Thomas Alford Wildcat –On the Shawnee Faith & Law

I’ve shared information concerning the Shawnee religion (from a white man’s perspective), the Shawnee alphabet, marriage customs  of some Algonquin tribes and Shawnee parenting.  

I would like to share  some information I found concerning Shawnee faith and law, penned by Thomas Wildcat Alford, (Tecumseh’s great-grandson) who left us the following information:

“In the matters of religion, Indians were considered heathen, but we were not pagans; we believed in the existence of a Supreme Being, whom we  designated as Moneto, who ruled the universe, dispensing blessings and  favors to those whose conduct merited his pleasure.

The Great Spirit, or ruler of destinies, was believed to be a  grandmother, who was constantly weaving an immense net, which was called  a Skemotah, and it was our belief that when the great net was finished,  it would be lowered to the earth, and all who had proven themselves by  their actions to be worthy of the better world –the happy hunting ground  – would be gathered into its folds –and the world would then come to an  end.  Some horrible fate awaited those where left.

We were always taught that good conduct would earn a reward, and tha  evil conduct would bring sorrow.  We had our own religious beliefs and convictions.  Our standards were just as rigid as the laws of any other people, but force was seldom used to obtain good conduct.  

One point that I want to emphasize, and make strong and clear, is that among  primitive Shawnee Indians, morality was a fixed law, but each person was his own judge.  From early childhood this principle was instilled into our minds, and deceitfulness was a crime of itself.  We lived according to our own standards and principles, not for what others might think of us.

Absolute honesty toward each other was the basis of character.   Apparently, without that which the white race considers “Good breeding”  the were standards and rules that were followed scrupulously.  Utterly  without those commonly known to society, we or I should say they,  observed certain forms that were inflexible, and ignorant of our people,  chief of among them being consideration of the rights of others.  They had never heard of the “Golden Rule”, but it might be considered the foundation of all their intercourse.  They expressed it in the following  form:

*Do not kill or injure your neighbor, injure yourself, for it is not him that you injure, you injure yourself.  But do good to him, therefore add to his days of happiness as you add to your own.

*Do not wrong or hate your neighbor, for it is not him that you wrong, you wrong yourself.  But love him, for Moneto loves him also loves as he loves you.

In this form-giving a reason why one should not do this wrong or that  wrong- is a sort of boomerang on the evil-doer.  If this spirit was  lacking in their intercourse with other races, who can say that it was  not justified?  If cunning and deception were resorted to in the  dealings with the white people it was pitted against a wisdom that the red man felt powerless to cope with on a common ground.

The Shawnee had no officers, no jails; but misdeeds did not go  unpunished.  Punishments were of many kinds, and were determined by the gravity of the offense.  

Our chief’s word was law and any persistent refusal to obey the unwritten code of honorable conduct was punishable by severe flogging or even death.  Any one refusing to take his  punishment like a man was ostracized from his tribes to which death was preferable.  

Nor were the women of our tribe free from the law.  The most heinous crime of which a woman could be convicted was that which we  called pockcano-madee-way-gossip about people.  

Some of our beliefs  were based on superstition; it must be acknowledged that they are not unlike the teachings of Christianity.  The main point of difference is  that our people believed they only were responsible for their conduct towards their own race.  To others they owed nothing, except to return  in kind the treatment they received.”