Iroquois Supernatural: Talking Animals and Medicine People

333 Pages·2011·2.11 MB·English

by  Bastine

Contents

Title Page
Introduction: The Iroquois Supernatural—Reaching Beyond the Sacred
Chapter 1—The Longhouse Folk
The Iroquois
Origins
The League of Six Nations
The Longhouse
The Nations
Iroquois Languages
Iroquois Religious Influences
Into the Woods
Chapter 2—The Witches’ Craft
Iroquois Witches
Two Kinds of Witches
Spotting a Witch
Getting to the Root of the Hex
Arthur C. Parker on Witchcraft
Onondaga Witches
Mary Jemison on Witchcraft
The Heart of a Black Bird
Witch Bones
A Witch’s Bag
The Witch John Jemison
Two Seneca Witch Trials
Kauquatau
Witch Children
Chapter 3—The Witches’ Torch
Witch Lights
Anomalous Light Phenomena
The Hills of Rochester
The Lights of Oswego Bitter
Indian Hill
Train Tracks and Witch Lights
The Hill of Dead Witches
Onondaga Witch Lights
A Metaphysical Contract
Ghostly Walks and Phantom Hosts
Joe Bruchac on Witch Lights
Chapter 4—Medicine People
An Aura of the Spirit
Bear and Ted
Witch Doctors
Diviners of Mysteries
Herbs and Healings
The Seventh Son
Medicine Bags
Sabael and the Medicine Beads
For the Unborn Children
Mad Bear’s Method of Reading
Weapons of Friendship
House Clearings
Chapter 5—The False Faces
The Medicine Mask Society
The Headman of the Faces
Doctors and Doorkeepers
Beggars and Thieves
Opening the Eyes
Masks and Museums
Two Healers and the Masks
Other Masked Healers
Unmasked Healers
The Call of the Masks
The Good Crop
Power People
Ted Williams’s Tales of the False Faces
Chapter 6—Supernatural War
Directed Curses
Calling the Ancestors
The Liver Tree Curse
The Dust Devil of Boughton Hill
The Curse of the Bones
Signs of Supernatural War
Chapter 7—Power Spaces
Witches’ Walk
Hill of the Crows
Green Lake
Squakie Hill
Fort Hill and Bluff Point
The Valley of Madness
The Hill and the Stone
Kinzua
The Great Falls
Snake Hill
The Angel’s Mountain
Taughannock Falls
Lost Nation
The Dale
Lake Eldridge
High Rock Spring
The Great Hill
The Seneca National Creation Tale
Ring of Honor
Chapter 8—The Supernatural Zoo
The Celts and the Iroquois
The Fearsome Foursome
The Stone Giants
The Great Flying Heads
The Vampire Corpse
Super Serpents
The Thunderers
The Monster Bear
High Hat
The Legs
The Mischief Maker
Longnose
The Giant Mosquito
The Witch Hawk
The Servers
The Evil-Soul Gatherer
The Underground Buffalo
White Deer of the Genesee
Chapter 9—Talking Animals
Special Animals
Witch and Shape-Shifter
Changelings
Shape-Shifters
Altered Animals
Animal Clans
The Tender of the Flame
The Animals Talking
The Songs of the Dogs
Chapter 10—The Little People
The Wee Folk
Three Nations
Imparting a Ritual
Nineteenth-Century Little People
Two Nations
The Fairy Fishers
The Second Nation
Lanes of the Little People
The Djogao Skull
Fairy Trees
Chapter 11—The Land of the Elders
The Old Spirits
Five Iroquois Motifs
The Haunted Battlefield
Rogers Island
The Darkness on the Hill
The Wailing Spirits
The Ontario County Courthouse
The Kicking Chief of Cooperstown
The Five Ghosts of Red Jacket
The Tonawanda Presbyterian
Haunted Roads
Delaware Avenue
Black Nose Springs Road
The Forbidden Trail
13 Curves
West Road
Route 5
The Spirit World
I Feel My Friends Here
Bloody Mary
The Chief of the Blue Heron
The Land of the Elders
The Spirit Choirs
Footnote
Bibliography
About the Authors
About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
Books of Related Interest
Copyright & Permissions
Approximate Positions of Today’s Cities

1. Niagara Falls

2. Rochester

3. Syracuse

4. Oneida

5. Saratoga Springs

6. Canadaigua

7. Auburn

8. Buffalo

9. Albany

10. Ithaca
11. Jamestown

12. Salamanca

13. Elmira

14. Binghamton