Origins and Documented Accounts of

Healing Ceremonies

By: Christina Ratelle, Debra Crumb, Jesse Brown, Lauren Reurink & Pam Moore

Outline:

1.Legends 2.Origins of Eagle Dance Legends3.Comparative Choreography4.The Onondoga Condor Dance5.Eagle Dance/Documentation6.Conclusion7.Questions

Legends

• The Legend of the Bloody Hand• The Two Brothers Learn Songs from Birds• Chipping Sparrow's Adventure among Eagles• Boy Abducted by Dew Eagle

The Legend of the Bloody Hand

http://trishtarver.edu.glogster.com/early-texans/ 

http://resonanttruth.com/2011/08/blue-eagle-wavespell-march-14-26-2010/eagle-feather/  

The Two Brothers Learn Songs from Birds

http://sunsite.utk.edu/pisl/photos/photos/00328000.jpg 

Chipping Sparrow's Adventure Among Eagles

http://neelamspoetry.blogspot.com/2010/10/things-that-havent-been-done-before.html 

Origin Legend of the Eagle Dance• There are many variants to the origin of the Eagle Dance

• parents told their children that they would be carried away 

• William Finley states that such cases are false

• nevertheless these stories appear in the public press

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-stretched-canvas-real/eagle-carrying-little-girl-karl-addison.jpg 

A boy became lost in the woods

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/36/82036638_2e7723f42a.jpg 

He was sleep and he crawled into a hollow log to sleephttp://www.thepracticalnapper.com/2010/11/jack-handey-on-napping-in-log.html 

Dew Eagle picked up the log and carried it aloft to the crags where it nests. 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kyPhEiYq2tM/Sbij9NOk0zI/AAAAAAAABkc/CH3p58b_XUs/s400/

Animal+World+in+Color+1969+eagle+and+child+Svenhild+Hansen+Norway+Trondheim+1932+June.jpg 

The boy awoke and peered out of the log and saw the earth receding far below

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DPCSd1DIHig/TAgTnjw-RcI/AAAAAAAACs4/OFbTq77UhDA/s1600/View+from+Turtle+Mountain.jpg 

Dew Eagle used the log for her nesthttp://www.nicolasdory.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2010_05_29_BaldEagle_6178.jpg 

The boy would crawl out and play with the eaglets while the great bird was out hunting.

http://us.acidcow.com/pics/20110408/cute_baby_eagles_06.jpg 

The eaglets grew up.

http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Baby_Bald_Eagle_Photos.htm 

One grew big enough for him to mount on its back. It flew out and returned. It was so strong that he had to have a club to hit it on the head to weaken it. He had something for the club. As the bird flew higher, he would strike it. It fell towards the earth. As it recovered, it flew higher. Now and again he whacked it. It would fall.

These birds were supposed to roam above the clouds and never come down toward the earth. 

http://blog.triggerlappy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/eagle.jpg 

The boy returned to earth by beating the young eagle on the head... 

...and he related his adventure among the birds who dwell above the clouds amid high crags in heaven, how among them he learned the Eagle Dance.

http://www.unhcr.org/thumb1/4e92ee2b6.jpg 

Main Differences Among the Abductor Legends

• Version of Djidq'Gwas

• Version of Chauncey Warrior

• Version of the Snorer

• Tonawanda Variant

• Grand River Variant

• The Bad Boy and the Giant Crow

• Gahgago'na Abducts a Hunter

Discussion 1:

What do these stories have in common?

Discussion 1:

What do these stories have in common?• Learning songs, dances or teachings from

an Eagle (or some species of bird)• Main character is usually a hunter -

connection to nature  • Returns to village and teaches their own

people the songs and dances• Some legends have an overarching lesson

Discussion 2:

What are the differences in the stories? Are these differences important? 

What are the differences in the stories? Are these differences important?• Traditions are passed down verbally so there are

always small details included or left out• The dances and songs vary from group to group• The lessons taught are different (ex. cured of

illness, remember to thank Creator)

• Differences are important because each individual variation has a personal meaning

• Each group has different interpretations of the stories 

Discussion 3:

Does anyone know any other legends that is the basis for tradition in their culture?

An Analysis of the Iroquois Eagle Dance and Songs: 

Comparative Choreography 

Onondaga Private Ritual

• Males play priest, gift custodian, patient, dancers, conductor, singer, and more

• Women, children, and Whites watched or slept as they lounged on the beds

• three generations participated from two families, the Logans and the Skyes

• Logans dominated the ritual in three roles of intercession with the supernatural, intermediary b/w communicants and personification of the Eagle spirit, no one in costume

Public ritual at Cayuga Sour Springs Longhouse

• only includes the body, part II • typical moiety grouping

Interlonghouse comparisons• Seneca uses moiety arrangements where Onondaga

uses grouping• Tonawanda has two chants, allegany has three• Logans: Robert utter the cry then two boys in response

(unlike all the dancers of six nations)• Six nations speeches fulfill the Iroquois fondness for

jokes and clowning• Seneca speakers interrupt song and pass the cane in

rotation, where the Seneca and Onondaga wait till the end of the song and follow no fixed order

• Ground plan is always the same within tribes, no matter the dancer

The Dance: Three Tribal Variants

 

 

 

 

Postures of dancers. 1. lunge, arms out to side 2. lunge, arms out in back 3. lunge, arms forward 5. hop 6. hop (Onondaga private ritual) 

Postures of dancers4. lunge, right arm forward 7. knee twist 8. eagle dancer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnR1bKTF3jg&feature=related start at 1:15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=j5uCUZC2YBs 

Gestures and Steps

• Dance choreographies are considered paradigms because even though dancers follow the same format, it can never be perfectly replicated each time

