0:02

I've finally made it to the Cassadeca

0:05

Library, but as with everything in

0:07

this place, they did not make it easy.

0:10

It's a Tuesday night and the sun is setting.

0:13

For my entire time here, I don't ever feel

0:15

afraid or threatened when

0:17

night falls near the Ghost Church.

0:20

And I mean that. I mean. One of the first things I

0:22

was told by Pastor deb when I was planning

0:24

my trip to Cassadeca was

0:26

that there was this energy vortex

0:29

in the area, a spirit vortex.

0:32

It sounds a little scary, but all it

0:34

means is that this is a place where

0:37

contact with the dead is more possible

0:39

than almost anywhere else in the country.

0:42

Other areas that have vortexes include

0:44

Arizona, New Mexico, the

0:46

Midwest in many places, New

0:49

England, and of course of State,

0:51

New York, basically anywhere spiritualism

0:54

popped off. The b and Game

0:56

in Memorial Library is on Stephens

0:58

Street in Cassadakeh, right by

1:01

where I did my session with the Reverend Doctor

1:03

Louis Gates and the Ferry

1:05

Trail where tourists leave those little

1:07

trinkets and remembrances of themselves

1:10

and they're dead. And Gaiman herself

1:12

was trained as a medium in Cassadega,

1:14

beginning as a teenager and served

1:17

as a medium to lobbyists and congress

1:19

people in the DC area for decades.

1:22

Make of that what you will. The library

1:24

itself doubles as an educational

1:27

building where classes take place and

1:29

as another example of a property in Cassadega

1:32

that could definitely use

1:34

a renovation. Lawn

1:36

is a little bit barren. There's some

1:38

detritus close to one of the exits,

1:41

and there don't seem to be any lights on inside

1:44

on the street where most of the houses have soft

1:47

lights from the interior, telling you

1:49

that at least someone is home, either

1:51

making dinner or possibly helping

1:54

someone connect with the dead mother they never got

1:56

closure with. I crossed the lawn

1:58

and try one of the entry says it's

2:00

a lucky guess, And suddenly I'm standing

2:02

in what appears to just look like someone's

2:05

house with the lights off. There's

2:07

a voice coming from down the hallway.

2:09

It sounds like there's a man talking to himself,

2:12

or actually, the longer I listened,

2:15

I realize he's talking to a dog.

2:17

I call the number I was given for the librarian

2:20

who works here, and feel deeply

2:23

paranoid because if I miscalculated

2:25

this, There's virtually no other

2:28

time to see whatever is going

2:30

on in this building. The library

2:32

is open exactly two hours per

2:34

week Tuesday night, seven pm

2:36

to nine pm, and has run by someone

2:39

who has what I feel is the most

2:41

noble profession in the entire world,

2:43

a volunteer librarian. As

2:46

I'm trying to get my nerve up to follow

2:48

this voice down the hall, a couple

2:50

enters the building behind me. I've

2:52

actually met the woman before at

2:55

a class called Healing one oh one at

2:57

the Andrew Jackson Davis building around

2:59

the corner. She had been excited to

3:01

learn that I was a reporter. Did I

3:03

want to read the children's books she self

3:05

published not too long ago. It's on Amazon.

3:09

The two are also volunteer librarians

3:12

here. I learned she and her husband

3:14

are Rhode Islanders who moved to Cassadega

3:17

sometime in the middle of the pandemic.

3:20

They had retired they were sick

3:22

of mask mandates, yet

3:24

another common feeling here in Cassadega

3:26

that seems to go against the traditional,

3:28

assumed progressivism of the religion.

3:31

She had taken an interest in spiritualism

3:34

and is training as a medium.

3:36

Herself, so at this point

3:38

the couple had been involved at the camp

3:40

intimately for months,

3:42

volunteering, taking classes,

3:45

and attending services for the

3:47

full year that it's necessary to before

3:49

one can qualify to rent land

3:52

from the camp to live on. As

3:54

we've discussed in past episodes, becoming

3:56

a medium at Cassadega takes

3:58

at least four years, and

4:00

she'll have to find a mentor to approve

4:02

and keep track of her training and volunteer

4:04

hours, and seems to have found the person

4:07

she's looking for via the librarian,

4:10

who as we get to the end of the hall,

4:13

is there with a little wheezing dog.

4:15

He asks, am I, Jamie. I

4:17

say yes and apologize for all the calls. I'm

4:20

just worried that I'll miss it when there's so few

4:22

hours available. He's a total sweetheart,

4:24

a man in his seventies with this

4:27

low musical voice named Richard

4:29

Russell. It is recognized

4:31

that everything in the universe's

4:34

energy and vibration. As

4:36

an extension of that knowledge, we

4:39

in accord our energy

4:41

and are affected by the vibrations around

4:44

us. He's been at Cassadega for

4:46

twenty five years and the library

4:48

is sort of his side project. You could say,

4:51

he tells me. It started in seventeen

4:53

with a donation of eighteen hundred books

4:56

from Endgame in herself and

4:58

has since ballooned to a collect

5:00

of over six thousand books and texts.

