The Red Medicine Dance

by Mark J. Green (Wą́nihegá)
translated by Bill Hall (Hų̄ka)

William Hall, ca. 1895

(38) Everyone rushed to him again and again, the hide over the drum was properly tightened. It was night and a dance called "Red Medicine Dance," it was begun then. At different places, the drums could be heard. This was a large village. There was a foot race. Then the man called "Dog's Head," [who] was a small man, said, "Can you put these on me?" Then the other man said, "Where do they go on?" Then, Dog's Head said, "I have a cramp on my leg, o-oh, I have a cramp on my leg!" He was pressing his leg with his hands. He was talking loud, then they grabbed him one on each side, then the cramp left him.

And because he talked so much, they put some tobacco in his hand. Then, there he began to tell about his experiences and his achievements. "They are called 'Nights'," he said. He began to tell about them, "They are Night Soldiers." Here now he started to sing, he named some, and here he uttered an expression of great respect for the spirits. It was at a sacred ceremonial lodge that he was doing this. He took an object that resembled a bird a short distance and struck it dead. Then it was dawn. After a while the boys above (the Thunders), would make a sound, a roaring sound.

I went to see this village. Then on the other side there were no Indians, but [only] white men.¹

Commentary. "Red Medicine Dance" — in Ioway, the rite is called manka shuje washi,² transparently cognate to Hōcąk mą̄ką́ šūc waší. The primary aim of the rite was to honor the Red Medicine Warbundle whose content consisted of a certain kind of red bean.³ Robert Small, an Iowa, said that this "Red (Bean) Medicine Bundle (Maka Sudje Waruhdwe) is a bundle used especially for war and horse stealing. Horse doctors use it also, and so do snake doctors."⁴  

Ysabel LeMay
The Mescal Bean

What was this medicinal red bean? In its origin myth, the Iowa said that, "the society was founded by a faster who dreamed that he received it from the deer, for red beans (mescal) are sometimes found in deer's stomachs."⁵ For this reason the rite is sometimes called the "Deer Dance."⁶ The red beans were thought to be alive. They were "killed" by being set next to the fire until the heat turned them yellow.⁷ They were poured into a kettle of boiling water which contained various herbs. These cooked overnight, and at the end of the dance, this concoction was imbibed by the participants. The result was that of a stimulant, but in the end its essential effect is that of a purgative. It is believed that as they vomit it out, they are purged of the negative effects of bile.

This widespread rite was also known as the "Red Bean Dance." The red bean is the "mescal bean," an odd misnomer, since the actual mescal plant is the Agave cactus whose buttons supply the hallucinogen for the intensely Christian Peyote cult. The dance described here is clearly pagan. The red "mescal" bean actually comes from the Texas mountain laurel (Dermatophyllum fecundation). As can be seen on the map, the range of this tree is considerably south of the northern tribes who used this bean for their rites. The earliest report of the use of mescal beans was by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1539.⁸ The tribes of Mexico used both the mescal bean and peyote in rituals. In some rites, intoxicants may have used either the bean or peyote as the drug of choice, as reported by the missionary Francisco Hidalgo in 1716.⁹ There are archaeological sites dating from 7000 BC to 1000 AD where the mescal bead is found together with peyote and Mexican buckeye seeds.¹⁰ The psycho-active ingredient in the mescal bean is sophorine which resembled nicotine in its impact on the brain, but it is far more potent: it not only produces nausea, but if taken in too great a quantity, it will cause convulsions and even asphyxiation.¹¹ This latter is also caused by the presence of cystine in the bean,¹² which attacks the phrenic nerve.¹³

U.S. Geological Survey		Driver & Massey, Map 74
Range map of Dermatophyllum secundiflorum		Early Distribution of the Mescal Bean

In the early days, the Red Bean Dance spread from what is now the Mexican border, to the central plains. This implies that the red beans were traded over vast distances.

