During his captivity among the Indians in Ohio, James Smith found that Indians differed a great deal in their religious beliefs. Even members of the same group or tribe of Wyandots, Ottawas, Caughnawagas, or Mingoes varied in their religious traditions. By the time of the American Revolution, the Indians had some knowledge of Protestant and Catholic teachings. Several years before, the Moravian mission at Schoenbrunn had been established.
According to Smith, the Wyandot Indians believed there had been a woman with magical powers who was a prophetess in the far distant past. She was responsible for the creation of the continent. Living on a small island with a few Indians, she prayed to the Great Being, the Life Force, that the island might be enlarged. Her prayers were answered when large numbers of muskrats and tortoises brought mud and other materials to enlarge the island into the continent. Therefore, the Indians considered the land to be theirs; a gift from their Great Grandmother which the Europeans had no right to take. The Shawnees believed that when the world began one island was created for the Indians and another for the Europeans. This was the work of the Maker of all things.
The Delawares believed in the survival of the spirit or soul of individuals after death. The spirit left the earth to go to another place, where it could live free from the ills and miseries of this world. Many Algonquian speaking groups,for example, to which the Shawnees, Delawares, Ottawas, and Miamis belonged, believed a supernatural being or guardian accompanied each person throughout their life. This totem -- usually an animal spirit -- was the basis of the Algonquian Indian's religion. The Miamis, originally a prairie people, believed the sun was the Master of Life, the Supreme Maker of all things.
Smith observed the Ottawas believed in two great spirits or beings who are at war with each other. One was named Maneto and the other Matchemaneto. The good spirit, Maneto, was kind and loving, while Matchemaneto was evil. Between them they governed the universe. The Ottawas were divided in their beliefs concerning these two great beings and their powers. Some worshiped the good Maneto, and some served the evil Matchemaneto, perhaps through fear. Others sought to gain favor with both to avoid offending either one. This belief in good and evil god-like beings ruling the universe was held with some variation by other Ohio Indians. Numerous lesser deities or beings both good and evil, were thought to oppose each other. The good spirits went about repairing the damage done by the evil ones.
There was also a belief in witches and witchcraft. Sometimes this belief was the cause of tragedy and misery among the Ohio Indians as people were executed or lived under suspicion because of it. Moravian missionary David Zeisberger wrote of the Indians' belief that witches brought misfortune, sickness, or death to the villages or to individuals. These long-established beliefs persisted well into the 19th century.
James Smith wrote that during his years of captivity in Ohio he never actually witnessed anything he judged to be supernatural among the Wyandots, Mingoes, and Ottawas. Even so, some individuals claimed to be powerful sorcerers and conjurors, and worshiped the Matchemaneto. These were generally the men who caused the missionaries trouble and sought to arouse the suspicions of the non-Christian Indians among them.
