Oklahoma Delaware ceremonies, feasts and dances

Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith)

article

Oklahoma Delaware ceremonies, feasts and dances

Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society • Philadelphia • Published In 1937 • Pages: viii, 161

By: Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith).

Abstract
This study is the result of some eight years' work among the Oklahoma Delaware and the Munsee residing in Ontario. Using the many historical documents relating to Delaware ceremonies in the past, the author tries to relate the ceremonies of today to those of the past, and tries to see how much the ceremonies have changed in the intervening two centuries. Speck covers family feasts, the Bear and Otter Rites of the Grease Drinking Ceremony, the Mask Dance Rite, the Buffalo Dance Ceremony, Rain Making Ritual, the Spring Prayer and Football Ceremony, the Corn Harvest Ceremony, Rite to Avert Thunder, Mortuary Rites and Procedures, and several other ceremonies. Some material pertaining to the culture of the Nanticoke Indians, mainly relating to witchcraft, is also included. At the time of publication, Speck was Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and a noted authority on the Algonquian Indians of the northeastern United States.

Dance

Literary texts

Magical and mental therapy

Burial practices and funerals

Mythology

Spirits and gods

Prayers and sacrifices

HRAF PubDate