5:03

Every Tuesday, he and a few volunteers

5:05

continue the work of organizing the

5:07

titles into an infinity

5:10

Google spreadsheet. Six thousand

5:12

volumes is pretty impressive, But

5:14

what I'm most curious about on this night is

5:17

what kind of texts we're talking. For

5:20

the most part, I find the same

5:22

history is reported over and over

5:25

over a century of spiritualists

5:27

working out their ideas, working

5:29

out their inviting some texts

5:31

that reference more Eastern religion,

5:34

self help, idealism, American

5:36

individualism. It's a fascinating

5:39

collection, but it feels like

5:41

there's a lot missing. So

5:43

over the next two weeks, we're going to take

5:45

a look at the corners of spiritualism

5:47

that are even less discussed than the

5:50

religion itself. Will take a look

5:52

at the cultures that spiritualism appropriates

5:54

in order to distance itself from traditional

5:57

Christianity. How a supposedly

6:00

russ of religion managed to lose

6:02

the vast majority of their Black American

6:04

believers in the offshoot of spiritualism

6:07

that enmeshed with the beliefs of enslaved

6:10

people who had been moved to Imperial

6:12

Land and created a religious

6:14

movement that is far more popular

6:17

and practiced than spiritualism

6:19

in America itself. Let's

6:21

create a corner of the library that doesn't

6:23

exist. Meet me at the energy vortex

6:25

down at Seneca Pond. Wait

6:28

o, Seneca Wait. Let's do the

6:30

theme song first?

6:37

Is that Vera

7:27

so Richard shows me into this library

7:30

that's being organized as a volunteer

7:32

project by medium slash librarians.

7:36

Some of the materials are primary sources

7:38

and pamphlets that have been hanging around

7:40

the camp, semi organized for decades,

7:43

and other texts were inherited

7:45

by retired or passed into

7:47

spirit mediums, still to be arranged

7:50

and determined what their use in the camp might

7:52

be. The two rooms that compose the

7:54

library have these low ceilings

7:56

and are lit with fluorescent lights. Most

7:59

of the shelves are full, others are semi

8:01

organized arranged. Categories

8:04

so far include biographies

8:06

of mediums, metaphysical topics,

8:08

women's books, self help books. I

8:10

can't account for this, but there's a pile

8:13

of books on the ground that seemed to have to do

8:15

with the history of Nazis

8:17

between the late nineteen twenties and World

8:19

War Two. It's not pro Nazi

8:22

rhetoric, but I don't understand why

8:24

it's there. Richard is kind of

8:26

talking me through these categories as

8:28

he walks me around. He says,

8:30

we try to be inclusive, but

8:32

he gestures around a little helplessly before

8:35

earnestly begging me to please

8:37

put books back where I found them. They

8:39

don't have the infrastructure to organize them.

8:41

Again, he says, our

8:43

system is not the best

8:46

and if we get books out of whack. He

8:49

trails off, just completely overwhelmed

8:51

by the idea of books out of whack, and

8:53

he leaves me to it. So where to

8:55

start. I'm trying not to trip

8:58

over the random stacks of books and paper

9:00

that have yet to be categorized, and decided

9:02

that I'll try and start by seeking

9:04

out something I've been looking for since

9:06

I got here, any record or

9:09

context for the spiritualists preoccupation

9:12

with generalized indigenous history.

9:15

But for all the books that I can find,

9:18

just a sampling of titles. They've got

9:20

a copy of Women who Love Too Much,

9:22

They've got shelves dedicated to natural

9:24

law and angels and aura color and

9:27

astral projection, and even a copy

9:29

of that book by Dr Phil that everybody's

9:31

auntie has that book called Self Matters?

9:34

Why do they have that? What there's none

9:36

of is anything that concerns

9:38

spiritual practices outside

9:41

of American spiritualism, for

9:43

questions what cultural influences

9:45

they took in order to build their

9:47

own religion. In the several volumes

9:50

that exist on Cassadega's history,

9:53

one story always features prominently,

9:56

the Cassadega Founding story.

9:59

I find it in a number of titles

10:01

throughout the library, and it's been repeated

10:03

pretty often online as well, and

10:05

I think it's high time that we take a closer look

10:08

at it. On Ghost Church, that's

10:10

the show you're listening to. By the way,

10:14

mm, the

10:23

myth goes a little bit like this. The Fox

10:26

Sisters, who had first heard the spirit rappings

10:28

in Hydesville, New York in eighty

10:30

eight as kids, were dead and gone

10:32

by the mid eighteen nineties, after

10:35

decades of prosperity, struggle,

10:37

destitution, and establishing themselves

10:39

as some of the premier female religious

10:42

leaders of their time. While the Sisters

10:44

Maggie and Kate Fox in particular,

10:47

died in relative poverty and

10:49

obscurity. The legacy they

10:51

left behind was enormous.

10:54

Spiritualism had managed to cross

10:56

lines of fashionality, of gender,

10:58

of race, of class. It now belonged

11:01

to the whole world, and communities

11:03

were forming to continue the observance

11:06

and development of this Christian

11:08

influenced religion with no heaven or

11:10

Hell that emphasized spirit

11:13

communication and mediumship

11:16

entered George Colby, born

11:18

just weeks before the Fox sisters

11:20

made a splash in upstate New York.

11:23

Colby grew up in Pike, New York,

11:25

an hour outside of Rochester, before

11:27

the family moved to Minnesota, and Colby

11:30

developed an interest in spiritualism

11:32

as a teenager, beginning to work

11:34

as a medium in the eighteen sixties

11:36

and formally leaving his Baptist upbringing

11:39

in eighteen sixty seven after

11:41

the conclusion of the Civil War. Legend

11:45

has it that one of the main messages

11:47

Colby received during this time

11:50

was that it was his destiny to start

11:52

a spiritualist camp in the

11:54

US. But with all due

11:56

respect, George Colby said a

11:58

lot of things, and so did his

12:01

primary spirit guide, an indigenous

12:03

man named Seneca,

12:06

which we've been beating

12:08

around the bush on Seneca long enough. I've

12:10

mentioned before that Seneca is

12:13

a prominent name here at the Cassadega

12:15

Camp. One of the main parks that

12:17

one I was telling you about with the energy Vortex

12:20

is named for Seneca, and another meditation

12:23

garden, refers to Native American

12:25

spiritual practices in this very

12:28

Anglo centric, vagueified way.

