Module 28: Narrative in the Archaeology of North America: Spiritual Inhabitation

Reading: Echo-Hawk, "Native Americans and Archaeologists"

Concurrent with and supporting the technological inhabitation of North America was the spiritual inhabitation. The spiritual inhabitation of the Great Lakes region involved identifying the animals and the spirits of the land and entering into relations of friendship and reciprocity with them. The Indians found that everything in the world has a spirit: each person, animal, plant, rock, piece of clothing, tent, or even the doorway of a tent (Tanner 1979:114). Also, certain categories of beings were said to “own” or be the “master” of different animal species. These were called manitou. And spirits of ancestors were also important. Also important were the spirits in nature (the unsatisfied souls of animals and ancestors), which can be reached by shamans in trances and dreams for advice on hunting, illness, etc.

The idea that everything in the world has a spirit seems ridiculous to us—superstitious—but we can understand that it was the Indians’ way of talking about the characteristic properties, appearance, and responses of people, animals, and objects. Therefore, spiritual inhabitation consisted of getting to know what things are, their distinctive properties and uses. Also, it expresses the Indians’ fundamental respect for difference, their awareness that others have their own points of view and the necessity of being able to see things from other points of view. Indians are very relativistic. For example, while hunting, the Cree try to see things from their own human perspective and also from the perspective of the animal they are hunting. This translated into efforts to observe animals and learn what they know. For example, the Anishinabe (Chippewa) feel that they learned most of what they know about the uses of plants from people who watched how animals used them. The Anishinabe also feel that the social relations of animals can provide useful models for analyzing human social relations. For example, an Anishinabe headman ought to learn how to lead from the crane, who speaks infrequently and with a distinctive voice: “when the crane calls, all listen.”

Over time, Indians developed relations of friendship and reciprocity with spirits. All Great Lakes Indians carried out rituals of respect for animals taken in the hunt. For example, the Cree place beaver bones in water, respecting the beavers' liking of water. They keep dogs from eating the fur and bones of game animals. They paint bear skulls and hold a feast whenever a bear is killed. They hang a moose’s beard from a tree.

In addition, special relationships of friendship sometimes developed between animals and humans. A Cree man is said to have friends among the animals who inhabit his particular hunting territory. This was a factor in discouraging poaching by others. People also sought to establish relations with spirit powers through a vision quest. This was expected of all boys, but optional for girls. An adolescent boy went to the woods by himself, without food, shelter, or sleep, and sought pity of some guardian spirit: the master of particular game species or some other nature spirit. In a vision, the boy was contacted by a spirit and given techniques or objects of power: charms, sacred objects, songs, or curing techniques. In exchange, as signs of gratitude and respect, the boy agreed to observe certain taboos, often abstinence from certain foods.

In addition, Native Americans found ways to share the relations they developed with spirit powers. This formed the basis of important social institutions. For example,

(1) Shared ceremonies of Thanksgiving, to honor a special game animal (Bear) or a seasonal food. The Anishinabe held feasts when they reassembled in villages in the spring and fall before dispersing for the summer and winter seasons. They gave thanks to whitefish, the corn, the deer; i.e., foods that might carry them through the coming winter. The Iroquois held feasts six times a year: New Year's, Maple, Planting, Strawberry, Green Corn, and Harvest.

(2) Shared knowledge from spirit helpers was the basis for many curing societies: the Anishinabe Midewiwin; the Iroquois False Face, Little Water, Pygmy, Otter, Eagle, and Bear Societies. These societies drew people together for the common purpose of curing. Uniting people in a collective undertaking, they created cooperation and unity among the different clans in the village and between the different villages, overcoming the narrow loyalties of kith and kin.

These are the building blocks of Great Lakes Indian society. The development of these spiritual relations and social institutions are reflected in Great Lakes art, in objects from burials. Potentially, archaeologists could trace the development of spiritual inhabitation through prehistoric artifacts.

Slides of prehistoric artifacts:

(1) Bird-stones (Late Archaic/Early Woodland, 1500-1000 B.C.E., and later in objects from the Hopewell period, 200 B.C.E.-200 C.E.). Hopewell pots include raptorial birds and broad-billed ducks, associated with the sky and watery underworld

(2) and (3) Platform pipes

(4) Mica cut out

(5) Engraved slabs (with bird motif) (Adena 400 B.C.E.-1 C.E.)

(6) Winnebago pipe

(7) and (8) Bowls (bird and beaver)

(9) Oneida spoons

(10) Ottawa pouch—quilled buckskin—Mide water monsters

(11) and (12) Iroquois Faces

(see Brose et al. 1985).