"a foot race" — the rite was designed to bring "success in war, hunting, especially for the buffalo, and in horse racing." That the red medicine beans were first carried in the stomach of a deer would associate them with the speed of deer. In the Hōcąk version, it appears that the association of the red medicine with speed would occasion a celebration of fleetness afoot that is intimately bound up with the red medicine. And indeed, the red bean has a very direct association with running: "A Wichita informed me (his statement being corroborated by several Kiowa and Kickapoo) that members of his tribe ate one bean before a foot-race to prevent panting afterwards."¹⁴ Furthermore, "at the end of the ceremony and following the feast was a ceremonial foot race, in which all members of the tribe, both male and female, were permitted to compete. This was followed on the part of those engaged in the ceremony by violent vomiting. The foot race was supposed to give the participants great endurance while on the warpath."¹⁵

	J. O. Lewis
	Dog Head (Sarcel, Teal, Little Duck)

"Dog's Head" — Šųgépaga, a famous warrior and chief, quickly became legendary, as we see from semi-mythological accounts of his life in the stories Great Walker's Medicine, The Warbundle Maker, and The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hōcągara. "The Warbundle Maker" says, "There was a man named Šųgépaga, who belonged to the Eagle Clan."¹⁶ The name "Dog Head" is clearly not an Eagle Clan name, and must be a nickname. Prior to the War of 1812, he was known to the French by this same name, Tête de Chien. So what was his Eagle Clan name? The French also knew him by his clan name, which they rendered as Sarcelle, which means "Teal." George recorded the word for teal as being hunašizka, which is for hunašiske, from huna, "to come hither"; šis, "to shoot"; and -ke, a suffix indicating a kind of thing. So a teal is "the kind of thing that comes hither to be shot." So it appears that his Eagle Clan name was Hunašiskega. The Anglos rendered his clan name as "Sarcel," "Teal," or "Little Duck." Col. McDouall in writing to Gen. Drummond in 1814, says of him,

the Susell or tete de Chien, [is] a distinguished Chief of the Winnebago Nation (who came to supplicate assistance) ... The solemn & impressive eloquence of the tete de Chien, excited a general enthusiasm, & never was more zeal or unanimity shown amongst them, this chief is scarcely inferior to Tecumseth, & I doubt not will act a distinguished part in the campaign ...¹⁷

Brisbois remarks that, "One of the Carimaunee family of Winnebagoes was known as Tête de Chien, or Dog's Head. He lived in 1827, at English Prairie, now Muscoda (ca. 43.210370, -90.30401). He was a prominent man, of considerable good sense, and very honest. The Indians cultivated some fields there, and lived there as one of their changeable localities."¹⁸ This means that he was related in some way to the famous chief Nąga (Wood), known as the "Elder Keramąnį," who was standing next to Tecumseh when the latter was struck dead by a stray bullet. Lurie's informants told her that the Keramąnįs were originally of Fox or Sauk extraction. Foreign captives who are spared are always put into the Thunderbird Clan, or may enter it through marriage. Mrs. Kinzie said that this name meant, "Walking Rain." This is due to the fact that the name has a double meaning in Hocąk: Ke-ra-mąnį means literally, "The Turtle Walking," where -ra is the definite article. On the face of it, this name is rather peculiar, since the -ga attached to the end of it to indicate that it's a personal name is also a definite article. This leads to the rather stilted translation, "The Walking One Who is the Turtle." However, the same name differently parsed, Kera-mąnį, means "Walking Cloud," where kera, like the more common mąxí, means both "cloud" and "sky." It could be that Kera-mąnį-ga was originally a Thunderbird Clan name for the ancestor of the lineage, but members of that family liked the mystical association that the double meaning gave them to the God of War. Sometime before 1832, Dog Head had moved to Big Green Lake (43.813354, -88.934092), where he lived in a large lodge with three other men, five women, and six children.¹⁹ Grignon says, "Sarcel, or The Teal, resided at the Winnebago village at Green Lake, in Marquette county; in his younger days his reputation was not good, but he afterwards became a very good Indian. I have already adverted to his war services. I think he died at Green Lake, before the emigration of his people west of the Mississippi."²⁰

"can you put these on me?" —this is almost certainly a bunch of split owl feathers: "During performances the members painted themselves white and wore a bunch of split owl feathers on their heads."²¹ Feathers were so extensively used for decoration, so it was not obvious where these owl feathers might be placed, nor is it easy to place them on one's own head.

"then the cramp left him" — this passage is very obscure. It sounds as if he was cured of a cramp in his leg merely by the touch of members of this rite. As red medicine men they apparently have the power to correct a physical impediment that would prevent someone from running.

"they put some tobacco in his hand" — tobacco is an important offering to the Spirits, and to offer it to a man is to make a strong spiritual affirmation of his status in the context in which it is offered. Here Dog Head proposes to speak, so members of his audience strongly affirm this by presenting him with tobacco.

