217 SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND SHAMANISM: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC RECONSTRUCTION William S. Simmons University of California, Berkeley Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) 218 INTRODUCTION This paper is a portrayal of the shamanistic world view among the Algonquian people of southern New England in the period between the first Puritan arrivals in 1620 and the final Christian conversion of the New England Indian remnants during the Great Awakening in 1742. The groups included are from north to south, the Massachusett, Pokanoket (Wampanoag), Nauset, Narragansett, Eastern Niantic, Pequot, and Mohegan, all of whom were related through marriage, trade, language, and culture. In selecting evidence I have concentrated primarily upon the writings of seventeenth and eighteenth century Englishmen who lived and travelled in New England. I have consulted also seventeenth century and later accounts of Algonquian people around the periphery of the southern New England area, and accounts of cultures within the area which were written at a later date. First I will present my interpretation of the cultural and social context of shamanism and then describe what I consider to be the shaman's distinctive powers and functions. I Cautantowwit (Kytan) New England was alive with deities, known as manitos. These included gods of woman, man, children, animal species, the sun, moon, fire, water, sea, snow, earth, directions, seasons, winds, houses, sky, corn, and colors (Eliot and Hayhew 1834:201-202) (Gookin 1970:20) (Thorowgood 1650:6) (Trumbull 1870:337-342) (Williams 1874:88; 1936:124-125). According to Narragansett mythology, Cautantowwit, the southwest deity, Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) 219 created man and woman of a stone but disliked his first creation and made them a second time of wood. They believed this second couple to be the ancestors of all mankind—until the arrival of the English when they concluded that, "... English-mans God made English Men, and the heavens and Earth there! yet their Gods made them and the Heaven, and Earth where they dwell" (Williams 1936:123). They communicated with Cautantowwit known among the Pakanoket and Massachusett as Kytan, by means of sacrifice, prayers, and praise, but he was not known in person by the living. Edward Winslow wrote that among the Pokanoket, "At first, they say, there was no sachim or king, but Kiehtan, who dwelleth above in the heavens .... Never man saw this Kiehtan; only old men tell of him ..." (Winslow 1841:356). Hobbamock (Chepi) All persons, whether sachems or commoners had access to most other spirits through dreams and visions, which they pondered and carefully heeded. Dreams in my classification occur while the person is asleep and visions occur while awake. I have been unable to determine whether this distinction reflects native categories. Visions were reported to be spontaneous and induced, and both kinds were experienced privately by individuals as well as collectively by more than one person at a time. The principal deity who appeared was Hobbamock (Abbomacho), who was identical apparently with the spirit known as Chepi (Cheepie, Chepian). The latter name was related to words for death, the departed, and the cold northeast wind (Josselyn 1833:300) (Trumbull 1903:22-23). Into his "... deformed likeness they conceived themselves to be translated Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) 220 when they died; for the same word they have for Devil, they use also for a Dead Han ..." (Eliot and Hayhew 1834:202). Hobbamock was associated with the color black and was seen often at night in the shapes of persons, animals, inanimate objects, and mythical creatures. His appearance was startling and terrifying (Eliot and Mayhew 1834:202) (Josselyn 1833:300) (Winthrop I, 1825:254) (Wood 1865:86). "He appears not to all," wrote Edward Winslow, but to ". the chiefest and most judicious amongst them; though all of them strive to attain to that hellish height of honor" (Winslow 1841:357). Pniese The pniese was a person who attained a particular vision of Hobbamock in an ordeal. This status is attested in the Massachusett and Pokanoket areas, where they subjected the strongest and most able male children to loss of sleep, fasting, and drinking mixtures which altered consciousness. These included, "... the juice of sentry and other bitter herbs, till they cast, which they must disgorge into the platter, and drink again and again, till ... it will seem to be all blood" (Winslow 1841:360). Josselyn wrote of a ritual in which the candidates drank white hellebore which he likened to opium: The English in New England take white Hellebore, which operates as fairly with them, as with the