12:31

It's called Medicine Wheel Park, right

12:33

around the corner from the library.

12:35

The camp's relationship to Indigenous

12:37

culture is at best

12:40

dissonant and bizarre. The

12:42

majority white religion is sprinkled

12:45

with references to Indigenous people and

12:47

culture, but without any specificity

12:50

or acknowledgement of these specific

12:52

tribes whose land they are living

12:55

and worshiping on. Instead, you'll

12:57

often find them leaning into popular

12:59

tropes around indigenous people as

13:01

a monoculture with unified

13:04

spiritual practices, characterizing

13:06

more indigenous spirit guides

13:09

acting in the interests of the white religion

13:11

than actual people who had lived and

13:14

died and had their land taken

13:16

from them. So to

13:18

begin, I want to present the story

13:20

of George Colby and his spirit

13:23

guide Seneca's journey to Cassadeca

13:26

with some annotations. Look,

13:29

I'm down to respect a religious legend

13:32

just as much as the next girl is,

13:35

but this one is regularly presented

13:38

as fact in and outside

13:40

of spiritualist circles, while

13:42

failing to acknowledge with all

13:44

due respect, actual facts,

13:47

actual people, and actual human

13:49

atrocities that made it possible

13:51

for Cassadeca to exist in the first

13:53

place. So, okay,

13:56

George and Seneca, let's see what's going

13:58

on. It's

14:01

eighteen seventy five and the twenty

14:03

something George Colby is living

14:06

in Wisconsin making his living

14:08

as a medium, frequently flanked

14:10

by his spirit guide, Seneca.

14:13

Seneca's name is the first reference to

14:15

Native American culture that rings

14:17

a little weird. The Seneca

14:20

were and our an indigenous

14:22

tribe, not one guy who

14:25

live in upstate New York. This

14:27

is very likely something George Colby would have

14:29

known from his childhood. However,

14:31

Seneca, his spirit guide, leaned

14:34

heavily into what is now commonly

14:36

referred to in media as the

14:39

magical Native American trope,

14:41

defined as stating

14:43

that their power comes from innate spirituality

14:45

or closeness to nature that civilized

14:48

races don't have. Usually involves

14:50

influence over nature or animals

14:53

or other spirit powers. Quite

14:55

often the native in question will be dressed very

14:57

traditionally, even in modern setting.

15:00

But the Seneca people have a unique

15:02

and relevant history that took place

15:05

adjacent to George Colby's life.

15:07

Holby likely learned the term in

15:09

his hometown of Pike, New York, where

15:12

the Seneca tribe had lived. Pike

15:14

was a town that was only incorporated by

15:17

colonizers thirty years before

15:19

Colby was born. Most

15:21

significantly, Cassadega

15:23

is a Seneca word one

15:26

that means water beneath the rocks,

15:28

originally named for Cassadega Lake

15:30

in the area now known as the Lily

15:33

Deale Spiritual Association or

15:35

Cassadega's Sister Camp. As of

15:37

the late two thousands, the Seneca language

15:40

was considered to be endangered, with less

15:42

than fifty remaining speakers, a

15:44

clear and direct result of colonizers

15:47

often government enabled methods

15:49

of forced relocation, forced

15:52

cultural assimilation, and ethnic

15:54

cleansing. Here's a clip of what the

15:57

Seneca language does sound like from

15:59

a recent Seneca language audio newsletter

16:02

on how to say grandfather's

16:04

and uncle's on Glass

16:07

Saint Ka

16:13

East. Now today,

16:16

around eight thousand Seneca are enrolled

16:18

in the Seneca nation of Indians,

16:21

who refer to themselves as quote, the

16:23

keepers of the Western Door. A

16:26

link to some resources where you can learn more in

16:28

the description of this episode. Unfortunately,

16:31

for George Colby's credibility promise

16:34

and being sarcastic there, his spirit guide

16:36

Seneca and the Seneca people

16:38

had very little in common. As

16:41

presented in the spiritualist legend,

16:44

the spirit guide Seneca primarily

16:46

served as a conduit by which

16:48

George Colby was able to justify

16:51

moving to Florida from Wisconsin.

16:53

There he would acquire the plot

16:55

of land where the Southern Cassadega Spiritualist

16:58

Association would be low caated beginning

17:01

in the eighteen nineties. After

17:03

meeting another medium in Wisconsin in

17:05

eighteen seventy five, Holby said

17:08

that Seneca guided the two of them

17:10

down to the Jacksonville area by

17:12

railroad. Seneca was

17:14

seeking out a very specific

17:17

plot of land. They arrived

17:19

at the end of the railroad line, but Seneca

17:22

instructed them to continue on foot,

17:24

seeking out land described by the

17:27

most current Cassadega history book

17:29

available called Cassadega

17:31

the South's oldest spiritual community

17:34

as quote, a great spiritual

17:36

center where thousands of believers could

17:39

congregate a promised land of

17:41

lakes and high bluffs. Behold

17:44

the land where Cassadega exists

17:46

now, the legend continues.

