CHAPTER V. 



DAKOTA AND ASSINIBOIN CULTS. 

 ALLEGED DAKOTA BELIEF IN A GREAT SPIKIT. 



§ 92. That the Dakota tribes, before the advent of the white race, 

 believed iu one Great Spirit, has been asserted by several writers; but 

 it can not be proved. On the contrarj-, even those writers who are 

 quoted iu this study as stating the Dakota belief in a Great Spirit, 

 also tell us of beliefs iu many spirits of evil. Among the earlier writ- 

 ers of this class is Say, who observes : 



Their Waliconda seems to be a protean god; he is supposed to appear to dilierent 

 persous under diifereut forms. All who are favored with his presence become medi- 

 cine men and magicians in consequence of their having seen and conversed with 

 Wahcouda, and of having received from him some particular medicine of wondrous 

 efficacy. 



Tlie same writer records that "Wahcouda" appeared sometimes as 

 a grizzly bear, sometimes as a bison, at others as a beaver, or an owl, 

 or some other bird or animal.' It is plain that Say mistook the generic 

 term, " Wahconda," for a specific one. (See §§ 6, 21-24.) 



Shea says : 



Although polytheism did not exist, although they all recognized one Supreme 

 Being, the creator of all, • * • they nowhere adored the God whom they knew. 

 * * * The demons with which they peopled nature, these alone, in their fear they 

 sought to appease. » • » Pure unmixed devil-worship prevailed throughout the 

 length and breadth of the land.'^ 



§ 93. Lynd made some very pertinent remarks: 



A stranger coming among the Dakotas for the first time, and observing the endless 

 variety of objects upon which they bestow their devotion, and the mauif(dd forms 

 which that worship as.sumes, at once pronounces them pantheists. A further ac- 

 quaintance with them convinces him that they are pantheists of no ordinary kind — 

 that their pantheism is negative as well as positive, and that the engraftments of 

 religion are even more numerous than the true branches. Upon a superficial glance 

 he sees naught but an inextricable maze of gods, demons, spirits, beliefs and counter- 

 beliefs, earnest devotion and reckless skepticism, prayers, sacrifices, and sneers, 

 winding and intermingling with one another, until a labyrinth of pantheism and 

 skepticism results, and the Dakota, with all his infinity of deities appears a creature 

 of irreligion. One speaks of the medicine dance with respect, while another smiles 

 .at the name — one makes a religion of the raw fish feast, while another stands by and 

 laughs at his performance — and others, listening to the supposed revelations of the 



'Say. iu James's At-coaut nf Lung's Exped. Rocky Mta., Vo). I, 268. 

 ^Shea, Amer. Catli. miaaions, p 25. 



431 



