Part 1 - Chapter 2 

Discussions of various Indian Origination theories both from European and Indian sources. Insight into Indian Spiritual beliefs and rites of passage. 

As soon as European explorers, traders, and missionaries set eyes on the Indians, they began theorizing on how the Indians arrived on the North American continent. Since these were the people who wrote the early accounts of the Indians, an understanding of their attitudes and beliefs is necessary in order to understand their perspective toward the Indian and, thus, their written records. A popular theory was formulated by James Adair, an eighteenth century European trader, who lived among the Southeast Indians for many years. Adair believed that the American Indians were descendants of the Israelites and, consequently, evolved from the "Lost Tribes of Israel." He made his argument by claiming that:

"All the various nations of Indians, seem to be of one descent; they call a buffalo, in their various dialects, by one and the same name, `Yanasa.' And there is a strong similarity of religious rites, and of civil and martial customs, among all the various American nations of Indians we have any knowledge of, on the extensive continent..."1

He went on to state that:

"......their persons, customs, &c. are not singular from the rest of the world; which, probably, they would, were they not descended from one and the same common head. Their notions of things are like ours, and their organic structure is the same. In them, the soul governs the body, according to the common laws of God in the creation of Adam."2

Adair believed that the three other popular and current origination theories - descent from the Chinese, the Tartars, or Scythians - were implausible and unlikely.3

Another area that aroused a lot of speculation concerned the Mounds found throughout the Southeast. The purpose and contents of these mounds will be discussed in later sections of the book. The majority of Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries did not believe the Indians capable of the construction of the mounds:

"The device of classifying the Indians a priori as rude savages, necessitating the invention of an earlier race of Mound Builders to explain any artifact or monument deemed beyond the capabilities of such savages, was a common one at the time."4

The myth that the early Euro-American settlers promulgated, however, deserves mention for it shows, once again, the attitude toward the Indians:

"Around wilderness campfires [in Tennessee and Kentucky] went the tales of some white race that preceded the American pioneers on this continent, a bearded people, blond and blue-eyed. They were Welshmen, the tale said, who settled in the interior before Columbus discovered America and who, merging with the Indians, finally became `Welsh Indians'.

"In the Tennessee Valley this widespread legend became attached to the mounds and elaborate earth works found at many points along the rivers and tributaries. The pioneers thought it unlikely that these mysterious structures could have been raised by the Indians whom they knew."5

The Overhill Cherokees in Tennessee helped perpetuate the mound building explanation by contributing their own "Welsh man" legend that the works had been built by the White men who lived centuries before and inhabited that part of Tennessee where the Cherokees lived in the Sixteenth century.6

Other Cherokee legends, also, involve the origination of the mounds and are intertwined with the Cherokee Migration legend. The Cherokee legend is similar to the Delaware tradition that speaks of the ancient expulsion of the Talligewi from the north.

Talligewi or Alligewi lived on a river that was probably the Ohio and built earthen fortifications in order to defend themselves. The Delaware, in the process of migrating toward the east, collided with the Talligewi or Alligewi - a people of giant stature. Since the Delaware's movement was hindered and they were unable to defeat these "Giant" people, they asked assistance of the "Mengwe" or Iroquois. Eventually the Talligewi were routed and fled south into the mountainous country near the Creeks. The word "Tallige-wi" in Delaware means "People of the cave country". This appellation was bestowed on the Cherokee by other tribes in the form of "Tsalaki" or "Tallike".7

The migration legends varied amongst the tribes. Even within a tribe itself, conflicting migration legends were remembered and retold.

