Deer Spirits - Winnebago by Richard L. Dieterle Deer spirits live in the village of Earthmaker, where they are famous musicians, playing the flute and singing. These spirits can take on a human form to communicate with men. There is a deer mound in the Wazidja where dwells the Great White Doe. At this mound, under her supervision, all the souls of deer who have died enter, and out of it all the souls of deer who are to be reincarnated are born. During the tenth month (the Strawberry Moon), the Great White Doe always remains inside the mound, since this is the time when does conceive. The spiritual nature of the deer is bound up with the four cardinal directions and with the winds that emanate from them. This reflects the connection between sound and pervasiveness -- the cries of the deer radiate out to the four corners, so their nature is to control air and what air pervades. Also, deer as animals that rely on speed to survive, have unusually well developed lungs, which means that they, more than most species, have a special control of air. If the voice of a deer is heard, the weather will change from good to bad or vice-versa. Thus if a Deer clansman, who has inherited the spiritual nature of deer, were to sing his clan song too loudly or wail in grief, someone might die. This same activity can also raise a gale force wind. This is because air and sound, being part of the spiritual constitution of deer, make up both the essence of weather and the essence of human life, the breath. To create too much of this power, which apparently subsists in a finite reservoir, is to draw it away from some other spiritual reservoir, such as a human being; or in nature, a mass of air. Because pervasiveness commands the four quarters, the Deer Clan has some claim to government. It is said too that were it not for the breath that the primordial Deer chief blew upon the simmering embers of the first fire, it would not have lit up at all. Thus they have a share in the sovereignty inherent in the possession of the first fire. Another figure associated with cardinal directions is Redhorn. He is also the deity Herok'a, whose eponymous spirit-followers give magical powers to hunters. In his youth he was known as He at whom They Throw the Deer Lungs, since his older brother Kunu once threw them at Redhorn when he refused to fast. The deer lungs symbolize the wind and centrality of the deer, the seat of its essence by which it commands the four quarters. Thus the deer are particularly cooperative with Redhorn and the Herok'a spirits. Once a man shot at a cave painting of a deer during an initiation ceremony for a neophyte devotee of the Herok'a, and from out of the wall a deer fell dead at their feet. Deer hunting can sometimes lead a man into mysterious encounters. A young man once shot a deer, but although it was mortally wounded, it kept on running, obliging him to chase after it. It took him out of the way just so that when he packed it back, he found himself walking through an abandoned village where he was destined to rendezvous with the ghost of his departed lover. In recent times, P'edjga's brother went hunting for a deer that also failed to fall when hit, so that the hunter was obliged to club the animal to death. It was too heavy to carry, but when the man returned with help, the deer had mysteriously disappeared. Deer not only have human hunters to contend with, but wolves as well. Wolf Spirits have some control over deer. Once two Wolf Spirits were reborn in the flesh, one as a wolf and the other as a human. As long as the human left the deer liver from his kill for his brother, the human enjoyed bounty beyond limit. However, his wife induced him to keep the deer liver, ever after which he was not able to kill a deer. Only by cooperating with his brother, as humans do with dogs to this day, was he able to kill a deer and regain his strength. Humans and wolves are like brothers. In the earliest times, Deer Spirits, because they control the wind, enlisted the North Wind to lure off hunters who came to kill them. The North Wind captured twelve deer slaying brothers and confined them in a snowbound prison, while their parents fell into want. The Deer Spirits appeared and tormented the old couple by dancing around the inside of their lodge, singing spiteful songs. So the old man took oysters and incubated them between his legs, and two wolves hatched from them. These two gave rise to the race of wolves. The wolf brothers conquered the Deer Spirits and rescued the brothers from the captivity of the North Wind. In those days, all the deer lived together, but the wolf brothers scattered them over the face of the earth, a pattern of distribution to which they hold down to the present day. Coyotes, near relatives of wolves, are in some debt to deer. Once Coyote had the tip of his tail bitten off by an animated human corpse. When a deer passed by in response to his calls for help, it took pity on him and gave him the tip of its white tail. Thus, this kind of deer has a short tail, and the coyote has had a tail with a white tip ever since. Deer suffered setbacks of other kinds which had an impact on their present constitution. Once the spirit known as the "Green Man," encountered a deer. He yelled to it, "Younger brother, come here, I need to borrow your heart." When the deer came, Green Man took out its heart and replaced it with one made of dirt. This is why deer hearts today are so dry. It is also why deer are so skittish: -- for if the earth were to quake, so would their hearts. This may also poke fun at the Deer Clan name, "Shakes the Earth" (Mâgiksuntcga ?), which was meant to express the power of the cervid founders of the clan. The dry heart is not the only venison organ eaten by the Hotcâgara. It is said that someone raised on a diet of deer brains will grow taller than others and will be free of disease. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that deer brains were used in tanning leather, which protects it as well as making it more pliable. http://hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.DeerSpirits.html Come visit us at. "Keeper of Stories". http://www.newkeeperofstories.com/ or Come visit us. "Native Village" [email protected]