Observations on the thunder dance of the Bear gens of the Fox Indians / by Truman Michelson.
- Truman Michelson
- Date:
- 1929
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Observations on the thunder dance of the Bear gens of the Fox Indians / by Truman Michelson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
19/88 page 9
![Thwaites1 edition of the Jesuit Relations; “Sacrifice,” and “White Dog Sacrifice” [by J. R. Swanton and J. N. B. Hewitt, respectively] in Bulletin 30, Bur. Amer. Ethn.; La Potherie, Savage Allies of New France [apud Blair, 1. c., vol. n, pp. 87, 125]). In the Grass dance (and its modern development, the Dream dance) dog meat is eaten among the Sarsi, Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Assini- boin, Crow, Santee, Teton, Skidi, Hidatsa, Menominee, Omaha, Iowa, and Fox, but not among the Arapaho, Ponca, Osage, Kansa, Ojibwa, Plains Ojibwa, and Winnebago (see Wissler, Anthrop. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xi, p. 864; Relation of Nature to Man, pp. 193-197; Skinner, * * Anthrop. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xi, p. 723; Radin, Thirty-seventh Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 384).8 It should be noted that among the Dakota dog meat figures in all serious affairs. (See Wissler, Anthrop. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xi, p. 862.) But whether in any of the tribes mentioned, save the Fox and the six others which are listed above and for which we have affirmative evidence, dog meat was eaten in ceremonies connected with the sacred packs (bundles) is unknown to the writer, save as regards the Omaha and Osage. According to a personal communication of Francis La Flesche both these tribes have feasts connected with the sacred packs but dog meat is not .eaten on these occasions. And it may be noted that dog meat is not eaten when the Wolf gens of the Fox Indians gives its festivals; nor when the War Chiefs gens of the same Indians worships the Wolf and gives a dance.9 Owing to the geographical distributions of dog feasts and feasts connected with the sacred packs it is plausible that the Fox gens festivals (and similarly the Iowa, etc.) are essentially fusions of both of these. * There are some sins of omission and commission in Wissler’s table, but they are unimportant. For the identification of the Iowa Chief’s Drum dance see Skinner, Bull. Public Mus. Milwaukee, vol. v, p. 248. Skinner, Anthrop. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xi, p. 694, when describing the Iowa Helocka Society (and similarly in Bull. Public Mus. Milwaukee, vol. v, p. 238) and Radin when treating the Winnebago Herucka Society merely do not record eating dog meat as part of the ceremony: neither gives positive evidence that it is not done. I have not verified other authorities on this point. The Fox data is from my own personal observations. The data given by Swanton on the Arikara and Skidi Pawnee may refer to the Iruska, but this is not certain. Compare Wissler, Anthrop. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xi, p. 862. The old crow-belt dance of the Foxes (on which see William Jones, Fox Texts, p. 208) is a thing of the past; and the modern Religion dance (which corresponds to the Dream dance of most central Algon- quians) is now (1927) rapidly waning. Some Ojibwa eat dog meat at the dance, according to Miss Frances Densmore. (Bull. 53, Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 150, 173.) * The reader will remember that in other Fox gens festivals dog meat is invariably eaten. (See also Bull. 87, Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 6.) The alleged reason given by the Foxes themselves to account for the exceptions noted, namely, that dogs and wolves are too closely allied physically to make their consumption acceptable, is palpably ex post facto. It is what Robinson (The Mind in the Making) would call a “good” reason, not the “real” reason. The secondary character of such interpretations is too well known to make it worth while dwelling upon this at greater length.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29980835_0019.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
