how they had built a
new kind of house, and wanted the people to live in
houses of this sort and keep in them the sacred things
which they would give them. Before the animals made
this house, the Skidi did not know how to build earth
lodges. The chiefs listened to him and were glad.
They said they would obey the animals.

“That night the man dreamed that, before the
tribe set out for their new home, they must tear down
the walls of his willow lodge and take the image of the
monster and set both up in the river, just as they had
been set up on dry land. By this they would show the
animals in the water that they were trying to do as
they had been told. When they had done this, they
broke camp and moved down the river to the new place.
They made their camp just to the east of the lodge the
animals had built. All the people helped him to finish
it in the way the animals had told him. When it was
completed, he burned sweet grass in it to make it a
sweet-smelling place.

“That night there were great noises heard in the
island which was close to the village. The man waited
in the new lodge, and the animals came and told him
what to do next. They said that opposite the entrance
of the lodge was to be the holy place. He was to dig
a fire place and model around it a turtle with its head
toward the east, its tail toward the west, and its legs
toward the four world quarters. He was to make an-
other image of the monster and lay it with its head and
tail near the entrance and its body running around the
lodge. He was also to make an image of the witch
woman, like that he had seen in the first animals’ lodge,
and place it in the west. Lastly he was to tell the
people to kill different kinds of birds and hang their
skins from the posts of the lodge. The people helped

[62]

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 11

him to do all these things. When the lodge was ready,
he went down to the river and waited until night. The
animals took him into their lodge once more, and there
he saw the loon standing in front of the altar and
several loon skins lying at one side. The animals gave
these to him and told him how they were to be set up,
and taught him certain songs he was to sing.

“The man lived alone in the lodge for a long time.
The animals came to him from the river at night and
took him around over the country, showing him the
different roots and herbs and telling him their uses.
After a while he invited a few other men to come to
his lodge and instructed them in the mysteries which
had been taught him by the animals. In this way they
also became medicine men. They stayed in the lodge,
and whenever they went out, they painted themselves
with blue clay and put eagle-down on their heads. Two
of their number were selected as messengers and serv-
ants. One of these wore the skin of the magpie, and
the other that of a muskrat for the magpie and musk-
rat were the errand men of the animals’ lodge.

“In the autumn, when the crops had been gathered,
and many buffalo had been killed, these first medicine
men invited other men of the tribe to come to the lodge
and learn the mysteries. These men were told to leave
the village, purify themselves, and fast for four days.
When they came to the medicine lodge, the man who
had built it sang a song and recited a ritual, and then
told them to go to the river bottom and cut young wil-
lows and cotton woods. One man he sent to the east to
cut a cedar tree. They brought the trees to the lodge
and with the willows and cottonwoods they made little
lodges around the inside of the large building. The
' cedar tree was set up to the north of the entrance, and
a little lodge of cedar bows was built on the south side.
When the lodges were finished, the leader of the medi-
cine men called a man from each lodge to him and

£63}

12 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

gave him the skin of the animal. which was to be the
guardian of that lodge. The men stayed in the little
lodges, fasting and singing until they fell from ex-
haustion, and went to sleep. When this happened, the
leader took the skin of the animal to whose lodge the
man belonged and laid it on him. This animal would
tell the man in a dream what he was to do. When he
awoke, he would tell his dream and would find that he
could do this thing. |

“After this had gone on for some time, the
leader selected a night to have the mysterious dance.
Before they commenced, he stood in front of the altar
of loon skins, given him by the animals, and called the
men to him one by one. He embraced each and breathed
into his mouth. Then he went and sat by the altar.
He had taught them a song, and now each man put on
the skin of his guardian animal and began to sing this
song and dance. At a certain place in the song every
one of them fell to the ground as if shot. When the
song was ended one of the men got up. He saw some-
thing lying beside him that looked like a small ovai
fragment of clear ice. Each of the other men found a
thing of the same sort beside him, and all of them laid
these things in a line on the west of the fire place. The
leader told them that these things had been given to
them by the animals. They must swallow them, and
then they would have the power to hypnotize and in-
fluence the people. They did this and returned to their
small lodges.

“They stayed in the big lodge for several days
more, trying their powers and doing all sorts of sleight
of hand. When the last day of the ceremony came,
they all dressed up according to the animal that was
their guardian. They went out and marched around
the lodge once, with two men carrying loon skins
from the altar in the lead. Then they entered the lodge
again and crowded around the fire place, stamping to

[64]

—————Oo

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 13

awaken the turtle. Then they passed out of the lodge,
dancing, and each man imitating his guardian animal.
As they went, they did all sorts of sleight of hand so
that the people could see they had magic powers. When
they had shown their powers to the people, they
entered the lodge once more and sang songs and imi-
tated the cries of their guardians. They made a great
commotion so that the people outside could see ashes
flying up through the smoke-hole. That night they did
more sleight of hand tricks in the lodge, and sang and
worked magic until about two o’clock in the morning.
Then they tore down the little lodges and carried them
and the images of the water monster and witch woman
down to the river. As they went along, they shouted

and sang and hypnotized one another. They threw the

mysterious things that gave them hypnotizing power
into one another, and the men who were struck fell
down as if shot. The rest of the village looked on, and
were mystified by the wonderful things they did. When
they came to the river, they put the little lodges and the
images in the water in the positions they had had in the
big lodge.

