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The Sanpoil Vision Quest
The Sanpoil, were Salish speaking Plateau Indians who live in
eastern Washington State. Originally they lived on the Sanpoil River,
Nespelem Creek and on the Columbia River below Big Bend.
Compared to many other cultures, the Sanpoils did not have much in the way of
government, formal societies, religious organization, or even common religious rituals.
The focal point of a Sanpoil lay in the vision quest:
· Going on the quest
· Obtaining spirit helpers while on the quest
· And dealing with the multiple souls and spirit beings in the world
To understand the Vision Quest the way it appeared to the Sanpoil, we need
to know about their world view.
SPIRITUAL BEINGS of the Sanpoil World
Spiritual Beings were very important to the Sanpoils.
The Sanpoils believed that any unusual good fortune (or misfortune) that
happened to a person, come from the supernatural beings.
The Sanpoil distinguished six kinds of spiritual beings in the world.
I - the god Sweat Lodge
Sweat Lodge was the creator of animals and spirits and perhaps of human beings as
well. He was a benevolent deity, and answered the prayers of all who appealed to
him by sweating in a sweat lodge and praying in song.
But although he was the creator, he was not the major being who had an
impact on the Sanpoil.
II - the soul
The soul gave life to the human body.
The Sanpoils believed in lived in the organs near the heart.
Death would result to a person if the soul ever left the body.
Unlike modern man, the Sanpoils did not distinguish between unconsciousness and death. Both were
Caused by a loss of soul. In the Sanpoil language, the same word is used for unconsciousness and death.
Every human being possessed a soul, including the unborn child.
The soul did not have a visible form. It could not leave the body without changing itself into something else.
When a person died, the soul left his body, and one of two things happened: (1) the soul went immediately to the land of the dead, or (2) the soul became a ghost and roamed about on the earth.
The land of the dead was located at the end of the Milky Way in the sky. If the soul went here, it could never returned to earth or even communicate with people on the earth.
It gave up all individual activity and became merged into a greater soul.
The Sanpoils hoped that their souls would go to the land of the dead. Otherwise their soul would remain on earth as a ghost, and be in a condition of perpetual torment.
III - Ghosts
All ghosts had previously been people.
Ghosts varied in their appearance. The could be completely visible or completely invisible.
Generally ghosts were shadowy or vague in outline. Some were without heads or
other body parts. But they were usually wearing clothes that could be seen.
Ghosts appeared both in the daytime and at night. Ghosts never to more than one
person at a time.
Souls would remain as ghosts on the earth for different reasons.
If the deceased person had hidden a valuable object in a place unknown to any other person, or if the person had not destroyed all of his or her hair clippings or nail clippings, his soul, as a ghost, would stay on to watch them.
If the deceased had had failed to confess some wrongdoing before death, their soul was forced to remain on earth as a ghost.
And, if a spirit helper was somehow buried with the corpse, his soul would also remain as a ghost.
IV - Spirits who had never yet lived in the bodies of human beings
Another type of spiritual being were the Spirits.
Spirits took on the forms of animals, plants, inanimate objects, and physical phenomena of nature.
Spirits were most commonly animals.
Every known animal functioned as a spirit helper for somebody in the society.
But rocks, lakes, mountains, and even some inanimate objects possessed spirits,
as did whirlwinds and clouds.
Spirits were not arranged in a neat hierarchy of power, but some were generally recognized as being more powerful than others.
When a Sanpoil adolescent went on a vision quest, he was trying to find
his or her own Spirit helper.
When a person connected with their spirit helper, the spirit became so identified
with his human host that any departure of the spirit from the body was dangerous.
The loss of one's spirit helper resulted in sickness and, if the spirit was not found
and returned to its host, in death.
Sanpoil people who had strong spirits themselves, who anthropologists refer to as "shamans",
could Help to recovered a person's lost spirit.
But a shaman could also have the power to steal a person spirit,
and thereby make the person dangerously sick.
Although spirits were never assumed to be the same as the souls and ghosts
associated with
human beings, they always assumed human form when appearing before men, only
to change back again to their original forms when the interview was ended.
Spirits usually only appeared to people during vision quests, in dreams, at
the winter dances, and in times of trouble.
V - This transformed spirit, "spirit-ghost"
When a person died, his spirit helper did not cease to exist but underwent a
transformation comparable to that from soul to ghost mentioned above and became a
"spirit-ghost"
Such spirit-ghosts could form an association with a relative of the deceased or
with a shaman as an additional source of supernatural power, secondary to the
primary spirit which everyone of any consequence acquired early in life.
VI - Other dangerous supernatural beings
These included ogres, monsters, demons, and evil dwarfs.
