TRACES OF MASONRY AMONG INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

THE BUILDER NOVEMBER 1922

In a book I was reading recently, I found what led me to believe that the American Indians possessed Masonry.  I read where places had been unearthed showing what had apparently been lodge rooms. The east, west, and south had been occupied by persons of rank, but the north was vacant.  I also read of graves being found, "dug due east and west" and crude implements found on the bodies.  This has aroused my curiosity.
 
Can you give me more information of an authentic nature? If the American Indians did possess Masonry, where did they obtain it? Kindly give me further light on this subject in the Question Box of THE BUILDER.  H. B. B., Massachusetts.

I believe that certain of our North American Indian tribes had, and still do maintain, a society or societies which are remarkably close to our own: and that these societies undoubtedly originated before the coming of white colonists to America.

Among the Cree, Ojibway, Potawatomi, Menomini, Sauk, Winnebago, Iowa, Oto, and the bands of Sioux or Dakota Indians comprised under the name of Santee Sioux, who formerly inhabited the state of Minnesota westward into South Dakota, there exists today a society called in the language of the first five by some variant of the title Midewiwin; and among the last four tribes by a name which means "Medicine Dance."

The society is found in its purest form among the Menomini, Ojibway, and Potawatomi, and was formerly well known to the Cree, Sauk, and perhaps to the Ottawa, Mianii, Peoria, and other Central Western tribes of the Algonkian stock.  Among those speaking dialects of the Siouan tongue, such as the Winnebago, Iowa, Oto, and Santee it is more divergent, and a scarcely recognizable form is found among the Omaha and Ponca.

The writer being most familiar with the Menomini form of the ceremonies as practised on the reservation of that tribe in north central Wisconsin, where he has often been present during the performance of the rites, and has obtained the ritual, etc, in full, will herewith give a brief account of the ceremony and its origin, as related by his instructors in its mysteries.

The society, which is called in Menomini the "Metawin," is considered to antedate the origin of mankind, having been secured as a gift of the gods to humanity through the auspices of the mythical hero demigod Ma'nabus (The Great Dawn, son of the four winds of heaven and grandson of our Grandmother the Earth), who forced the various manitous subordinate to the Great Spirit to yield to him their secret knowledge of the healing roots and herbs, and the means of attaining immortality by successfully negotiating the passage from this world to the hereafter.


In order to obtain this knowledge the Ancient Master had to submit himself to be slain, and was then brought to life once more, in full possession of the mysteries which he afterwards transferred to mankind in the same manner.  These rites have been carefully preserved and observed to this day.

The manner of initiating the candidate is as follows: After a long course of preparatory instruction, when the final day arrives, a lodge is erected, oblong in shape and oriented east and west.  The final preparation of the candidate is completed in a room formed by curtaining off one end of the lodge.  When all is in readiness, he enters the lodge, and in imitation of the ancient Master, whom he as the candidate now represents, he is placed in the western end of the lodge, facing the east.  While in this position, he is successively attacked by four men, bearing bags fanned of Use skins of animals in their hands (usually otterskins are used, because of certain mythical episodes in the story of the founding of the lodge, in which the otter figures).  These bags contain certain medicines and charms, including a sacred shell, which is imbued with the essence of all. As each approaches the candidate he raises the head of the otterskin, which he holds in both hands, breast high, blows upon it, and utters the sacred cry of "We ho ho ho ho," which is said to mean "It must be so!" At each of the first three attacks the candidate staggers, but when the fourth attack is made, he falls, and lies as though dead.  Then follows certain evolutions ("floor work") on the part of the four masters of ceremony, who eventually raise the dead man to his feet, a full-fledged member, entitled to all the light there is.

Words and grips they do not seem to have, but badges, symbols, and a lengthy ritual of song, recitation, floor work, etc., which is passed on down the generations by word of mouth, there certainly are.  The society is graded, having four degrees - among the Indians everywhere four is apt to be regarded as a sacred number, rather than three.  Four represents the points of the compass, and hence is often used to symbolize the cosmos.  Among all Indians women are freely admitted as members.

The differences as well as the similarities of these rites with our Freemasonry are of course marked, yet the similarities are fundamental, and the differences, among an independent people of very different culture or civilization, are to be expected.  The question remains "Whence did they obtain these unquestionably ancient rites?" The answer is, in my opinion, involved with the question of their origin.  It has been proved by modern research that the ancestors of our Indians came from Asia, - Northern Siberia, to be precise - via a once-existent land bridge across Behring Strait. I will not enter further into this phase of the question, but an interesting source of speculation is thereby opened to the student.
 
Brother Arthur C. Parker of Albany, N. Y., tells me of a society which is found among the Seneca Iroquois of New York State, wherein the candidate, representing the ancient founder of the order, is not only slain but is brought to life by the grip of the bears paw.

Undoubtedly, in years to come, we shall learn of further similarities among other tribes, but as yet we are decidedly in the dark on the subject.  Lodge rooms of stone with the appropriate stations have been reported, and may no doubt exist, especially in the southwestern United States, but the field is yet almost untouched by those competent to conduct such research.

I have myself seen very suggestive things in the jungles of Costa Rica, where I have personally exhumed from the stone-walled tombs stone figures with their hands in three reminiscent positions, and where I once found a long rectangular stone enclosure of no apparent use save for ceremonies in the dense jungle.  But these objects were used by a prehistoric people wiped out or driven away by the Spanish Roman Catholic conquerors, and we can only guess as to their meaning.

In summing up, I repeat that I believe that the American Indians do possess a primitive form of Masonry, which is probably more nearly related to the ancient rites of our Craft than to what we practice today, although some similarities even to modern Freemasonry are sufficiently obvious.  So far, these similarities would not entitle them to admission to our lodges nor us to theirs, yet we cannot deny the relationship.

Of course, there are many Indians who are at this moment Master Masons in good standing in numerous of our white lodges, and there have been such since the first history of Masonry in America, but I know of no exclusively Indian lodge practising our ceremonials at present.

See my article entitled "Little Wolf Joins the Metawin" in the 1921 volume of THE BUILDER, page 281.
Alanson Skinner, Wisconsin.

