Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [232]
The ghost dance, whose name referred to the spirits of departed ancestors and the nearly depleted buffalo, was a reaction to the coming of whites and the destruction of native ways. Appearing in 1870, the dance grew out of a religious movement initiated among the Northern Paiute in Nevada by a tribal leader named Wodziwob. A new type of religious leader, Wodziwob was regarded as one of a number of “prophets” who appeared among several tribes to restore conditions to the way they were before the white man arrived. Among his many reforms, which included a prohibition on alcohol, he proposed performing a ghost dance to the ancestors to help make this happen. This communal prayer in the form of a continuous circular dance culminated when the dancers achieved a state of ecstasy.
But in 1890, another messianic movement grew among the Paiutes. This time it was led by another prophet, Wovoka, who also wanted to return to a time before the white man’s coming. Wovoka’s relatively benign message included a call to perform a five-day ghost dance to bring about that change. His message spread to the Plains, which sent a delegation, including Sitting Bull, to learn more about Wovoka’s vision. As the movement gained followers, it took on more militant aspects, especially among the younger Sioux, some of whom wore “ghost shirts,” which, they believed, would protect them from bullets. The movement provoked hysteria among white settlers, who saw it as a dangerous conspiracy. Eventually military action was called for, resulting in the arrest and death of Sitting Bull and the massacre of more than 300 ghost dancers—Lakota men, women, and children—at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890, marking the practical end of the ghost-dance movement.
MYTHIC VOICES
And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all living things in the spirit, and the shapes of all shapes as they must live together in one being. And I saw the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one almighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.
—Black Elk, from Black Elk Speaks
WHO’S WHO OF NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE GODS
The following list includes some of the most typical and intriguing North American deities and mythic figures. These include Great Spirits—the somewhat passive, “all-father” Creator gods shared by many North American tribes—and Earth Mothers, twins, and tricksters. (Tribal origins and locations are listed.)
Coyote (many tribes and areas) The trickster god of the North American Indians of the western and southwestern United States, Coyote is the mischievous, cunning deity who causes numerous disasters to befall the world. As Richard Erdoes writes in American Indian Trickster Tales, “Coyote, part human, part animal, taking whichever shape he pleases, combines in his nature the sacredness and sinfulness, grand gestures and pettiness, strength and weakness, joy and misery, heroism and cowardice that together form the human character…. [He is] the godlike creator, the bringer of light, the monster-killer, the miserable little cheat, and of course, the lecher.”
Coyote has many origins. The Maidu (California) believe that Coyote emerges from the ground and watches the creator Wonomi (“no death”) make the first man and woman. When Coyote tries to do the same thing, the humans he creates are blind. So, Coyote decides it would be more interesting to make sickness, sorrow, and death to plague mankind. In short order, he accomplishes his goal.
But the joy quickly fades when Coyote’s son is killed