“When they had returned to the medicine lodge,
the leader told them that they were to hold dances in
the winter and spring and after the first thunder, but
they were not to show their powers or do sleight of
hand at these times. The great dance was to be in the
fall, and then they would do sleight of hand, and work
magic of all sorts and renew their powers. He told
them to go back to their families and build themselves
earth lodges like the medicine lodge. He went on living
alone in the medicine lodge.

“The people lived in that place for a long time, and
every fall they built new images in the medicine lodge
and had their ceremonies. Each time the ceremonies
lasted two or three months. Other men found other
animals who gave them powers; and when the lodge

[65]

14 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

was in session, they would come in and ask the medicine
men to-help them, and they would give them a place in
the lodge. In this way the society grew. People from
other bands also heard about it and came begging to
learn the mysteries. The medicine men taught them,
and they went back to their own people and started
other medicine lodges.”

The ceremonies of the historic medicine lodge
agreed in a general way with those last described in
the legendary account of its origin, but there were
several features not mentioned in the story just given.
The preparations for the great fall ceremony were
begun while the people were still on the spring buffalo
hunt. At this time the leading medicine men selected
two members of the society to make two bows and four
arrows. When these were completed, they were given
to two other medicine men with instructions for one to
kill a bull and the other a cow. The animals had to be
killed with a single arrow, but it is said that because of
the magic powers of the arrows the hunters never
failed to do this. The bull’s hide was to be used to cover
the head of the water-monster image, the cow’s hide
to cloth the figure of the witch woman. Two more
buffalo, also a bull and a cow, were then killed in the
same way, the hide of the former being saved to make
an image of the Morning Star, and that of the latter, to
make nine small images which represented the im-
portant heavenly gods. When the buffalo had been
killed, the bows and arrows were returned to the lead-
ing medicine men who placed them among their sacred
objects.

On the return from the hunt, the four leading
medicine men went to the medicine lodge and ordered
that it be cleared for the ceremony. The same lodge
seems to have been used for the ceremony year after
year, but was occupied as a dwelling between cere-

[66]

*G TIVH ‘6 ASVO NI dNOYD SYNLVININ
“SANMVd ‘39007 ANIOIGSW 4O HOINSLNI

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 15

monies. All the beds and other furniture were carried
out by the women, and the floor swept. When this had
been done, the medicine men seated themselves in front
of the lodge altar and sent their errand men to notify
the other members of the society. After these had
arrived and taken their places, the leaders went to each
of them in turn and directed them, in a whisper, to »
prepare for the ceremony by a four-day fast. Each
man, when he received this notification, returned to his
own lodge, took his medicine bag, and left the village
to spend that time in solitary fasting and prayer. At
the expiration of the fast they bathed in the river and
returned to the medicine lodge, where each took his
appointed place.

The following morning, all the members of the
society went to the river bottom to cut willows and
cotton woods for the small booths which were to be
built inside the large lodge. When they reached the
timber, one of the two leading medicine men prayed
and offered smoke to the heavenly gods, while the other,
after he had finished, paid the same honors to the
earthly gods. When this had been done, the timbers
were cut and carried back to the main lodge, and the
booths built.

The next morning the image of the water monster
was made, the leaders assigning to different men the
task of getting the things needed and making the
different parts. This image was nearly sixty feet in
length and encircled the lodge, with its head and tail on
either side of the entrance. The framework was made
of pieces of ashwood lashed together with sinew. Over
these a layer of grass was laid, and the whole covered
with mud which was smoothed and painted in different
colors. The mouth of the figure was so large that a
man could crawl into it, and was provided with pointed
teeth, also of ashwood. On each side of the mouth,
long, slender willow-rods were stuck to represent

[67]

16 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

feelers. The head was covered with a black-dyed
buffalo robe and painted and decorated with downy
feathers. The image of the turtle, in the center of
which was the fire place, and that of the witch woman,
were made the next day. The woman’s image con-
sisted of a willow frame covered with grass and sur-
faced with clay. The features were modeled, and the
eyes were made with pumpkin seeds blackened in the
center. A buffalo scalp was placed on the head, and
to this were attached long braids of human hair which
hung down to the knees. The figure was dressed in a
buffalo robe.

When the images had been made, a ceremony was
held by which each of the medicine men received power
from either the monster or the witch woman. Some
chose one, and some the other. On the day following,
they went to cut the cedar tree which was to be placed
just inside the entrance. When they found a suitable
tree, they formed a circle around it, prayed to it, made
presents to it of robes and other things, and finally
took power from it. When this had been done, they cut
it down. As it fell, they began to hypnotize each other
and work sleight of hand. They then picked it up and
carried it back to the village singing. As they neared
the village, a second party of medicine men came out to
meet them, and began to hypnotize them and try to
drive them back. The party with the tree were more
powerful, and gradually drove the others back to the
edge of the village. There the tree was laid down, and
all the people came and threw offerings on it. These
offerings were gathered up, and were finally given to
the medicine men. The tree was then taken to the lodge
and set up, and its branches were covered with white
downy feathers. That night they made the images of
the Morning Star and the heavenly gods. These were
flat pieces of hide, cut in the outline of a man. The
image of the Morning Star was fastened to a long pole

[68]

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 17

and raised above the smoke-hole just before the star
rose. The other images were fastened to the tops of
the main posts or on a cord running across the upper
part of the lodge.

