1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 237 



Woodland area is in the case of the Iroquois. Here was a people with a 

 strong agricultural complex with an accompanying emphasis on planting, 

 harvesting, and fertility in their religious ceremonies. While one important 

 ceremonial. The False-face, had curing as its primary function, the religious 

 calendar of the Iroquois was essentially focused on a series of what Morgan 

 terms "thanksgiving festivals." Although a true priesthood did not exist, 

 there was a class of lay "priests," the "Keepers of the Faith" who conducted 

 the religious observances. While shamans did exist and practice, they were 

 not the dominant influence in the tribe. In short, the Iroquois cannot be 

 considered as at all typical for the Northern Tradition. In fact, there is 

 much more reason for placing them in the Southern Tradition. The answer 

 seems to be that the Iroquois, in their relatively late migration from the 

 Southeast, brought with them the essentials of the Southern Tradition and 

 modified them to some extent en route or in their northern home. 



THE PLAINS AREA 



While the MacKenzie and Woodland areas fall rather neatly into the 

 Northern Tradition hypothesis, the situation is not so simple for the Plains 

 Indians. The Plains, in fact, seems to be the meeting place for the two tra- 

 ditions, and even with this in mind it is not an easy task to assign tribes to 

 one of the hypothetical categories. It is apparent that by late prehistoric 

 times an agricultural complex had already dominated the Plains and was in 

 the process of being replaced in importance by the development of a new 

 tradition involving a nomadic type of life based on communal hunting of 

 the buffalo and encompassing a strong and unique war complex. Some of 

 the residue agriculturalists like the Arikara and Pawnee can be readily as- 

 signed to the Southern Tradition. Associated with the Pawnee agricultural 

 economy were elaborate religious rites involving the fertility theme. "Maize, 

 which was regarded as a sacred gift, was called 'mother' and religious 

 ceremonies were connected with its planting, hoeing, and harvesting ... A 

 series of ceremonies relative to the bringing of life and its increase began 

 with the first thunder in the spring and culminated at the summer solstice 

 in human sacrifice, but the series did not close until the maize, called 

 'mother corn' was harvested." (Fletcher, p. 21?.) An active priesthood ex- 

 isted. While buffalo hunting was practiced by the Pawnee, and secret soci- 

 eties performed curative rites, the agricultural fertility complex dominated 



