Voices from the Delaware Big House Ceremony (review)

Few of the communal rituals observed by Native American peoples were more impressive or profound than the Delaware Big House (Gamwing) ceremony. Usually lasting twelve days, its rites were devoted to both thanksgiving and world renewal. Through the intercession of the spirit beings, worshippers conveyed their prayers of thanks and their supplications for future blessings to a distant creator god who resided in the twelfth sky level. The ceremony, in traditional Delaware belief, benefited all humankind, for without it crops could not grow, game would disappear, and the world would be afflicted with horrendous natural disasters.

Not everyone could take part in these observances, for celebrants had to be pure. All whites were excluded. Participants were required to abstain from sexual relations for several days before the Gamwing. During their menstrual periods, women were not allowed to enter the Big House, which was kept free of contaminating substances. No metal was used in its construction. Before the ceremony, the Big House was purified with smoke and swept clean with turkey wings. Big House fires, to insure their purity, were built anew each day with a special wooden drill. Use of metal or matches to kindle the sacred flame was forbidden. Foods served during Big House feasting had to be of native origin. Thus, venison and hominy were served but not domesticated meat. Food was paid for only with wampum. All eating utensils were fabricated of wood or bark. Those conditions having been met, celebrants devoted long nights to prayers to all the spirits and to the creator, and to the recitation and repetition, in a highly ritualized manner accompanied by drumming and dancing, of the dreams of those who had received visions from their guardian spirits.

Although traditionalists feared that neglect of the Big House ceremony might result in the end of the world itself, the Delaware found it increasingly difficult to keep the tradition going as their children abandoned the old beliefs and embraced the values and behavior patterns of the dominant white culture. The last full-scale Big House ceremony was conducted in 1924. Ably edited by Robert S. Grumet, this attractive volume in the University of Oklahoma press's "Civilization of the American Indian" series evokes a world that has been lost. The introduction by anthropologist Terry J. Prewitt provides a detailed and useful ethnographic survey. The reports from early European observers reprinted in the early chapters are, predictably, of limited value. But the recollections of Big House participants, some not previously published, offer not only detailed descriptions of the rites but also some reconstructions of speeches and vision recitations that afford valuable glimpses into Delaware spiritual life. Also illuminating are the selections drawn from the anthropological literature, most notably a piece by the late Frank Speck that anticipated the later structural analysis of the Big House developed by Jay Miller.

There is no agreement among ethnohistorians concerning the origins of the Gamwing. Some scholars believe that the Big House ceremony was the work of a Delaware revitalization prophet but disagree as to the prophet's identity or the date the ceremony was established. Others argue that it originated in opposition to the syncretic religious teachings of revitalization leaders. Another school maintains that a form of the Big House was in place in the seventeenth century but went through a process of evolution as other ceremonies were added to it. In his preface to this volume, Grumet endorses Anthony Wallace's interpretation of the "syncretic nature" of the Big House (xxii–xxiv) but does not provide a detailed analysis of the issue. Prewitt's introduction does not deal with the question at all. Lenape stories about the origins of the ceremony related in some chapters are suggestive in that they offer no support to those who trace the Gamwing to a revitalization prophet. Overall, however, this book's value lies in the evidence...