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Distribution
Event Promotion
Sales
Creating Community Support
Summary
Learning Activities
8
Identifying Necessary Staff
Scheduling Staff
Considering Outsourcing Staff
Managing and Motivating Staff
Personal Management Style and Effective Leadership
Management Meetings
Communicating With Staff
Volunteers
Team Building
Summary
Learning Activities
9
Learning Activities
Glossary
References
Index
About the Authors
10
PREFACE
11
Organization
Each chapter begins with a profile of an industry professional, in the form of an
interview. These profiles give an insider’s perspective into the concept being
discussed. Each chapter then covers key sport event management principles;
relevant examples from the sport industry are woven into each principle to
illustrate how it applies in practice. Finally, each chapter ends with learning
activities that apply what has been learned in the text. Numerous checklists,
templates, and worksheets are provided throughout the book to illustrate tools that
can be used to successfully plan and implement events. Boldfaced terms and an
end-of-book glossary highlight key terms.
Managing Sport Events covers the main topics necessary to plan, organize,
implement, and evaluate an event. The book opens with an overview of the sport
event industry and a chapter that educates readers on how to conceive and develop
an event. The chapters that follow cover key planning areas such as bidding,
budgeting, marketing, promotion, sponsorship, and legal concerns and risk
management. These chapters illustrate how different disciplines within sport
management apply specifically to planning sporting events. Key operational areas
such as staffing, event services and logistics, and event-day management are then
presented to encompass what happens during the event itself. The final chapter
discusses what needs to happen after the event.
12
helps the reader better understand the conceptual aspects of a sporting event that
form the basis of how the event will ultimately be run. Conceptual skills are vitally
important to all managers, especially event planners, and help to differentiate top-
level managers from middle- and staff-level managers and leaders.
Students
This textbook is written with the understanding that the primary audience will be
undergraduate students, the majority of whom are studying sport management.
However, the text is also applicable to students in any discipline of study who
desire to learn more about the nuts and bolts of selecting, planning, implementing,
and evaluating an event. Students interested in areas such as hospitality,
entertainment, physical education, business, and nonprofit or public administration
may also find the textbook useful.
Event management is an important course for almost every sport management
program. More importantly, employers within the sport industry expect students to
enter the field as young professionals with an understanding of event management
and possessing the necessary skills to immediately engage in event production.
Although not every student will have the title of event planner, every student
within the sport industry will most likely be engaged in some type of event
planning, even if it is only a meal function at your place of business. Our hope is
that this will not be one of those books that students buy and sell back at the end of
the semester. Instead, this text should serve as a continual resource as they
graduate and enter the industry.
The web resource is a tool that students will find useful. Each chapter contains
additional case studies with multiple-choice questions that provide immediate
feedback. Each chapter also includes a key terms learning activity and a list of
internet resources so that students can practice defining key terms and further
explore examples discussed in the book. The web resource is available at
www.HumanKinetics.com/ManagingSportEvents.
Professors
This textbook will assist faculty in teaching important practical and conceptual
issues in the context of sport event management. These are important concepts that
add to conceptual and cognitive skill development in each student. At the same
time, the authors of the book recognize the practical nature of event management.
We have extensive experience within the industry in the area of event
management, and because we are also current faculty, we understand the
challenges of bringing fresh and relevant practical material into the classroom.
Handy resources such as an instructor guide, test package, and PowerPoint
presentation are included in the package for professors; these ancillaries are
available at www.HumanKinetics.com/ManagingSportEvents. Specific instructions
13
are provided should the faculty member want to engage the students in the process
of putting on an actual event. Chapters are organized to follow the process of
staging an event, and all chapters contain learning activities to assist the faculty
member in engaging students. Each chapter summary offers a review of key
concepts. Furthermore, each chapter provides a short biography of a current
industry professional to assist professors in experiential learning by using case
studies.
14
comprehensive knowledge of event management and will be prepared to accept the
challenges of the field.
