The crow (ho) is the sacred bird of the Ghost dance, being revered as the messenger from the spirit world because its color is symbolic of death and the shadow land.
The raven, which is practically a larger crow, and which lives in the mountains, but occasionally comes down into the plains, is also held sacred and regarded as a briuger of omens by the prairie tribes, as well as by the Tlinkit and others of the northwest coast and by the Cherokee in the east.
The crow is depicted on the shirts, leggings, and moccasins of the Ghost dancers, and its feathers are worn on their heads, and whenever it is possible to kill one, the skin is stuffed as in life and carried in the dance. At one time the dancers in Left Hand’s camp had a crow which it was claimed had the power of speech and prophetic utterance, and its hoarse inarticulate cries were interpreted as inspired messages from the spirit world. Unfortunately the bird did not thrive in confinement, and soon took its departure for the land of spirits, leaving the Arapaho once more dependent on the guidance of the trance revelations.
The eagle, the magpie, and the sagehen were also sacred in the Ghost dance, the first being held in veneration by Indians, as well as by other peoples throughout the world, while the magpie and the sage-hen were revered for their connection with the country of the messiah and the mythology of his tribe.
The crow was probably held sacred by all the tribes of the Algonquian race, Roger Williams, speaking of the New England tribes, says that although the crows sometimes did damage to the corn, yet hardly one Indian in a hundred would kill one, because it was their tradition that this bird had brought them their first grain and vegetables, carrying a grain of corn in one ear and a bean in the other, from the field of their great god Cautantouwit in Sowwani’u, the southwest, the happy spirit world where dwelt the gods and the souls of the great and good. The souls of the wicked were not permitted to enter this elysium after death, but were doomed to wander without rest or home.
(Williams, Key into the Language of America, 1643.)
A-hu’hu ha’geni’sti’ti ba’hu,
Ha’geni’sti’ti ba’hu.
Hii’nisti’ti,
Hii’nisti’ti.
Hi’nisa’na,
Hi’nisa’na—
Ne’a-i’qaha’ti,
Ne’a-i’qaha’ti.
Translation:
The crow is making a road,
He is making a road;
He has finished it,
He hag finished it.
His children,
His children —
Then he collected them,
Then he collected them (i. e., on the farther side).
