While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Dreams and Visions. Most revelations of what was regarded
by the Indians as coming from the supernatural powers were believed to be
received in dreams or visions. Through them were bestowed on man magical
abilities and the capacity to foresee future events, to control disease, and to
become able to fill the office of priest or of leader. It was the common belief
of the Indians that these dreams or visions must be sought through the
observance of some rite involving more or less personal privation; an exception
is found in the Mohave who believe that the dream seeks the individual, corning
to him before birth, or during infancy, as well as in mature life. In general
the initiation of a man s personal relations to the unseen through dreams and
visions took place during the fast which occurred at puberty, and the thing seen
at that time became the medium of supernatural help and knowledge, and in some
tribes determined his affiliations. It was his sacred object. It had no
reference to his kindred, but was strictly personal in its efficacy, and he
painted it on his person or his belongings as a prayer for assistance a call for
help in directing his actions. Any dream of ordinary sleep in which this object
appeared had meaning for him and its suggestions were heeded. Men with a natural
turn of mind toward the mysterious frequently became shamans and leaders in
rites which dealt with the occult. Such persons, from the time of their first
fast, cultivated their ability to dream and to have visions; the dreams came
during natural sleep, the visions during an ecstasy when the man was either
wholly or partially unconscious of his surroundings. It was generally believed
that such men had power to bring or to avert disaster through direct
communication with the unseen.
Many of the elaborate ceremonies ob served among the tribes were said to have
been received through visions, the actual performance following faithfully in
detail the prefiguration of the vision. So, too, many of the shrines and their
contents were believed to have been supernaturally bestowed in a vision upon
some one person whose descendants were to be the hereditary keepers of the
sacred articles. The time for the performance of rites connected with a shrine,
and also other ceremonies, frequently depended on an intimation received in a
dream.
The dreams of a man filling an important position, as the leader of a war party,
were often regarded as significant, especially if he had carried with him some
one of the sacred tribal objects as a medium of supernatural communication. This
object was supposed to speak to him in dreams and give him directions which
would insure safety and success. Fore casting the future was deemed possible by
means of artificially induced visions. The skin of a freshly killed animal, or
one that had been well soaked for the purpose, was wound around the neck of a
man until the gentle pressure on the veins caused insensibility, then in a
vision he saw the place toward which his party was going and all that was to
take place was prefigured. In some tribes a skin kept for this special purpose
was held sacred and used for divining by means of an induced vision. Some
Indians employed plants, as the peyote, or mescal button, for like purposes.
That the spirit left the body and traveled independently, and was able to
discern objects distant both in time and space, was believed by certain tribes;
others thought that the vision came to the man as a picture or in the form of a
complete dramatic ceremony.
The general belief concerning dreams and visions seems to have been that the
mental images seen with closed eyes were not fancies but actual glimpses of the
un seen world where dwelt the generic types of all things and w r here all
events that were to take place in the visible world were determined and
prefigured.
Consult Fletcher in 22d Rep. B. A. E., 1903; Kroeberin Am. Anthrop.,
iv, no. 2, 1902; Mooney in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 1896. (A.C.P.)
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