BAE 37, Plate 47		BAE 37, Plate 47		BAE 37: Pl. 44
Nightspirit Emblems				The Thunderbird Warclub

"Night Soldiers" — Hall writes parenthetically, "spirits ?" The Night Soldiers are a clade of Nightspirits, the beings responsible for spreading the darkness that constitutes the substance of night. The Night Soldiers are especially warlike and to show them disrespect would mean certain death. In the early history of the earth, the Night Soldiers used to bare many scars on their faces from being speared by the cranes with whom they constantly at war. However, when the Thunderbirds first visited them, they were gifted with the newly invented Thunderbird Warclub, with which they decisively defeated and subdued the cranes. Like Thunderbirds, the Nightspirits like to kill and eat Waterspirits, whom they call "beavers."²² Despite their warrior prowess, they consider their sisters to be so holy that they are permitted to walk in front of them.²³ The dance was held at night, and in honor of a Warbundle. Therefore, it is certainly appropriate to honor the Night Soldiers in connection with the rite.

"resembled a bird" — it is obviously not a doll or model of some kind since it was killed. Here "resembled" is meant to convey a measure of uncertainty. That there is a bird associated with the rite is not unprecedented. The Ponca have the Yellowhammer (Flicker) as their "main bird" in their mescal bean cult (see below). It seems very likely that the Iowa had a species of owl as their main bird judging from the feathers they used.

"Thunders" — the Thunderbirds reside at the western horizon. Since lightning and thunder emanate only from dark clouds, the Thunders have a natural affinity for darkness. It is not surprising, then, they they mate with the Night women who travel from their home in the east where the Sun rises, and come to rest on the opposite horizon where dwell the Thunderbirds. That the Thunderbirds made themselves known by issuing thunder, may be a response to the bird that was sacrificed. Was it, perhaps, a sacrifice to the Thunders?

"I went to see this village" — supporters of the Prophet's program flocked to his side from all over Indian territory. Wherever the Prophet was, the locale became an international town. The mescal bean cult was widespread among the tribes represented in Greenville, so the occurrence there of this rite may not be sufficient to show that the rite was practiced by Hōcągara, or even the Shawnee. Nevertheless, it is interesting that the Hōcąk warleader, Dog Head, is said to have assumed the role of chief administrator of the rite. Therefore, it is certainly possible that the ceremony had spread to Hōcągara.

Kevin1776 • CC 4.0

[Enlarge]

"on the other side there were no Indians, but [only] white men" — it is very likely that this refers to the town of Greenville founded by Tecumseh and the Prophet in 1806.²⁴ The town later known as Greenville (so called on account of its proximity to Ft. Greene Ville), was just on the white side of the treaty line of 1795 after the Battle of Fallen Timbers. They settled there precisely as a protest to the terms of the treaty. Unfortunately, the area was soon swarming with white settlers, so that to the east "there were no Indians, but only white men." The awkwardness of this situation prompted the brothers to move west into what is now Indiana, where they founded Prophetstown in 1808.²⁵

Comparative Material. The Red Bean Dance was once known as the "Wichita Dance."²⁶

"Further, so much of the mescal bean complex is similar to the present-day peyote rite as to suggest that the mescal bean ceremony may have been a direct ancestor of the peyote cult. Indeed, descriptions of what appear to be transitional ceremonies, involving the peyote and the mescal bean, were secured for the Tonkawa and Oto tribes."²⁷

"A well-developed mescal bean cult was present in the Apache, Comanche, Delaware, Iowa, Kansa, Omaha, Oto, Osage, Pawnee, Ponca, Tonkawa, and Wichita tribes."²⁸

In the Apache rite any man could join in, but not women. After the beans were soaked in cold water, 5 to 7 of them were eaten by each participant. The leader of the ceremony "was talking all the time, like praying." Some are said to have walked over burning coals. Songs were sung.²⁹

Among the Comanche, the rite is called the "Deer Dance."¹⁶ They perform illusions like pretending to swallow mescal beans, then pulling them out of their chests. Others report that at some point they actually consume the beans for their narcotic affect. It is also known that they would mix peyote with the mescal beans.³⁰

Much has already been said of the Iowa rite, but this is a good summary: "When morning put an end to the dances of the ceremony under discussion, a large number of the red beans were broken up or 'Killed' as the Indian say (regarding the beans as alive) and stirred up with water in a large kettle, together with certain herbs which are said to make the decoction milder in action. Then all of the participants drank a cup or two of the mixture. The only description given to the action of the drug was that everything looks red to the drinker for a while, then he vomits, and evacuates the bowels, which the Indians say, cleans out the system health, and benefits the health, even in the case of children. The medicine drinking, and the stupor and purging consequent upon it end the ceremony."³¹