 Longhouse variationsThe beat of the rattles are played at different tempos in

each tribe to accomodate the agility of the dancers or other needs

Individual variations• Small variations in hand or leg placement are

insignificant• Other variations in the dance can affect the

expressiveness and beauty, i.e. vibrant vs droopy wings (arms)

The Onondaga Condor Dance

The Onondaga Reservation

http-//www.peacecouncil.net/NOON/images/maps/OnondagaTerritory&NYS

http-//www.iroquoismuseum.org/images/onondaga2

Handsome Lake (Peacemaker) Religion

http-//www.myhero.com/images/Peacemaker/Lake/g1_u5548_handsomelake

The Condor Dance

http-//www.indymedia.org.nz/sites/default/files/files/images/eagle.truth_love_justice_BELOVED_EARTH

http-//static.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/271790-bigthumbnail

Equipment

1. Indian tobacco 2. 12 packages of chewing tobacco 3. Hulled white corn soup4. Chicken 5. Feather fan6. Cowhorn Rattle7. Stick

http-//www.myhero.com/images/Peacemaker/Lake/g1_u5842_IROQUOISMONTAGE1

Membership

o Through sickness and cure by the ritualo Through dreamso A fortune teller had told them to join

Preparation 

o Refer to page 70

Moeity Pattern

They of the Mudhouse 

- Eel

- Bear

- Deer

- Hawk

They of the Longhouse 

- Turtle

- Beaver

- Wolf

- Snipe

Ritual Pattern

http-//www.thecircusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Hopi-Condor-Dance-1024x649

The Iroquois Eagle Dance as a Cultural Phenomenon

Iroquois Eagle Dance permits free expression of personality within set forms

Community distribution coincides with the Handsome Lake Religion

Communities: Coldspring on the Allegheny River, Newtown on Cataragus Reservation, Tonawanda Reservation, Onondaga near Syracuse, Onondaga and Caygua communities at Six Nations Reserve, Ontario

Membership

 Includes both sexes  Members have had a dream of a specific

type, or have been cured by the society The society calls itself ‘the strikers’ or ‘the

medicine company’

Ritual Perform a ritual which is addressed to a

species of eagles that wheel in flight high in the heavens amid clouds, have the power to restore life to wilting things

Song leader with a water drum and his helpers with horn rattles, accompany a singular dance

Ritual Pairs of youths/men hold a rattle in the right

hand and feather fan in the left, crouch swaying and advance to pick up objects in their mouths, and retreat hopping,

End of song, a speaker strikes a pole and interrupts the ritual to praise his host and/or dancers

Ritual Recites personal achievement, humorous

anecdote or ridicules himself or another, then distributes presents to his victims

Following the dance, the MC passes an animal head or a chicken among the guests, who cry like brows and bite at it

A Century of Ethnology L.H. Morgan, 1851, conducted 10 years of

field work among the descendants of the tribes that formed the Iroquois Confederacy

Devoted little space to the meetings of medicine societies and referred to them only as ‘concerts’ saying nothing of their imputed medicinal power

Ethnology: L.H. Morgan  Ga-na-un-da-doh: Scalp Dance or Shaking a

bird’s tail  Shaking-a-fan is the Tonawanda name for

the Eagle or Bird Dance Calumet Dance   Pipe Dance War Dance

Ethnology: L.H. MorganTo hold a Medicine Lodge was to observe their

highest religious rites, and to practice their highest religious mysteries. ( Morgan, 1877, p 97)

Particular dances are special property, belonging either to a gens or to a society organized for its

maintenance into which new members were from time to time initiated. (Morgan, 1877, p 118)

Ethnology: E.A. Smith Erminnie A. Smith, 1883 went among

the Seneca of western New York First to mention the Eagle Dance

Ethnology: E.A. SmithPrivate dances are held by the medicine men, in

which are introduced Ka-nai-kaw-ai, or eagle dance… On the death of a medicine man a special meeting is held by his fraternity, and

during the giving of certain medicines, medicine tunes are chanted. ( Smith, 1883, p. 116)

Ethnology: E.A. Smith Private dances are not infrequently given by individual members of the tribe who, having conceived a great affection for

each other, publicly cement it by a friendship dance. (Ibid. Cf. Stone, 1838,

vol. 1, p. 28)

Ethnology: Rev. W.M. Beauchamp Rev. Wiliam M. Beauchamp, 1895, on the

Ondondaga at Syracuse

Ethnology: Rev. W.M. BeauchampEagle dance (striking stick dance). Two men dance side by side in precisely the same way. Each holds a stick, with feathers spread out on each side. They

bend down, bending on leg under the dance, and stretching the other out on the side. A cent is

placed on the flood and picked up with the mouth. Some strike on the floor with a stick, and this gives

it the name (Ha-na-gah-a). A dancer makes a speech and presents tobacco. (Beauchamp, 1895

a, p. 212)

Ethnology: E. Parker Ely Parker, 1913, wrote the first

consistent account of Seneca Medicine Societies

Served as a guide in gathering more information

Ethnology: E. ParkerThe ritual of the Eagle Society consists of ten songs and a dance… Every member participating in the ceremony pains on

each cheek a round red spot. No one but members may engage in its ceremonies, even though these be performed publicly.

The Eagle Society’s ceremony is regarded the most sacred, is this respect next to the Great Feather Dance (Parker,

1913 b, pp. 124-125)

Ethnology: E. ParkerIt is believed that the society holds in its songs the most potent charms known. It

is said that the dying, especially those afflicted with wasting diseases, and old

people, have been completely restored by its ceremonies. This is because the Dew

Eagle, to which the society is dedicated, is the reviver of wilting things. (Parker,

1913 b, p 124)

Conclusion

http-//newsfornatives.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/native_ceremonial_eagle_dancer

Questions?