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than is required to exhibit his controlling and innate goodness, purity of will, and benevolence to the human family. He lifts his voice to him in supplication, in his native forests, without temple or formality; and when he offers a sacrifice to such a deity, it is not a roasted quadruped, such as so often smokes on the altar of the other deities of the wilderness, but in the light and curling fumes of tobacco.

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"It is not so much, it is apprehended, in the theory of the Indian mind on this topic, that he is mistaken, as in his failure to make men understand it. And when he peoples space with his multitudinous loci deii, the fear on his mind is not, clearly, that the Great Spirit exists no more, or does not uphold his government, as that he has, to employ the language of the Psalmist, forgotten him,' and needs, by these subtle agents, to be put in remembrance of man whose life is, he daily and deeply feels, one tissue of vicissitudes. Hence the opportunity that occurs for the class of medas, priests, jossakeeds, seers, sorcerers, or jugglers, who rise up in every tribe, with the pretense of superior wisdom or skill. It is this class of impostors, who are too lazy to hunt and too wicked to be usefully industrious, that keep the Indian mind in turmoil; and are really, by far, the most formidable obstacles that the teacher and the missionary has to encounter. It is this class of men, who are mere demoniac agents of Satan, that revel in the doctrine of polytheism, introduce confusion in the Indian's mind, between the boundaries of the good and evil power, and keep it on the torture, by setting one class of the spirit-gods at war with the other. These local gods of the air, woods, and waters, are striving perpetually for the mastery among each other, and among the human race. They are, in fact, from the theory inferred from their legends, nothing but so many demons, filling the Indian world with discord. They come down into the forest, and animate wolves, bears, turtles, and various quadrupeds and reptiles. They direct the flight of birds, who, living much in the air, are deemed to be peculiarly subject to these

spiritual teachings. As this animal incarnation, so to call it, is the only form of deity with which he can come into actual or personal contact, he selects his guardian spirits from them. And when this process, which is very ceremoniously done, with dreams and revelations, has been accomplished, they communicate with him, and indicate the will of the Great or Bad Spirit to him in dreams, which are carefully sought in fasts and abstinences, often excessively protracted. He hangs up offerings to those deities

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on poles before his wigwam. Thus he worships not the Great Spirit, who is perpetually on his tongue, but this class of tutelar intercessors, or mediums, who are firmly relied on.

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He is not, evidently, satisfied with these tutelar spirits alone. Distrustful of their power, or his own faithfulness to them, there are in all the tribes, a class of diviners, to whom it is believed the power and will of the Great Spirit is peculiarly revealed. These persons are believed to be more holy than others. They pass more time in fasting in secret, and studying to make themselves mediums of God's

will. They are called variously pow-wows, soothsayers, prophets, jossa keeds, and by other names. The tribes firmly believe in them, rely on their predictions in every exigency, and are essentially swayed by them. The Indian is a man who emphatically and positively relies on the indications of dreams, which are believed to be inspired by the guardian spirit. His dreams are his revelations.'

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The Great Spirit is, indeed, still enthroned in his mind, as the creator and preserver of the universe; but he is shorn of his power by these myriads of local gods and spirits, who mediate between him and them. He is, in fact, a negative being — negatively good. Goodness and mercy are the two great attributes ascribed to him. They are relied on by the hunter and warrior, through the mediation of the guardian spirits, in every situation in life and in death. And he dies with the faith of his ancestors on his lips and in his heart, believing that all good hunters and brave warriors will be received into the happy hunting grounds the Indian's paradise. It is a theory of the Indian that the evils and trials of this life are, as it were, a merit roll, compensation, or sort of expiation made to the Great Spirit for the gift of life, and its many abuses and crimes, of which their consciences make them sensible. And that, in a future state, man shall be admitted to an easier life. Hence death to him is not fraught with terrors; it is rather a state full of attractions. Hell is a foreign word to the Indian mind and language; although a compound word, Maji-monidonong (place of the bad Spirit), has been coined for it. Hence it is that the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, which vindicate the justice, as well as the goodness and mercy of God, are so distasteful to the Indian mind.

He is not a man, however, when he begins to reflect, to admit that his deeds have been evil; nor is the doctrine of a mediator a very strange one to him, when his mind is once enlisted on this theme. His local spirits have been his mediators. He has, in fact, been all his life resorting and trusting to spirit-intercessions and local mediators, through the system of guardian spirits, and dreams and

fasts. But his understanding is slow to perceive that these beliefs of his youth and age are not true; and his unassisted reason is not sufficient to show him that there should be an acceptable mediator, of divine appointment, whom God will recognize and accept. For he, so far as we can judge, deems man justifiable per se. It is, unquestionably, a conclusion justified by observation, that the tone of the Indian mind, when once arrested in its wild career, is penitential. The difficulty is to get him from under the influence of the medicine-man, his priest. He is not, it is true, of a very hopeful temperature; feeling almost everything, hoping almost nothing. Generally, the Indian mind is prone to be pensive and desponding when at rest and free from external impingement, allurement, and temptation to indulgence; and were it not for the continued influence of the native teachers and false prophets, it does not seem probable that it could, in the present peaceful and prosperous state of the country, long successfully resist Christianity."

CHAPTER VII.

INDIAN DEITIES.

The most prominent characteristic of the Dakota deities, is that which they express by the word Wakan. This word signifies, generally, anything which a Dakota cannot comprehend. Whatever is wonderful, mysterious, superhuman or supernatural is wakan. The generic name for gods is Tahuwakan, i. e., that which is wakan. The Dakota sees a god in everything. The chief, and perhaps the only difference that exists among the ten thousands of their divinities, is, that some are wakan to a greater, and others to a less degree; some for one purpose and some for another; but wakan expresses the chief quality of them all, the only quality, I believe, which the Indian deifies.

As specimens of the supernatural beings, whom it is believed preside over the destinies of the Dakotas, and whose wakan qualities are imparted to the medicine-men, I will mention a few classes of the most respectable of them.

I. The Onkteri (Onk-tay-he), god of Water. In their external manifestations this class of gods resemble the ox, but are very large. They can instantaneously extend their tails and horns so as to reach the skies, and these are the seats of their power. They are male and female, and propagate their kind like animals, and are mortals; which is true of all the gods of the Dakotas. It is believed that the earth is animated by the spirit of the Onkteri goddess, while the water and the earth beneath the water is the dwelling place of the male god. Hence the Dakotas, in their addresses to the water in religious acts give to it the name of grandfather, and that of grandmother, to the earth. The Onkteri have power to issue from their bodies a mighty wakan influence, which is irresistible and which the Dakotas term tonwan. They say that this god and its associates are seen in their dreams. It is the master-spirit of all their juggling and superstitious belief. From it the medicine-men obtain their supernatural powers, and a great part of their religion springs from this god.

II. Cha-o-ter-dah, the god of the forest. This god lives in a tree that grows on the highest eminences and his house is at the foot of it. When the god wants anything he leaves his house and sits on a branch of the tree, which they say is as smooth as glass. By his power of attraction, he draws around him all the birds of the forest, who act as guards and sentinels, and inform him when any thing approaches his residence, that he may prepare for defense. This god and the god of thunder are mortal enemies, and often have severe combats, in which the latter is most generally worsted. When the god of thunder comes racing along, casting his lightning at the tree, in expectation of killing the god of the forest, the latter having been timely informed of his approach by his

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