2 Virginia Shropshire Heath 



limited number of Indian linguistic stocks.^ The interplay of 

 tribal influences presents complications enough in any of the re- 

 ligious types known among the American Indians north of Mex- 

 ico. The type represented by the pueblo, the great plains, and 

 eastern woodland peoples, alone affords dramatic material of 

 enormous proportions. In defining this type Dr. Boas^ says : 



The principal characteristic of the mythologies of the area of the 

 great plains, the eastern woodlands, and the arid southwest is the 

 tendency to a systematization of the myths under the influence of 

 a highly developed ritual. 



In this great religious attempt at the rationalization of the uni- 

 verse and its powers is sounded the keynote of the more distinctly 

 human institution, dramatic art, the basic function of which is an 

 explanation of and a judgment upon human events and human 

 destinies. 



Within the confines of this one type arise differentiations that 

 tend to segregate the pueblo type of ceremonial from that of the 

 plains and the eastern woodlands. Among the former, the idea 

 of dramatic action has progressed so far as to subordinate the 

 ritual side of the ceremonial, while among the latter the predomi- 

 nance of the ritual leaves comparatively small scope for the dis- 

 play of action. Thus, according to Mr. Miller's interpretation^ 

 of the essentials of the drama — namely, speech and action — within 

 the confines of this one type of religious ceremonial appear two 

 separate and distinct sorts of treatment. The pueblo perform- 

 ance would tend to degenerate into pantomime; the plains and 

 eastern woodland ceremonial might relapse into lyric or epic re- 

 citals. But this condition of affairs is in no sense necessary. The 



^ Iroquoian — Seneca, Onondaga Huron; Algonqtiian — Ojibwa, Arapaho, 

 Cheyenne; Sioiian — Dakota, Omaha, Winnebago; Caddoan — Pawnee; 

 Shoshonean — Hopi (Pueblo) ; Athapascan — Navajo. For geographical 

 distribution, especially of last four stocks named, see map of linguistic 

 families of North America — Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, 

 Part I, Washington, 1906. 

 2 Bureau of American Ethnology, Bui. 30, art. "Religion." 

 ^ Miller, Dramatic Elements in Popular Ballad; University Studies, Uni- 

 versity of Cincinnati, 1905. 