"It is erroneous to believe that a people had but one migration legend, because only one has come to our knowledge. This would be a thorough misapprehension of the various agencies which are at work in producing folk-lore. Every tribe of a people or nation has its own migration myth or legend, which in some points coincides, on others conflicts with those of the neighboring septs. Conflicting traditions will be noticed,....not only among the Maskoki nations at large, but also within the narrower limits of the Creek towns or tribes."8

The Choctaw legend centers around a Prophet Warrior, Chahtah, who led his people from a place near the setting sun, following the Cherokee and Muscogee Indians, who had relocated four years earlier. The focus of the legend is a "powerful" pole that was set up in front of the Prophet Warrior's wigwam. When the pole bent forward, it indicated that the Chahtah and his followers should resume their journey.9

A concurrent legend states that the Chickasaws and Choctaws came from a people called Chickemacaws who together with a tribe known as the Choccomaws were led by two brothers, Chahtah and Chikasah, east from Mexico.10

A third variation of the legend has the two brothers, Chahta and Chickasa, living in a far western country and ruling the ancestors of the Choctaw and Chickasaw. Since their number had rapidly multiplied, their land could not support them, so their prophets directed them to march eastward. A pole, carried by the major prophet, was placed in front of the camp each night. Each morning, the camp marched in the direction that the pole showed until one morning it was found not to be bent. This indicated that they had reached their destination, Nanih Waiya. The legend continues, then, to show how the Choctaws and Chickasaws became separate nations. The day they arrived at Nanih Waiya, the group under the leadership of Chickasa crossed the river to set up camp. During that night, it rained and continued raining for many days. All traces of the Chickasaws' movements were washed away.11 Thus, the two groups could not be reunited.

The Natchez Migration legend, also involves a migration from the south. The Natchez maintained that they migrated from the land under the sun which is understood to be Mexico. Although they loved the land, their enemies began to overpower them and the Great Sun (or leader of the Natchez) ordered his people who dwelt on the plains under the harassment of the enemy to move to an area across the river from their former homeland in order to build a temple and preserve the eternal fire. After many generations, the Great Suns followed their people to this new land.12

The aim of this book is not to examine all the various types and forms of Indian, especially Southeast Indian, myths and Legends. However, a brief examination and understanding is necessary because these legends embody the belief system of these native peoples. As the migration legends vary, so do the origination legends. Lankford states:

"It looks as if there are two major origin traditions in the Eastern Woodlands and Plains, a northern one (earth-diver) and a southern one (emergence). In the Southeast the fit is neat indeed. The Muskhogeans know the emergence motif, while the Yuchi and Cherokee, earth-diver groups do not."13

The earth-diver motif focuses more on the creation of land than on the emergence of man. In the emergence legend, the group actually emerges from underneath the ground. The following Choctaw emergence legend is important because it describes the emergence of more than one nation. It is also very interesting because the place of emergence is Nanih Waiya, the same place as in the Choctaw migration legend.

In this legend, the four Indian nations, Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw all came out of the ground, in that order, from Nanih Waiya. Each group commenced to sun itself and dry itself off and, then, follow the proceeding group in order to settle on a land of their own. However, as happened in the Chickasaw-Choctaw legend, it was not always possible to find the previous group. In this instance, a forest fire separated the Cherokees from the Muscogees. The Chickasaw did, though, find the Cherokees and a bond was formed. The Choctaw settled by Nanih Waiya.14

In the first instance, the Choctaws arrived at Nanih Waiya; while in the second legend, these same Choctaws emerged from Nanih Waiya.

Even though the Cherokees are mentioned in the Choctaw emergence legend, the Cherokees believed in the earth-diver motif.

The basis of the earth-diver legends is that originally there was only water and a place above on which lived animals, birds, and insects. The earth was formed from soil brought up from the bottom of the water by different animals, insects, or birds, depending on the particular legend.15

Under the earth is another realm similar to earth, but with different seasons filled with animals, plants, and people. According to Cherokee legend, the animals and plants were created first, and Man afterwards. However, the Cherokees claim that they do not know who made the animals.16

The fact that Man first lived underground leads to a speculation that the earth-diver cosmogonic myths and the emergence myths have a common thread.17

In Indian culture, there is a strong bond and connection between Man and Animal.

"One of the cultural differences that strikes the European mind when it confronts Native American legends is the attitude toward other species. Whereas Europeans tend to consider other animals and plants as subordinate creatures, Native Americans see them as people with minds and wills, who must be dealt with in the same way as humans."18

Mooney referred back to the primal genesis period and stated that animals and man lived undifferentiated in harmony until man by his aggressive acts changed this balance and provoked hostility on the part of the animal kingdom.19

Even though Native American belief systems varied regionally and intertribally, their belief system was their life and their life encompassed their belief system. They did not segment their life and only reserve one part for religious observances.

