Shamans

The term shaman traces its origin to Siberia, where the term describes individuals who cure people of illnesses and have some type of contact with the spiritual or metaphysical world. In North America anthropologists have adopted the term to refer to Native American healers and religious figures from many diverse nations, even when the shaman might play a different role in each society or derive his or her power from a different source. In most tribes a shaman was a religious figure who had the ability to cure illnesses using local flora, through rituals, or by properly interpreting a dream or vision. In some tribes the shaman was distinctly different from political or military figures, while in others political and spiritual power might be unified in one individual. Among the Iroquois individuals belonged to a particular medicine society, each of which held certain sacred songs. By the 16th and 17th centuries these societies also used a variety of masks in healing ceremonies, which were in high demand due to the numerous European diseases that spread through Indian communities. Shamans, healers, and medicine societies were tested during the period of colonialism due to the epidemics, against which traditional medicines and rituals seemed ineffective.

Shamans were frequently the objects of derision by Christian missionaries, who often saw the shaman as an impediment to conversion at best and a helper of Satan at worst. When a shaman’s power was undermined by his or her inability to cure, a Christian missionary might provide an alternative form of medicine or spiritual power. Indeed, many Indian people turned to missionaries and Christianity only after their traditional shamans seemed to have lost their power.

Shamans remain part of many traditional Native American cultures, existing where Native languages and traditions are still vibrant. New Age religionists sometimes claim powers based on supposed Native descent, although these claimants are more closely related to palm readers and fortune-tellers than to the traditions of any Native American culture.

Further reading: James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); Alice Beck Kehoe, Shamans and Religion: An Anthropological Exploration in Critical Thinking (Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 2000).

—Thomas J. Lappas and Marshall Joseph Becker