The Kansas have the Makaⁿ judje, or "Red Medicine," which is cognate to the Ioway Manka shuje. They also believe that the beans themselves confer upon their owner certain powers.³²

The Omaha call the Red Medicine Dance the "Wichita Dance." "The members of this society have a medicine which they use in three ways: they rub it on their bodies before going into battle; they rub it on bullets to make them kill the foe, and they administer it to horses, making them smell it when they are about to surround a buffalo herd. If the horses are weak they make them eat some of the medicine and smell the rest. Similar customs are found among the Pawnees and Ponkas. A man thinks, 'I will boil,' and he invites to a feast those who have the medicine of the Witcita society. On their arrival he says, 'On such a day we will dance.' Two or three men boil for the feast to be held in connection with the dance. It takes three days to prepare the candidate, and this is done secretly. On the fourth day there is a public ceremony in an earth lodge, during which the candidate is shot with the red medicine. Frank LaFleche has witnessed this, and says it closely resembles the public ceremony of the Wacicka society."³³

"The breech-cloth is the only regular garment. Two Crows and LaFleche say that all whiten their bodies and legs all over, but
_da¢iⁿnaⁿpaji says that some draw lines over their limbs and bodies. Some paint as deer, putting white stripes on their limbs and bodies; others appear as bald eagles, with of the skin of the 'ʇikaqude' or gray fox. Some wear necklaces of the skin of that animal; and others have on necklaces of the tail of a black-tailed deer and that of an ordinary deer, fastened together. Some carry a 'ʇikaqude' skin the skin of the 'maⁿ¢in'kaceha', or red fox, of which the hair is very red, and the legs and ankles are black. Some wear feathers of the great owl around their wrists; and others carry fans made of the feathers of that bird. 'Makaⁿ-jide ha u¢aha baqtaqta nusiaq¢a-hnaⁿi'—The red medicine with the skin adhering to it (being about three inches long) is tied up in a bundle, which is worn 'nusiaq¢a' like a coiled lariat, with one end over the left shoulder, and the other under the right arm. Each of the four singers has a gourd rattle, a bow, and an arrow. He holds the bow, which is whitened, in his left hand, and the rattle and arrow in his right. He strikes the arrow against the bow-string as he shakes the rattle. All the members have whistles or flutes, some of which are a foot long, and others about a half a yard in length. The dancers blow theirs in imitation of the 'quya'."³⁴

Howard says, "In 1954 an old Omaha man told me that the Omaha considered the mescal bean a powerful medicine for war, hunting, and horses."³⁵

The Oto were found in 1820 by the Stephen Long expedition to possess the mescal bean cult. A member of that expedition said, "Julien (Stephen Julien, a French-Indian interpreter with the Long expedition) recognized it (the mescal bean medicine) immediately. He informed us that it is in such high request among the Oto Indians that a horse has been exchanged for eight or ten of them. In that nation the intoxicating bean is only used by a particular society, who at their nocturnal orgies make a decoction of the bean, and, with much pomp and ceremony administer the delightful beverage to each member. The initiation fees of this society are rather extravagant, and the proceeds are devoted principally to the purchase of the bean. ... the bean is obtained in some circuitous manner from the Pawnee Piqua (Wichita) of the Red River, who probably receive it from the Mexican Indians"³⁶

B.D., an informant of Whitman, gives this account: "There was one lodge among the Oto tribe, the Red Bean Medicine Lodge. They were not allowed to eat buffalo meat until after the big hunt. 'We had better not east meat or green corn until we return from the hunt.' When they came back from the hunt to the mud lodge village, everything, corn and pumpkins, were ripe. Then the lodge got together. 'All right, now we are going to eat meat and green corn, pumpkin and water melon.' One man talked about how the food came into this world, made by  the Great Spirit above. Fat meat was brought to the lodge. They cooked corn and meat and had a dance. They painted themselves with white earth all over their bodies. They had fox hides wrapped round their waists, bodies, and hands. When singing, they blew a whistle. They danced one whole night. When they got through dancing, they began to cook the food. First they took four beans (red mescal), opened them, and got four big brass kettles, and put one bean in each kettle. They boiled them. When they got through, they let them cool until they were fit to taste. Then everybody began to drink as much as he wanted. Those beans made a fellow, whatever was bilious in him, come out. Everybody threw up. They brought in cold water too drink and wash themselves. 'We're going to open the door for meat'. Then everybody could eat what they could find. When they got through that (feast) they made the squaw corn."³⁷  

