Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau: The Jesuit, the Medicine Man, and the Indian Hymn Singer

6. Medicine and Miracles

103 6 Medicine and Miracles In 1969, Mitch Michael approached Fr. Connolly with news that Gibson Eli wanted to become a Catholic. Although Eli had never attended church as a boy, his relatives on the Moses side (belonging to the band of Upper Spokan) were largely Catholic, as was his wife, Rose. In August of that year, at the age of fifty-six, he was baptized by Connolly at his home in Hillyard, just north of Spokane. Mitch and Mary Michael stood at his side during the baptism in their new role as godparents, making a commitment to Gib that extended beyond friendship into a spiritual realm that, in addition to accommodating the power of the animal spirits, now included the power of the Holy Spirit. The baptism also marked the beginning of a spiritual odyssey for Connolly, who would soon experience a spiritual conversion of his own. Like many of his Native contemporaries, Eli saw no conflict between Catholicism and his Native traditions (God apparently did not either, as demand for Eli’s services as a medicine man and healer only increased after his baptism). By standards set by the first Jesuits in the Columbia Plateau, he would have been labeled a sinner, engaging in decidedly unCatholic ceremonies and communicating with unsavory spirits. Worst of all, he continued to participate in one of the more unseemly Indian pastimes,thestickgame.1 TotheBlackrobes,thestickgamewasaperverse display of loutish gambling. Allowed a more comprehensive view, they would have been even more horrified to learn that just below the surface of the stick game the animal spirits were at play. Within the context of this “game,” participants engaged in a spiritual wrestling match of sorts, in which power-infused songs, some of them ancient, separated the winners from the losers. During Eli’s time, it was not just money or goods that were lost during the stick game, but songs themselves as one singer overpowered another. Unlike his Jesuit predecessors, Connolly grasped the spiritual dynamics hidden from view: SONGS OF POWER AND PRAYER IN THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU 104 In the stick games, Gib and Rose sat side by side throughout the night, betting, singing, hiding, and guessing the bones. The songs they sang were ancient chants, forms of power songs given by the animal spirits in dreams to ancestors long ago. While hiding the bones on their side of the game, they sang power songs that came down through their families, calling on the power of the animals to prevent the guesser on the other side from “seeing” in which hand they were hiding the plain white bone. . . . They also had great psychic gifts to read minds and tell which hand held the unmarked bone. But most of the old-timers knew how to call their animal guardian spirits through song and gesture to help them win over the players on the other side. The animal spirits gave power to win in stick games, and sometimes these animals also had powers that could be used to help people in other ways. Over the years, as Gib and Rose became stronger at stick games, they sat down to collect the money and run their own games. Then it became serious, and often people with power on the other side would call upon their animals to defeat Gib. Sometimes they might challenge Gib in song and gesture, as though they had power and he had none. But as his power grew stronger over the years, Rose might tell him: “you can take that song away from him.” Gradually the challenger might falter and lose to Gib. His song had lost its power, and on several occasions that song and the power of the animal actually left the challenger and was captured by Gib’s own animals. He might use the song later to defeat other stick game challengers or perhaps to help people in his healing ceremonies. Sometimes people with lesser power would get hurt or bothered after challenging those with greater power in the stick game. Gib said that sometimes he couldn’t help it. His animal spirits didn’t like being made fun of by a challenger, and they sometimes seemed to reach out on their own to capture an opponent’s song or bother him in some way.2 Medicine & Miracles 105 Growing increasingly comfortable in this context, Connolly found himself in territory forbidden by his Jesuit predecessors, directly engaging in...