It is uncertain at what stage in the ceremony the
altar of loon skins was set up, but it seems to have
been after the various images had been made. The
sticks bearing the skins were thrust in the ground on
the west side of the lodge, and the space between them
sprinkled with water and then covered with downy
feathers. When this had been done, the leader of the
medicine men raised his face to the sky and cried,
“Father, the water birds and the water, their dwelling-
place, now stand on the altar. Give us plenty of rain
this summer.” Then dropping his voice to a whisper
and bowing down to the ground, he said, “Mother
Earth, the water birds and the water, their dwelling-
place, are now upon you. Let our crops grow so that
we may be fed.” When he had done this, he went
outside the lodge and called upon all the gods to give
power to the loons so that they, in turn, could give
power to the people.

At dawn of the day following that on which the
last of the images had been made and set up, the vari-
ous medicine men dressed themselves to represent
their guardian animals and marched, in order of the
importance of their guardians, around the outside of
the lodge and then around the inside. They did this
four times, dancing and imitating the cries and actions
of their guardians. They then held a feast in the
lodge. That night they once more marched out in pro-
cession and visited all the lodges which contained
sacred bundles, dancing in each. When they had re-
turned to the medicine lodge, the leaders selected cer-
tain medicine men to go through the village once more,
visit every lodge, and report if any one was sick. When

[69]

18 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

the report had been made, other men were sent to
cure them.

The next morning, a number of women were sum-
moned to the medicine lodge and told to go into the
timber and get loads of wood. When they returned
with their burdens, they were brought into the lodge,
fed, and instructed in some of the mysteries. Then
they returned to their homes. In the afternoon the
medicine men once more dressed to imitate their
guardians and came out of the lodge, dancing and per-
forming various sleight of hand tricks. The favorite
trick seems to have been to thrust long rods down
their throats. They repeated the outside performance
four times. That evening they built a great fire in-
side the lodge and invited all the people to an exhibi-
tion of sleight of hand. These performances were re-
peated every night for a month or more, and it was
during this time that new medicine men were initi-
ated.

When a man desired to join the medicine lodge,
he told his relatives and friends, and they helped
him to gather property of all sorts. When he had
enough, he went to the lodge, taking the gifts with
him, and approached the man from whom he wanted
to learn the mysteries. He passed his hands over
the man’s head and arms and said, “Medicine man,
I am poor. I stand before you a poor man wanting
to learn the mysteries you possess. Look upon these
gifts which I have brought you.” When he had done
this, he presented the medicine man with a filled
pipe. If the latter was willing to teach him, he ac-
cepted the pipe and took the young man into his
booth with him.

At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the booths
and images were removed from the lodge, carried
down into the bed of the river and placed in the
shallow water in the same relative positions they had

[70]

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 19

occupied in the lodge. As the procession went down
to the river, the medicine men mesmerized one an-
other, and performed sleight of hand. It was cus-
tomary, before the witch woman’s image was placed
in the water, for some woman among the bystanders
to remove all her clothing and ornaments and place
them upon it. When this ceremony was finished,
they returned to the medicine lodge, offered smoke to
the animal gods, and sprinkled the floor of the lodge
with water to cleanse it and free it from the powers
that had been summoned there during the cere-
mony. After the lodge had been purified in this
way, the medicine men held a feast and returned to
their homes. The two medicine men to whom the
altar belonged remained behind to take it down and
roll the various objects up in the bundle in which
they were kept between ceremonies. This com-
pleted the ceremony, and the owners of the lodge
were free to live in it as before.

In addition to the serious performers in the medi-
cine men’s ceremonies there were certain men, called
kitscoa, who acted as clowns. They wore masks made
from corn husks, rawhide, wood, and feathers, dressed
grotesquely, and daubed their bodies with mud. It
seems to have been their duty to perform strange antics
during the ceremonies to amuse the people, and par-
ticularly to imitate in a mocking spirit the serious
acts of the others. They were said to represent hairy
dwarfs or supernatural beings who had mysterious
ways and of whom the people were afraid. Similar
clowns play an important part in the ceremonies of
some of the Pueblo tribes.

The function of the medicine men’s ceremonies
was threefold. By them they renewed their powers,
drove disease from the village, and, by means of their
sleight of hand performances, convinced the people
that they really possessed the supernatural powers at-

[71]

20 FIELD MusEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

tributed to them. The ceremonies also possessed cer-
tain social functions, for the spectators included wo-
men and children as well as men.

This account has been compiled from the unpub-
lished notes of Dr. G. A. Dorsey.

RatPeH LINTON

QNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIDRARY
MAY 31 1993

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