The Pawnee call this rite the "Deer Dance," or "Whistle Dance." ""The raris ta, or deer society, is found among all divisions, but its ritual seems to be in keeping of the Skidi organizations. The fundamental elements of the ritual seem to be based upon the mescal bean, for this society teaches that all animal powers were learned through the power of the mescal bean. While the name of the society is taken from the generic term for deer (ta), the dancers imitate many kinds of animals, suggesting that we have a general animal cult instead of a specific one. That the mescal is fundamental is suggested in the initiation of members. Tea made from mescal beans by a definite formula is given the candidate and when he falls unconscious, the leader tests him by rasping down his spine with the toothed jaw of a garfish; if he moves or flinches in the least, he is rejected once for all. Again at the regular ceremonies shamanistic feats with mescal beans may be performed. If anyone in the village brings in a new red blanket for the leader, these must be demonstrated. The performing members then rise and dance, presently shaking mescal beans from bunches of sage and other unexpected places. The leader does not dance but industriously sweeps up beans from the bare ground. At the end all the beans magically produced are placed in a pile and later given to the donor of the blanket. Other shamanistic feats may occur, but seem to be individual and entirely optional. As in other societies of this class the members bring their professional bundles to the ceremony and display their contents. The regalia peculiar to the society are large whistles, to symbolize the elk, and foxskins carried by the neck when dancing. A few members wear braided buffalo hide ropes into which feathers are woven and some carry wings of birds. "The order of seating is shown in Fig. 17. It differs slightly from the preceding for the leaders sit, not at the west of the door as is usual, but on the south side. The seats west of the door are occupied by chiefs who are paired according to the two sides of the lodge. In front of the permanent leaders are laid four bows and four gourd rattles, the latter painted white. These bows and rattles are shifted at intervals to the alternating groups of leaders as previously described [i.e. the musical instruments are passed around the lodge in a clockwise direction.] The regular ceremony is held once a year when the wild sage plant reaches a certain stage of maturity. This plant is spread thickly around the lodge and is used in incense offerings."³⁸

The Ponca version of this ceremony was obtained from an elderly member of the tribe, Louis MacDonald, in 1954: "He stated that the mescal bean cult had been a powerful organization in his father's time. He had heard a great deal about it since his father was one of the leaders of the group and kept the society's sacred bundle. ... They were customarily held in a tipi, the entrance of which faced the east. The leader of the rite sat opposite the door, in the place of honor. Another important officer, the fire man, sat across from him, just to the right of the entrance. Both of these officers have parallels in the peyote rite. The leader held a staff as his emblem of authority, another feature which also occurs in peyotism. Each member of the society owned an individual sacred bundle, but the main bundle was kept by the leader. These bundles were opened during the ceremony and their contents displayed. The leader opened his bundle first, and then the members followed suit. A tea was brewed from mescal beans, which the members drank. The participants sometimes secured visions of the future after drinking this tea. One sip of the decoction was said to be enough. Songs were sung to the accompaniment of a rawhide rattle which was struck upon a buckskin pillow. On occasion dancing accompanied the rites. "Yellow-hammer" (flicker, Colaptes auratus or Colaptes cafer collaris) feathers were worn by the members of the mescal bean cult, MacDonald explained that this bird was the "main one" of the mescal bean cult, just as just as the "waterbird" (water turkey, Anhinga anhinga) is now the "main bird" of the peyote cult.³⁹

The Red Bean Ceremony was transmitted to the Potawatomi by Comanche Chief Quanah Parker in 1908. "Likewise, old time Potawatomi warriors used the mescal bean as a war medicine. Warriors took the bean either in dry powder form or as a tea before going into battle. This gave them courage and superhuman strength. Warriors also used an infusion of the bean to wash out and sterilize their battle wounds. ... The peyote type Red Bean Ceremony, like the peyote ritual, is preceded by a sweat bath. It is held in a tipi and closely resembles he form of the standard Plains peyote-rite meeting. The Road-man or leader is in charge and seated opposite the door, which faces east. He is flanked by the Drum-chief seated on his right, and the Cedar-chief on his left. There are two Fire-chiefs, one seated on either side of the door. ... The peyote-type Red Bean ritual features magical performances. For example Wawaseck has seen the leader handle live coals without burning himself. He put them in his mouth chewed them, and blew out flames with no ill effect."⁴⁰

