Devils and whites haunt Indians

Here's an answer to the question posed in Ioway Investigates Hauntings: "What are Native cultural attitudes toward hauntings?"

Native American Ghost StoriesOn moonlit nights on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the Holy Rosary Mission School graveyard could be seen clearly through the tall windows of our third floor dormitory. As the moonlight reflected off of the tombstones those of us sleeping near the big windows hid our heads under the covers.

One night many years ago a Jesuit priest saw something burning in the graveyard. He went to investigate and saw the image of the Devil glowing on a tombstone. He put out the fire and called a Brother to chisel the image of the Devil off of the tombstone.

To this very day if one comes across that tombstone, the face of the Devil, now nearly obliterated, can still be seen and the tips of its horns are still visible. One Halloween KEVN-TV in Rapid City sent a news team to the mission school to tape the image on the tombstone for the nightly news.

There were many spooky stories that emanated from the mission boarding school, now called Red Cloud. One story I can verify was the organ that played eerie tunes and could be heard in our dormitory into the wee hours of the night.

One of the more popular stories again originated from our dormitory. There are those students who swore that oftentimes, late at night, they would wake up and see a nun dressed in black floating through the aisles between the bunk beds.And:Across America there are spooky stories about Indian hospitals and BIA Indian boarding schools. The Indian Health Service Hospital in Rapid City, SD, known locally as "Sioux San," can be a spooky place for those working the late night shift. There are sounds of people talking and babies crying that Sioux San employees swear they have heard. The former Stewart Indian School in Nevada has been the subject of haunting stories. Visitors to the school, now closed, swear they can hear children laughing and crying and these sounds echo through the empty hallways.

Stories of spirits and ghosts were common on the reservation. Every community had its own story. But the one that rings true to me because I lived in that community was a story that was born at Wounded Knee. The elders would sit on the benches in front of the Wounded Knee Trading Post on the warm summer evenings when I was a boy and talk in whispers. My father worked for the Gildersleeve family, the owners of the Trading Post and we lived in one of the cabins in the community. I used to listen with interest and fear as they talked about the bitter, cold nights in December when the cries of frightened women and the terrifying screams of children could be heard echoing through the woods and canyons around Wounded Knee. The Massacre at Wounded Knee happened on a freezing winter day on December 29, 1890.Comment:  So boarding schools were haunted by Catholic entities and concepts: the Devil, nuns, and church-organ music. Reservations were (are?) haunted by the Indian victims of murder and genocide.

Indians still may fear skinwalkers, Wendigos, the "wildmen" (mis)labeled Sasquatch, and other Native things that go bump in the night. But most of their fears center around the Euro-Christian culture imposed on them.

And these fears aren't totally irrational. When (white) people are out to get you, it's wise to be paranoid.

Below:  The scariest bogeyman of all?