M. R. Harrington

“ To the Sun the Creator gave the duty of providing light for the people. The Unami say that he is a very powerful manĭʹto, and call him Gĭckokwiʹta. They speak of him as always clothed in the finest of deerskin garments, with his face handsomely painted, and wearing red feathers in his hair. Every day he travels across the heavens from east to west, stopping for a little while at mid-day, then going on. At night he comes back under the earth. The Minsi, according to James Wolf, called him Kiʹzho or Kiʹzhox, and Gickonĭkiʹzho is another Unami form of the name. ”

“ On the twelfth day the spirit leaves the earth and makes its way to the twelfth or highest heaven, the home of the Creator, [53] where it lives indefinitely in a veritable “Happy Hunting Ground,” a beautiful country where life goes on much as it does on earth, except that pain, sickness, and sorrow are unknown, and distasteful work and worry have no place; where children shall meet their parents who have gone before, and parents their children; where everything always looks new and bright. There is no sun in the Land of Spirits, but a brighter light which the Creator has provided. ”

“ No sun shines there, but a light much brighter than the sun, the Creator makes it brighter by his power. All people who die here, young or old, will be of the same age there; and those who are injured, crippled, or made blind will look as good as the rest of them. ”

“ Loskiel.—Loskiel’s account [42] seems largely derived from the above. He remarks:
“The manittos are also considered as tutelar spirits. Every Indian has one or more, which he conceives to be peculiarly given to assist him and make him prosper. One has in a dream received the sun as his tutelar spirit, another the moon; a third, an owl; a fourth, a buffaloe; and so forth. An Indian is dispirited, and considers himself as forsaken by God, till he has received a tutelar spirit in a dream; But those who have been thus favored, are full of courage, and proud of their powerful ally.” ”

“ This, then, was the supernatural world which, to the mind of the Lenape, controlled all things—on which they must depend for health, for success in all their undertakings, even the daily task of deer-hunting or corn-raising. Benevolent beings must be pleased, and bad spirits combated and overcome, or at least placated. ”

“ He is a terror to little children, and when he comes to a [156] house or tent the man of the house usually gives him a piece of tobacco, which the Messingq smells and puts in his big pouch, after which he turns around and kicks back toward the giver which means ‘thank you,’ and departs. He never thinks of climbing a fence, but jumps over it every time that one is in his way. The Devil dance is what the white men call it, but the Delawares call it the Messingq, or ‘solid face’ dance. The Messingq does not represent an evil spirit, but is always considered a peacemaker. ”

“ To the mind of the Lenape, all the phenomena of nature, all the affairs of mankind, in fact the entire world as we know it, is under the control of invisible beings. Some are great and powerful, others of somewhat lesser influence, and so on down to the humble spirits of plants and stones. In some, good seems to predominate, in others, evil ”

“ If a Lenape won great success on a war expedition or a hunting trip, he was sure the spirit had helped him; if unlucky, he believed that for some reason his guardian had become estranged, or had been overpowered by superior and malevolent forces. A man might become a sorcerer or a shaman at the behest of his guardian spirit, given in a dream or vision, or change his mode of life in other ways. ”

“ It is nothing but the flesh that is injured: the spirit is as good as ever. That is the [92] reason that people are told to help always the cripples or the blind. Whatever you do for them will surely bring its reward. Whatever you do for anybody will bring you credit hereafter. Whenever we think the thoughts that Gicelĕmû‛ʹkaong has given us, it will do us good.
“This is all I can think of to say along this line. Now we will pass the Turtle around, and all that feel like worshiping may take it and perform their ceremonies.” ”

“ Assuming that the Creator of the Lenape is the God of Light, what is it that leads men to worship the source of light? Is it not the self-evident benefits connected with light? It seems to the writer that [24] goodness necessarily follows as an attribute of such a deity.
EVIL SPIRIT
The case is different with the Evil Spirit. The modern Lenape in Oklahoma make little mention of an Evil One, and James Wolf, my principal Minsi informant, did not speak of such a being at all, but there is some evidence, however, to show this belief to exist among the Lenape in more recent years. ”

