Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma

Indian Myths

Religion of the Wyandot

Many students believe that the North American Indians originated in Asia, and that they are of the Mongolian race; also, that science may determine that they came into America from the north in some geologic age when the Asiatic and American continents were still joined. It has been held that there is a possibility that the original scat of the Mongolian race was in America. None of these contentions is capable of complete and satisfactory proof.

The religious conceptions of the Wyandot are modifications of those held in common by Iroquoian families. Students believe it probable that the Huron were the parent stock of the Iroquoian peoples. The basis of their religion was a deification and personification of the great forces of nature. The twin sons born of the woman who fell down from Heaven were but heat and cold in their effects on the world. The Good One was the sun, the cause of vegetable life and the preserver of animal life by producing food. The Evil One was cold, the destroyer of vegetable life and incidentally of animal life. Their names, even, indicate this. The Good One was Tse’ seh-howngk’ – Fire, or Man of Fire. The Evil One was Ta' weh-ska' roongk – Flint, or Man of Flint, or Man or Ice, or Man of Stone. These Brothers were but the opposing forces of nature endowed with life and put actively into the affairs of men. All other religious conceptions of these people grew out of these basic ones.

The principal characters in the creation were:

1. Hoo-ma’ yoo-wa’ neh, the ruler of the Upper World and the second Upper World. The Lower World was also a part of his realm.

2. The wife of Hoo-ma’ yoo-wa’ neh. the Woman who fell down from Heaven. and mother of the Twin Brothers. She is the recognition and the representative of the mother principle in nature.

3. The Great Council. This was composed of the totemic animals of the Wyandot. The sessions of the body – even the first session – were attended by other animals. These totemic animals were twelve in number in the Wyandot tribe – one for each clan. The clan was supposed to be descended from a first or supernatural animal of that species, who could and often did assume the form of man and had the power of a god. This was the latest conception on this subject. There was a time when the Wyandot believed they had been created by Hoo-ma’ yoo-wa’ neh or some other agency in the Upper World. When that was their belief they supposed that Tse’ seh-howngk’ had brought them down into this Lower World by permission of Hoo-ma’ yoo-wa’ neh. Much of what students called inconsistency in the cosmology of Indian tribes came from finding in their beliefs persistent fragments of older beliefs not generally held by the people and which had been replaced in the common mind. The mythology of the Wyandot was full of these inconsistencies.

4. The Twin Brothers were born on the Great Island, of the Woman who fell down from Heaven. Some of the Wyan-dot believed they were the sons of Hoo-ma’ yoo-wa’ neh, and some believed they were his grandsons. The prevailing belief, however, was that they were the result of a conception worked by the flowers from the Tree of Light eaten by the Woman. And this idea may have been the result of contact with the Christian religion.

The manner of the creation is substantially told in the stories in the text of this work.

In. the Lower World the Twin Brothers were troubled by the monsters inhabiting it before they were born into it. They had various forms, but usually that of the snake with some modification. Ta' weh-ska' roongk also made many wicked monsters to plague the Wyandot.

The “happy hunting grounds” of the Wyandot were the Land of the Little People. All Wyandot were supposed to go there after death. That delightful land was made by the Mud Turtle when she dug the hole through the Great Island for the use of the sun at night. The entrance to the Land of the Little People was the underground city built by Tse’ seh-howngk’ in which the Wyandot lived while the Lower World was being again made ready for habitation. It was the office of the Woman who fell down from Heaven to keep this city and to provide each soul two torches for use on the terrible way to the Land of the Little People. These torches seem to have been the gift of Heno. At least, they were made from his fire, the lightning, for there was a close association of Heno with the Woman in all the mythology of the Wyandot. He was sent with her to protect her when she fell down from Heaven. In the stories of the text there are many references to the underground city, and the “Death Song of a Warrior," page 59, gives an account of the entire journey to the Land of the Little People. The doves got their beautiful white plumage smoked at the gate there, and in other stories souls are found at the entrance to this strange city.

