The Findings: The Americas | Encyclopedia of Mystery

Maya5
- The Popol VuhThe oldest Popol Vuh is a friar's copy of 1701–04. The K'iche' original of 1554–58 is lost; Christenson allows it may survive at Chichicastenango, with elders or in the town archives.
- XibalbaThe Popol Vuh puts no cave on the road to Xibalba, only steps, canyons, rivers and a crossroads. The cave entrance is MacLeod and Puleston's argument of 1978.
- KukulkanLanda described El Castillo in the 1560s, serpent heads included, without any shadow serpent; Rivard first described the effect in detail in 1969.
- The Sarcophagus Lid of K'inich Janaab' PakalErich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods? saw a rocket pilot here, dating the find to 1935. Ruz opened the tomb in June 1952; the lid's edge names Pakal.
- Tortuguero Monument 6It is not unique: in 2012 David Stuart read a stairway block found at La Corona, Guatemala, tying a Calakmul king's visit of AD 696 to the same date.
Andean4
- Pachamama and the DespachoPablo José de Arriaga's 1621 manual against such rites already records coca and llama fat burned as offerings, and worship of Mamapacha at sowing.
- InkarríFirst written down in the 1950s: Mateo Garriaso told it to José María Arguedas at Puquio in 1952; Q'ero versions followed late that decade.
- The ChakanaChakana did not name the stepped cross in colonial Quechua. González Holguín's dictionary of 1608 glosses chacana as 'ladder', and chaccana as the Three Marys, Orion's Belt.
- CocaIn 1609 Garcilaso de la Vega quoted the Jesuit Blas Valera: some wanted coca banned as an offering to idols. Yet most of the income of Cuzco's bishops and canons came from the tithe on coca.
Lakota3
- Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa)Black Elk Speaks stops in 1890. Baptised Nicholas in 1904, he served for decades as a Catholic catechist; DeMallie found he told Neihardt little of it.
- John G. NeihardtThe 1931 transcripts, first published by Raymond DeMallie in 1984, show the book's opening and ending were Neihardt's own additions.
- The Chanunpa and White Buffalo Calf WomanOn 13 March 2003 Arvol Looking Horse, keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, barred non-Natives from the altars of the Seven Sacred Rites. Indian Country Today reported consternation and anger as well as jubilation.
Hopi2
- Hopi ProphecyArmin Geertz argued in 1994 that the end-of-world prophecies were made by the Traditionalist Movement; Banyacya traced his mandate to a 1948 meeting that chose four interpreters.
- Book of the HopiThe Saquasohuh, or Blue Star, Kachina of later 'Hopi prophecy' is printed in the book's closing prophecies. In 2013 Jason Colavito could trace the phrase 'Blue Star Kachina' no earlier than this book.
Maya / Modern Esotericism2
- Ceremonial CacaoCacao was used before Mesoamerica took it up: in 2018 Sonia Zarrillo's team reported cacao starch, theobromine and ancient DNA about 5,300 years old at Santa Ana-La Florida in south-east Ecuador.
- The Equinox Serpent at Chichén ItzáJean-Jacques Rivard first described the effect in 1969, as a “hierophany”; Ivan Šprajc and Pedro Sánchez Nava (2013) found it barely changes for days around the equinox.
Native American Church2
- Peyote and the Native American ChurchTwo museum peyote buttons, probably from Shumla Cave, Texas, were radiocarbon-dated in 2005 to 3780–3660 BCE. The Native American Church was incorporated in Oklahoma in 1918.
- The Native American ChurchEmployment Division v. Smith (1990) let Oregon deny benefits to two members fired for sacramental peyote use; a 1994 law made Indian ceremonial use lawful in every state.
Amazonian / Brazilian1
- The Ayahuasca CeremonyThe UDV's 2006 Supreme Court win was a preliminary injunction under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, not a final ruling. The Court reasoned partly from the peyote exemption the Native American Church had held for 35 years.