The Tonkawa also had a mescal bean cult. "Louis MacDonald, the Ponca informant cited above, commented that Tonkawa had kept up their mescal bean rites much longer than had the other Oklahoma tribes. He stated that some Ponca youths once attended a Tonkawa mescal bean ceremony, held near Tonkawa, Oklahoma, in the 1920's. The leader of the ceremony, an old Tonkawa chief, had a "yellowhammer" (flicker) skin in his medicine bundle. During the ceremony this skin came to life, flew around the lodge, and finally perched on the leader's staff. Another informant, an old Omaha whom I interviewed in 1954, recalled attending a Tonkawa peyote meeting where both mescal beans and peyote buttons were brewed into a tea. He stated: 'By morning some of the Tonkawas were howling like wolves and running around the place like crazy men.' He attributed the decline of the Tonkawa tribe, which now number about 25, to its excessive use of the mescal bean in this fashion.⁴¹

The Wichita, after whom some tribes named the rite, call their ceremony the "Deer Dance." "Standing at the head of the ceremonial societies was the deer-dance, or the ceremony of the medicine-men. According to my informant, the last ceremony was performed in 1871. From my scant knowledge of the ceremony, it seems not to been unlike that of the Skidi. No one could participate in the ceremony except medicine-men, each of whom had his own song or songs, in which was set forth the story of the origin of his magic power. In addition there were certain rituals sung, in connection with the opening and closing rites of the ceremony. The dance was held generally three, occasionally four, times a year; the first occasion when the grass had just appeared, the second when the corn was ripe, the third when the corn was harvested. The ceremony was never held in the winter. One of the special features of the ceremony was the administering to the novitiate of a small red bean, which produced a violent spasm, and finally unconsciousness, this condition being indicated by the inability of the novitiate to suffer pain when the jaw of a gar-pike was drawn over his naked body. During the ceremony offerings were made to the different gods, and at the end of the ceremony and following the feast was a ceremonial foot race, in which all members of the tribe, both male and female, were permitted to compete. This was followed on the part of those engaged in the ceremony by violent vomiting. The foot race was supposed to give the participants great endurance while on the warpath. The chief efficacy of the ceremony was the removal from the camp of all evil influences and the promoting of good health, long life, and general prosperity."⁴²

Links: Nightspirits, Thunderbirds.

Stories: mentioning Thunderbirds: The Thunderbird, Waruǧábᵉra, How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, Traveler and the Thunderbird War, The Boulders of Devil's Lake, Thunderbird and White Horse, Bluehorn's Nephews, How the Hills and Valleys were Formed (vv. 1, 2), The Man who was a Reincarnated Thunderbird, The Thunder Charm, The Lost Blanket, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, Story of the Thunder Names, The Hawk Clan Origin Myth, Eagle Clan Origin Myth, Pigeon Clan Origins, Bird Clan Origin Myth, Adventures of Redhorn's Sons, Brave Man, Ocean Duck, Turtle's Warparty, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Quail Hunter, Heną́ga and Star Girl, The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty, Redhorn's Sons, The Dipper, The Stone that Became a Frog, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Redhorn Contests the Giants, The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father, The Warbundle of the Eight Generations, Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Origin of the Hocąk Chief, The Spirit of Gambling, Wolf Clan Origin Myth, Black Otter's Warpath, Aracgéga's Blessings, Kunu's Warpath, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, Black Otter’s Sacrifice to a Thunder, The Glory of the Morning, The Nightspirits Bless Ciwoit’éhiga, The Green Waterspirit of the Wisconsin Dells, A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Little Red Bird's Story, The Big Stone, Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts, The War of Indian Tribes against White Soldiers, Song to Earthmaker, The Origins of the Milky Way; mentioning Nightspirits: The Nightspirits Bless Jōbᵉną̄giwį̄́xka, The Nightspirits Bless Ciwoit’éhiga, The Origins of the Sore Eye Dance, The Rounded Wood Origin Myth, The Big Stone, How the Thunders Met the Nights, Fourth Universe, Battle of the Night Blessed Men and the Medicine Rite Men, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, Ocean Duck, The Origins of the Nightspirit Starting Songs, Black Otter's Warpath, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Sun and the Big Eater; mentioning feasts: Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth (Chief Feast), The Creation Council (Eagle Feast), Hawk Clan Origin Myth (Eagle Feast), Waterspirit Clan Origin Myth (Waterspirit Feast), A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga (Mąką́wohą, Waną́cĕrehí), Bear Clan Origin Myth (Bear Feast), The Woman Who Fought the Bear (Bear Feast), Grandfather's Two Families (Bear Feast), Wolf Clan Origin Myth (Wolf Feast), Buffalo Clan Origin Myth (Buffalo Feast), The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits (Buffalo Feast), Buffalo Dance Origin Myth (Buffalo Feast), Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle (Buffalo Feast), The Blessing of Šokeboka (Feast to the Buffalo Tail), Snake Clan Origins (Snake Feast), Blessing of the Yellow Snake Chief (Snake Feast), Rattlesnake Ledge (Snake Feast), The Thunderbird (for the granting of a war weapon), Turtle's Warparty (War Weapons Feast, Warpath Feast), Porcupine and His Brothers (War Weapons Feast), Earthmaker Blesses Wagíšega (Wešgíšega) (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), Big Thunder Teaches Cap’ósgaga the Warpath (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), White Thunder's Warpath (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), The Fox-Hocąk War (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), Šųgepaga (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), The Man Whose Wife was Captured (v. 2) (Warbundle Feast, Warpath Feast), Black Otter's Warpath (Warpath Feast), Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth (Warpath Feast), Kunu's Warpath (Warpath Feast), Trickster's Warpath (Warpath Feast), The Masaxe War (Warpath Feast), Redhorn's Sons (Warpath Feast, Fast-Breaking Feast), The Girl who Refused a Blessing from the Wood Spirits (Fast-Breaking Feast), The Chief of the Heroka (Sick Offering Feast), The Dipper (Sick Offering Feast, Warclub Feast), The Four Slumbers Origin Myth (Four Slumbers Feast), The Journey to Spiritland (Four Slumbers Feast), The First Snakes (Snake Feast), Whiskey Making (Medicine Rite), Spear Shaft and Lacrosse (unspecified), Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts (unnamed).

