Like we do in this day and age, the Alsea Indians had many superstitions.
For example,if you have ever experienced twitching in your back, then someone is going to hurt you or a good friend is going to die. And perhaps you wonder why your eyelids twitch. According to the Alsea Indians it meant that something was going to make you cry.
The Indians believed that when a small child cut it's own hair, then some close kin was going to die. And if you sneezed, someone would mention your name. This wasn't especially good or bad. Another strange superstition was that when your ears got hot somebody was talking mean about you.
Most of these superstitions could compare to some of our everyday superstitions. But there are some Alsea Indian superstitions that would be very unlikely these days. Some such as, if a man got in a hurry to make the shavings for the fire and used the back of his knife, someone was coming to see him. A woman was told after making her first big gathering of shellfish,
berries or nuts; that if she didn't give it away she would never gather that much again.
if she didn't give it away she would never gather that much again.
When hunters went out they would have to sing and dance with a Shaman to purify their weapons in case a menstruating woman had touched them.It was considered bad luck to be near a menstruating woman if you were a hunter. If a man's wife was menstruating she was allowed to stay in the same house, but she couldn't come close to him, although in the "old times" they wouldn't even let her in the house.
Furthermore, a woman who was menstruating could only eat dry food.
Perhaps the most interesting of all superstitions is about the eclipses.
The Indians believed that when the ravens flew up into the sky, making everything quiet, there would be an eclipse. They thought the birds were going to fight the moon. They turned all the vessels upside-down so the moon's blood wouldn't fall in them.
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--Jennifer Hiscox
