August 6thInstruments of Healing
At a recent family gathering in Goshen, Indiana, I was sharing how I was organizing visits to local Alberta Powwows as a way to learn about and celebrate Indigenous ceremony and culture.
My 92-year-old father piped in – “my father was pow-wowed when he was a baby.” My father shared the story as follows: his father was sickly, not thriving, not strong enough to learn to walk. A tramp of Pennsylvania-Dutch culture came by the farm and was invited in to join the family meal. The meal wasn’t quite ready though and so his grandmother Sarah invited the tramp to help rock the fussy baby in the wooden cradle. When Sarah came out of the kitchen a few minutes later, the tramp announced that he had powwowed the sickly child. And my grandfather found strength and thrived!
All of this would have happened in 1903 or so (my grandfather was born in 1902) – in Eastern Pennsylvania at a time when, according to anthropologist Dr. David Kriebel, the practice of “Braucherei” was common. Given the similarity between the Pennsylvania-German practice of using words as incantations to heal, it seems that the Pennsylvania Dutch embraced the cultural overlay with the Indigenous people around them. To offer a Brauche became known as “to pow-wow.”
Several things fascinate me about this story. First of all, my great-grandmother Sarah welcomed a tramp into her home and invited him to care for her ailing baby. There is trust and mutual respect in this story so far. The tramp may have been known to the family. The tramp likely spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, which would have contributed to the sense of cultural safety. Second, the tramp used an indigenous word to describe a Pennsylvania-Dutch practice. Third, the tramp had a gift to share, and shared this gift confidently and generously. And, finally, this gift was welcomed and even celebrated as it healed my grandfather. It was received as a gift from God – the tramp was an instrument for God’s healing!
The story has been handed down to me, now, through my father. My current connection with Indigenous ways has led me back 125+ years to imagine the interconnectedness of two cultures at the turn of the 20th century: the Pennsylvania Dutch with their folk ways, and the Indigenous of the area with their folk ways. It seems there was no fear that folk ways would contaminate the purity of one’s theology back then – even across cultures. Folk ways and Christian faith co-existed – to heal!