Wood Spirits are generally so-called because they inhabit unusually large or powerful looking trees, especially if they stand alone. [1] The Hočąk name for a Wood Spirit is Wakąčųna [2], which means, "The One Who Possesses Waką" [3], where waką is understood as a kind of supernatural power or "holiness." They take on the material form of a black animal about the size of a cat, with a round face, and glimmering, piercing eyes. [4] "When seen at night, they appear to have fire in their eyes." [5] Menaige, ca. 1850, described them as "little animals on four legs, just like a cat, with little horns on them." [6] A Wood Spirit has so much waką that if it merely thinks of someone, that person will fall ill; and if a Wood Spirit's gaze falls upon someone, that person is destined to suffer misfortune. Anyone who actually sees a Wood Spirit is very likely to die. Merely seeing one in a dream will presage some great calamity. Nevertheless, the ordinary offerings of tobacco and red feathers are usually enough to propitiate them. [7]

The Chief of the Wak'aįčųna, like Disease-Giver, has a body divided into two parts, from one side he delivers Life, from the other he dispenses Death. The Chief of the Wood Spirits had been created by Earthmaker himself, and dwells in a subterranean spirit abode. Like Waterspirits, implements can be made from his body. He once visited a girl during her puberty fast and offered her a blessing, but her father told her to refuse it. She gave him offerings anyway, and

Then the woman looked toward the lake and she saw a tree standing in the water. The spirit climbed upon this tree and wrapped himself around it. Then he took a tooth and shot the tree and knocked it down. "This is what you would have been able to do," said the spirit. "The people would have respcted you very much. You would have been able to cure weak or nervous people. But you did not listen to what I told you. You refused it." [8]

Thus the Chief of the Wood Spirits also possesses great powers of healing as well as his more infamous powers that pose such a danger to the unwary. It was apparently the Chief of the Wood Spirits who blessed one of the ancients of the Medicine Rite. He was created by Earthmaker with much power over life, and he granted a man the ability to use this power to save a people's lives. He also gave him a Completion Song that was like the very appearance of his breath on earth whenever it was sung. This song is used yet today in the Medicine Rite. [9]

The immense supernatural power of the Twins was demonstrated by their ability to kill one of these spirits. They were warned by their father not to go to a certain stand of trees, but they paid no attention to his warning. There Stump spotted a Wood Spirit, which he claimed was nothing but a squirrel. No doubt using its supernatural power, the Wood Spirit, called "a tree-dweller" (nočiją), "did something to them" (wažą waišpą´). Just the same, Stump chased it to the top of the tree and threw it to the ground. There they killed it with great difficulty. They brought it back to their father, reminding him of how delicious "squirrels" taste, but he recognized it immediately and commanded the boys to take it to the wilderness and offer it tobacco as an expression of contrition. [10] Thunderbirds are also of such great power that they can hunt "tree-dwellers" as ordinary game animals. [11]

When a Wood Spirit assumes human form, it will typically dress in black. One nearly killed a hunter by simply grasping his hand. [12] In what may be a parody of Wood Spirits, Trickster once saw a man dressed in black pointing at him from across a lake, so he dressed in black himself and pointed back. He soon tired of this and went on his way, but when he looked back, he saw that it was a stump with a branch extending from its side. [13]

Links: Tree Spirits, Spirits, Trickster, Earthmaker.

Stories: about Wood Spirits (Wakąčųna): Visit of the Woodspirit, The Girl who Refused a Blessing from the Wood Spirits, The Completion Song Origin, The Twins Disobey Their Father, v. 2; mentioning trees or Tree Spirits: The Creation of the World, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Children of the Sun, The Boy who would be Immortal, The Commandments of Earthmaker, The Woman who Became a Walnut Tree, The Old Woman and the Maple Tree Spirit, The Pointing Man, The Abduction and Rescue of Trickster, The Baldness of the Buzzard, Trickster Eats the Laxative Bulb, Trickster Loses His Meal, The Journey to Spiritland (v. 2), Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, Waruǧápara, The Chief of the Heroka, The Red Man, The Shell Anklets Origin Myth, The Annihilation of the Hočągara I, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Spirit of Gambling, Peace of Mind Regained, The Necessity for Death.

Themes: someone is confronted by a man dressed completely in black: The Pointing Man, Turtle's Warparty.

Notes

[1] Fanny D. Bergen, "Some Customs and Beliefs of the Winnebago Indians," The Journal of American Folk-Lore, 9 (1896): 52-53.

[2] Thomas Foster, Foster's Indian Record and Historical Data (Washington, D. C.: 1876-1877) vol. 1, #2, p. 3, coll. 2-3.

[3] The second part of the compound seems to be the word čų, which means "to possess, have; many, plenty; to give birth to." Mary Carolyn Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago: An Analysis and Reference Grammar of the Radin Lexical File (Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, December 14, 1968 [69-14,947]) 199, sv čų; 409, sv. waką. The variant wakaį´čųna also exists in Jasper Blowsnake, "Waretcawera," in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks, Freeman #3850, #3896, #3897 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Notebook 67, p. 14.

[4] Bergen, "Some Customs and Beliefs of the Winnebago Indians," 52-53.

[5] Jasper Blowsnake, "Waretcawera," in Radin, Notebook 67, note by Radin at the top of p. 36.

[6] Foster, Foster's Indian Record, vol. 1, #2, p. 3, coll. 2-3. Radin in a note also describes them as being like a cat — Jasper Blowsnake, "Waretcawera," in Radin, Notebook 67, p. 36.

[7] Bergen, "Some Customs and Beliefs of the Winnebago Indians," 52-53. See also Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 254-256. Radin says, "If they are seen they cause the person seeing them to become sick." Jasper Blowsnake, "Waretcawera," in Radin, Notebook 67, note on p. 36.

[8] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 254-256.

[9] Paul Radin, The Road of Life and Death: A Ritual Drama of the American Indians. Bollingen Series V (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973 [1945]) 136-137. The original interlinear MS is found in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Winnebago III, #1: 103-104; a handwritten phonetic text is found at Winnebago II, #1: 128-129; its typed version is at Winnebago II, #5: 135-136.

[10] Jasper Blowsnake, "Waretcawera," in Paul Radin, Notebook 67, p. 14.

[11] Paul Radin, "The Dipper," Winnebago Notebooks, Freeman #3850, #3896, & #3897 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) Notebooks #50: 149-150.

[12] Bergen, "Some Customs and Beliefs of the Winnebago Indians," 52-53.

[13] Paul Radin, The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology (New York: Schocken Books, 1956) 13-14.