"The Wyandot had no such conception as that expressed in the term “Great Spirit.” They used it only after their contact with white people and with the Christian religion. It was probably the term devised by the early Jesuits to convey to the Indians the idea of God. When first seen by white men, none of the Indians had such a conception as that expressed in “Great Spirit.” "
Indian Myths
Explanatory Notes
Animals. The term “Animals” as used in this book embraces only the totemic animals of the Wyandot. See article “Wyandot Government.” The Animals were supposed to have great supernatural power. They made the Great Island from the earth which fell down from Heaven with the Tree of Light. The Little Turtle made the sun, and the Mud Turtle made the Little People and their beautiful land. They composed the “Great Council.” which seems to have controlled the Lower World before the Twin Brothers were able to take over its management and go on with the creation.
Authorities. The best authority on the Huron is that series of reports known as the Jesuit Relations, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites, and published by the Burrows Brothers, Cleveland, 1898. Accounts of the Huron will be found in Volumes 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2O, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, and 57 of that great work.The one great authority on the destruction of the Huron Confederacy, the wanderings of the broken tribes, and the development of the modern tribe known as the Wyandot is The Jesuits in North America, by Francis Parkman.
City. The underground city was made by Se’ sta for a dwelling place for the Wyandot while he recreated those things destroyed in the wars between him and his wicked brother, and by the flood, fire, and the North Wind. The city was supposed to be far to the north, perhaps south of Hudson’s Bay. The Woman was placed there to send the souls of the Wyandot on to the Land of the Little People. The city was the entrance to that land. Great fires smoldered beneath it, and the surge and roar of many waters could be heard under the masses of stone about it.
Death Song. When the Indian was dying he sang his death song. If he was made fast to a stake for the purpose of torture, or if from any other cause he supposed he would immediately die, he sang his death song. Something of the nature of the song chanted by the warrior as he stood in the presence of death may be learned from the “Death Song of a Warrior,” page 59. Sometimes a prisoner quailed at the torture and died like a craven. This disgusted his enemies. If the prisoner defied his tormentors to the end and did not flinch while burning to death, his enemies regarded him with the deepest respect; they often ate the heart of such a captive to make themselves brave. In the Indian the nerves are not so sensitive as in the white people. They do not feel pain so quickly nor so intensely. The author never saw even an Indian child shed a tear from pain.
Flood. Most primitive peoples had accounts of floods which had destroyed everything on the earth. The Wyandot flood myth was almost lost at the time when these stories were collected. It had been preserved by a missionary to the Delaware, but one who knew many Wyandot Indians – the Reverend John G. Pratt, who lived at Maywood, Wyandotte County, Kansas. He supposed that it was a Delaware myth.
Great Council. This body was composed of the totemic animals of the Wyandot. See article “Wyandot Govern-ment.” The first session of the Great Council was called by the Swans to devise some place where the Woman who fell down from Heaven might live. The many things done and performed by the Great Council appear in the stories. It had the power of a god, as did each member of it.
Great Spirit. The Wyandot had no such conception as that expressed in the term “Great Spirit.” They used it only after their contact with white people and with the Christian religion. It was probably the term devised by the early Jesuits to convey to the Indians the idea of God. When first seen by white men, none of the Indians had such a conception as that expressed in “Great Spirit.”
Great Water. The ocean. Exactly what knowledge the Wyandot had of the ocean is not known. They had, no doubt, seen the Atlantic. It was supposed that the Great Water covered most of the earth in the beginning, for the Wyandot said there was only a little land when the Woman fell down, and this was composed of low-lying beaches. However, the land Animals existed on it.
Heno. The thunder god of the Wyandot, His name is written in different ways, for he was common to Iroquoian mythology. To the Wyandot, Heno was a friendly and helpful deity.
Hookies. A hookie was anyone or any thing exercising supernatural power. The priest was in a sense a hookie. The term “medicine man” is an effort to express the office and power of the hookie. Sometimes a malevolent soul was called a hookie, for such souls were supposed to exist only to work evil. Hookies were always masculine. Ookie is the feminine. A woman with magic power is an ookie.
Hoo ma’ yoo wa’ neh. The chief of the Upper World. By some, he was said to have been the father of the Twin Brothers. Others said he was their grandfather. It is not improbable that the accounts of the miraculous conception of the Brothers was the result of contact with the Christian religion. He was supposed to have possessed supreme supernatural powers.
Hoo wa’ neh. Hoo ma’ yoo wa’ neh. The name is simpli-fied for the purpose of this work.
Land of the Little People. This was the “happy hunting grounds” of the Wyandot. It was made by the Mud Turtle when she dug the passageway through the earth for the use of the sun in getting back to the east to rise on a new day. It was supposed to be the most beautiful of countries. It was supplied with an abundance of game, animals, and birds, and the streams and seas were filled with fish. The Little People were made to have charge of it for the Wyandot. When the last Wyandot has come into that land, the Woman will he with him. Then they will take charge of it, and they and the Little People will live there together forever.