17:49

Having satisfied Seneca, Wilby

17:51

filed a homestead grant in eighteen

17:53

eighty, an act that was passed by Abraham

17:56

Lincoln during the Civil War in eighteen

17:58

sixty two. They gave plots

18:00

of land of around one hundred sixty

18:02

acres to applicants, the

18:05

vast, vast majority of

18:07

whom were white people, except

18:10

wait, who did those acres

18:12

belong to Originally? Cassadega

18:15

was made possible with a land grant

18:17

that was intentionally redistributing

18:20

indigenous land to white people. Made

18:23

plausible in Florida after the US

18:25

had acquired heavy

18:27

air quotes used there the land from

18:30

fellow colonizers Spain back

18:32

in eighteen nineteen, soon

18:34

after, in humane policies like

18:37

the eighteen thirty Indian Removal

18:39

Act Forcibly relocated many

18:42

Cherokees, Creeks, and other

18:44

people indigenous to the eastern US.

18:46

They were forced to go to the west of the Mississippi

18:49

River to make room for more white

18:51

colonizers. This led to the trail

18:54

of tears, a brutal government

18:56

sanctioned ethnic cleansing carried

18:59

out between a teen thirty and eighteen

19:01

fifty that demanded that over one

19:04

hundred thousand Indigenous people relocate,

19:07

with some historians estimating as

19:09

many as fifteen thousand people died

19:11

on the way in unlivable conditions.

19:14

Add this to the fallout of the Seminole

19:17

Wars, there is no doubt that Cassadega

19:19

would not have been possible without the exploitation

19:22

of Indigenous people whose religion and culture

19:25

were being criminalized and erased. While

19:27

movements like Spiritualism were given

19:29

the space both culturally and

19:32

literally to evolve and thrive.

19:35

While the abolitionist politics of most

19:37

early spiritualists were emphasized, there's

19:40

not much to indicate that the religion had

19:42

meaningful solidarity with Indigenous

19:45

people during these periods of massive

19:47

violence. Another conflict

19:50

that was very relevant to this area

19:52

was the Seminal Wars, a still

19:55

undertaught series of three wars

19:58

between the Seminal tribe and Florida

20:00

and white colonialists. The

20:03

first war went from eighteen seventeen

20:05

to eighteen, the second from eighteen

20:07

thirty five to forty two, and the

20:10

third and final Seminal War went

20:12

from eighteen fifty five to fifty

20:14

eight, just under a quarter

20:17

century before George Colby

20:19

was said to have shown up with his spirit

20:22

guide Seneca. The latter

20:24

two wars related to Cassadega

20:26

directly. The second Seminal

20:28

War had erupted over the Indian

20:31

Removal Act. Many seminals

20:33

refused to vacate to Oklahoma

20:36

when it was demanded by the U. S. Military,

20:39

and we're effectively using guerrilla

20:41

war tactics before US generals

20:44

began to play extremely dirty,

20:46

doing things like abducting seminal

20:48

leaders under the guise of proposed

20:51

treaties. The Third Seminal War

20:53

was intended by the U. S Military to

20:56

remove or murder the remaining

20:58

seminal from Florida, those

21:00

who had survived the first two conflicts.

21:03

The plan was to burn their plantations

21:05

and starve them until they agreed

21:07

to relocate, although it said that

21:10

between two hundred and five hundred Seminole

21:12

people moved deep into the Everglades

21:15

instead of abandoning their land in

21:19

Colby was granted one hundred acres

21:22

of land central Floridian,

21:25

land that had previously been the home

21:27

of tribes like the Muscogo, a

21:30

group of majority black Seminoles

21:32

who had faced extreme marginalization

21:35

for their skin color and their

21:37

status as indigenous in both

21:39

the US and in Mexico. Their

21:42

history is a fascinating one, a

21:44

result of the Seminole tribe of Florida

21:46

welcoming escaped slaves and

21:49

being open to blending their cultures

21:51

and customs. During the years

21:53

that Florida was under the control of

21:56

Spain, escaped slaves

21:58

could live freely here, and

22:00

this resulted in a strong ally ship

22:02

between the cultures formed prior

22:05

to the colonial musical chairs

22:07

between Spain and the US the

22:09

land that belonged to neither of them

22:11

in the first place, followed by

22:14

the Indian Removal Act of eighteen thirty

22:16

by President Andrew Jackson, who,

22:19

it must be said, is one of history's

22:21

greatest pieces of ship from any country

22:24

at any time. It should be mentioned,

22:26

though the Muskogo were forced out

22:28

of the area during the Trail of Tears

22:31

years, seminal leaders did have

22:33

black slaves, and often black

22:35

seminal slaves. When seminal leaders

22:38

changed their policies to endorse

22:40

chattel slavery during the Second Seminal

22:42

War, the better aligned themselves

22:45

with the practices of the Creek tribe.

22:48

This shift and enslavement led to

22:50

many Muskogo retreating to Mexico,

22:53

where some of their descendants continue to live

22:55

today. The relationships

22:57

between the cultures was certainly not actionless,

23:00

but both were being aggressively

23:03

exploited and abused by the

23:05

colonizers. An interesting factor

23:07

between Seminoles and Black Seminoles

23:10

descendants of this blended culture, was

23:13

an evolving spiritual tradition. Most

23:15

escaped slaves practiced some form

23:18

of Christianity during the nineteenth century,

23:21

leading to Christian elements being blended

23:23

into seminal spiritual traditions.

