| Kuksu | |
|---|---|
 Map of California showing hypotheses on the distribution of the Kuksu religion | |
| Divisions | Northern Kuksu, Southern Kuksu |
| Region | Northern California |
Kuksu was a religion inNorthern California practiced by members within severalIndigenous peoples of California before and during contact with the arriving European settlers. The religious belief system was held by several tribes inCentral California andNorthern California, from theSacramento Valley west to thePacific Ocean.
The practice of Kuksu religion included elaborate narrative ceremonial dances and specific regalia. The men of the tribe practicedrituals to ensure good health, bountiful harvests, hunts, fertility, and good weather. Ceremonies included an annual mourning ceremony,rites of passage, and intervention with the spirit world. A malesecret society met in underground dance rooms and danced in disguises at the public dances.[1][2]
Among thePatwin andMaidu, Hesi developed as a subdivision of Kuksu distinguished by its female participation.[3][4]
Kuksu has been identifiedarchaeologically by the discovery of underground dance rooms and wooden dance drums.
ThePatwin culture of Northern California had comparatively strong and noticeable Kuksu systems and rituals.[1]
TheMaidu culture of Northern California had comparatively strong and noticeable Kuksu systems and rituals.[1]
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Kuksu was personified as a spirit being by thePomo people. Theirmythology and dance ceremonies were witnessed, including the spirit of Kuksu or Guksu, between 1892 and 1904. The Pomo used the nameKuksu orGuksu, depending on the dialect, as the name for a red-beaked supernatural being, that lived in asweathouse at the southern end of the world. Healing was his province and specialty. The person who played the Kuksu/Guksu in Pomo dance ceremonies was often considered themedicine man, and dressed as him when attending the sick.[5] A ceremony dance was named after him. He also appeared in costume at most ceremonies briefly in order to take away the villager's illnesses.
All males were expected to join a ceremonial society; some of their dances were private or secret from women and children. Scholars differ in their opinions of the societies' power in the tribe: "There was no secret society of importance as there was among the Maidu and presumedly among the neighboringWintun, and no organized priesthood vested with control over ceremonies."[6] In contrast, in 1925 a witness of theClear Lake Pomo said: "The heart of religious activities lay in a secret society calledkuhma, akin to that of thePatwin and Maidu and composed chiefly of men, which managed the ritual of the ancient kuksu religion.[7]
The ethnohistorianAlfred L. Kroeber observed that Kuksu existed, but had less "specializedcosmogony," in the "southern Kuksu-dancing groups" of theOhlone/Costanoan,Salinan,Miwok andEsselen and northernmostYokuts, in comparison to the groups in the Northern California and northernSacramento Valley.[8]
kuksu hesi.