THE VISION QUEST ITSELF
All males and perhaps a quarter of the females in the Sanpoil tribe went on a vision quest.
And such quests were repeated throughout life.
Every boy was compelled to seek a spirit helper at an early age
And girls went on such quests if their parents encouraged them to do so.
A young man past puberty who had failed to acquire a spirit helper could
look forward to only the most meager kind of life with the minimum of rewards.
Not more than 10 per cent of youths failed to acquire spirit power in this manner.
Most men boasted of more than one spirit helper, and it was taken for granted that
the most successful men possessed more than one such power.
Perhaps 70 or 80 per cent of the girls did not obtain spirit helpers but, as this
was not mandatory for success in feminine pursuits, they led satisfactory lives without
this experience.
Shamans
Although the Sanpoils did not have priests in the normal sense of the word,
they did have people with more
powerful spiritual powers. Anthropologists call such people shamans; some people
may call them "medicine men".
In some societies, shamans form their own society, but among the Sanpoil,
the shamans were not separate from everyday people. Shamans were simply those
people who possessed a greater number of spirit helpers or more powerful ones
than the regular person. Any regular person might become a shaman if he acquired
more power or more spirits on another vision quest.
Shaman power was obtained in exactly the same manner
as any other kind of spiritual power. The young man could tell from
the spirit's instructions and song whether he would become a successful shaman.
The greatest Sanpoil shaman possessed six spirit helpers and one spirit-ghost.
A boy went on his first spirit quest, lasting only one night, at about eight years
of age.
As he became older, and took more quests, the quest would last several nights.
An old man, usually a grandfather, would instructed the boy in the technique of
acquiring a vision.
He or she would be told to go to the top of a certain mountain or to the shore
of a particular lake where he was likely to find a spirit.
The boy stayed out alone all night, sitting beside a fire on the mountain or
diving repeatedly into the cold waters of the lake.
In order to make sure the boy actually went to the designated spot, the old
man would give him a peculiarly shaped stick or piece of hide to leave at the
spot, so that the old man could find the object the next day. This would
prove that the boy had actually been there.
The youth was supposed to stay awake all night, but it is said that that rule was
often broken.
The vision itself involved seeing a spirit in the guise of a human being in a
dream or hallucination.
The spirit revealed its true identity to the child, and would tell him the
activities in which he would be successful as an adult.
The spirit also listed the kinds of harm from which it would protect him.
For instance, a person might be told they would be lucky in gambling, be a great
hunter, be able to bring rain in time of drought, or that he would be protected from
harm in battle.
Then the spirit taught the boy a song, which was supposed to be an original one different,
at least in detail, from every other song; when this was sung at a later date, it called
forth the boy's supernatural power and assured his success in the undertakings listed
by his spirit helper.
In addition to the loneliness and fear experienced by the boy,
fasting from food and water on the longer quests increased his discomfort and helped
induce the hallucinations or illusions regarded as visitations of spirits.
Spirit helpers were not sought in all-night vigils after the age of adolescence. But
Sanpoils believed that spirit helpers would contact people on their own volition any
time in their lives.
RESULTS OF THE VISION QUEST
The results of the a successful vision quest in childhood or adolescence were not
told to anyone for many years.
Then, when the visionary was twenty-five or thirty years of age, and had achieved
full adult status, his spirit helper would return.
This caused him to get spirit sickness, a feeling of lonesomeness and despondency,
which usually came on in the early winter.
Only a shaman could cure such sickness.
The shaman first located the spirit in the patient's body, then removed it, held
it in his hands long enough to learn the song it had given the patient, and, finally,
blew it back into the patient's body.
Next, the shaman sang the song, with the patient joining in before it was finished or
repeating it a second time.
After thus receiving back his spirit and his song, the patient recovered and was
able to leave his bed, but he was not entirely well until he had sung the new song
almost continuously for several days.
WINTER DANCES
Another importance influence of the Spirit Helper occurred in the
coldest part of the winter, it was almost impossible to fish or hunt
and the Sanpoil lived on food they had preserved for about two months.
At this time of the year, spirits would often re-contact their human hosts.
Public dances, called "winter dances", were held to validate this renewal of spirit power.
They were usually sponsored by a shaman.
But sometimes the "winter dances" were sponsored by the person who had received the power, or by one directed to do so by his spirit helper.
A winter dance lasted two or three nights, and was attended by every adult who cared to
witness the ceremony.
At the dance, each person who had recently received supernatural power impersonated his
spirit helper in a dance.
Many such dances occurred during the winter period, and a single person might attend
all within accessible distance of his home.