23:26

Sound familiar. Another

23:29

tribe in central Florida was the Micosuki,

23:32

who had lived in southern Georgia and northern

23:35

Florida before being forcibly relocated

23:37

to the Everglades during the Indian

23:40

Removal Act, at which point most

23:42

allied with the Seminole. I can't

23:44

stress this enough, and we'll be addressing it through

23:46

this episode. There is no Indigenous

23:49

American monoculture. Every

23:52

group has their own spiritual traditions,

23:55

has their own ideas, has their

23:57

own practices, and so this ally

24:00

ship came with a lot of cultural

24:02

adjustment for both groups. Mikosuki

24:05

is the englishization of the

24:07

word Mikosuki, a mixed

24:10

heech Zook word from Mexico that

24:12

means leader of the civilized people.

24:15

Many Mikosuki fought in the Seminole

24:17

Wars, only to be displaced

24:19

and targeted by the US government again

24:22

during the years of the Trail of Tears.

24:25

After refusing to have their culture considered

24:28

as one and the same as the Seminoles

24:30

culture by the US, the ally

24:32

ship between the Seminole and the Mikosuki

24:35

soured, and the Mikosuki tribe

24:37

is currently represented mainly in

24:39

southern Florida, where their tribal

24:42

dialect remains endangered, with

24:44

only about five hundred speakers

24:46

remaining. Here is a Mikosuki

24:48

school teacher and tribe member named

24:51

William Popeye Osceola, talking

24:53

about how he tries to preserve the language

24:56

and culture of the Mikosuki in the classroom

24:59

in an interview the Creative Lab at

25:01

McClatchy. When

25:06

you go to school in America, you learn all about American

25:09

history, but a big part of American

25:11

history, I guess left those Native history, so

25:14

I always look back to what was missing

25:16

in my education. This generation is

25:18

like heads and shoulders above my group.

25:21

The future they have and we're they're going to take this tribe. I

25:23

can't wait to see if we want them to be empowered.

25:26

We want them to come back and want them to help take over

25:28

and they can run this and then we can also all

25:30

under leadership. Their unique religious

25:33

beliefs include the idea that men

25:35

are transformed into angels

25:37

after an attempt to visit the quote

25:40

unquote great Spirit. Finally,

25:43

the Tumukua tribe was represented

25:45

in the Cassadeca region, a tribe

25:47

that was all but wiped out by eighteen

25:49

hundred, with a population that is said

25:51

to have once included as many as two

25:54

hundred thousand people. Their

25:56

spiritual traditions included community

25:59

shamans that were able to contact

26:01

the spirit realm with powers that ranged

26:03

from the belief that they controlled the weather

26:06

to sometimes serving as herbalists

26:08

that used natural remedies to ease

26:11

the pain of childbirth. This

26:13

culture was destroyed by colonial violence

26:16

and illness, with the remainder of

26:18

the Tumukua ingratiating into

26:20

the Seminole and many others taken

26:22

to Cuba. But it's important

26:25

to note the majority of what's known about

26:27

their history, and it's not that much are

26:30

still taken from the records of European

26:32

colonizers, not that the

26:34

legend of Cassadega references

26:37

well virtually any of these

26:39

people or any of the history of

26:41

the land they're using. It is possible

26:44

that I missed references to indigenous

26:46

culture during my time at Cassadega

26:48

that was more specific, particularly

26:51

at a library where I was only entitled

26:53

to two hours of time. But

26:56

any reference to any specific

26:58

native group is ex dreamly hard

27:00

to come by unless you're sharp enough to know

27:02

what Seminole Street is referencing. In the

27:05

unincorporated community where crystal

27:07

shops sell their wares to tourists. If

27:09

you're lucky, maybe you'll find one of those

27:12

tourist dream catchers that are emblematic

27:14

of the ways in which modern Americans

27:17

erased the cultures of what was once

27:19

around six hundred unique tribes

27:21

whose land was stolen and then formed

27:24

into this monocultural image by

27:26

colonizers. If Seneca the Spirit

27:29

Guide had any interest in this history,

27:31

these lost lives and stolen land

27:33

of the tribes in Central Florida, I've

27:36

never seen any reference to it. For

27:38

the legend of Cassadega's founding, Seneca

27:41

only seemed to have a vested interest

27:44

in being George Colby's sidekick,

27:46

not just giving him permission to found Cassadega,

27:49

but as the legend goes, it

27:51

was his idea. The

27:54

fallout of all of these conflicts,

27:56

the Trail of Tears, the Indian Removal

27:58

Act, the Seminole Wars had

28:01

turned Florida into an area that

28:03

was under constant change throughout

28:05

the nineteenth century due to the

28:08

massive loss of life that took place

28:10

during the Seminole War years. By

28:12

eighteen sixty, the census indicated

28:14

that only about twelve hundred people were

28:17

living in Valusia County, where

28:19

Cassadega still is now, and

28:21

that very little activity took place

28:23

there throughout the Civil War years. According

28:26

to Cassadega, the South's oldest

28:28

spiritualist community, Belusia

28:30

County was more popular during these years

28:33

as a place to hide from conscription

28:35

into the Confederate Army. Only

28:37

beginning to be developed by colonizers

28:39

in the eighteen seventies, when You're George

28:42

Colby's began to show up. White

28:44

industrialists began working on areas

28:46

that bear their names to this day. An

28:49

Ohio entrepreneur named Matthias

28:51

Day incorporated Daytona,

28:54

Florida, in eighteen seventy six,

28:57

and Henry Addison the Land founded

28:59

the community that still bears his last

29:01

name. Around this same time, by

29:04

the nine cents is, the population

29:06

of the area had increased to around people,

29:10

bolstered by the end of the Civil War and

29:13

expanding train accessibility in the central

29:15

Florida area. In the

29:18

land that Colby had acquired via

29:20

the Homestead Act stealing indigenous

29:23

land was now accessible and

29:25

was developed to make it accessible to the

29:27

people he wanted to court, majority

29:30

white spiritualists from upstate New York

29:33

looking for a place to worship when it got

29:35

too cold at the camps in the north.

