Native Americans and Freemasonry

The scope of this subject is so large that more than once in my research I got sidetracked on trivial and dead end issues.  For instance I spent hours trying to track down verification that Freemasonry existed in North America before any European White man landed here.  Well there is absolutely no proof that Native Americans did not get Freemasonry from the White man. But one factor that makes life difficult for the researcher is the lack of written records by the American Indian.  Native Americans did not write down anything, in fact it was not until 1920 that written records were kept by Indians and that is probably only due to their homogenization into general society. Everything was passed down by word of mouth.  Sound familiar? So there will be many areas and much information that will not be covered in this paper.  We will confine ourselves to similarities of Indian customs and mores with Freemasonry and some of their secret societies.

 There seems to be a sacred number in many religions and bonding societies and even in certain cultures.  In the Hebrew Scripture the number 7 is said to occur over 360 times.  Masonry reveres numbers and so does the American Indian.  For Masonry it is the number 3, for the Indian it is 4.  Being a hunter the Indian is always has super awareness of the points of the compass whence comes the importance of the number 4.  Equally important it is from these points that the Creators and spirits come from.  In the ceremonies of the Mide-wiwin of the Ojibwa, which we will explore in detail later, there are 4 degrees.  In each degree the Indian paints a different colored band or stripe on his face – 4 colors. The Mason will have of course the 3 different displays of the apron in the 3 degrees.  The Chippewas initiated a candidate into Meda craft by sending him to a Lodge of 4 poles, with 4 stones before its fire and there he was to remain for 4 days and sit at 4 banquets.  The Otoe and Missouri Indians buried their people by keeping a fire at the grave 4 days and 4 nights.  On the fifth day the spirit would gallop away to the Happy Hunting grounds. The Zuni Indians believe that a spirit hovers about their village 4 nights after death. The Indian believes that spirit that looks over the deceased lives in the North and in Freemasonry is not the North also a place of darkness?  The Cherokee Shaman (Medicine Man) prepares his tribe for war by situating the warriors of the tribe at the edge of a stream facing east.  Thus placed the Shaman sings the war song and this is repeated on four successive nights.  The Creeks had a celebration called “The Busk” or the making the new fire.  It was a celebration to the four winds and was commenced by placing four logs in the center of a square, end to end forming a cross pointing to the four cardinal points.  In the center “new fire” was made which was symbolic of wiping the slate of sin clean.  This for the Native American was the day of Atonement. In the snake dance of the Moqui Indians they use four kinds of medicine utilizing four different roots. Not only does the number 4 appear in the four cardinal points of the compass, it is revered in the peace pipe ceremonial, the four colors ( generally red, black, yellow and white), and what might be referred to as the four essential virtues of Native American spirituality, respect for deity, respect for Mother Earth, respect for one’s fellow man, and respect for individual freedom. This all according to Robert G. Davis who states that because of the four virtues it is very rare to find American Indians quarrelling about religion.  Jim Tresner talks about the four arrows at the cardinal points in a circle all pointing inwards.  The circle represents the world and also an individual.  The arrows represent “the attitudes or attributes with which a person must view every event and consider every problem if he is to find enlightenment.  Thus he must look at things from:

1) The direction of wisdom (arrow of the North)

2)  The direction of innocence (the arrow of the south)

3)  The direction of Introspection (the arrow of the West)

4) The direction of far sight (the arrow of the East)” (3)

The points of the four arrows all meet at the exact center of the circle.  This symbolism is quite similar to the Masonic point within a circle.

Closely allied with the number four is the Indian use of the Cross long before contact with the White Man.  The swastika and the Maltese cross show up in war shields, sand paintings and medicine shirts of various tribes.  The often designation of four gods at the four points of the compass for the Native American was a story illustrated by the symbol of the cross.  This is noted in Indian illustrations long before the White Man tried to convert American Indians to Christianity.  The Blackfeet would arrange stones on open land in the form of a cross to honor “Natose” the “old man who sends the winds”.  These four winds were explained as the “tree of life” which provided for our nourishment.  Most nations have revered some shrub or growing thing.  The Egyptians revered the lotus and the Mason the acacia. The Indian revered his ghost tree.