Iroquois Culture

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The haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois, were a tribe of Indians who are mainly situated in the American Northeast as well as the Great Lakes region including southern Canada. They have a rich cultural heritage which includes how they lived and governed, what they believed in, and even a form of medicine. Their lives were permeated with religious practices such as the sun and healing rituals. On the topic of healing rituals, the Iroquois had an unconventional form of medicine. Though they were known to treat common sicknesses and injuries such as wounds and broken bones, they had an alternative method of treating more serious cases. This method involved ritual healers singing and beating of drums in order to cast away bad spirits. The Iroquois even had societies that were dedicated to treating a specific ailment through a specific ritual. The Iroquois had several societies. Such societies were the little water, otter, bear, eagle, and the false face society (Drumm Pp. 7). According to the medical societies “both the ritual and the impetus of the society traditionally originated from supernatural beings or from an Indian’s encounter with a spirit in life or in a dream.” (Drumm Pp. 7) The false face dance is one of the more well known spiritual rituals that the Iroquois would perform. This ritual was discovered by a hunter in the woods. The hunter noticed some hungry false face spirits, and gave them some food. In return, the false face spirits taught him the false face dance ritual. The false face ritual is usually performed during the mid winter festival. During the false face ritual, masked dancers enter the houses of the tribe members and begin to shout while shaking bark rattles. During the ritual, the dancer... ... middle of paper ... ... Journal of American Folklore. Volume 13. Issue 49 (1900): Pp. 81-91. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. . Alice, N. (2006). Daily Life of Native Americans from Post-Columbian through Nineteenth-Century America. (p. 41). Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport Connecticut. Retrieved Oct. 28, 2013 http://books.google.com/books?id=Ghv-E7OuBlMC&dq=how+iroquois+daily+lives+were+carried+out&source=gbs_navlinks_s Drumm, Judith. "Iroquois Culture." http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED032986. New York State Education Dept. Albany, NY. Published Sep, 1962. Web. Retrieved 3 Nov 2013. . Parker, Arthur. "Iroquois Sun Myths." Journal of American Folklore. Volume 23. Issue 90 (1910): Pp. 473-478. Web. 4 Nov. 2013. .

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