29:37

So this legend is present everywhere

29:40

in the library. I feel a little

29:42

weird poking so many holes in it out

29:44

of respect to the spiritualists, But

29:47

for a religion that constantly references

29:50

indigenous culture and seems to have

29:52

a vested interest in the illusion

29:54

of paying respect, it sounds like

29:56

a bunch of colonial free form jazz

29:59

by a guy who just wanted to set up a religious

30:01

camp in a colonial culture that was

30:04

and should have been grappling with their relation

30:06

to Native American culture. From

30:08

this vantage point, Seneca can be

30:10

seen either as a well

30:13

intentioned attempt to incorporate

30:15

Native culture into spiritualism, or,

30:18

as it's been suggested, this weird

30:21

and offensive caricature that absolved

30:23

a white landowner of the guilt of thinking

30:26

anyone could truly own land that has

30:28

been stolen with violence and cruelty.

30:31

Quite recently, I

30:44

was lucky enough to speak with the amazing

30:46

Olivia Woodward about this legend,

30:49

the precise reasons that it crosses from

30:51

the weird into the harmful, and the

30:53

conversation that surrounds indigenous culture

30:55

in the United States to this day, this

30:58

gelatinous monoculture, and the erasure

31:01

of all these traditions, histories,

31:03

and stories that are unique around

31:05

six hundred tribes that exists or

31:08

existed across the mainland US

31:10

for centuries. Olivia writes

31:12

about movies, media and Native

31:15

issues and has previously appeared

31:17

on My movie podcast with Caitlin Durante,

31:20

the Bechtel Cast. I'm so thrilled

31:22

I got to talk with her, and here's a little

31:24

bit of our conversation. All right,

31:26

Well, Kombuchia, my name is Olivia Woodward.

31:29

I am a citizen of the Catto

31:31

nation Um. I'm also a writer

31:34

for a tribe called Geek and currently

31:37

my day job is working in

31:39

tourism. So I was

31:41

actually first raised pagan.

31:44

I have never followed Christianity. I've

31:46

never never been a part of that. My my parents,

31:48

I'm the youngest of three, and so

31:51

by the time I was born, I think they experimented

31:54

experimented with Christianity with my siblings.

31:57

But by the time I was born, my mom, my

31:59

mom and dad like, now, Paganism makes

32:01

sense to us, We're going to do that. Then,

32:03

when I was about nine years old, my

32:05

mother started reconnecting with her

32:08

native identity and that's how we

32:10

first started with the Cato nation Um.

32:13

And yeah, so since I was nine years old,

32:16

that's when I was introduced to our kind of Cato spirituality

32:19

and as an adult, Unfortunately,

32:23

modern day paganism does appropriate a lot from Data

32:25

spirituality, but they have a lot of the same principles

32:27

and tenants, so I still in my adulthood,

32:29

kind of combined the two of them. In general, though,

32:32

uh Catos do believe in Creator. Creator

32:35

is a genderless being that created

32:38

everything. So before we started discussing

32:40

a story that George Coleby told

32:43

about indigenous people. I was

32:45

curious about the spiritual origins

32:47

of Olivia's people, the Katam. I

32:50

think a fun place to start, if you don't mind,

32:53

is if I kind of share our creation

32:55

story. Um. Every nation has

32:57

a creation story. They're all pretty different from

33:00

each other. There is a through line among

33:02

all of them. There is some commonality, but we all

33:05

are different. So Icado's

33:07

creation story. It is believed that a

33:10

very long time ago, Um humans

33:12

and animals lived under

33:15

the earth, like within the earth, and they

33:17

lived there for forever. Then one day their

33:19

leader, whose name translates to Moon,

33:22

received a message from Creator Um

33:25

and through that message, discovered

33:28

a tunnel that led up

33:31

Uh. So they followed the tunnel and realized

33:34

it led to a cave which led to a different realm

33:37

essentially. So with this message

33:39

from Creator, Moon gathered

33:42

his people and the animals

33:44

and led them out of the cave. However,

33:47

great Or told Moon to

33:49

not look back. You're moving forward, don't

33:51

look back. So they get almost all the way

33:54

out of the cave, and it's also said that

33:56

Moon is carried I believe

33:58

drum and tobacco and his wife

34:01

is carrying corn and pumpkin

34:04

something else you can't remember right now. They're carrying

34:06

these things though, that are essentially the foundation too for

34:08

the Cattos um. And they get almost

34:11

like almost all the way out, and Wolf gets

34:13

too curious and turns around and looks

34:15

back, and that's when the cave collapse

34:18

and half of the people and half the animals

34:20

are left behind, and the other half

34:22

make it to earth, the other realm, and

34:25

they cry and cry and cry, and

34:27

that's what forms the Mississippi River um

34:30

and also that's where the Cattos

34:33

eventually made their land

34:35

and their home. And I think what's

34:37

interesting to know about our creation story and

34:40

a lot of indigenous creation stories, is

34:42

that we are of the earth.

