Page 38 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

the mandan rainmakers

The nineteenth-century American painter George Catlin juxtaposed traditional
rainmaking and Western technology in his account of the manners and customs
of North American Indians. When the Mandan, who lived along the Upper Mis-
souri River, were facing a prolonged dry spell that threatened to destroy their
corn crop, the medicine men assembled in the council house, with all their mys-
tery apparatus about them, “with an abundance of wild sage, and other aromatic
herbs, with a fire prepared to burn them, that their savory odors might be sent
5
forth to the Great Spirit.” on the roof of the council house were a dozen young
men who took turns trying to make it rain. Each youth spent a day on the roof
while the medicine doctors burned incense below and importuned the Great
Spirit with songs and prayers:

Wah-kee (the shield) was the first who ascended the wigwam at sunrise; and he
stood all day, and looked foolish, as he was counting over and over his string of
mystery-beads—the whole village were assembled around him, and praying for his
success. Not a cloud appeared—the day was calm and hot; and at the setting of the
sun, he descended from the lodge and went home—“his medicine was not good,”
nor can he ever be a medicine-man. (1:153)

on successive days, om-pah (the elk) and War-rah-pa (the beaver) also failed to
bring rain and were disgraced.
on the fourth morning, Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (hair of the white buffalo) took
the stage, clad in his finest garb and with a shield decorated with red lightning
bolts to attract the clouds and a sinewy bow with a single arrow to pierce them.
Claiming greater magic than his predecessors, he addressed the assembled tribe
and commanded the sky and the spirits of darkness and light to send rain. The
medicine men in the lodge at his feet continued their chants.
Around noon, the steamboat Yellow Stone, on its first trip up the river,
neared the village and fired a twenty-gun salute, which echoed throughout
the valley. The Mandans, at first supposing it to be thunder, although no cloud
was seen in the sky, applauded Wak-a-dah-ha-hee, who took credit for the suc-
cess. Women swooned at his feet, his friends rejoiced, and his enemies scowled
as the youth prepared to reap the substantial rewards due a successful rain-
maker. However, the focus quickly shifted to the “thunder-boat” as it neared
the village, and the hopeful rainmaker was no longer the center of atten-
tion. Later in the day, as the excitement of the boat’s visit began to ebb, black
clouds began to build on the horizon. Wak-a-dah-ha-hee was still on duty. In

StorieS of Control | 21