Themes: ...

Notes

¹ Archives of Traditional Music (ATM), Indiana University, translation by William Hall, recording by Milford G. Chandler of Mark J. Green - vocals, bf. 1920, Black River Falls, Jackson County, Wisconsin. ATL no. 525.11 8742.39, Recording 35.SCY 179901:58, Collection number (collection identifier): 54-196-F, p. 38 of 87.
² Leslie A. White, Lewis Henry Morgan: The Indian Journals, 1859-1862 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1959) 68. Lance Michael Foster, "Sacred Bundles of the Ioway Indians" (1994). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations (1994) #321: 77-79.
³ Alanson Skinner, "Societies of the Iowa, Kansa, and Ponca Indians," Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, v. 2, #9 (1915): 679-740 [718]. Foster, "Sacred Bundles of the Ioway Indians," 77.
⁴ Alanson Skinner, "Traditions of the Iowa Indians," The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 38, #150. (Oct.-Dec., 1925): 425-506 [436].
⁵ Skinner, "Societies of the Iowa, Kansa, and Ponca Indians," 718. Foster, "Sacred Bundles of the Ioway Indians," 77.
⁶ Thomas N. Campbell, "Origin of the Mescal Bean Cult," American Anthropologist 60 (1958): 156-160; Richard Evans Schultes, "Antiquity of the Use of New World Hallucinogens," The Heffter Review of Psychedelic Research, v. 1 (1998): 5a.
⁷ Skinner, "Societies of the Iowa, Kansa, and Ponca Indians," 718. Foster, "Sacred Bundles of the Ioway Indians," 77.
⁸ Richard Evans Schultes and Albert Hofmann, The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens, 2nd ed. (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1980). Schultes, "Antiquity of the Use of New World Hallucinogens," 5a.
⁹ Rudolph C. Troike, "The Origins of Plains Mescalism," Anthropologist 64 (1962): 947-963 [949]; Omer C. Stewart, "Peyotism and Mescalism," Plains Anthropologist, Nov. 1980, v. 25, #90 (Nov., 1980): 297-309 [300a].
¹⁰ Schultes, "Antiquity of the Use of New World Hallucinogens," 5a.
¹¹ Harold E. Driver and William C. Massey, "Comparative Studies of North American Indians," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, v. 47, #2 (1957), 165-456 [275a].
¹² Richard Evans Schultes and Norman R. Farnsworth, "Ethnomedical, Botanical and Phytochemical Aspects of Natural Hallucinogens," Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, v. 28, #2 (June 1980): 123-214 [160]; Mohammad Izaddoost, "Alkaloid Chemotaxonomy of the Genus Sophora." Phytochemistry, 14 (1975): 203; William J. Keller, "Alkaloids from Sophora secundiflora," Phytochemistry 14 (1975): 19; Thomas A. Henry, The Plant Alkaloids (Philadelphia: P. Blakiston Sons and Co., 1924) 395; Weston La Barre, "The Peyote Cult," Yale University Publications in Anthropology, #19 (1938): 126; James H. Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," American Anthropologist, New Series, v. 59, #1 (Feb., 1957): 75-87 [75-76]; Richard Evans Schultes, Pharmacognosy, Part Five. The Pharmaceutical Sciences, 3d Lecture Series (Reprint) (1960): 138-1851 [156].
¹³ Schultes, "Antiquity of the Use of New World Hallucinogens," 5a.
¹⁴ Richard Evans Schultes, "Peyote and the Plants Used in the Peyote Ceremony," Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, Vol. 4, #8 (12 April 1937): 129-152 [145].
¹⁵ George A. Dorsey, Mythology of the Wichita. Publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, #221 (1906): 17; Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 85.
¹⁶ W. C. McKern, Winnebago Notebook (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Public Museum, 1927) 167-174 [167].