15
ACCESSING THE WEB
RESOURCE
Throughout Managing Sport Events, Second Edition, you will notice references to
a web resource. This online content is available to you for free upon purchase of a
new print book or an ebook. All you need to do is register with the Human Kinetics
website to access the online content. The following steps explain how to register.
The web resource offers learning activities that focus on key term comprehension,
additional case studies with practice questions, and internet resources for each
chapter. We are certain you will enjoy this unique online learning experience.
Click the Need Help? button on the book’s website if you need assistance along the
16
way.
17
CHAPTER 1
Understanding the
Sport Event Industry
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After completing the chapter, the reader should be able to do the
following:
Appreciate the role of sporting events from a historical perspective.
Identify various types of sporting events.
Recognize the employment opportunities in sport event management
and the skills and knowledge necessary for success within the
industry.
Compare and contrast sporting events versus nonsporting events.
18
Understand the relationship of sport event management to sport
facility management and sport tourism.
19
INDUSTRY PROFILE
Al Kidd, National Association of Sports Commissions
Al Kidd is President and CEO of the National Association of Sports
Commissions, located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kidd taught in Ohio and
in Utah before entering the advertising world. His career eventually
led him to San Diego, with several positions in advertising and
venture capital investing. Starting in 2003 and continuing into
2011, Kidd helped with the financial turnaround of the San Diego
Hall of Champions sports museum. As president of the San Diego
Sports Commission, he led a merger effort to consolidate a
number of the professional, collegiate, nonprofit sports
organizations and governmental agencies under one roof to
acquire and service sports events in San Diego. Most recently, he
has served as a partner with BoldPointe Partners, a private equity
firm specializing in middle market companies.
What is the mission of the National Association of Sports
Commissions (NASC)? What else can you tell us about the
organization?
The mission of the NASC is to be the essential resource and
leading advocate for the sports events and tourism industries. We
educate, advocate for, inform, and provide resources to our
members to generate economic growth, create jobs, and to
promote sports participation. We do so to enhance the quality of
life through sports events and tourism.
As regards the composition of the association, we currently
have 550 destinations as members: convention and visitors
bureaus (CVBs), chambers of commerce, state associations, and
sports commissions; 85 are industry partners (e.g., lodging
industry, event services companies); 180 are rights holders
(anyone who owns an event, e.g., NCAA, USOC). Of these 550
destinations, only 90 are true sports commissions (i.e., a
freestanding incorporated business and not a division of a CVB).
The trend line is consolidation of freestanding sports commissions
into CVBs.
It is our goal to EARN the respect of our members every day
through our four key pillars of excellence:
Education: Gain knowledge of industry trends and best
practices.
Advocacy: Be represented on national issues and initiatives
20
related to the sports events and tourism industry.
Resources: Access industry leading information, analysis, and
trends you need to know to better conduct your business.
Networking: Reach a network of more than 2,000 sports events
and tourism professionals.
Most of our efforts in the past focused on providing
programming for sports commissions. Today, we focus on meeting
the needs of all of our members (i.e., rights holders, industry
partners, destinations, and sports commissions). We have
opportunities to provide educational programming for all of these
categories. We have recently added an event called the 4S
Summit, a two-and-a-half-day educational symposium that
emphasizes the four core activities of all of our members: strategy,
sponsorship, sales, and servicing. We have also added a chief
executive summit, open to a limited number of attendees, that
delivers high-level content providing an up close and intimate
perspective about the issues facing sport and recreation with our
association top-level leadership. Finally, we also run a women’s
summit focusing on women’s issues that takes place in
conjunction with the NCAA Women’s Final Four Championship.
How large is the sport event industry and how do you
measure economic impact?
Having just completed our annual study, we project the youth pay-
to-play sports tournament segment to be approximately $11.8
billion. Not captured in this number are the many facets of youth
sport, which have led to hundreds or thousands of jobs across the
United States, including everything from league administrators and
coaches to clinicians and physical therapists. The business has
created financial opportunities for municipalities to create new
facilities, thus creating construction jobs, an increased tax base,
and increased earned media.