Little People. It was supposed that these had been created by the Mud Turtle when she made their land as she was digging the passage for the sun to use at night. They were born only as twins, and they usually acted in pairs. There must have been male and female Little People, but only the males ever came to the surface of the earth. They had great supernatural power, and were, in fact, Wyandot gods. They were the special friends of the Wyandot and never failed to help them. They could come to the earth’s surface only through the living rock, that is, the great mass of rock in the crust of the earth. When they walked on the rock they left the imprint of their feet, or tracks. A Wyandot Quaker minister went to Big Bone Licks, in Kentucky, to see if they left tracks in the rock there when they helped kill the Witch Buffaloes. He believed he found many of their tracks in the rocks of that country, and also where they had sat down to rest. So he told the author.
Lower World. Our world was called the Lower World by the Wyandot. It is not known how long this term had been used by them for the earth.
Monsters. There seems to have remained in the memory of the North American Indians something of the prehistoric animals of their continent. The mastodon must have been here after the Indians had developed the bow and arrow. The ancestors of the Indians may have seen the great reptiles which inhabited the ancient seas and their shores. Recollec-tions of these enormous creatures entered into the myths of the Indians. Perhaps to a similar race memory in Asia is due the origin of the Chinese dragon also. It might account, too, for the Serpent of Genesis. For these prehistoric animals certainly troubled prehistoric man and were a terror to him. They were enemies and always remained enemies, in some form, even after they were extinct. In the myths they assumed various shapes and exaggerated dimensions. With the Iroquois they became Flying Heads, the great serpents living in the lakes and under the villages and causing sickness and death. Of course these monsters may have been the product of the Indian mind. Some of them certainly were. Whatever their origin may have been, they were much feared. The rivers connecting the Great Lakes were supposed to have been only the channels worn by these monsters, in crawling from one lake to another.
Ookies. The feminine hookies, See “Hookie.”
Rainbow. The Rainbow made the Bridge to the sky. This Bridge is spoken of under many names, as “Beautiful Bridge,” “Beautiful Path,” “Way of Burning Colors,” “Beautiful Burning Bridge,” etc. It is a beautiful conception. When the Bridge was made, there was also created, as a part of it, the most charming land of which the Wyandot could conceive. The Deer was admonished not to turn aside and enter this paradise. The Wyandot were permitted to live there during the flood, but not while the earth was being made again habitable by Se’ sta. Some Wyandot believe that land still exists, though not visible to mortals. They say it is just above us and causes the twilight.
Se’ sta. The form of the name of Tse’ she howngk’ chosen for use in this book. Tse’ sta would be a better form, as that is the Wyandot word for “fire,” but it is more difficult of pronunciation. See “Tse’ she howngk’.”
Ska’ reh. The diminutive of the name of Ta’ weh ska’ roongk used in this work. See “Ta’ weh ska’ roongk.”
Swans. The Swans who received the Woman who fell down from Heaven are not found in all the Iroquoian accounts of the fall. In some versions a miscellaneous assembly of aquatic birds receive her on their outspread wings. The Swans of the Wyandot account were supposed to have great supernatural power. One was stationed in the Gulf of Mexico, and the other was placed in the Arctic seas.
Ta’ weh ska’ roongk. The Evil One of the Twin Brothers born of the Woman who fell down from Heaven. He was the destructive force of nature personified. He is represented as the enemy of the Wyandot, and of other people as well. For use in this work his name is written “Ska’ reh.”
Tse’ she howngk’. The Good One of the Twin Brothers born of the Woman who fell down from Heaven. By some accounts his conception was miraculous. He is the beneficent force of nature personified. He was the guardian of the Wyandot. Some of them believed he was their creator. Perhaps all of them had at one time believed that. He was in the process of development when the white men first saw the Wyandot, and if they had ever come to a belief in a single god. Tse’ she howngk’would have been the one selected. For (he purpose of this book his name is written “Se’ sta.”
Tree of Light. This is a beautiful conception. It was common to the Iroquois. See the writings of Dr. J. N. B. Hewett, of the Bureau of Ethnology, for the best account of it. There were many versions of the fall of the Woman among ,the older Wyandot. In some versions the Tree was the wild apple tree, the common wild crab apple of North America.
Underground City. See “City.”
Upper World. Wyandot cosmology separated the universe into a series of world, one lying directly above another. The Upper World was the center of this universe. There was a second Upper World immediately above it. The Lower World was the first below it. The Land of the Little People was sometimes regarded as a second Lower World. By some it was said to be entirely detached from the Lower World.
Wise Men. A group of the elders of the tribe. They told the stories to Mr. Connelley. Often there were women in the group. Sometimes the meetings were at the homes of the Indians. But no occasion was neglected. The members of the tribe were consulted wherever found.
Woman. The Woman who fell down from Heaven occupies a large space in the creation myths of the Wyandot, and also of other Iroquoian tribes. In some accounts of her, nothing is said of the miraculous conception of her Twin Sons. The stories of the manner of her falling through the sky do not agree. Neither do the versions of her life and her offices after the fall have any substantial agreement. Some tribes say that a daughter was first born to her, and that the Twin Brothers were born of this daughter. By the Wyandot she was placed in the city which is the entrance to the Land of the Little People.
