Some Mohawk claim that witchcraft was introduced to them by members of an Algonquin-speaking nation whom they had taken in. Some Seneca trace theirs to the Nanticoke Nation, which the Seneca adopted—if not the Eries or Kah-Quas (Neutrals), nations they absorbed or displaced. The Onondaga fought wars with the fierce Andaste Nation, suspected of being a race of enchanters. The Tuscarora came to upstate New York with occultism, which was possibly influenced by the traditions of African slaves in their North Carolina home.
In Europe, there is a similar pattern of a dominant society associating traditions of magic with a culture it has supplanted, repressed, or absorbed. Every tribe or nation that migrated to or invaded the British Isles—Celts, Romans, Saxons, Normans—attributed occultism to those it displaced. Occult traditions are also found among marginalized groups within a society or among immigrants who bring occult traditions with them.
The gypsies have always been the wizards of Europe. Occult and mystical traditions came to imperial Rome in waves from its provinces. Voodoo came to the American colonies with displaced Africans. Still, the tradition of witchcraft seems so entrenched in Iroquois culture that it’s hard to believe all their customs could be imports.
In Parker’s version of The Code of Handsome Lake, the Longhouse prophet was so ruffled by witchcraft that it became his personal quest to warn all the Iroquois against it. Handsome Lake begins one of the sections of his Code by noting that the Creator was unhappy at the piles of dead, all people killed by the actions of magic, and in particular, charms. The prophet forbids all types of magic. In doing so, he describes a few spells:
If someone dies keeping a secret from you, you might discover it by sleeping on the ground with a handful of dirt from the person’s grave under your head. If everything goes right, the dead person will reveal the mystery in three successive visions.
The Iroquois were great runners who could send messages one hundred miles a day along their upstate trails. A man hoping to be a runner might keep a bone from the grave of a famous runner in his belt. Most celebrated Iroquois runners were said to carry such charms.
A warrior could protect himself from ambush by making three cuts in the back of his neck and rubbing them with an oil made from the scalps of enemies. The cuts would heal into three white, protruding scars. If an enemy came up from behind, these queer tattoos would tingle.
At least two Iroquois nations, the Seneca and Onondaga, held the belief that an exact number of children is predestined to every woman. These children, they believed, were fastened within each woman on a vinelike runner they called the string of children. The Creator, who made life so that it should live, was distressed when people interrupted the natural process, hence the prophet condemned abortion charms and potions.
The most effective charm for getting rich is the tooth of a niagwahe, the demon bear.
One thing the prophet failed to add is that attempting to get a tooth off one of these critters is the most effective charm known for committing suicide.
Parker’s observation of the two styles of Iroquois magical practice may illustrate the traditional distinction between the magician/ witch and the sorcerer. As Peter Partner observes in his book about the Templars (The Murdered Magicians), the sorcerer—like Shakespeare’s Prospero—needs book and staff. Keeping a sorcerer away from the magical tools and techniques takes away all his or her power. You can let one of these off with a lesson.
But the old kind of Iroquois natural witch or magician is a far more dangerous figure. The magician/witch is inseparable from his or her power. You are only safe from one of these characters when he or she is dead. Thus, for the old Iroquois, there was only one solution to a danger like this. It was extreme.
ONONDAGA WITCHES
(Syracuse-Oneida, Nineteenth Century)
Artist and folklorist De Cost Smith (1864–1939) was born in Skaneateles, New York, and spent time at Onondaga in 1887 and 1888. He heard enough about witchcraft to inspire an article, “Witchcraft and Demonism of the Modern Iroquois.” Smith was familiar with rumors about a double execution for witchcraft at Oneida in 1825. He was shocked to hear that an old man suspected of witchcraft was ambushed and shot to death on one of the Canadian reservations as recently as the 1880s.
“What did the man’s friends do about it?” Smith asked those who told him.
“Nothing,” was the reply. “They thought he had been at that business long enough.”
“And the white people?”
His Onondaga friends shrugged. “They didn’t know about it.”
A middle-aged Onondaga man told Smith about an old reservation woman he had thought for years to be a witch. Once, as he was going home around eleven at night, he came around a wooded hill and saw the woman ahead of him on the same trail. Her long hair kept her from seeing him, and he decided to slow down and play it cool.
He caught an eyeful. With each breath she took, many-colored flames blew from her mouth, licking the locks of her hair. The display even lighted her way. He followed till she neared a certain longhouse used for national councils. As if sensing she was being followed, the old gal ran around the building, came to a long log home said to have housed a couple of witches, gave a last huff and puff, and disappeared within.
The Onondaga Reservation quarries used to have an odd geological feature called the Cat Hole, a slot