In terms of economic impact measurement, a variety of tools
have been available in the market with no real consistency among
them. We have combined our resources with other organizations
in order to offer sport modules that are far more robust,
customizable, and detailed than ever before. Economic impact
reporting has always been an imperfect analysis. However,
combining the resources of the market segments that desire
metrics with all the major tourism associations in the sport, CVBs,
and facilities industries, produces a very consistent and detailed
reporting module. Traditionally, measurement of economic impact
21
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that that deity also had power over the crops or summer vegetation, for it is
at the time of year when lightning is most prevalent that these come to
fruition. Again, the serpent would through this association with the war-god
attain a significance in the eye of warriors, who would regard it as powerful
war-physic. Thus, the horn of the great Prince of Serpents, which was
supposed to dwell in the Great Lakes, was thought to be the most potent
war-charm obtainable, and priests or medicine-men professed to have in
their possession fragments of this mighty talisman.
Serpent-Worship
Probably more ponderous nonsense has been written about the worship
of reptiles ('ophiolatry,' as the mythologists of half a century ago termed it)
than upon any other allied subject. But, this notwithstanding, there is no
question that the serpent still holds a high place in the superstitious regard
of many peoples, Asiatic and American. As we have already seen, it
frequently represents the orb of day, and this is especially the case among
the Zuñi and other tribes of the southern portions of North America, where
sun-worship is more usual than in the less genial regions. With the Red Man
also it commonly typified water. The sinuous motion of the reptile
sufficiently accounts for its adoption as the symbol for this element. And it
would be no difficult feat of imagination for the savage to regard the
serpent as a water-god, bearing in mind as he would the resemblance
between its movement and the winding course of a river. Kennebec, the
name of a stream in Maine, means 'snake,' and Antietam, a creek in
Maryland, has the same significance in the Iroquois dialect. Both
Algonquins and Iroquois believed in the mighty serpent of the Great Lakes.
The wrath of this deity was greatly to be feared, and it was thought that,
unless duly placated, he vented his irascible temper upon the foolhardy
adventurers who dared to approach his domain by raising a tempest or
breaking the ice beneath their feet and dragging them down to his dismal
fastnesses beneath.
The Rattlesnake
The rattlesnake was the serpent almost exclusively honoured by the Red
Race. It is slow to attack, but venomous in the extreme, and possesses the
power of the basilisk to attract within reach of its spring small birds and
squirrels. "It has the same strange susceptibility to the influence of rhythmic
sounds as the vipers, in which lies the secret of snake-charming. Most of the
Indian magicians were familiar with this singularity. They employed it with
telling effect to put beyond question their intercourse with the unseen
powers, and to vindicate the potency of their own guardian spirits who thus
enabled them to handle with impunity the most venomous of reptiles. The
well-known antipathy of these serpents to certain plants, for instance the
hazel, which, bound around the ankles, is an alleged protection against their
attacks, and perhaps some antidote to their poison used by the magicians,
led to their frequent introduction in religious ceremonies. Such exhibitions
must have made a profound impression on the spectators and redounded in
a corresponding degree to the glory of the performer. 'Who is a manito?'
