"Did Spirits Visit Six Nations School?"

OHSWEKEN - Last week there was a brief story in the Hamilton Spectator about an unusual happening on the Six Nations reserve. About 20 children at Six Nations School No. 6 came rushing in during the afternoon recess to report that they had seen two figures sitting in a field behind the school. Many of the children at this school are familiar with the wooden and corn husk "false faces" of the traditional Longhouse religion. They are called Hatohi (Ha-doo-hee) and Katgisah (Gut-jis-uh). These are what the children reported that they saw.

One boy said he knew it wasn't a prank because "they were sitting on the ground, next to each other, and they were taller than the fence." Another child described the "Hatohi" as "so old looking that he looked almost like wood." The children obviously believed that they had seen actual spirits and not just masks.

Talking about spirits makes a lot of people uncomfortable in our present society. A couple of weeks ago some Catholic priests expressed surprise that one of their number in the U.S. had publicly admitted that their church still practised exorcism. Exorcism is the removal of an evil spirit or spirits from a house or from a person who is possessed by evil spirits. The Bible says that Jesus Christ exorcised evil spirits or demons from a man who lived among the tombs in a graveyard. Obviously Jesus believed in spirits and exorcism, otherwise he wouldn't have done it. However, it is hard to prove scientifically that spirits exist so many people just try not to think about them and hope they will go away. Or stay away.

The "false faces" of the traditional Iroquoian religion did not represent demons as some white settlers and Christian missionaries thought. In fact, they were used to exorcise or frighten away evil spirits. Once a year, men wearing the Iroquoian "false faces" went up and down the roads of the north-east end of the Six Nations reserve visiting the homes of the followers of the Longhouse religion. The sight of the grotesque masks and the sound of the rattles were the signal for any spirits to vacate the premises.

Don Monture, who attended Six Nations School No. 6, about 40 years ago, remembers the False Face Society visiting the school each year. At that time only about three or four of the students were not of the Longhouse faith. The False Face Society no longer visits the school and has not done so for many years. However, a tobacco-burning ceremony was held at the school to help calm down the children who had seen the "false faces." A more elaborate ceremony was also held at the Onondaga Longhouse.

Apparently, there was a similar incident on the Tonawanda reservation in New York State two weeks earlier. Iroquoian children there were reported to have seen a large "Hatohi" hovering in the tree tops.

One Longhouse faithkeeper believed that the sightings were a warning of danger to Six Nations or one of its surrounding communities. Another faithkeeper was more skeptical and suggested hysteria. In this day and age, talk about spirits can be down right embarrassing, even to priests and faithkeepers. "Let's forget that stuff," they seem to be saying. How about those Toronto Blue Jays?