The Grizzly Bear
in Cheyenne Religion - Part 2
THE GRIZZLY BEAR IN CHEYENNE RELIGION
Written for GOAL by Winfield Coleman
PART 2 of a special 4-part series to be published monthly
In the fall of 1835, a man named Many Crows and his wife were surprised by a Crow war party. Many Crows was killed, and his wife taken captive. She was made the third wife of the Crow war party leader, and was abused so by the other two wives that a young Crow took pity on her and helped her to escape, even giving her two horses. But the horses soon ran off, and she was left in a bad way, fearful that she would be captured again. A grizzly approached her near the Pumpkin Buttes (Fig. 5), but rather than attacking her, it followed her and covered her tracks with its tracks. The bear even killed a buffalo calf for her, so that she might eat, and guided her until she reached the main Cheyenne camp on the Laramie River. There the bear was given meat and other valuables in thanks (Grinnell 1926:115 ff.).
There are other stories of encounters with grizzlies, in which the bear offered to help someone lost or wounded; one of them is related below, in the section on shields.
The Cheyenne, it should be noted, do not distinguish between historical stories and earlier stories, which are all part of a sacred continuum.
THE BEAR IN CHEYENNE CEREMONIES
Bear medicine is still in use among both the Cheyenne and the Arapaho. The bear is considered to have great spiritual power. He can heal himself, and can heal other bears (Grinnell 1923 II: 105). During a curing ceremony witnessed by the author, a shaman reached into a red-hot fire, pulled out a glowing coal with his fingers, put it in his mouth, then shape-shifted into a grizzly. Holding the coal between his teeth, he huffed like a bear, blowing a stream of sparks over the patient’s body wherever she had been struck by medicine (Coleman field notes 9.23.98).
Similar shape-shifting is reported among the Ojibwa. During a Bear sweat lodge ceremony, the sweat bathers came to appear to each other like bears, and the sweat lodge itself “came to resemble the cavernous insides of a great bear” (Landes 1968: 27).
An elder who had bear medicine said that the bears in Yellowstone use some of the mud that boils up out of the ground there in their doctoring. Yellowstone is also one of the sources of a blue paint used in Cheyenne ceremonies and in women’s painting, a color that refers to the Above World and Thunder (Fig. 6). Another medicine used by the bears is also found in that region: wild ginseng, Panax quinquefolius. This medicine, and the blue paint. are both used by the Contraries, who are associated with Thunder (Coleman field notes 9.25.99). As the Contraries derive their power from Thunder, this is another link between the bear and the thunderbird (see below).
While Mahe’o is the name of the male essence of the Creator, He’om is the name of the female essence of the Creator. The male essence only becomes operative in relationship to the female, He’om (Coleman field notes 10.4.96). This relationship is expressed in the renewal of the earth each spring, when Thunder pierces the earth with his lightning arrows, thus inseminating her.
In ceremonial terms, the relationship is symbolized by the center pole of the Earth Renewal (Sun Dance) lodge: the forked top, in which are placed various plants, meat, and a bucket of water, is known as “Thunder’s Nest;” next to the base of the center pole a rectangular sod is removed to create an altar. Four stripes of paint are laid in the pit (Fig. 7). On the one hand, this represents a pound, a trap for capturing the good things of life; on the other hand, it represents a bear’s spoor, which has similar connotations--that is, it is perceived as a form of trap. Sometimes a bear’s paw is carved or painted directly on the base of the center pole, while in the Sun Dance lodge of the Plains Cree and Saulteaux, a bear’s paw is laid on a piece of cloth folded into a diamond (Coleman field notes 7.9.95). The connection between the power of the Thunderbird and the Bear--that is, between the Above World and the Below World--is thus made explicit.
Ceremonies such as the Earth Renewal Ceremony (Sun Dance) are closely linked to hunting mores. The grizzly was not hunted for food, but for ceremonial practices – namely, that some bear medicine ceremonies required that parts of the bear be used in the ritual, which corresponded to the ailment to be cured in the patient. There exists an elaborate and extremely challenging ceremonial process that must be undertaken before hunters leave to find such a bear. The James Bay Cree, an Algonquian group related linguistically and culturally to the Cheyenne, carry an embroidered bag worn around the neck when hunting bear--and only for bear (Fig. 8). The bag contains the tumpline used to drag the prey from its home to the hunter’s home. The hourglass shape embroidered on the bag represents a thunderbird, while the tumpline signifies the invisible lines that link the hunter to his prey--their mutual consent. It also alludes to the net-maker’s (spider’s) line that serves to connect the sky world with the earth world--the World Tree (Oberholzer 2008: 70, 72). The rainbow serves as the ultimate metaphor, as the Thunderbird uses a rainbow line to hunt its Underworld prey.