asks the mystic Meda Chant of the Algonkins. 'He,' is the reply, 'he who
walketh with a serpent, walking on the ground; he is a manito.' The intimate
alliance of this symbol with the mysteries of religion, the darkest riddles of
the Unknown, is reflected in their language, and also in that of their
neighbours, the Dakotas, in both of which the same words manito, wakan,
which express the supernatural in its broadest sense, are also used as terms
for this species of animals! The pious founder of the Moravian
Brotherhood, the Count of Zinzendorf, owed his life on one occasion to this
deeply rooted superstition. He was visiting a missionary station among the
Shawnees, in the Wyoming valley. Recent quarrels with the whites had
unusually irritated this unruly folk, and they resolved to make him their first
victim. After he had retired to his secluded hut, several of the braves crept
upon him, and, cautiously lifting the corner of the lodge, peered in. The
venerable man was seated before a little fire, a volume of the Scriptures on
his knees, lost in the perusal of the sacred words. While they gazed, a huge
rattlesnake, unnoticed by him, trailed across his feet, and rolled itself into a
coil in the comfortable warmth of the fire. Immediately the would-be
murderers forsook their purpose and noiselessly retired, convinced that this
was indeed a man of God."[6]
"Of the sacred origin of tobacco the Indian has no doubt, although
scarcely two tribes exactly agree in the details of the way in which the
invaluable boon was conferred on man. In substance, however, the legend is
the same with all. Ages ago, at the time when spirits considered the world
yet good enough for their occasional residence, a very great and powerful
spirit lay down by the side of his fire to sleep in the forest. While so lying,
his arch-enemy came that way, and thought it would be a good chance for
mischief; so, gently approaching the sleeper, he rolled him over toward the
fire, till his head rested among the glowing embers, and his hair was set
ablaze. The roaring of the fire in his ears roused the good spirit, and,
leaping to his feet, he rushed in a fright through the forest, and as he did so
the wind caught his singed hair as it flew off, and, carrying it away, sowed it
broadcast over the earth, into which it sank and took root, and grew up
tobacco.
"Many years ago the Great Spirit called all his people together, and,
standing on the precipice of the Red Pipe-stone Rock, he broke a piece from
the wall, and, kneading it in his hands, made a huge pipe, which he smoked
over them, and to the north, south, east, and west. He told them that this
stone was red, that it was their flesh, that of it they might make their pipes
of peace; but it belonged equally to all; and the war-club and the scalping-
knife must not be raised on this ground. And he smoked his pipe and talked
to them till the last whiff, and then his head disappeared in a cloud; and
immediately the whole surface of the rock for several miles was melted and
glazed. Two great ovens were opened beneath, and two women (guardian
spirits of the place) entered them in a blaze of fire; and they are heard there
yet, and answer to the invocation of the priests, or medicine-men, who
consult them on their visits to this sacred place.
"'Our approach to it was from the east, and the ascent, for the distance of
fifty miles, over a continued succession of slopes and terraces, almost
imperceptibly rising one above another, that seemed to lift us to a great
height. There is not a tree or bush to be seen from the highest summit of the
ridge, though the eye may range east and west, almost to a boundless
extent, over a surface covered with a short grass, that is green at one's feet,
and about him, but changing to blue in distance, like nothing but the blue
and vastness of the ocean.
"'On the very top of this mound or ridge we found the far-famed quarry
or fountain of the Red Pipe, which is truly an anomaly in nature. The
principal and most striking feature of this place is a perpendicular wall of
close-grained, compact quartz, of twenty-five and thirty feet in elevation,
running nearly north and south, with its face to the west, exhibiting a front
of nearly two miles in length, when it disappears at both ends, by running
under the prairie, which becomes there a little more elevated, and probably
covers it for many miles, both to the north and south. The depression of the
brow of the ridge at this place has been caused by the wash of a little
stream, produced by several springs at the top, a little back from the wall,
which has gradually carried away the superincumbent earth, and having
bared the wall for the distance of two miles, is now left to glide for some
distance over a perfectly level surface of quartz rock; and then to leap from
the top of the wall into a deep basin below, and thence seek its course to the
Missouri, forming the extreme source of a noted and powerful tributary,
called the "Big Sioux."
"'At the base of this wall there is a level prairie, of half a mile in width,
running parallel to it, in any, and in all parts of which, the Indians procure
the red stone for their pipes, by digging through the soil and several slaty
layers of the red stone to the depth of four or five feet. From the very
numerous marks of ancient and modern diggings or excavations, it would
appear that this place has been for many centuries resorted to for the red
stone; and from the great number of graves and remains of ancient
fortifications in the vicinity, it would seem, as well as from their actual
traditions, that the Indian tribes have long held this place in high
superstitious estimation; and also that it has been the resort of different
tribes, who have made their regular pilgrimages here to renew their pipes.'
