Shamans at the Cineplex

History has it that local Indians were the pilgrims' guests of honor at that first Thanksgiving Day celebration. Rarely do we have the opportunity to reflect on American Indian values as deeply as we do this year, thanks to Disney's animated movie, "Brother Bear," a delightful story of an Indian youth and magical powers we have forgotten to believe in, but which may strike a chord deep in audiences' genetic memory.

Set where land and glaciers meet in subarctic North America at least 10,000 years ago, when mammoths roamed our continent-"Brother Bear" makes clear this was a time when "one thing always changes into another" and where "spirits make all changes." We also get a specific hint about location: Kenai, the name of the film's star, is also the name of an early-known native village on the east side of Cook Inlet in southwestern Alaska. Life in this cold climate was extremely difficult, and it behooved everyone to have some form of medicine power. The film revolves around relationships between humans and their spirit helpers, and the beneficial magical powers derived from such relationships.

American Indian medicine powers are badly understood by those who conquered Indian country. One of the great American myths about native shamans is that they were rare. This fact applies only to more recent times. My reading of the historical records is that at least half of the people had spirit helpers. Yes, powerful shamans who could cure were rare, but the use of medicine powers was not. Most people had at least one small power.

"Brother Bear" reflects this reality of real-life American Indian shamanism. The wizened elder Tahana is the tribe's leading medicine person, but the other characters also wield a particular medicine power through an animal spirit helper. The spirits call upon Tahana to reveal to each member of her tribe their totem spirit power. (This is a linguistic score for Disney--the Kenai people belong to the Tanaina tribe, and her name symbolizes that Tahana is the essence of her people.) When a person has come of age and the spirits are ready, Tahana calls for a ceremony in which she reveals the totem to the recipient, who in turn must "catch" the spirit power of it, as most natives now say. In that sense, every person in the tribe is a shaman in his or her own right.

As we meet Kenai, his two elder brothers have already received their totem spirit helpers from Tahana. When Tahana calls for him, Kenai's childish dream is to get a power stronger than either of them. Tahana reveals that his spirit helper is the bear. In nearly every American Indian culture, the bear is right up there with the eagle, the buffalo and other creatures as the most powerful of animal spirit helpers. Bear shamans are renowned for their healing abilities, especially from bullet wounds. So Kenai is given a great power. Bear shamans are also well known for the ability to transform into a bear. In this form they can wreck havoc with their enemies and have additional skills at hunting as well.

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