The Swastika
Dispersion of the Swastika
The Sac Indians. --- Miss Mary A. Owen, of St. Joseph, Mo., sending some specimens of beadwork of the Indians (pl. 15) form the Kansas Reservation, two of which were garters and the third a necklace 13 inches long and 1 inch wide, in which the Swastikas represented are an inch square, writes, February 2, 1895, as follows:
The Indians call it [the Swastika] the "luck," or "good luck." It is used in necklaces and garters by the sun worshippers among the Kickapoo, Sacs, Pottawatomies, Iowas, and (I have been told) by the Winnebagoes. I have never seen it on a Winnebago. The women use the real Swastika and the Greek key pattern, in the silk patchwork of which they make sashes and skirt trimmings. As for their thinking it an emblem of fire or deity, I do not believe they entertain any such ideas, as some Swastika hunters have suggested to me. They call it "luck," and say it is the same thing as two other patterns which I send in the mail with this. They say they "always" made that pattern. They must have made it for a long time, for you can not get such beads as compose it, in the stores of a city or in the supplies of the traders who import French beads for the red folk. Another thing. Beadwork is very strong, and this is beginning to look tattered, a sure sign that it has seen long service.
These sun worshippers --- or, if you please, Swastika wearers --- believe in the Great Spirit, who lives in the sun, who creates all things, and is the source of all power and beneficence. They ancestors are a sort of company of animal saints, who intercede for the people. There are many malicious little demons who thwart the ancestors and lead away the people at times and fill them with diseases, but no head devil. Black Wolf and certain ghosts of the unburied are the worst. Everybody has a secret fetish or "medicine," besides such general "lucks" as Swastika, bear skins, and otter and squirrel tails.
Of the other cult of the peoples I have mentioned, those who worship the sun as the deity and not the habitation, I know nothing. They are secret, suspicious, and gloomy, and do not wear the "luck." I have never seen old people wear the "luck."
Now, I have told you all I know, except that it [the Swastika] used in ancient times to be made in quill embroidery on herb bags.
Miss Owen spoke of other garters with Swastikas on them, but she said they were sacred, were used only during certain ceremonies, and she knew not if she could be able to get or even see them. During the prolongation of the preparation of this paper she wrote two or three times, telling of the promises made to her by the two Sac women who were the owners of these sacred garters, and how each time they
ENDNOTES:
1. This was the last time I ever saw Mr. Dorsey. He died within a month, beloved and regretted by all who knew him. [Back]
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