"As far as may be gathered from the various and slightly conflicting
accounts of Indian smoking observances, it would seem that to every tribe,
or, if it be an extensive one, to every detachment of a tribe, belongs a potent
instrument known as 'medicine pipe-stem.' It is nothing more than a
tobacco-pipe, splendidly adorned with savage trappings, yet it is regarded
as a sacred thing to be used only on the most solemn occasions, or in the
transaction of such important business as among us could only be
concluded by the sanction of a Cabinet Council, and affixing the royal
signature."
Michabo
We discover one of the first class in Michabo, the Great Hare, the
principal deity of the Algonquins. In the accounts of the older travellers we
find him described as the ruler of the winds, the inventor of picture-writing,
and even the creator and preserver of the world. Taking a grain of sand from
the bed of the ocean, he made from it an island which he launched in the
primeval waters. This island speedily grew to a great size; indeed, so
extensive did it become that a young wolf which managed to find a footing
on it and attempted to cross it died of old age before he completed his
journey. A great 'medicine' society, called Meda, was supposed to have been
founded by Michabo. Many were his inventions. Observing the spider
spread its web, he devised the art of knitting nets to catch fish. He furnished
the hunter with many signs and charms for use in the chase. In the autumn,
ere he takes his winter sleep, he fills his great pipe and smokes, and the
smoke which arises is seen in the clouds which fill the air with the haze of
the Indian summer.
Awonawilona
Atius Tiráwa
Atius Tiráwa was the great god of the Pawnees. He also was a creative
deity, and ordered the courses of the sun, moon, and stars. As known to-day
he is regarded as omnipotent and intangible; but how far this conception of
him has been coloured by missionary influence it would be difficult to say.
We find, however, in other Indian mythologies which we know have not
been sophisticated by Christian belief many references to deities who
possess such attributes, and there is no reason why we should infer that
Atius Tiráwa is any other than a purely aboriginal conception.
Esaugetuh Emissee
The great life-giving god of the Creeks and other Muskhogeans was
Esaugetuh Emissee, whose name signifies, 'Master of Breath.' The sound of
the name represents the emission of breath from the mouth. He was the god
of wind, and, like many another divinity in American mythology, his rule
over that element was allied with his power over the breath of life—one of
the forms of wind or air. Savage man regards the wind as the great source of
breath and life. Indeed, in many tongues the words 'wind,' 'soul,' and 'breath'
have a common origin. We find a like conception in the Aztec wind-god
Tezcatlipoca, who was looked upon as the primary source of existence.[8]
[8] See the author's Myths of Mexico and Peru, in this series.
Among the people of the far west, the Californians and Chinooks, an
outstanding deity is, strangely enough, the Coyote. But whereas among the
Chinooks he was thought to be a benign being, the Maidu and other
Californian tribes pictured him as mischievous, cunning, and destructive.
Kodoyanpe, the Maidu creator, discovered the world along with Coyote,
and with his aid rendered it habitable for mankind. The pair fashioned men
out of small wooden images, as the gods of the Kiche of Central America
are related to have done in the myth in the Popol Vuh. But the mannikins
proved unsuitable to their purpose, and they turned them into animals.
Kodoyanpe's intentions were beneficent, and as matters appeared to be
going but ill, he concluded that Coyote was at the bottom of the mischief. In
this he was correct, and on consideration he resolved to destroy Coyote. On
the side of the disturber was a formidable array of monsters and other evil
agencies. But Kodoyanpe received powerful assistance from a being called
the Conqueror, who rid the universe of many monsters and wicked spirits
which might have proved unfriendly to the life of man, as yet unborn. The
combat raged fiercely over a protracted period, but at last the beneficent
Kodoyanpe was defeated by the crafty Coyote. Kodoyanpe had buried
many of the wooden mannikins whom he had at first created, and they now
sprang from their places and became the Indian race.
But among other tribes as well as among the Chinooks Italapas, the
Coyote, is a beneficent deity. Thus in the myths of the Shushwap and
Kutenai Indians of British Columbia he figures as the creative agency, and
in the folk-tales of the Ashochimi of California he appears after the deluge
and plants in the earth the feathers of various birds, which according to their
colour become the several Indian tribes.