These dances served as initiation ceremonies, in which the shaman helped the young
man to entice his spirit helper to come to the dance house and to take up
residence in his body.
This was the proof that the youth had acquired a personal spirit.
The Sanpoil winter dances were a way to provide contact between the initiates and their
spirits.
They also gave an experienced shaman a chance to demonstrate his control over his
supernatural powers, sometimes with the aid of illusory tricks.
DISEASES and the VISION QUEST
The vision quest also had influence with certain kind of diseases.
The Sanpoils made a sharp distinction between natural, usually common diseases
and the more serious supernatural ones.
Natural Illnesses
Natural ailments included headaches, the common cold, injuries from such inanimate
objects as sharp stones, and tuberculosis.
Natural illnesses were treated by plant remedies, the sweathouse, and minor surgery.
The Sanpoil used plant remedies to cure the ailments regarded as of natural causation.
· Verne Ray, who studied the Sanpoil around 1930 listed forty-three plants used for this purpose.
· But even then, he was told that many such remedies have been forgotten,
· The total used to include over half of the plants growing in the area.
· Knowledge of medicinal plants was not secret, and was shared by both men and women.
· Plants were most often crushed, boiled in water, and applied both externally and internally, according to the nature of the ailment.
The sweathouse was also used for the curing of natural illnesses, except for the
common cold. While growths over the eye and warts anywhere on the body were removed by surgery, and boils were lanced.
Supernatural Illnesses
Supernatural illnesses were divided into five subclasses:
· injuries inflicted by animate beings other than men,
· diffuse internal illnesses;
· afflictions of the mind;
· spirit illness;
· magical "poisoning."
In the first supernatural subclass are included serious wounds resulting from
attacks by bears, wolves, and snakes, which were interpreted as being caused
by the spirits of the animals. The reason that these animal spirits would
harm a man because he failed to follow the dictates of his spirit helper,
or jealousy between his spirit helper and the animal spirit.
The second subclass includes fevers and contagious diseases caused by intrusion into
the body of foreign matter, and this, in turn, might be caused by the breaking of
taboos or by sorcery initiated by an unfriendly shaman.
Afflictions of the mind were thought to be caused by a shaman projecting one of his
spirit helpers into the body of the victim. Such spirit intrusion brought on raving,
delirium, and insanity, and could be cured by a more powerful shaman removing the
foreign spirit.
Spirit illness was caused either by the sudden return of one's spirit helper or by
its equally sudden departure. Loss of one's spirit came about by burying it with
a corpse or by its being stolen by a shaman. The former case was hopeless, but
the latter could be cured by the recovery of the stolen spirit by a more powerful shaman.
Magical poisoning was a form of contagious magic, and was engaged in only by lay
women -- not men -- and not women shamans. A lock of hair, some nail parings, or
a piece of the victim's clothing was ground up in a witches' mixture of a certain
root, red paint, the body of a bat, and a bit of bone from a corpse. As the
mixture was being ground, the name of the victim and his desired fate were
muttered, after which the stuff was placed in the victim's food or tossed on
the dirtiest refuse heap in the vicinity. Soon the victim would wither away
or break out in sores over his body. A cure was difficult, even for a shaman.
The first task of the shaman was to diagnose the ailment.
After smoking a pipe of tobacco for a few moments, the shaman placed a hand on
various parts of the patient's body, singing his doctoring songs at the same time.
The audience then joined in the songs, beating time with sticks on the floor
planks or on a log.
When the intrusive object or spirit was located in the body of the patient,
the shaman attempted to remove it by making a drawing-out motion with his hands
or by "sucking" with deep inhalation an inch or two from the afflicted area of
the body.
The extracted spirit or object was immersed in a basket of water, where it was harmless.
Shamans were paid only if they effected a definite cure.
Some, however, used their power to cause illness in order to obtain the fee for curing it.
NOTE -
All the facts in this article are from Harold E. Driver, Indians of North America,
2nd edition, revised, Chicago:1969, pp.418-424. Driver, in turn, got his
facts primarily from Ray, Verne F., "The Sanpoil and Nespelem",
University of Washington Publications in Anthropology, V, pp. 1-237
NOTE -
The Sanpoil were a Salish speaking Plateau tribe. You might wonder how
much of this account would also apply to the native Spokane Tribes of Indians
as they existed before white contact.
According to Pat Moses, Cultural Teacher at the Spokane School District, before
the coming of Christianity, the Spokanes too would go on a quest to seek a vision.
Pat Moses mentioned that the youngster would often be guided by a grandparent,
and that what they were seeking was a song of some kind. This song would not
necessarily be an all-powerful song, but could be as simple as a song for locating
huckleberries.
Last Updated
December 21, 2004
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