“ Man has a spirit, and the body seems to be a coat for that spirit. That is why people should take care of their spirits, so as to reach Heaven and be admitted to the Creator’s dwelling. We are given some length of time to live on earth, and then our spirits must go. When anyone’s time comes to leave this earth, he should go to Gicelĕmû‛ʹkaong, feeling good on the way. ”

“ Favored Individuals.—Persons favored with a guardian spirit usually became prominent among their people and were held in high esteem. They composed rythmic chants referring to their visions for use at the Annual Ceremony (which will be discussed in the next chapter) , and dance songs to accompany them. Rarely were the words of either chants or songs at all definite: as a rule they merely mentioned attributes of the singer’s guardian, or incidents of their first meeting, without stating outright what the guardian spirit was, or telling a consecutive story of the vision. ”

“ There is one of the greatest sacrifice offerings of our forefathers every six months for cleansing themselves from sin; they will have twelve deers to be consumed in one day and night. At the great feast of the offerings of the first fruits of the earth, which feast the Delawares or Munceys hold annually, they brought a little of all that they raised, such as Indian corn, or hweisk-queem, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes, together with the deer. The Indian women were busily engaged in cooking their provisions, previous to the commencement of their exercises. ”

“ Many of our people still keep up this dance, but the temple is not so large as it used to be, and the attendance now is not more than 100 persons. Any Indian of any tribe can also take part in the dance, but no white man can.
[122]
“When the dance is over all the people go out and stand in a single line from east to west with their faces to the south. Then they kneel down and pray, and then go home. We do not know the origin of the worship dance, but the old Indians claim that the Great Spirit came many years ago and instructed it and also gave them the wampum.” ”

“ The doctrine of the survival of the soul or spirit after the death of the body, forms an integral part of Lenape belief. The spirit is supposed to leave the body at the moment of dissolution, but remains in the vicinity eleven days, during which time it subsists on food found in the houses of the living, if none has been placed at the grave. Some say that the actual food is not consumed but that the ghost extracts some essence or nourishment from it. ”

“ They turn toward the east because they believe that God dwells beyond the rising of the sun. At the same time much wampum is given away. This is thrown on the ground and the young people scramble for it. Afterward it is ascertained who secured the most. This feast is called ’ngammuin, the meaning of which they themselves are unable to give.”
The suspicion that Zeisberger mistook the conclusion of the Annual Ceremony for a separate rite is strengthened by the fact that he gives its name as “’ngammuin,” which seems to be a form of Gaʹmuing, the modern Lenape name for their Annual Ceremony. ”

“ Once the Delawares owned a great deal of land, but that is nearly all gone now, and the people seem to have no power to do anything. When God looks down from Heaven, he sees but very few Delaware people, and the reason for this is that they cannot follow the Meeting House ceremonies now. When I was a little boy, I heard my people say that this thing would happen just as it is happening now. You see, the young people raised during the last thirty years do not believe in the old ways. ”

“ Entering a house he will see no one, but have good things to eat placed before him, a fire made and a bed prepared—all of which is done by spirits invisible to him. Others assert that such an one will see the women coming with baskets on their backs full of strawberries and bilberries, large as apples, and will observe the inhabitants daily appear in fine raiment and live a life of rejoicing.—The bad Indians ... will not reach the place, Tschipeghacki, but must remain some distance away, able to see those within dwelling happily, but not able to enter. ”

“ We are thankful to the East because everyone feels good in the morning when they awake, and see the bright light coming from the East, and when the Sun goes down in the West we feel good and glad we are well ”

“ Whence such a creature becomes sacred to the persons to whom he is supposed to be the immediate author of good, and through him they must worship the invisible powers, though to others he is no more than any other creature.”
Certain it is, if a Lenape states that his blessing or power comes from “the otter,” he does not mean some particular otter, but a spirit otter whose existence is independent of the life of any particular animal. However, such an animal was supposed, like a man, to have a spirit or soul of its own. ”

“ The reason why we dance at this time is to raise our prayers to him. Our attendants here, three women and three men, have the task of keeping everything about our Temple in good order, and of trying to keep peace, if there is trouble. They must haul wood and build fires, cook and sweep out the Big House.
“When they sweep, they must sweep both sides of the fire twelve times, which sweeps a road to Heaven, just as they say that it takes twelve years to reach it. Women in their menses must not enter this house. ”