Blue Jay
Thunder-Gods
The idea of a future life was very widely disseminated among the tribes
of North America. The general conception of such an existence was that it
was merely a shadowy extension of terrestrial life, in which the same round
of hunting and kindred pursuits was engaged in. The Indian idea of eternal
bliss seems to have been an existence in the Land of the Sun, to which,
however, only those famed in war were usually admitted.
That the Indians possessed a firm belief in a future state of existence is
proved by their statements to the early Moravian missionaries, to whom
they said: "We Indians shall not for ever die. Even the grains of corn we put
under the earth grow up and become living things." The old missionary
adds: "They conceive that when the soul has been awhile with God it can, if
it chooses, return to earth and be born again." This idea of rebirth, however,
appears to have meant that the soul would return to the bones, that these
would clothe themselves with flesh, and that the man would rejoin his tribe.
By what process of reasoning they arrived at such a conclusion it would be
difficult to ascertain, but the almost universal practice which obtained
among the Indians both of North and South America of preserving the
bones of the deceased plainly indicates that they possessed some strong
religious reason for this belief. Many tribes which dwelt east of the
Mississippi once in every decade collected the bones of those who had died
within that period, carefully cleaned them, and placed them in a tomb lined
with beautiful flowers, over which they erected a mound of wood, stone, or
earth. Nor, indeed, were the ancient Egyptians more considerate of the
remains of their fathers.
Many methods of disposing of the corpse were, and are, in use among
the American Indians. The most common of these were ordinary burial in
the earth or under tumuli, burial in caves, tree-burial, raising the dead on
platforms, and the disposal of cremated remains in urns.
Most of the tribes appear to have believed that the soul had to undertake
a long journey before it reached its destination. The belief of the Chinooks
in this respect is perhaps a typical one. They imagine that after death the
spirit of the deceased drinks at a large hole in the ground, after which it
shrinks and passes on to the country of the ghosts, where it is fed with spirit
food and drink. After this act of communion with the spirit-world it may not
return. They also believe that every one is possessed of two spirits, a greater
and a less. During illness the lesser soul is spirited away by the denizens of
Ghost-land. The Navahos possess a similar belief, and say that the soul has
none of the vital force which animates the body, nor any of the faculties of
the mind, but a kind of third quality, or personality, like the ka of the ancient
Egyptians, which may leave its owner and become lost, much to his danger
and discomfort. The Hurons and Iroquois believe that after death the soul
must cross a deep and swift stream, by a bridge formed by a single slender
tree, upon which it has to combat the attacks of a fierce dog. The
Athapascans imagine that the soul must be ferried over a great water in a
stone canoe, and the Algonquins and Dakotas believe that departed spirits
must cross a stream bridged by an enormous snake.
The Zuñi of New Mexico allude to the year as a 'passage of time,' and
call the seasons the 'steps of the year.' The first six months of the Zuñi year
possess names which have an agricultural or natural significance, while the
last six have ritualistic names. Captain Jonathan Carver, who travelled
among the Sioux at the end of the eighteenth century, says that some tribes
among them reckoned their years by moons, and made them consist of
twelve lunar months, observing when thirty moons had waned to add a
supernumerary one, which they termed the 'lost moon.' They gave a name to
each month as follows, the year beginning at the first new moon after the
spring equinox: March, Worm Moon; April, Moon of Plants; May, Moon of
Flowers; June, Hot Moon; July, Buck Moon; August, Sturgeon Moon;
September, Corn Moon; October, Travelling Moon; November, Beaver
Moon; December, Hunting Moon; January, Cold Moon; February, Snow
Moon. These people had no division into weeks, but counted days by
'sleeps,' half-days by pointing to the sun at noon, and quarter-days by the
rising and setting of the sun, for all of which they possessed symbolic signs.