Mountains are considered abodes of the spirits--the Ancient Ones, Mahaax'se. Bear Butte, in South Dakota, is another example. Náhkohe-vose is literally Bear Mountain, or Bear Butte, from which the Lakota derived the appellation Mato Paha (Fig. 3). This name was suggested by the resemblance of the mountain to a sleeping grizzly bear. The Cheyenne name, No’ah’wus, means The Sacred Mountain Where They Are Taught [or Empowered], referring to the foundational story of Sweet Medicine, Motseyuef, the Great Prophet and culture hero of the Tsistsistas. Sweet Medicine dwelt four years with his woman in a sacred cave within Bear Butte, receiving instructions from the spirits. The entry to the cave is guarded by a grizzly bear and a mountain lion (Grinnell 1908; Coleman field notes 9.26.97). Sweet Medicine, a shaman of unsurpassed powers, had grizzly bear associations. Wesley Whiteman, a well-known Contrary (a person with Thunder power), averred that Sweet Medicine was born not far from Nahkohe Vee’e (Schwartz 1988: 52). A grained yellow paint, similar to the one used by the Two Young Men at the spring, is also recorded for Sweet Medicine (Grinnell 1908: 271), a further indication of his link to bears.
As seen from the above examples, these ancient stories are often site-specific, thus sacralizing the locations. The following story links an area in Yellowstone both to bears and to the Obsidian Cliff (Fig. 4). Nahkohe, the word for bear, is a near-homonym of náhko’e, mother--a term used only in addressing one’s mother (Coleman field notes 10.4.96). There is thus a link between bears and the maternal aspect of women, one that is brought out in the story, in which the two meanings of the term are played upon.
One fall, some women were singing while picking chokecherries and bear berries beside a stream. An unmarried young woman, engrossed in the singing and her work, was suddenly confronted by a large grizzly bear; her companions had fled. The grizzly approached and picked her up, carrying her to its den in the mountains. There, a cub came forward and addressed her as mother. The young woman indeed became like a mother to the cub, but she continued to miss her people. When the cub was bigger, it addressed her one-day. “Mother,” it said, “It is nearly time. Soon we shall leave both this place and my father.” It told her to make many pairs of moccasins, as their trail was long. In the spring, when the thunder had returned, and the cub’s father was gone hunting, the cub pushed aside the stones and logs with which the bear had concealed the entrance, and the two of them took flight. After suffering various difficulties, they reached the Cheyenne camp, and walked into it hand in hand, so that the people would know the young bear was friendly. The young bear soon became part of society, and struck up a friendship with two boys, named Hatchet Keeper and Fastest Runner (i.e. Thunder and Lightning). One day the three of them decided to go to an ancient place, one they had not seen before. After traveling west for several days, they came upon an immense rock cliff that barred their way. There was no way around it. “There is only one thing to do,” said the bear. In response, Hatchet Keeper took his axe and struck the wall of rock. Great chunks of rock flew off the rock wall until its top was jagged, like teeth. Then he struck the cliff so violently that when he jerked the hatchet back, most of the head remained embedded in the rock wall. That is how the Obsidian Cliff in Yellowstone was formed--it is the head of Hatchet Keeper’s axe (story told by Bill Tall Bull, as related to author by R. Náhkȯxho’óxeóó’ėstse 3.27.14).
The story, which relates both Thunder and the grizzly bear to the creation of the Obsidian Cliff, also suggests the awe with which the early Indians must have confronted this monument, seeing themselves reflected darkly in the shiny black stone, as though they were seeing themselves in the Spirit World. As the color black is associated with winter, it is small wonder that the Obsidian Cliff was the site of the Winter Solstice Rite in ancient times.
It should be remembered that the Sacred Arrows are tipped with obsidian points. Likewise, stone arrowheads found in the ground are called hoe' tahn’otse, Lightning’s arrows, as they are thought to have been hurled to the earth by Thunder (Coleman field notes 9.22.98).
Part 2 to be published August 1, 2014
Winfield Coleman, BA in Anthropology from Cornell, did graduate work at Harvard and earned an MA in painting from NYU. Since receiving NEH research grants in the 70’s, his primary contacts have been among the Cheyenne. He has published numerous articles on American Indian culture, and illustrated museum catalogs and ethnographic books. From 2002 to 2005 he was the Curatorial Assistant for the AOA Department at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University. He works in San Francisco as an independent researcher and artist.