CHAPTER ri. 



DEFINITIONS 

 ALLEGED BELIEF IN A GREAT SPIRIT. 



§ 4. It lias been asserted for several huudred years that the North 

 Americau ludian was a believer lii one Great Spirit prior to the com- 

 ing of the white race to this continent, and that, as he was a monothe- 

 ist, it was an easy matter to convert him to Christianity. Indians have 

 been represented as speaking of " The Great Spirit," "The Master of 

 Life," etc., as if the idea of the one and only God \\as familiar to our 

 aborigines during the pre-Columbian period. 



While the author is unwilling to commit himself to a general denial 

 of this assertion, he has been forced to conclude that it needs consid- 

 erable modification, at least so far as it refers to the tribes of the 

 Siouan stock. (See §§ 7,15,21-43, 72-79,92-9!»,311, 312,322-326,341-310.) 



On close investigation it will be found that in many cases Indians 

 have been quick to adopt the phrases of civilization in communicating 

 with white people, but in speaking to one another they use their 

 own terms. The student of the uncivilized races must ever be on his 

 guard against leading questions and their answers. The author has 

 leariuHl by experience that it is safer to let the Indian tell his own 

 story in his own words than to endeavor to question him in such a 

 manner as to reveal what answers arc desired or expected. 



§ 5. In 1883 the author published an article on "The Eeligion of the 

 Omahas and Ponkas," in The American Antiquarian of Chicago. 

 Since then he has obtained additional data, furnishing him with many 

 undesigned coincidences, which lead him to a broader view of the sub- 

 ject. 



PHENOMENA DIVIDED INTO HUMAN AND SUPERHUMAN. 



§ C. In considering the subject from an Indian's point of view, one 

 must avoid speaking of the supernatural as distinguished from the nat- 

 ural. It is safer to divide phenomena as they appear to the Indian 

 mind into the human and the superhuman, as many, if not most natural 

 phenomena are mysterious to the ludian. Nay, even man himself may 

 become mj-sterious by fasting, prayer, and vision. 



One fruitful source of error has been a misunderstanding of ludian 



terms and phrases. It is very important to attempt to settle the exact 



meanings of certain native words and phrases ere we proceed further 



with the consideration of the subject. 



365 