¹⁷ Douglas Brymner, "The Capture of Fort M'Kay, Prairie du Chien, in 1814," Wisconsin Historical Collections, 11 (1888) 254-270 [260, 263].
¹⁸ B. W. Brisbois, "Recollections of Prairie du Chien," Wisconsin Historical Collections, IX (1882/1909): 282-302 [300].
¹⁹ See Kinzie's Rolls for Big Green Lake.
²⁰ Augustin Grignon, "Seventy-two Years' Recollections of Wisconsin," Wisconsin Historical Collections, 3 (1857) 197-295 [288].
²¹ Skinner, "Societies of the Iowa, Kansa, and Ponca Indians," 718. Foster, "Sacred Bundles of the Ioway Indians," 77.
²² Paul Radin, "Mązeniabera," Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) #21: 1-134.
²³ Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 290-292.
²⁴ Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair, edd., Indiana's 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2015) 346. R. David Edmunds, The Shawnee Prophet (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985) 29.
²⁵ James H. Madison, Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press and the Indiana Historical Society Press, 2014) 38-39. James H. Madison and Lee Ann Sandweiss, Hoosiers and the American Story (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2013) 14.
²⁶ Thomas N. Campbell, "Origin of the Mescal Bean Cult," American Anthropologist 60 (1958): 156-160; Schultes, "Antiquity of the Use of New World Hallucinogens," 5a.
²⁷ Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 75.
²⁸ Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 76.
²⁹ Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 76-77.
³⁰ William P. Clark, The Indian Sign Language (Philadelphia, L. R. Hamsley & Co., 1885) 141; Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 77. Morris E. Opler, Myths and Legends of the Lipan Apache Indians. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, v. 36 (1940): 190 nt. 2.
³¹ Alanson Skinner, "Ethnology of the Iowa Indians," Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee, v. 5, #4 (1926): 246; Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 79.
³² James Owen Dorsey, Omaha Sociology. Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, No. 3 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1884) 351 nt. 21; "A Study of Siouan Cults," Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, No. 11 (Washington.: Government Printing Office, 1894) 416; Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 79.
³³ James Owen Dorsey, Omaha Sociology: 349.
³⁴ James Owen Dorsey, Omaha Sociology: 350.
³⁵ Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 80.
³⁶ Edwin James, James' Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-20, Part III. Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, ed. R. G. Thwaites, v. 16, (Cleveland, A. H. Clark Co., 1905) 217.
³⁷ William Whitman, "The Oto." Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, v. 27 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937): 120-121. Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 81.
³⁸ James Murie, Pawnee Societies. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, v. 11 (New York: 1914): 605-608. Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 82.
³⁹ Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 83-84.
⁴⁰ James H. Howard, "Potawatomi Mescalism and Its Relationship to the Diffusion of the Peyote Cult," Plains Anthropologist, v. 7, #16 (June, 1962): 125-135 [130a-131a].
⁴¹ Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 84.
⁴² George A. Dorsey, Mythology of the Wichita. Publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, #221 (1906): 16-17; Howard, "The Mescal Bean Cult of the Central and Southern Plains: An Ancestor of the Peyote Cult," 84-85.