Iroquois

“[In the Iroquois theogony] there seem to have been three classes of supernatural phenomena: spirits, ghosts of the dead, and the gods. In addition there was a Great Spirit, together with his satanic counterpart.

“At a man’s death, his spirit departed for the afterlife—not for some ‘happy hunting ground,’ which was the White conception of the Indian afterworld. (An Iroquois did not believe he ate food after death and therefore he had no reason to hunt.) The dead man’s ghost maintained an interest in the tribe. Special wintertime feasts were held for the ghosts, who were thought to participate unseen in the dancing and the games; they also accompanied raiding parties, even though they could only watch and not fight.”

Peter Farb, Man’s Rise to Civilization as Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of the Industrial State (New York: Dutton, 1968), 107.