DOLLS
Algonquian
Blackfoot.ritual, meaning, social category, use.
Older children made their own playthings and gaming equipment. Little children's toys were made for them by their elders. A little girl of six or seven years who accompanied her grandmother into the brush to collect firewood might beg the old woman to make her a birch doll. The grandmother would cut a section of a birch limb about one foot long and four inches in diameter with her axe. She used her butcher knife to cut a groove around the piece about four inches from one end. This formed the doll's shoulder line. Above this line she whittled a crude, knob-like head and bored little holes in one side of the knob to suggest eyes, nose, and mouth. The simple doll had no ears, hair, or legs. The body retained the unaltered form of the birch cylinder below the shoulder line. Little girls clothed these dolls by simply wrapping a piece of buckskin or trade cloth around the cylinder (Ewers 1958:146).
As girls grew older, they wanted more realistic dolls. Then their mothers or grandmothers made them dolls with arms and legs as well as heads of skin or trade cloth stuffed with grass. The facial features were delineated with thread or trade beads. [page 147] These well-proportioned dolls were clothed in miniature garments very much like those worn by women of the tribe—skin dresses, leggings, moccasins, and robes. Human or horse hair was sewn to the head to complete the illusion of reality (Ewers 1958:146-147).
In spring, small boys and girls played house. The boys snared gophers, peeled off the skins, turned them inside out, and filled them with grass to dry. Girls gathered sticks for foundation poles and sewed the skins together to make miniature tipi covers. Gopher skins were placed inside the lodges much as buffalo robes were used in their parents' homes for seats and bedding. Girls [page 148] also made miniature travois, parfleches, and other containers for use in playing at moving camp. They tied the luggage on the travois and attached the travois to a long forked stick. This stick played the role of the travois horse. The sharp lower end was pushed into the ground to hold up the travois when camp was "on the move." A doll rode in the fork of the stick like a woman astride her travois horse3 (Ewers 1958:147-148).
Note 3: Ewers, "Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture," B.A.E. Bull. 159, 225-27.
Old Time Religion
Slowly and deliberately the natoas bundle was opened and its sacred contents revealed. A long series of prayers and songs accompanied the opening. The most important articles in the bundle were the sacred garments and accessories of the medicine woman. One by one her assistants helped her to put them on. The garments included an elk skin dress, a robe of the same material, and an elaborate headdress. This was a buffalo-hide headband in the form of a lizard, with pendants of weasel skins and upright feather plumes. Attached to the front of the headband [page 178] was a crude skin doll containing tobacco seeds and a weasel skin stuffed with human hair. A flint arrow point hung from the doll's head. The Blackfoot Indians believed this peculiar bonnet and the elk garments had been given to a beaver medicine man long ago by a bull elk. The elk, in turn, had received them as presents from another elk who had run off with his wife. The primary costume accessory was a sacred digging stick similar in form to the ones commonly used by Blackfoot women for unearthing prairie turnips. Another legend tells of the origin of this religious symbol. A woman married the Morning Star and went to live with him in the lodge of his father, the Sun. One day the woman used this tool to uproot a sacred turnip. She looked down through the turnip hole, saw her own people on earth, and became homesick. Morning Star then permitted her to descend to earth through the turnip hole (Ewers 1958:177-178).
Sun Dance Ceremonies 1892
Mrs. Rides-at-the-Door is the last Blood Holy Woman. She is seen wearing her Natoas headdress as she entered the last Blood Medicine Lodge ten years ago. arrowhead hangs from one side. A tiny image-doll stuffed with sacred tobacco seeds is attached to the rawhide band to represent mystical Spirits known as the Little People. Back when our Old People still grew sacred tobacco, the Little People would mysteriously come and give it their Power to be sacred (A. Hungry Wolf 1977:26).
STORIES BY MARY ONE SPOT
All that I played with was part of our culture. I had little tipis and all the toy furnishings that go inside. I had lots of dolls also. I was a great one for making dolls. I used wires to start them, then I wrapped the wires to make their bodies, and then I dressed them in Indian clothes. My friends and I made lots of dolls. Those of us who had the longest hair donated some to make hair for our dolls. Then the boys would hunt gophers and squirrels and skin them and we would make the little skins into clothing for the dolls, and rugs for our little tipis. Sometimes the boys would build corrals and catch some gophers to put in them. My brother, George, he liked to brand the gophers in his corrals, then turn them loose (B. Hungry Wolf 1980:56).
INITIATIONS OF PAULA WEASEL HEAD
Right from the time we were young my sister knew a lot about Indian ways. We would make dolls out of cloth and buckskin, and we would put real hair on them. She knew how to make them real good. She had a little painted tipi, and it was even transferred to her with a ceremony. After that she started pouting around our parents because she didn't have a medicine pipe bundle for her tipi. Our parents had several of them, at different times. So they made her a little medicine pipe bundle to hang up in her tipi. She took care of it just like our mother took care of our real ones—that's how she learned to care for medicine bundles so good. This small one she had wasn't transferred to her, it was just for imitation. But there [page 83] were a couple of small ones that were transferred to the children of well-off people. One of them is among the Bloods yet. It is known as the children's medicine pipe. When my husband, Frank, was still living we had this bundle transferred to one of our favorite granddaughters (B. Hungry Wolf 1980:82-83).