American Folk Divination1
- Policy Dream BooksAunt Sally's (1889) came late: Old Aunt Dinah's had an 1850 edition, and in 1851 J. H. Green found policy players among 'all classes and grades'.
Ancestral Puebloan (Chaco)1
- The Sun Dagger of Fajada ButteAnna Sofaer, an artist recording rock art, saw the light dagger in 1977. The Park Service restricted access in 1982 for fear of erosion; by 1989 two slabs had shifted and the patterns changed.
Andean/Inca1
- Inti RaymiGarcilaso, born in Cuzco in 1539, says the Raymi 'had been abolished before I was born'; Cusco's staging was revived in 1944, scripted by Faustino Espinoza Navarro.
Anishinaabe (Ojibwe)1
- The MidewiwinWilliam Warren, of Ojibwe descent, wrote around 1852 that he stood only 'on the threshold of the Me-da-we lodge'; Mide priests doubted Schoolcraft's initiation.
Attributed Indigenous Texts1
- Ted PerrySeattle never saw a buffalo. The 'thousand rotting buffaloes' are Perry's, written for Home in 1972; Henry Smith's 1887 text, the oldest, has none (Newsweek, 1992).
Aztec/Mexica1
- The Huei Tzompantli and the Sacrifice QuestionIn 2017 INAH archaeologists reported 676 skulls from the rack's tower, including women and children, where they had expected only young male warriors.
California and Southwest nations1
- The Harrington ArchiveHarrington's main Mutsun notes, of 1929–30, came from Ascensión Solórsano, the last known fluent speaker, who died in 1930.
Guaraní1
- The Land Without EvilMontoya's Guaraní Tesoro (1639) glosses ibí maraney as "suelo intacto", untouched ground. In 1981 Bartomeu Melià argued "land without evil" was a later, mystical sense.
Haudenosaunee1
- The False Face Policy of 1995Though called the False Face policy, it covers all wooden and corn husk masks. It ran in Akwesasne Notes in spring 1995, signed by the Tadadaho, Leon Shenandoah.
Hopi and Pueblo nations1
- KatsinamIn April 2013 a Paris court let 70 Hopi katsina masks be sold, ruling it could protect only human remains or living beings.
Maya (Guatemala)1
- Rigoberta Menchú and the Maya Spirituality MovementThe 1995 accord changed no law itself: it pledged to amend Article 66 of the constitution, and voters rejected the indigenous-rights amendments on 16 May 1999.
Maya (K'iche')1
- The Aj Q'ij (Day-Keeper)21 December 2012 came out of the day-keepers: Thompson settled on correlation 584283 in 1950 partly to fit the 260-day count still kept in the Guatemalan highlands.
Mazatec (Oaxaca)1
- María Sabina and the VeladaIn autumn 1962 Albert Hofmann gave her synthetic psilocybin pills; at dawn, he records, she said they had the same power as the mushrooms.
Mexica revival1
- Mexicayotl and Danza AztecaMexicanistas often see the concheros as guardians of pre-Hispanic tradition; Francisco de la Peña (2001) describes a syncretic Catholic cult known from the eighteenth century.
Mexican / Mexican-American folk healing1
- Curanderismo, Teresa Urrea and Niño FidencioFidencio's fame peaked after 8 February 1928, when President Plutarco Elías Calles spent three hours at Espinazo. It was during the Cristero War, and doctors and health officials called the healer a medical fraud.
Modern Esotericism / claimed Andean1
- Puma Punku and the Impossible-Masonry ClaimProtzen's hammerstone trials explained Inca walls, not Puma Punku: in 1997 he and Stella Nair judged its crisp inner corners not hammerstone work.
Modern Esotericism / claimed Mesoamerican1
- The Crystal SkullsNo crystal skull in a museum comes from a documented excavation, Jane Walsh wrote in 2008. That year a British Museum and Smithsonian study found the London skull cut with rotary wheels, the Smithsonian's with carborundum, a 20th-century abrasive.
Modern Esotericism / falsely claimed Cherokee1
- The Education of Little TreeIn October 1991, with the 'memoir' 14 weeks a New York Times paperback bestseller, Dan T. Carter showed there it was by Asa Earl Carter, Klansman and Wallace speechwriter.