Many tribes kept records of events by means of such signs, as has already
been indicated. The eastern Sioux measure time by knotted leather thongs,
similar to the quipos of the ancient Peruvians. Other tribes have even more
primitive methods. The Hupa of California tell a person's age by examining
his teeth. The Maidu divide the seasons into Rain Season, Leaf Season, Dry
Season, and Falling-leaf Season. The Pima of Southern Arizona record
events by means of notched sticks, which no one but the persons who mark
them can understand.
The chief reason for the computation of time among savage peoples is
the correct observance of religious festivals. With the rude methods at their
command they are not always able to hit upon the exact date on which these
should occur. These festivals are often of a highly elaborate nature, and
occupy many days in their celebration, the most minute attention being paid
to the proper performance of the various rites connected with them. They
consist for the most part of a preliminary fast, followed by symbolic dances
or magical ceremonies, and concluding with a gluttonous orgy. Most of
these observances possess great similarity one to another, and visible
differences may be accounted for by circumstances of environment or
seasonal variations.
When the white man first came into contact with the Algonquian race it
was observed that they held regularly recurring festivals to celebrate the
ripening of fruits and grain, and more irregular feasts to mark the return of
wild-fowl and the hunting season in general. Dances were engaged in, and
heroic songs chanted. Indeed, the entire observance appears to have been
identical in its general features with the festival of to-day.
The most highly developed North American festival system is that of the
Hopi or Moqui of Arizona, the observances of which are almost of a
theatrical nature. All the Pueblo Indians, of whom the Hopi are a division,
possess similar festivals, which recur at various seasons or under the
auspices of different totem clans or secret societies. Most of these 'dances'
are arranged by the Katcina clan, and take place in dance-houses known as
kivas. These ceremonies have their origin in the universal reverence shown
to the serpent in America—a reverence based on the idea that the symbol of
the serpent, tail in mouth, represented the round, full sun of August. In the
summer 'dances' snake-charming feats are performed, but in the Katcina
ceremony serpents are never employed.
Medicine-Men as Healers
It was, however, as healers that the medicine-men were pre-eminent. The
Indian assigns all illness or bodily discomfort to supernatural agency. He
cannot comprehend that indisposition may arise within his own system, but
believes that it must necessarily proceed from some external source. Some
supernatural being whom he has offended, the soul of an animal which he
has slain, or perhaps a malevolent sorcerer, torments him. If the bodies of
mankind were not afflicted in this mysterious manner their owners would
endure for ever. When the Indian falls sick he betakes himself to a
medicine-man, to whom he relates his symptoms, at the same time
acquainting him with any circumstances which he may suspect of having
brought about his condition. If he has slain a deer and omitted the usual
formula of placation afterward he suspects that the spirit of the beast is
actively harming him. Should he have shot a bird and have subsequently
observed any of the same species near his dwelling, he will almost
invariably conclude that they were bent on a mission of vengeance and have
by some means injured him. The medicine-man, in the first instance, may
give his patient some simple native remedy. If this treatment does not avail
he will arrange to go to the sufferer's lodge for the purpose of making a
more thorough examination. Having located the seat of the pain, he will
blow upon it several times, and then proceed to massage it vigorously,
invoking the while the aid of the natural enemy of the spirit which he
suspects is tormenting the sick man. Thus if a deer's spirit be suspected he
will call upon the mountain lion or the Great Dog to drive it away, but if a
bird of any of the smaller varieties he will invoke the Great Eagle who
dwells in the zenith to slay or devour it. Upon the supposed approach of
these potent beings he will become more excited, and, vigorously slapping
the patient, will chant incantations in a loud and sonorous voice, which are
supposed to hasten the advent of the friendly beings whom he has
summoned. At last, producing by sleight of hand an image of the disturbing
spirit worked in bone, he calls for a vessel of boiling water, into which he
promptly plunges the supposed cause of his patient's illness. The bone
figure is withdrawn from the boiling water after a space, and on being
examined may be found to have one or more scores on its surface. Each of
these shows that it has already slain its man, and the patient is assured that
had the native Æsculapius not adopted severe measures the malign spirit
would have added him to the number of its victims.
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