Whatever my sister wanted, she would only have to go to our father and act good and he would get it for her. If acting good didn't work, she would pout until he gave in. If I did that he got mad and chased me away. Our family was well off in horses and property. He used to make her small play horses and put real horsehair on them. She had small travois to fit some of them. One of them had four little doll children with their heads sticking out of the travois pack, just like in real. She even had small bundles imitating the Horns Society and the Motokiks. That's why she joined in all these things while she was still young. I just joined the Motokiks lately, in my old age (B. Hungry Wolf 1980:83).
ABOUT BABIES AND CHILDREN
In the days when my grandmothers were little girls about the only toys they had were small replicas of the things their mothers worked with—small tipis and camping outfits, dolls and little cradleboards, and miniature tools for tanning and cooking food. They were told about the holy women who put up Sun Dances, with the hopes that they would learn to be honest, kind, and virtuous (B. Hungry Wolf 1980:200).
TOYS
Traditional Blackfoot toys were mainly dolls, or miniature replicas of all the things used by adults. The dolls were made mostly by women, even though boys and girls both played with them. Otherwise, toys for boys were usually made by their fathers, while those for girls were made by their mothers. These toys were usually treasured, and the smaller ones were kept in special rawhide bags (B. Hungry Wolf 1980:247).
There were all kinds of dolls, from the simple ones of willow sticks, with cut-off branches for arms and legs, to the fancy ones with fully beaded clothing and real human hair. Older girls were given dolls complete with small tipis and other household furnishings, sometimes even small medicine bundles. Cradleboards, baby dolls, and horses with travois for hauling the household effects were also popular (B. Hungry Wolf 1980:247).
Favorite toys for boys included bows and arrows, whips and spinning tops, drums and other instruments, and horse gear. Dolls in the shape of boys and warriors were also common. Boys always looked for branches and pieces of trees that they could use for imitation horses to practice bucking, racing, and general riding (B. Hungry Wolf 1980:247).
I do not know how Mo-ká-ki worked when he made the people over the ocean, for I do not understand the ways of the [page 29] White men. But the Indian people were made by Náh-pi, and he made them like little dolls from clay. When he had finished he put them into little groups, so that each one knew what group he belonged in, and then after four days they began to walk around (Lancaster 1966:28-29).
Jim's room is quite small—perhaps eight by ten—and it contains an incredible assortment of articles: an old bed with wooden head and foot boards; a tall, mirrored Victorian dresser, the top of which is interred in a litter of papers, magazines, photographs, clothing, car parts, a kewpie doll, and so on. The floor constitutes a veritable obstacle course of two saddles, some bridles, a hackamore, two lariats, two pairs of cowboy boots, a chair, a smoking table and a metal suitcase. I don't know exactly what is underneath the bed, but it is packed solid with something, and such additional gear as hats, cartridge belts and leather jackets are where they rightfully belong—slung over chair-backs and bedposts. Jim's.30/30 rifle leans in a corner behind the door. It is not loaded, which means that Jim is out of ammo; Jim always keeps it ready for any stray deer or elk that might wish to play bulls-eye while crossing the ranch. The last time I was up—the day I left, really—Jim shot an elk right out behind the barn. The Chief's old.38/40 Marlin rifle is here too, and it has a full magazine (Lancaster 1966:52).
The Medicine Woman
The next songs are for the natoas bundle which is not opened. The songs: "Old man comes in, he says, I am looking for my bonnet. I have found it. It hears me. It is medicine." The old woman sings and uses the same words in her songs. There are six of these bonnet songs. The songs for the badger skin follow: "The man above hears me; he is powerful. The ground is my home; it is powerful." There are four songs for the badger. The badger skin and other things are not handled, the songs about them are simply sung. The songs for the natoas are: "Old man says I am looking for my bonnet. I have found it: it is powerful." The woman then sings a song with the same words, which is followed by a song about the stone arrow points on the natoas. There is a song for everything which makes up the bonnet which is as follows: the leather band, the blue paint on the band, the stuffed weasel skin tied crosswise on the bonnet, the weasel tails hanging from the bonnet, two feathers in front, and two behind, two plumes on each side of the bonnet, a flint arrow point, a buffalo calf tail, a snipe, and a small doll the head of which is [page 246] stuffed with tobacco seed. The song for the doll on the bonnet is: "Children are running about. They are running from us. They are running towards us. They are boys. They are powerful." The man says, "Give me the child," and makes the movement of reception. Another song is sung: "Child is crying," and the man imirates the crying of a child. The song for the little birds is: "Bird says water is my medicine; it is powerful," for the calf tail: "Man says calf tail I want," and for the arrow point: "Sharp points are on both sides." Then follows the song for the leather band which represents the lizard: "Yonder man, I am angry and mad at you." This song of the lizard refers to the prairie dog chief. The blue paint on the band represents water and the song for it is: "The blue waters are our medicine." The song for the feathers is: "Feathers I want." Another song for the plume on the feathers: "Red I want." This closes the evening ceremony. The man and woman are put to bed and all go home (Wissler 1918:245-246).