Indians focused their lives on the principal of keeping themselves in harmonic balance with the universe. Man's duty was to preserve and respect this natural order. "Their universe was a whole held together by spiritual forces that caused man to respect all things, living and nonliving".20 Basically, according to Native American belief, the universe consisted of three worlds: the upper world of the Sun and other spirits; the lower or underworld of water; and lastly, the middle world - earth. As the three worlds were part of a whole, so were all aspects of an Indian's life-cycle.

"Time was not a way to break apart a day but a never-ending circle of events. The repetition was an endless continuum of the seasons, days, nights, and life and death."21

The Indians believed "....that there is a fixed time and place, when and where everyone must die, without any possibility of averting it."22

Rituals and rites of passage of this cycle will be discussed later in this chapter. According to Swanton:

"The religious beliefs of the Gulf area [and throughout the Southeast] seem to have culminated in the conception of a supreme deity connected with the sky or sun. Under, though not always subject to him [in some tribes her] were a multitude of lesser spirits."23

"These Indians [probably the Creeks] are by no means idolaters, unless their puffing the tobacco smoke towards the sun, and rejoicing at the appearance of the new moon, may be termed so. So far from idolatry are they, that they have no images amongst them, nor any religious rite or ceremony that I could perceive; but adore the Great Spirit, the giver and taker away of the breath of life, with the most profound and respectful homage. They believe in a future state, where the spirit exists, which they call the world of spirits, where they enjoy different degrees of tranquility or comfort, agreeably to their life spent here."24

"The place of the divine residence is commonly said to be above the clouds."25

The gender of the deities including the major deity varied with the North American tribes depending, in part, on whether they were predominantly a hunting or an agriculturally based society. Hultkrantz divided the societies into two basic divisions: Hunting and Horticultural. Obviously, his reference is to a continuum, not an absolute.   

Hunting and Horticultural Patterns26

Hunting Patterns

Horticultural Patterns

Animal ceremonialism

Rain and fertility

Quest for spiritual power

Priestly ritual

Male Supreme being

Goddesses and Gods

Annual ceremony of cosmic rejuvenation

Yearly round of fertility rites

Few stationary cult places

Permanent shrines and temples

Shamanism

Medicine society ritual

Life after death beyond the horizon in the sky

Life after death in the underworld or among the clouds

The cultural and, thus, belief patterns of most of the tribes in the Southeast fall under the heading Horticultural more than they do under Hunting because "....Tribes that share a similar cultural life also tend to share a similar religious life."27

The importance of the sun is a key element in understanding the belief systems of the Southeast Indians. The link between the upper world of the sun and the middle world inhabited by the Indians was the eternal, sacred fire. Solar worship was practically universal during the prehistoric period in the Southeast and practiced by most of the tribes including the Natchez, Yuchi, Creek, Choctaw, Chitimacha, Caddo, Cusabo, Timucua, Tunica, and Biloxi.28

The solar rituals and the importance of these varied with the different cultural groups. The Natchez built their social structure around reverence to the Sun. They believed that in ancient times a man and a women came down from the Sun. The man taught them about the eternal fire and instructed them to build a temple in which to house the fire. He became their sovereign. One of the responsibilities of the Great Sun, ruler of the Natchez Nation, was to watch over the eternal fire. Moreover, the Natchez had a class of nobles who were called Suns and had special privileges within the Nation.

Renewal of the sacred or eternal fire is another aspect of Solar worship. The ceremony was held in March. A new fire was made by drilling in a dried grape vine. Then each family would put out its old fire and procure a part of the new fire.29

Time and life were viewed as cyclical. The rites of passage: birth, puberty, marriage, and death were all recognized by the tribes of the Southeast. However, the ceremonies associated with them varied from the very demanding Husquenaw or puberty ceremonies of the Algonquian tribes to the less stressful puberty rites practiced within the Creek Confederacy.

