Evening star., 1934-09-18
INDIANS ANCIENT
TRINITY REVEALED
Cree Tribe Respected Mas.
ter of Food, Life and
Death.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Discovery OF lOng-SuDIneiBeo doCeo
Of a strange re-Christian Trinity
with a single supreme divinity COM
bining three attributes-among the
coast Of James Bay in Northern On
primitive Cree Indians of the west
tario, is reported by Rev DR.. John M.
Cooper. professor of anthropology at
Catholic University, in a report pre-
pared for the Catholic Anthropologi-
cal Conference.
DR.. Cooper, who has spent many
Summers among the James Bay In
dams. was obliged to untangle the
actual aboriginal beliefs from the
notifications and identifications due
to the teachings of the earlier mis-
sionaries. The deity which finally
emerged from the vague memories of
older members of the tribe, he found,
was a combined master Of food,
master of life and master Of DEATH"
three entities mystically combined
into one.
There was no aboriginal devil, or
supreme master of evil, although the
James Bay people were afflicted with
a variety of minor malicious spirits
whom they were obliged to propitiate.
Supreme Being Above.
"This Supreme Being" says DR..
Cooper, was consistently reported as
being somewhere above. No hint at
all emerged of any relationship to the
sun or any other heavenly body. The
Supreme Being was conceived of quite
clearly as distinct from the powagans,
or guardian spirits. All informants
agreed that it was really the master
or boss" of things in general, in
Guiding mankind. They differed as
to whether he was the maker or Gre
ator. 1t seems more likely that he
was conceived of as master, rather
than maker, although on this partic-
ular point there may have been dif-
ferences of opinion among individual
Indians or bands. Information as to
whether the first man or woman was
made by the Supreme Being pointed
rather toward negative.
THE evidence is perfectly clear
that he was distinctly active in his
relationship toward both the conjurers
and the rank and file of the people.
He was emphaticaily the one who gave
the people their food. That he also
looked after life and death seems
equally clear. 1t was chiefly through
dreams that he informed them what
to do to have successful hunt or
to recover from sickness.
There were no statues or images
Of Manitu, and there was nothing like
cursing. If there was any relation
ship between the respect paid to the
bones Of animals and the respect paid
to the Supreme Being it must have
been tenuous or indirect. To cover
meat when it was carried from tent
to tent, and not to waste meat, was
looked upon quite definitely as re-
quired by him. 1t seems very likely
that his relationship to the socio-
moral law either was extremely tenu-
Gus or else nil.
Prayers for Health.
PRAYERS for food and health were
made to the Supreme Being particu
larly in circumstances of more than
ordinary need. Thanksgiving was
made after he had provided food or
health"
The study, which was financed in
part by the Social Science Research
Council, is regarded as of consid-
cradle significance in anthropology,
since these primitive Crees had been
one of the few peoples of the simplest
material culture among whom some
trace, however attenuated, of single
supreme being had not been found.
The task of getting at it was espe-
cially difficult, since much depended
on the exact meanings of Indian
words and the old concepts were quite
vague in the minds even of the older
members of the tribe who long have
been converted to Christianity.
In the course of his study DR..
Cooper uncovered one of the most
curious of all conversion stories. Back
about 1850, before the James Bay
Crees had had any contact with
white missionaries, two Indians dis
appeared for a time and then reap
peared-one calling himself Christ
and the other "the light bringer" I"
They claimed to have just paid visits
to heaven and hell and brought with
them certain crude hymns. Appar-
emily they had come in some way in
contact with missionaries and tried
to turn the new religion to their own
advantage because of their prior in
formation.
DR.. Cooper was able to check up
on the stories of the older Indians
from the letters of contemporary
missionary and both agreed. That
an oral tradition should have come
down for nearly century with SO
little distortion, he points out, gives
extra validity to the Indian stories
Of other old beliefs and events.