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Five Thousand Years of Shell Symbolism in the Southeast (13 pages)
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Page: of 13
172 Aaron Deter-Wolf and Tanya M. Peres
the nation prepare for the projected expedition with a confidence
of success. But on the contrary, should no sound be perceived, the
issue of the expedition would be considered doubtful. (James 1823:
326)
In addition to serving as oracles, sacred shells were believed to hold
extraordinary power over life and death. This is exemplified in the origin
legend of the Omaha Shell Society, in which the acquisition of paired
white (female) and dark (male) shells summons the spirits of dead children watched over by a shadowy being:
Just then as they stood holding their shells, the mist parted, making
an opening down the lake like a path and in the path stood the four
children, well and happy. As the parents stood gazing in wonder,
the children spoke, and said: “Do not grieve for us. We are content.
Death is not to be dreaded. It is not as you think it to be. In course
of time you will be coming and then you will know for yourselves.”
Andas their voices died away the mist closed the path and they were
seen no more but in the mist, as through a veil, they saw the outline
of a strange animal [figure 7.5]. It seemed as big as the great lake.
Its skin was covered with hair and was brown like that of the deer.
The ridge of its back was serrated with tufts of hair. It had branching
horns and hoofs like the deer, and a slender tail with a tuft at the end,
which swept toward the sky to the farthest end of the lake. At last
this mysterious shadowy figure melted away and the lake lay quiet
before the astonished couple. (Fletcher and La Flesche 1911: 514-15)
In the stratified cosmos envisioned by Mississippian society, the Great
Serpent (Misehbeshu, in Ojibwa) was the Master of the Beneath World.
This creature existed in opposition to Above World beings such as the
Thunderers and could assume the guise of the Underwater Panther, the
Horned Water Serpent, or the Piasa described in the Omaha Shell Society legend (Lankford 2007a, 2007b, 2011). In exploring the role of the
Great Serpent in eastern North America, Lankford (2007b) relates that
Misehbeshu bestowed his blessings in the form of-gifts of his own body,
including his scales, which appear in the Middle World as shells and copper. These physical remains of the Great Serpent functioned as first-order
relics among Mississippian society.
Five Thousand Years of Shell Symbolism in the Southeast 173
Figure 7.5. Misehbeshu, the Great Serpent (after Fletcher and La Flesche 1911: 515, fig.
107).
In his discussion of Catholic symbology, Speirs (2004: 167) notes that
relics by their very nature are “old” and removed from their original living context. They are meant to stir emotions and responses in those who
manipulate and view them and thereby create a contemporary context
that keeps the relic alive. In this manner, marine shell artifacts are intimately associated with the body of Misehbeshu and the Beneath World.
Lankford (2007a: 29) notes that apart from the designs on their surface,
shell gorgets “intrinsically represented the Beneath World and its power.”
This connection is reiterated by Fletcher and La Flesche (1911: 457), who,
in their discussion of the Omaha Shell Society, relate that shells were
“connected with death and the continuation of life after death, as well as
with water and the beginnings of life” The implicit correlation between
shell and the Beneath World precluded the need for placement of explicit
Beneath World motifs upon their surface and freed that space for the
inscription and invocation of additional celestial forces and/or specific
other-than-human-persons. a
In the late nineteenth century, Fletcher and La Flesche (1911) documented that the Omaha kept the Sacred Shell wrapped in a bundle and