Modern Esotericism / Maya1
- The 2012 PhenomenonThe doomsday reading began with an archaeologist: Michael Coe's The Maya (1966) first linked the Long Count's end to Armageddon, dating it 24 December 2011. The 21 December 2012 correlation was first printed in 1983.
Native American Church / United States law1
- Peyote and the American CourtsSmith (1990) held a peyote exemption constitutionally permitted, not required. In 1994 Congress extended a regulation already exempting the Native American Church to members of every recognised tribe.
Native American Church / Wixárika / Aztec1
- PeyotePeyote is not mescal. Omer Stewart in 1987 knew of no Mexican report ever calling it so. The name arose in the United States, where peyote was confused with the red mescal bean. J. R. Briggs wrote of 'muscale buttons' in 1887 and James Mooney of 'the mescal ceremony' in 1891.
Native American Critique1
- Vine Deloria Jr.In Red Earth, White Lies (1995) Deloria held that humans and some dinosaurs lived together; H. David Brumble's 1998 review filed it under "Ethnic Pseudoscience".
Northern Paiute / Lakota and others1
- The Ghost DanceWovoka's message, written down by Casper Edson in August 1891, says 'You must not fight.' Wovoka disclaimed the bullet-proof ghost shirt, which the Sioux had made an auxiliary of war.
Oglala Lakota1
- Black Elk SpeaksDeMallie's 1984 publication of the interview transcripts showed what Neihardt added and cut. The famous closing lament, that the nation's hoop is broken and the sacred tree dead, is not in them: Neihardt composed it.
Pan-American1
- The JaguarEven the Olmec 'were-jaguar' is disputed: in 1981 Carson Murdy argued that most of its features match infants with neural tube defects rather than a jaguar.
Quechua (Andes)1
- The Andean Mesa, the Despacho and the ApuArriaga's Extirpación de la idolatría del Piru (Lima, 1621), a manual for destroying Andean worship, already records the despacho's ingredients. Coca and llama fat were burnt before the huacas; chicha and ground maize were poured for Mamapacha at sowing.
Shawnee / Delaware / Columbia Plateau1
- Tenskwatawa and the Line of ProphetsThe line is James Mooney's: his 1896 report called the Ghost Dance 'only the latest of a series of Indian religious revivals' and traced it back to 1762.
Shipibo-Konibo / Amazonian1
- IcarosGebhart-Sayer argued in 1987 that Shipibo healers turn visionary designs into songs and back. In 2009 Brabec de Mori and the Shipibo Laida Mori Silvano found no such code.
Standing Rock Sioux / Native American thought1
- God Is RedThe first edition opens not with theology but with protest: the Trail of Broken Treaties' seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington, 3 November 1972.
United States federal policy1
- The Code of Indian OffensesA first sun-dance cost up to ten days' rations, imposed by three Indian judges from the agency police; Circular 2970 ended such interference in January 1934.

Maya5

Andean4

Lakota3

Hopi2

Maya / Modern Esotericism2

Native American Church2

Amazonian / Brazilian1

American Folk Divination1

Ancestral Puebloan (Chaco)1

Andean/Inca1

Anishinaabe (Ojibwe)1

Attributed Indigenous Texts1

Aztec/Mexica1

California and Southwest nations1

Guaraní1

Haudenosaunee1

Hopi and Pueblo nations1

Maya (Guatemala)1

Maya (K'iche')1

Mazatec (Oaxaca)1

Mexica revival1

Mexican / Mexican-American folk healing1

Modern Esotericism / claimed Andean1

Modern Esotericism / claimed Mesoamerican1

Modern Esotericism / falsely claimed Cherokee1

Modern Esotericism / Maya1

Native American Church / United States law1

Native American Church / Wixárika / Aztec1

Native American Critique1

Northern Paiute / Lakota and others1

Oglala Lakota1

Pan-American1

Quechua (Andes)1

Shawnee / Delaware / Columbia Plateau1

Shipibo-Konibo / Amazonian1

Standing Rock Sioux / Native American thought1

United States federal policy1