Like other tribes, the Wyandot had priests, or medicine men. These medicine men were adepts in the matters of deceit and duplicity, but they suffered no diminution of prestige because of these practices. They were supposed to be able to cure diseases, especially acute diseases. The drum was an instrument of much potency in the exorcisms undertaken. The theory held concerning disease was that it was caused by an evil spirit which had entered the patient. How to get this spirit to quit the sick person without giving it offense was the object of the medicine man. To accomplish this he beat the drum, danced and sang. He sometimes pinched, slapped, and even wounded the patient. He did not hesitate to affirm that the spirit had taken the form of a frog or other animal. To make it appear that he was successful in his exorcisms he would, after sucking the throat of the sick man, spit out a frog or small snake, which of course, he had concealed in his mouth for this deception. Other practices of like character were resorted to. Sometimes feasts were made. A portion of the food was put upon a shelf for the spirit which was making the person sick. The spirit was exhorted to leave the patient, take the food, and go its way. This was the Ghost Feast. For wounds and injuries, simple formulas were used, as in the story of “The Bears of Red Mountain,” page 90.

The priests or medicine men performed many functions aside from attendance on the sick. Very little was undertaken without consulting them. They were in charge of the feasts and dances. In time of calamity their services were always in demand. If sickness broke out, the priests were consulted. They immediately sought the cause. Sometimes they saw, in their divinations, a monster living far down in the earth under the village. It was afflicting the people, causing them to die that it might devour the dead bodies. Then in consternation the people would flee and set up the town on another site. This belief was not confined to the Huron. It prevailed south to the Gulf of Mexico. Tallahassee, Florida, is located on the site of a Creek village vacated for that reason, such a site being called “Tallahassee” by the Creeks, It was a monster of this sort which caused the Horseshoe at Niagara Falls. It was killed in Lake Ontario. Its body floated down and lodged on the Falls. So great was its weight that it broke down the rock over which the water poured, and this made the Horseshoe Falls. Or this is the way in which the Iroquois account for it.

Any person or any thing having supernatural power, or supposed to possess it, was called by the general name of hookie, Or, if of the feminine gender, it was an ookie, The lore of the Huron was filled with accounts of hookies and their doings, There might be good as well as bad hookies, but most of them were considered to be vengeful and malicious, The Wyandot had special deities. There were the god of war, the god of dreams, a god of nature, and other minor deities. They were to be propitiated rather than worshiped.

There were many feasts, such as the Strawberry Feast, which was celebrated when the wild strawberries were ripe The Green Corn Feast was the most important feast of the year. Many tribal rites and ceremonies were performed at the Green Corn Feast. Proper names were then given the children born during the year prior to that important event. In a Wyandot village, in a time of plenty, there were always dinners and feasts given by individuals, to which guests were invited. At some ceremonial feasts a guest was by custom obliged to eat all the food given him by the host. What a hardship this was may be imagined when it is known that as much as half a deer was sometimes put in the wooden bowl of a guest, If he could not eat it all, he was permitted to hire some one to eat it for him.

There were many dances celebrated by the Wyandot. All feasts and ceremonials involved dancing. There were the war dance, the snake dance, the dances of the various animals and birds. There were anniversary dances of various kinds, and there was a great annual tribal dance. Dancing was always to the music of the small drum, accompanied by rattles made of deer hoofs. Or it might be of some other form – the gourd rattle, the turtle rattle, or the rattle made of fragments of bone or horn strung together. To the rhythm of music and their own movements, all the dancers sang throughout the entire time of the performance, and often those not dancing sang also. Many of the dancers wore costumes considered appropriate to the occasion – grotesque or otherwise. In bird and animal dances these costumes were designed to make them appear as the animal or bird represented. And the cries of the animal or bird were constantly imitated.

Back to the index

Back to the top