Burial ceremonies varied widely from the Creek practice of burying the dead person under his house30 to the Natchez practice of killing the relatives of a deceased Sun and interring them with him in order to accompany him and serve him.31

According to De Soto, among the Indians of the present state of Florida, the killing of a person was not only done at times of burial but was, also, done as a form of sacrifice. De Soto attributed this to Devil worship. He, further claimed, that when a sacrifice was necessary the "Devil" signified it by stating that "he is a thirst, and that they [the Indians] must sacrifice to him."32

The Cherokees destroyed all the possessions of the deceased except those which were necessary for life in the "Other World."

Timberlake stated that this practice was done to prevent avarice by preventing the inheritance of the deceased person's goods.33

Ceremonies of feasting and dancing were held through out the Southeast all during the year. One of the most important ones was the Green Corn dance or "Busk". The word "Busk" was adopted by the European traders from the Creek word "Poskita" or "Boskita" meaning a "fast". The Busk was conducted for the good of the Indians and was said by many to have been sent down by God.34 The Busk was a renewal and purification ceremony held in late summer to coincide with the advent of green corn. It was a celebration of Thanksgiving and also rejuvenation. All homes were cleansed, old vessels were often destroyed, anger toward others was supposed to be eliminated, amnesty was granted to all malefactors, and the whole person brought into a state of harmony.35

The celebration, which lasted for many days, included fasting, dancing, and special rituals performed by the men and the women. The extinguishing of the old fire and the beginning of the new was an extremely important part of the ritual.36

Sometimes a whole town partook in a ritualized ceremony to avert a specific disaster or calamity.37

The rituals of the North American Indians did not only serve to define and augment their belief systems, but they also were a tool for delineating and preserving the social customs and structure of the tribe.  


1. Adair, History of the American Indian, 1930 edition, p. 11.

2. Ibid., pp. 11 & 12.

3. Ibid., pp. 13 & 14.

4. Robert Silverberg, Mound Builders of Ancient America, p. 61.

5. Davidson, The Tennessee, vol.1, p. 19.

6. Ibid., p. 20.

7. Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee. pp. 17-20.

8. Albert S. Gatschet, Indian Migration Legends, p. 219.

9. Horatio Cushman, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Nations, pp. 298-299.

10. Ibid., p. 18.

11. George Lankford, Native American Legends, pp. 116-117.

12. Le Page Du Pratz, The History of Louisiana, p. 279.

13. Lankford, Native American Legends, p.112.

14. Ibid., p. 112.

15. Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, p. 239.

16. Ibid., p. 240.

17. Ibid., p. 239.

18. Lankford, Native American Legends, p. 118.

19. Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, p. 261.

20. Kniffen, Gregory, & Stokes, The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana, p. 251

21. Ibid., p. 251.

22. Adair, History of the American Indians, 1930 edition, p. 35.

23. Swanton, "Aboriginal Culture of the Southeast", BAE Annual Report 42, p. 709.

24. William Bartram, Travels of William Bartram, Dover 1955 edition, pp. 390-391.

25. Adair, History of the Indians, 1930 edition, p. 37.

26. Åke Hultkrantz, Native Religions of North America, p. 14.

27. Ibid., p. 11.

28. Lankford, Native American Legends, p. 55.

29. Swanton, The Indians of The Southeastern United States, BAE 137. p. 771. Recorded by Charles Hicks 1818.

30. Swanton, "Social Organization and Social Usages of the Creek Confederacy", BAE Annual no. 42, p. 392.

31. Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, pp. 335-339.

32. Buckingham Smith, The Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto, pp. 29-30.

33. Henry Timberlake, The Memoirs of Lt. Timberlake, 1948 annotated edition, p. 91.

34. Swanton, "Social Organization and Social Usages of the Indians of the Creek Confederacy", BAE Annual 42, p. 546.

35. Bartram, The Travels of William Bartram, 1955 Dover edition, p. 399.

36. Swanton, "Social Organization and Social Usages of the Indians of the Creek Confederacy", BAE Annual 42, pp. 546-614. Hudson, The Southeastern Indians, pp. 365-375.

37. Bartram, The Travels of William Bartram, 1955 Dover edition, p. 361.