by
Larry Pearce
2/15/25
Sioux War Council Painting by George Catlin
I married a descendant of Pennsylvania’s German-Americans. Imagine that I, a descendant of Pennsylvania’s English and Scots-Irish immigrants, learned that her Lutheran paternal grandfather offered her “pow-wow” treatments, or “Pau-wau” in various Native American tribes,” to cure medical problems on several occasions. More specifics on those later, but for now let’s look at the history of the practice with many controversial names: witchcraft, voodoo, black magic, casting spells, a hex, superstition, and more. Much of my information comes from the 1929 treatise, The Pow-wow Book, by Monroe Aurand, Jr. While offering many scripture verses, he is quick to point out that this practice is NOT “healing by prayer,” but he believes it is medicine. Aurand cites the experience of Moses with The Higher Power while tending his sheep. But, what are the conditions under which this Higher Power acts? Remember when God allowed other powers to confound Job? All was well in the end. Consider the following from scripture:
Leviticus 26:14, [God speaking] “But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands . . .”
Deuteronomy 26: 15-22, “Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in obedience to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws—that you will listen to him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. 19 He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”
Exodus 14:26, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.’”
The apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus 38 (not quoted here), and
Psalms 107: 17-20, “Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.
He sent out his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.”
Some might say these are magical powers enacted in human situations. Historians today believe that the word “pow-wow” referred to a “medicine man” who could “conjure” certain conditions, perhaps good or bad, a tradition of the Algonquin tribe.
Several other books have been helpful in understanding this: The Story of the Pennsylvania-Germans, by William Beidelman; and Who are the Pennsylvania-Germans?, by Theodore Schmauk. Those early farmers and herders were somewhat superstitious, depending daily on the Old Farmer’s Almanac, published continuously since 1792. We look back today at their “folklore,” or from the German “volk lehre,” meaning “people learning”. From that we still recognize fairies, hobgoblins, and ghosts. Do we have lucky and unlucky days? How does the periodic alignment of the planets make us feel? To what extent do we love magic? What do you believe?
I mentioned my Scots-Irish roots. I’ve written about the expulsion of my Jacobite Jacques, or Jack, family from Roman Catholic France to Protestant Scotland [link]. Apparently my Presbyterians believed that the “Papist priests” had a form of pow wows. The above author cites the following references to a holy power:
John 14: 12, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
James 5: 14, “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord,” and all this is brought into question with
Acts 19: 19, “ A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.”
Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center
Another source gives a history of the Christian pow-wow, if you will, as follows:
The roots of Powwow can be reliably traced back to the medieval Catholic period when the Reformation was beginning and the clergy used folk adaptations of liturgical blessings for everyday purposes, sacred objects and inscriptions for healing and protection. Many grimoires of magic were published between the 1400 and 1600’s. One of which was The Cambridge Book of Magic, written in the early 1500’s. Many of these old grimoires became the foundational works for what would one day be known as “Braucherei” or “Powwow”. The tradition is old and its roots can be traced back approximately 500 or 600 years, with those foundations being even older, dating back to the days of the Coptic Christians. So essentially, Powwow became the modern iteration of a magical Christian tradition that is about 2000 years old. These folk traditions continue to the present day in both rural and urban settings, and have spread across North America.
It would seem that the ancient Native American practices may have merged with the words of the Christian missionaries in the New World. Language didn’t seem to be a problem when results were seen by either party in the wilderness. As a side note, I had never thought of how the Scots-Irish had gone many different directions upon landing in the colonies. The Germans stayed together. The most simple explanation is their language. One teacher told me that Pennsylvania, and thus America, could have just as easily adopted German as a common language because of their sheer numbers and congregations among the settlers. The first German-speaking “volks” landed in America in 1683. Some Amish communities today still prefer “Pennsylvania Dutch,” but use English to make a living. I understand that their churches and work places still speak some German. By the way, the pow-wow is referred to as “brauche” or braucherei” in PA Dutch.
My only encounter with folk spiritual practices, or “voodou” (their spelling), was on a mission trip to Haiti in 1978. I remember trying to get to sleep at night, but being disturbed by the loud and constant drums and chants in the nearby community. One cannot believe that this superstitious practice still exists in the modern world. But then we healthy, wealthy “first world” inhabitants don’t understand much about the “third world” existence that goes back thousands of years. This brings us to my wife’s encounter with the pow wow at the early age of about 10. She had a wart on her hand, not uncommon here in the highlands, but uncomfortable and even embarrassing for a pretty young girl. She said something to her Lutheran grandfather Howard Miller, who casually replied that he could remove it for a small price. She must have looked at him in fright as she imagine a sharp knife. No, he explained that he would say some pow-wow words over the wart after which he would pay her (perhaps a penny). While Susan doesn’t remember all the details, she does know that in a few days the wart was gone. OK, by this time her Grandma Sarah, whom Howard married out of the Antibaptist Church of the Brethren tradition, heard what was going on. When Susan wasn’t feeling well, she again approached Grandpap Miller, but this time her grandmother forbid Howard’s pow-wow from being practiced anymore. Needless to say, Susan is still around today, with or without the pow-wow having been applied.
One of the interesting things to me is that the tradition holds that the power can only be passed down in certain ways from different genders. Susan was never clear on where her grandfather learned the practice nor does the literature make this clear. That would have gone back into the 19th century for the German Miller family. I’m still researching any such local inheritances. Stay tuned, or better yet, write to me with any stories you may have. The internet has seemingly countless information and pictures for you to enjoy.
Sources:
Aurand, Monroe, Jr. The Pow-wow Book, 1929.
Beidelman, William. The Story of the Pennsylvania-Germans.
“Pow-wow.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pow-wow_(folk_magic), 2025.
Schmauk, Theodore. Who are the Pennsylvania-Germans?
Schoener, ___. “Pow-wowing and the Pennsylvania Germans.” https://www.chasingfamilyghosts.com/post/powwowing-and-the-pennsylvania-germans Chasing Family Ghosts. 2023.
Last revised 2/15/25