“ Thus we have a practically unbroken chain of authorities, including most of the best ones since 1679, all speaking of the “Great Spirit” as a well-developed concept. But Brainerd, [8] writing in 1745, is not so positive in his statements, for he speaks of their notions being “so dark and confused, that they seemed not to know what they thought themselves.” He also says: “Before the coming of the white people, some supposed there were four invisible powers, who presided over the four corners of the earth. Others imagined the sun to be the only deity, and that all things were made by him. ”

“ LENAPE ANNUAL CEREMONY IN PROGRESS
Native Painting by Earnest Spybuck, a Shawnee
CEREMONY COMMENCED
Two of the attendants, a man and a woman, then build the two fires in the temple, so that there may be plenty of light, and sweep the floor with turkey-wings for brushes. The men attendants take turns so that one of them, at least, is always on guard outside the building. When the temple is clean, the fires are burning bright, and the aʹckas have called the people in and all are assembled, the chief arises and delivers a speech. ”

“ Between the changes the doll pole is stuck into the ground near the fire. When the twelfth set is finished, the speaker announces, “The Doll Dance is over,” and the feast of hominy and venison is served to everyone. Then the speaker says: “If you want to dance the rest of the night, you may do so, for many of you have come a long way from home and should have a chance for more enjoyment. We will hold another Doll Dance next year.” Then they put the doll away and amuse themselves with various social dances until morning. ”

“ Brainerd speaks of the Spirit Land of the Lenape to the southward as being “an unknown and curious place” in which the shadows of the dead “will enjoy some kind of happiness, such as hunting, feasting, dancing, and the like.” [57] One of his Indian informants defined the kind of “bad folks” who would be unhappy in the hereafter as “those who lie, steal, quarrel with their neighbors, are unkind to their friends, and especially to aged parents, and, in a word, such as are a plague to mankind.” ”

“ When the Delawares pray in the Big House, they raise their voices and cry ‘Ho-o-o’ to God, and the Mĭsiʹngw‛ hears it and understands, for he is of the same nature as a tree, and there are twelve Mĭsiʹngw‛ carved in the Big House who will carry the prayers to the twelfth Heaven. The Indians call the Mĭsiʹngw‛ ‘Grandfather,’ because the trees were here before the Indians. The Big House is going out of use now, because only the old people have had gifts or visions of power to sing about. ”

“ The phratry to which this leader belongs determines the exact form of the ceremonies to be held; for each totemic group has a ritual of its own, that of the Wolf, which is [82] here related, differing in some particulars from the ceremonies as practised by the Turtle or Turkey people. In former times, it is said, when one phratry had finished its twelve days of ceremonies, another would enact theirs, followed by the third; but at present qualified leaders are so few that it seldom if ever happens that more than one of them feels able to accept such exacting duties in any one year. ”

“ Those who fall at sunrise, they say, are the ones who visited the sun in their visions. All sleep, or at least rest, until about noon, when a feast is served, after which everyone tells what he or she saw while “on the peyote road.”
The Lenape variant of this ceremony, as related above, differs somewhat from that of other tribes practising the Christian form of the Peyote rite, but in all essentials it is almost identical. ”

“ His dance finished, the leader passes the turtleshell to the next man who has been blessed with a vision. This one has the privilege of singing his vision if he wishes; if not, it is handed to the next “dreamer.” After a celebrant has taken his seat, it is customary for those [96] who desire it to smoke until the next man is ready to commence. At this time also it is considered proper for the people to enter or leave the Big House, which is not permitted while the actual ceremony is in progress. ”

“ In no case is a dog allowed to enter the temple, and no one is allowed to laugh inside it, or in any way be rude. Each person is allowed to speak and tell his dream or dreams or to give advice. It is believed by the Delawares that every one has a guardian spirit which comes in the form of some bird, animal, or other thing, at times in dreams, and tells them what to do and what will happen. The guardian spirit is sent from the Great Spirit. ”