34:44

We come from the earth, which

34:48

to me um indicates

34:51

our that we have a relationship. We're guests

34:53

on the earth, and so we have to maintain a relationship

34:55

with the earth. So with that in mind

34:58

too, that also means we a

35:01

lot of animals as relative as well.

35:03

That's not an exaggeration, that's not like spiritual

35:06

that that is a big belief is that we have

35:08

a relationship with the animals, so

35:11

away we do that way we honor the animals

35:13

is through dance. A

35:15

lot of your spirituality is

35:18

kind of through your everyday things as well, so

35:20

it's a a big part of it is

35:23

being aware of what's around you and

35:25

being appreciative of what's around you, and

35:28

also helping out when it makes sense

35:31

as well. Well. I'd probably give more

35:33

context to this later. A

35:35

lot of our practices

35:37

and our understandings have been lost on

35:40

purpose by outside courses,

35:42

so this might not be like a super

35:45

fun answer. So right now, for my understanding,

35:47

I was not raised in the cabination to believe in

35:49

really an afterlife, because we are of

35:51

the earth. Once we die, we return to

35:53

the earth. Um. And that's kind of where

35:56

it stops now. I have done

35:58

some research and I believe before

36:00

colonization there is a whole different subset

36:02

of believes when it came to that. But because

36:05

so much of vis a bit lost, uh,

36:08

that's kind of where it stands now. So

36:10

a difficulty I had in interacting

36:12

with white mediums around the ideas

36:15

of indigenous culture, as well as looking

36:17

at past writings of Cassadaga

36:19

mediums, was that the way that they

36:21

were presenting indigenous culture was

36:24

too vague and self serving to

36:26

be the kind of show of respect that it

36:28

was said to be. Olivia breaks

36:30

down her frustration on this issue brilliantly

36:33

here. I think in general, a

36:36

question I start pushing on people who who

36:38

believe in things like that is um. Specifically,

36:41

I'll ask like, well, what nation do you think that's from?

36:43

Like, what's what tribe are you referencing? And

36:46

I do that because we tend to get

36:49

like all put in the same group.

36:51

And just to put it out there right now, there is

36:53

no Native American religion. There

36:56

are over five hundred nations

36:58

across the continental United States.

37:00

We can't all it doesn't make sense

37:03

for all of us to have the same religion. Now, there is

37:05

a Native American church in Oklahoma

37:08

that I believe is still functioning, but that

37:10

is a result of laws

37:13

imposed by the US government that criminalized

37:16

our religion. So we had to go

37:18

underground and build these

37:20

churches to continue to as

37:22

a facade to practice some of our Native religion.

37:25

UM. But in general, whenever I come across people

37:27

who think like that, I will just push them and ask what which

37:30

nation are you pulling that from? Which tribe are you're pulling

37:32

that from? And they'll get frustrated,

37:34

double down on whatever. But that's

37:37

the only way I can see to combat it. But

37:39

it's it's frustrating. It's very frustrating because

37:41

they do see this as all one entity. We

37:44

all believe the same things, we all have the same

37:47

practices um like especially

37:50

and also to I will say some Native

37:52

people will follow to this because we

37:55

have been purposely disconnected

37:57

from our religion and our identity for in

38:00

things. I know a lot of Natives who

38:02

have dream catchers, and that's not necessarily a

38:04

bad thing. But dream catchers

38:06

are not from my tribe. They were not created

38:09

out of the southeastern tribes. They were

38:11

created from the northeastern the Canadian

38:13

tribes I want to say Jibre

38:16

or a Nishinabe. They

38:18

created dream catchers as

38:20

a way to help their children

38:24

not be so scared of colonists, which

38:26

I don't think a lot of people understand that. Like whatever

38:28

columnists started invading the nations

38:30

and murdering them. A lot of children

38:32

were having nightmares. So alders created

38:35

these dream catchers to help them capture

38:37

their nightmares. And so that's

38:39

the other frustrating part too, is that

38:42

they will take one thing and

38:45

literally when I say take I do mean literally,

38:47

they take it, they redo

38:50

the definition, give no recognition

38:53

to where they took it from, and then oftentimes

38:55

profit off of it. So that's that's

38:58

the other really frustrating thing is that not only

39:00

do they just see us as one entity,

39:03

um, they don't even want to recognize

39:05

the beautiful differences between all of us.

