Native Voices

Among the Pawnees there are some members who believe that one can be witched. Although the statement may not be accurate, one older tribal member said witching exists today, "all the time" (1990s). This can be the result of the actions of a practitioner within the tribe or by some person outside the tribe. Usually if one becomes the victim of witching it results in bad luck, illness, or death. Various accounts describing events occurring in decades past until the present illustrate these events and include many similar practices noted in many societies where the belief in witchcraft existed or exists. Pawnee beliefs indicate a long history in which witchcraft was said to have occurred. The principal character in one type of legend was a witch who caused death by various means. The word for this person was stoo who had magical powers that she obtained from certain animals. She often lived apart from the villages and with her powers could draw victims to her and kill them. 1 In many stories the stoo exhibited cannibalism as in the story told by the Skidi band member White Eagle. This witch lived near the village and would challenge men and boys to a contest to see if they could stay under the water in a river or lake longer than she could. Under the water she had a cave, and when she thought that the person had risen to the surface, she would leave her cave, seize the victim and pull him under into her cave and devour him. 2 Cannibalism appears in other tales. In one a witch woman lived on the prairie with her son who had magical powers and could fly through the air on the points of magic arrows. The woman lived on human flesh which the boy would procure for her by killing men. Spider Woman, another mythological character, also showed murderous traits. She poisoned and killed men whom she found hunting. She removed their ears and strung them on a cord. After this she cut off the head, removed the brains and placed them and the ears in the sun to dry. She then cut up the body and cast it into a stream. Tirawahat, the Pawnee Great Father in the Heavens, sent down the Sun Boys who destroyed her powers and eventually she is carried off to become the Woman in the Moon so far away that she could no longer do harm. 3 [End Page 615] Stories about this witch can be told today. It is said that when you go to a stream to get water. "Use your hand, don't put your head down and drink because stoo might come up and kiss you. She is the fat old witch that eats children." 4 In many stories the evil witch was eventually destroyed, usually by animals possessing magical powers or by boys who had magic powers such as in the case of the first tale. In it, the boy, who was really a magic beaver or otter, would be able to stay under the water longer than the witch. He would eventually rise to the surface and kill her. The witch was not always female. In some tales sinister activities performed by witch men occur. One Pawnee Skidi band story relates that when men began to learn magic from animals they also learned the rituals of witchcraft from them. Certain men of a village could assume the form of a turkey or an owl. After the death and burial of a village person the group would surreptitiously visit the grave and exhume the body. In one story the turkey witch man used his power to kill and later went to his victim's grave saying, "I came here to take this young man out and to take the fat off from his heart for our medicine." Other witch men in this story also used body parts to make medicine, but eventually the turkey

Archaeology and Natural History · Mormonism, Religion, and History · Psychology

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