Animal Worship

by Hugh Pendexter

ANIMAL WORSHIP

By HUGH PENDEXTER

AMONG the many deities of the Indians, animals, birds and crawling things had an important place. Among the Zuni, the blue coyote is the hunter god of the West. Subordinate to him are the yellow coyote of the North, the red coyote of the South and the white coyote of the East. Then there is the many-colored coyote of the upper region and the black coyote of the lower region.

The many-colored eagle is god of the upper region and subordinate to him are the white, red, blue, yellow and black eagles of the other regions. The hunter god of the North is the mountain-lion, and the Zuni color symbolism makes him yellow. Then follow the lesser lion gods in their appropriate colors. In the South the wildcat is the supreme deity of hunters, and is red, of course.

The white wolf is the god in the East, with a younger brother in each of the four cardinal regions, one also in the upper and one in the lower region. Very appropriately the mole is god of the lower region. These are the prey gods of the six regions. The priesthood of the bow worship the mountain-lion and the great white bear as their war-gods.

Point Barrow Eskimos carefully arrange the heads of seal and other marine animals before the door of their huts instead of throwing them into the sea or hurling them aside. This so as not to enrage the soul of the seal.

The Pawnee were given to star-gazing, the phenomenon of the heavens impressing them tremendously; yet their secret societies were based on their belief in supernatural animals. Grinnell says the Pawnee located five of these animal-lodges (“Pawnee Hero Stories”).

The Ojibway say animals once had the faculty of human speech but lost it after plotting the destruction of man. The plain tribes said the Milky Way was dust kicked up by the buffalo and horse that once ran across the sky. The Cherokee myths are replete with animals who talk and plot and take on human attributes.

Two of the four things which puzzled the wise man (Prov. xxx: 19) were—

“The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock.”

Among all aboriginal people the serpent has been an object of veneration or fear; the eagle a symbol of power. Thus with the American Indian. The spider, too, occupied the attention of the Indian because of his cunning in building his wigwam, his skill in planning ambushes, his art as a weaver.

Among northern tribes (the Cheyenne) the beaver was a reflection of a supernatural beaver, who was gnawing through the post upholding the world. Apologies were made to animals slain in the chase, while in some tribes certain gens or clans could not eat certain meats, the same being tabu. The bear is reverenced by the Navaho and Blackfeet.

The Hurons say the dove is the keeper of souls of the dead. Four white swans control the four cardinal points and send the winds. Tribes numbering birds among their deities include the Natchez and Creeks. The Bears had council-houses among the mountains in the Cherokee country, and magic lakes where they bathed when wounded.

The wolf was generally esteemed by the Indian. Albino animals were held sacred by many tribes.