ANALYTICAL RECAPITLTLATION 



ORIGIX AND GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTIOlSr OF THE 



CEREMONY 



AVliere tlie Hako ceremony originated and through how many gen- 

 erations it has come down to tlie present time it may lie impossible 

 ever to determine. Even a partial knowledge of its geogi'ai)hic dis- 

 tribution upon our continent would demand an archeologic and 

 historical research too extended to be attempted at this time. How- 

 e\er, a few facts may be stated. 



From the Journal of Marquette, giving an account of his voyage of 

 discovery in 1672, it is learned that the saci-ed symbols, the feathered 

 stems, were held in honor by tribes belonging to the Algonquian, 

 Siouan, and Caddoan linguistic stocks dwelling in the Mississippi 

 valley from the Wisconsin to the Arkansas. 



Marquette calls the feathered stem a "calumet" and his descrip- 

 tion of its ceremonj', which he saw among the Illinois, due allowance 

 being made for his lack of intimate acquaintance with native religious 

 cu.stoms, indicates that the ceremony as he saw it over two hundred 

 years ago in a tribe that no longer exists differs little from the same 

 ceremony as observed within the last twenty years in the Omaha tribe. 

 He says of this "calumet" that it is "the most mysterious thing in the 

 world. The scepters of our kings are not so miich respected, for the 

 Indians have such a reverence for it that one may call it the god of 

 peace and war, and the arbiter of life and death. . . . One with 

 this calumet may venture among his enemies, and in the hottest battles 

 they lay down their arms before the sacred pipe. The Illinois presented 

 me with one of them which was very useful to us in our voyage." 



That the feathered stem was recognized over so large a part of the 

 great Mississippi valley and among so many tribes differing in lan- 

 guage and customs indicates considerable antiquity for its rites, as 

 mucli time would have been required for so wide an acceptance and 

 practice of the ceremou}'. 



As observed among the Pawnees, there is evidence not only that 

 the ceremony is old, but that it has been built upon still older founda- 

 tions, and has beeu modified in the process of time to adapt it to 

 changed conditions of environment. For example, the substitution 

 of the bulfalo for the deer and the transference of songs, iis that 

 formally sung to the mesa while on the journey, which is now sung 

 within the lodge. 



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