The Natoas, or Sun Dance Bundle
The headdress and the digging stick are the important objects. The latter is painted red and should have some moose hoofs fastened on the end (Fig. 27). The headdress is built upon a strip of buffalo rawhide, cut to represent a lizard. In many cases it is painted red for half its length and blue on the other half. The edge is hung about with strips of white weasel skin. In front is what is spoken of as a doll, containing tobacco seeds, and a weasel stuffed with human hair, or scalplocks. At the back should be the tail of a wildcat. A flint arrow point is hung to the doll's head. On some headdresses there is a small bird at the back. A pair of tall plumes and a pair of eagle or raven feather tufts, complete the regalia (Fig. 28) (Wissler 1912:211).
While the elk-woman is everywhere recognized as the originator of the natoas, it will be noted that the woman who married a star is also credited with having contributed the digging stick, the plumes, or leaves of the turnip. The latter seems to have given the name, natoas.1 In some versions Scar-face is regarded as the child of this woman and also an originator of the bundle.2Scabby-round-robe is said to have added the arrow point and the beaver men the tobacco seed, or dwarfs, in the doll's head (Wissler 1912:214).
Note 1: Vol. 2, 58.
Note 2 McClintock, 492-5.
The Ritual. In the transfer of this bundle the woman to receive it and her husband are taken in charge by a man and wife competent to conduct the ceremony, the man leading. These leaders are spoken of as the transferrers, and the other couple as son and daughter. The woman and man giving the bundle are spoken of as mother and father. In addition, a number of men and women are invited to enter the tipi and assist in the ceremony. As in all ceremonies the men sit on the north side, the women on the south. The son and daughter sit at the rear and next to them the transferrers. It opens with the smudge song:— (Wissler 1912:215)
Verse 41. Boys are running about. It is powerful [Refers to the doll containing tobacco seed, or "dwarfs"] (Wissler 1912:217).
RITUAL ORIGINS
The Elk-Woman
(a) Blood Version:A robe made of elk-skin, used by the woman in the ceremony, is to represent the Elk himself. The bunches of feathers placed around the bonnet are to represent the prongs of the horns. There are about six bunches in all. [page 84] In front is hung a doll with quill-work upon it. A white-rock arrow point and some ear-rings are hung on the side. There are also two little dolls tied on near the feathers. Weasel-tails hang down by the side. Feathers of the owl are used in making up the bunches on the side of the bonnet, while behind is hung the skin of a woodpecker (?) and part of the tail of a wildcat. There should also be part of the tail of a white buffalo tied on somewhere. All of these parts were contributed by the animals called together by the man who took the woman into the brush, and each of these animals sang a song as they gave them. The buffalo was there also, and gave its hoofs, which were tied to the end of the digging-stick (Wissler 1908:83-84).
Delaware.meaning, ritual, social category, use.
The family feasts are not clearly described by early writers, who generally lumped them together as "sacrifices," and hence they are mostly known from the Oklahoma period. Their ritual paraphernalia belonged to individual lineages, each of which conducted its ceremony every year or two in fulfillment of an obligation incurred by an ancestor. Typical were the Grease-Drinking ceremonies (p&schwa;pahsuk·wíh&schwa;la·n or ahki·w&schwa;núma·n), in which a bear—or in later years a hog—was devoured, grease was drunk and thrown in the fire, and there was some vision recitation. In the Otter-rite Grease-Drinking ceremony, held to appease an otter that had once made a girl sick, the leader wore an inherited otter skin (kw&schwa;númxkwxe·s). Also important were the Doll Dances 'ordinary dance,'or 'when our grandmother dances'), at which a doll dressed [page 233] in accurate detail as a woman (or sometimes as a man) was carried on a stick by the men and then the women, alternately, as they danced around the fire in separate rows to the accompaniment of special songs. Other minor ceremonies are mentioned in the sources. There were two kinds of curers, the herb doctor (m&schwa;te·ínnu, archaic m&schwa;té·), who prescribed herbal medicines, and the sweat doctor (nenpí·ke·s), who performed shamanistic curing rituals in a small sweathouse (Goddard 1965-1970; Zeisberger 1910:84, 136-140; Jordan 1913, 2:196-197; Harrington 1921:162-183; Speck 1937; Newcomb 1956:65-69, 112-113) (Goddard 1978:232-233).