While some histories portray Indians joyfully becoming Christians, this was not usually what happened. In 1874, the United States government actively promoted Christianity by having Christian missionaries administer the reservations. Conversion, by book or bayonet, was considered necessary. However, in spite of governmental pressure and the threat of being imprisoned, Indian religions continued to be practiced.
Many of the traditional religious ceremonies continued, usually being practiced in remote areas where they would not be seen by outsiders. Traditional ceremonies, including the sweat lodge and the vision quest, became invisible.
The traditional Indian religions had often borrowed spiritual elements—songs, ceremonies—from other traditions, including Christianity. While the Christian missionaries often took an “all or nothing” approach, Indian people freely borrowed some Christian concepts, modified them to fit their cultural patterns, and incorporated them into their own ceremonies.
As with other parts of culture--such as language, material things, and social organization--religion changed, and blended Indigenous/Christian religions arose. These new religions were sometimes pan-Indian as they were practiced in different tribes and were not associated with any particular tribe.
In some cases, revitalization movements arose. In his book Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America, Peter Silver explains:
“A revitalization movement occurs whenever a charismatic leader uses a divinely revealed system of rituals to channel the dissatisfactions that come with cultural change—and its worrisome half-digestion of new ways—toward a reawakening of traditional ideas and customs.”
Briefly described below are a few American Indian religious practices of 150 years ago, 1874.
Pawnees
The Pawnees are a Caddoan-speaking group who separated from the other Caddoan groups long before the European invasion and began a migration north from their homelands in present-day Texas. They were skilled farmers who lived in earth lodges in permanent villages. Pawnee religion was complex. Carl Waldman, in his book Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, reports:
“Their medicine men constituted a whole class of people, like a priesthood. These priests were responsible for many elaborate ceremonies.”
In 1874, the Indian agent for the Pawnees declared:
“Pawnee medicine men exerted a great deal of influence and retard our work and will prevent any but the best physician from doing what he might to cure their illnesses and improve their sanitary condition.”
In 1874, Pitarescaru, one of the most important Pawnee chiefs, died as the result of an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound. Pitarescaru’s songs are still sung at Pawnee events. His songs came from his visions and experience and were composed and sung in the sacred societies to which he belonged. At least a half dozen of his songs continue to survive in the twenty-first century.
Earth Lodge Religion
The Earth Lodge Religion began in 1871 among the Wintuns and Hill Patwins in California. In their book The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions,Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin report:
“Among the beliefs associated with the religion was the imminent end of the world, the return of the dead, and the punishment of nonbelievers. It was believed that adherents would be protected from the approaching catastrophe in subterranean earth lodges, constructed for that purpose.”
In 1874, Bogus Tom, a California Wintu, brought the Earth Lodge religion to the Siletz Reservation in Oregon. There the new religion was called the Warm House religion. Three Warm House Dance houses were built on the reservation. The religion was then carried to the Alsea, Siuslaw, and Coos reservations. Coquille Thompson would later recall:
“The old people danced hard, but the young ones didn’t join in much because they didn’t believe. The dance was kept up maybe twenty years, then the old people died off. The dance houses just rotted away.”
Comanche Sun Dance
For many Plains Indian tribes, the Sun Dance was their central ceremony and often served as a unifying force to bring together the various hunting bands. Usually held when the tribe came together for the annual summer buffalo hunt, it involved dancing around a pole set inside a specially built dance arbor. While the actual ceremony and the frequency with which it was traditionally conducted varied among the tribes, there are several basic themes that are associated with the Sun Dance: (1) seasonal renewal, growth, and replenishment, and (2) the acquisition of spiritual power.
In general, the Sun Dance lodge is a circular open-frame structure with a center pole. The actual structure varies from tribe to tribe, with ridge poles from the frame to the center pole in some tribes, while in other tribes these features are lacking. In many ceremonies, there are sacrifices—most often strips of cloth today—hanging from the center pole. The structure is erected and used only once. With regard to the Sun Dance lodge, religion professor Joseph Epes Brown, in his book The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian, writes:
“The large, circular open frame lodge is ritually constructed in imitation of the world’s creation, with the sacred cottonwood tree at the center as the axis linking sky and earth.”
In her chapter on the Sun Dance in the Handbook of North American Indians, JoAllyn Archambault writes:
“The Sun Dance was a complex, beautiful, and powerful ceremony that during the nineteenth century was the highlight of the annual summer encampment of almost all the Plains buffalo hunters.”
According to Gloria Young, in her chapter on intertribal religious movements in the Handbook of North American Indians:
“For most tribes the Sun Dance was an earth-renewal ceremony and a prayer for fertility; however, the ideology of the ceremony varied widely from tribe to tribe.”
The Comanche Sun Dance had been borrowed from the Cheyennes. The 1874 Comanche Sun Dance coincided with the emergence of a new medicine man, Eschiti (Coyote Droppings; also spelled Esa-tai). In his book The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker, Bill Neeley describes him this way:
“He wore no buffalo skull cap or ceremonial mask, as did most of the older medicine men, but was attired only in breechclout and moccasins and a wide sash of red cloth around his waist. From his hair protruded a red-tipped hawk’s feather, and from each ear hung a snake rattle.”
Eschiti was given strong powers in a vision quest. During his vision Eschiti ascended to the home of the Great Spirit, a place which is far above the Christian Heaven. It was reported that Eschiti was capable of vomiting up all the cartridges which might be needed for any gun; that he could raise the dead; that he was bulletproof and could make others bulletproof; that he could control the weather. His messianic message to the people was that the Great Spirit sent him to deliver them from oppression.
At the 1874 Battle of Adobe Walls, however, Eschiti’s medicine failed to work. In his book United States - Comanche Relations: The Reservation Years, historian William T. Hagan writes:
“Eschiti attributed the failure of his medicine to a member of the war party violating a taboo by killing a skunk.”
With the failure of his medicine, Eschiti faded into obscurity. (See Indians 201: Eschiti, Comanche Medicineman.)
More nineteenth-century American Indian histories:
Indians 101: American Indian wars, conflicts, and battles 150 years ago, 1874
Indians 101: Sioux Indians and Black Hills gold 150 years ago, 1874
Indians 101: American Indian Reservations 150 years ago, 1874
Indians 101: American Indians in Oklahoma 150 years ago, 1874
Indians 101: American Indians and Christianity 150 years ago, 1874
Indians 101: The 1874 Red River War in Texas
Indians 201: The Kickapoo War against Texas
Indians 101: American Indians and the 1893 World Columbian Exposition