Indians, who steeping of it in water sometime, give it to young lads gathered together a purpose to drink, if it come up they force them to drink again their vomit, (which they save in a Birchen-dish) till it stays with them, 6 he that gets the victory of it is made Captain of Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) 221 the other lads for that year (Josselyn 1833:251). The initiates drank until, ". .by reason of faintness, they can scarce stand on their legs, and then must go forth into the cold. Also they beat their shins with sticks, and cause them to run through bushes, stumps and brambles, to make them hardy and acceptable to the devil, that in time he may appear unto them" (Winslow 1841:360). The vision sought in this ordeal was probably the Thunder Bird, a dream visitor known elsewhere in Algonquian culture (Hallowell 1967:161) and apparently among twentieth century Mohegan known to Speck: A certain kind of cry in the woods at night is made, it is said, by the devil's bird. The bird makes its cry in one place and then goes on to another for a while. The sounds are said to resemble those made by owls, but need not be con­ fused with them. The same bird is thought to have something to do with thunder (Speck 1909:203). Hobbamock, "maketh covenant with them to preserve them from death by wounds with arrows, knives, £c." (Winslow 1841:359). By virtue of hav­ ing attained this vision, the pniese acquired a voice as his sachem's counsellor, collected tribute annually from the sachem's subjects, and participated with him in decisions about war. He was a model male warrior, "... known by . courage and boldness, by reason whereof one of them will chase almost an hundred men. ." (Winslow 1841:359). Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) 2 22 Powwow The shamans, known in the southern New England dialects as powwows, differed from other humans because one or several forms of Hobbamock entered their bodies in a vision or a dream. John Eliot asked two Massachusetts how one became a powwow and was told, "... that if any one of the Indians fall into any strange dreame wherein Chepian appeares unto them as a serpent, then the next day they tell the other Indians of it . ." whereupon the others "... dance and reJoyce for what they tell them about this Serpent, and so they become their Powwaws. ." (Wilson 1834: 19-20). A Wampanoag powwow on Martha's Vineyard who became a Christian confessed to Thomas Mayhew Jr. that he first ". came to be a Pawwaw by Diabolical Dreams, wherein he saw the Devill in the likeness of four living Creatures ..." and then gave Mayhew the most detailed surviving account of a southern New England shaman's repertoire. One of the creatures: was like a man which he saw in the Ayre, and this told him that he did know all things upon the Island, and what was to be done; and this he said had its residence over his whole body. Another was like a Crow, and did look out sharply to discover mischiefs coming towards him, and had its residence in his head. The third was like to a Pidgeon, and had its place in his breast, and was very cunning about any businesse. The fourth was like a Serpent, very subtile to doe mischief, and also to doe great cures, and these he said were meer Devills, and such as he has trusted to for safety, and did labour to Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) raise up for the accomplishment of any thing in his diabolicall craft . (Whitfield 1834b:186). Samson Occum wrote of the Montauk shamans: As for the Powaws, they say they get their art from dreams; and one has told me they get their art from the devil, but then partly by dreams or night visions, and partly by the devils immediate appearance to them by various shapes; sometimes in the shape of one creature, sometimes in another, sometimes by a voice, . (Occum 1809:109). Because of their access to a range of spirits both within and out­ side of themselves the powwows advised the sachems in decisions, but the inspired role of shaman and the hereditary role of sachem did not overlap generally in one individual. The few persons who combined these roles were thought to be extremely powerful (C. Mather II, 1820:481) (Morton 1836:25). Tispaquin, the "Black Sachem" of Assawamset (now Middleboro) who fought on the side of Philip in King Philip's War, was said to be "... such a great Pauwau, that no bullet could enter him ..." (Church 1829:144). Most prominent early New England sachems (Massasoit, Philip, Canonicus, Miantonomi, Canonchet, Ninigret, Uncas) were not shamans. With one recorded exception, all shamans were male (Wilson 1834:19). The powwows do not appear to have been full time specialists although some profited more than others according to their reputations for curing, sorcery, and weather control.