39:09

It's it's really frustrating when non natives, and

39:11

oftentimes only white people say well,

39:13

we're doing this to honor you, We're doing this to honor you, but

39:17

you don't. You have to let the

39:19

people tell you how they want to be honored. And

39:22

so if if it's out of ignorance,

39:25

understand that's understanding. But whenever

39:27

you're presented the opportunity to learn

39:30

about that nation, so many

39:33

non natives will just double down

39:35

because they're embarrassed or because they don't

39:37

like being wrong. They will double down

39:39

on what they're doing and saying, no, we do this

39:42

because we're honoring you, and we have we come

39:44

back and say, well, this is not honoring us, so

39:47

this is just for you then, And I think

39:49

that's where a lot of disconnect comes from, is that these

39:51

other cultures religions, people

39:54

don't want to accept when they're wrong. This

39:57

all begs the question, what are

39:59

the issues that spiritualists could

40:01

and should be acknowledging to actually

40:04

meaningfully move the needle on how Native

40:06

culture is viewed. Where they currently

40:08

live on Seminole Land in Florida,

40:11

I asked Olivia and she shared

40:13

a few pieces of history in particular

40:16

to be aware of. And that's why I feel it's

40:18

really important to get the context as to why so many

40:20

of us have this quote

40:22

unquote attitude in regards to

40:24

white people, non natives appropriating

40:27

our culture and like where that frustration, that

40:29

deep seated frustration comes from. So UM,

40:32

first, I'd like to talk about the establishments

40:35

of boarding schools. UM Boarding schools

40:38

began in the United States and Canada,

40:40

but the United States around eighteen sixty

40:43

and they were government funded but

40:46

oftentimes run by

40:49

Christian and Catholic churches. The

40:52

motto of the founder of these

40:54

schools, General Richard Henry Pratt,

40:57

he thought he was a righteous man and he

40:59

could quote unquote see the humanity

41:02

and the savages. So

41:04

the goal of these schools was to kill

41:07

the Indian, save the man. That

41:09

was a literal motto of the school. They

41:12

did that by taking children from

41:14

families and forcing them

41:16

to be Christian, uh, taking away

41:19

their native names, punishing them when they spoke

41:21

their language, cutting their hair, and making them

41:23

dress like white people, and essentially

41:26

trying to assimilate them into the

41:29

white culture. So

41:31

that's happening in eighteen sixties. Um,

41:34

there are technically still residential schools

41:36

now, but there they functioned very differently. Now

41:38

there there's not as much like religious trauma

41:41

involved now. But um, as far

41:43

as this this model, I

41:45

think I don't have the exact date on me right

41:47

now, but I think they were eliminated

41:51

the seventies, maybe even the nineties,

41:53

so like nineteen nineties. So

41:56

the bit around for a

41:59

really long line. Then

42:02

in eighteen eighty three, the Code

42:04

of Indian Offenses was passed by

42:06

the Department of Interior, and these

42:09

codes were only applied

42:12

to Native Americans. And these

42:15

codes and summary criminalized

42:17

our religion. Um, if you were

42:19

because also at this point in eighteen eighty three, a lot

42:22

of the Native nations have been forced

42:24

onto reservations. Um, so either you

42:26

were, you were forced on a reservation, uh,

42:29

taken away from your food resources. And

42:31

because our re our religion and relationship

42:34

is tied so closely to the earth. They were being

42:36

forced away from their land

42:38

that was so connected to their

42:40

religion. Um, so there

42:43

are forces of these reservations. The children were

42:45

being taken away from them. And now the government

42:47

has said, if you were caught practicing

42:49

your dances and your ceremony, you

42:51

will either be imprisoned or we will

42:53

withhold food from you for a month.

42:56

And that's important because these nations

42:59

were forced onto servations because

43:01

they were their land essentially stolen from

43:03

them. The government said, well, in return,

43:06

we will provide resources from

43:09

you since we were taking a work, since you're being pushed

43:11

away from the resources. So it was a big deal.

43:13

Aside from imprisonment, you wouldn't get food

43:16

if you were caught practicing your religion. And

43:18

then if any religious

43:20

leaders were caught, they were automatically sent

43:22

to prison for like ten days or longer.

43:26

That's like date my mother, but

43:28

she was born in nineteen sixty four,

43:31

right, so even as a child,

43:33

she legally wasn't allowed to do even

43:35

if she even if she was raised with our native

43:37

religion, which because of everything

43:40

I have listed, she wasn't. But even

43:42

if she was, she wouldn't be allowed to do a

43:44

lot of the practices we wanted to do to

43:46

be. That's also important because it's

43:49

a big reason why my mom raised me

43:51

pagan for the first nine years of my life,

43:53

and then we were able to switch to or

43:56

transition a little bit to our native religion,

43:59

like be as of these laws. My

44:01

grandmother wasn't raised with her religion,

44:04

so how could she raise my mom with her religion.

44:06

So that's why this is important. Everyone likes to act like this

44:08

happened so long ago and that Natives are complaining

44:11

for no reason, but we're not. Like

44:15

laws were still in practice when my grandma

44:17

was alive, Like this wasn't that long ago. So

44:20

Olivia was not aware that the majority

44:22

white religion of American spiritualism

44:25

was appropriating from indigenous

44:27

culture without really any accurate

44:29

information prior to listening

44:32

to Ghost Church to prepare for this interview,

44:35

But she was not

44:37

surprised. You know,

44:39

before I listened to the series,

44:42

I didn't know that they were using Native

44:44

natives as their avatar essentially. Uh.

44:47

Sure, that is a very weird feeling,

44:49

especially because during the time of I

44:52

feel like spiritualism reaching its popularity, Natives

44:54

were fighting for their fucking lives

44:57

to just exist and no

45:00

in that these people were starting to use

45:02

us to give them strength

45:05

but not but not supporting us

45:09

in any material way

45:11

is uh disupporting? So

45:16

what does Olivia make of the story

45:18

of George and Spirit Seneca? Okay,

45:21

this is my genuine like first time hearing the

45:23

story, I purposely didn't look it up so that I

45:25

could have a more genuine reaction. Um.

45:29

So caught a lot of thoughts, Um, why

45:33

would a native spirit

45:35

guide tell you to

45:38

go own land for

45:40

your benefit rather than tell

45:42

you to go help the natives

45:45

get their land back? That makes no

45:48

sense. That makes absolutely good sense.

45:50

I think. The other frustration is,

45:53

Um, a lot of this just

45:56

feels like they are using us

45:59

as a to mask her

46:02

greediness to be frank, so

46:04

that I feel a lot all that I think it's funny is

46:07

that expensed to be does it really aligned

46:09

with any native spirituality? Like at

46:11

all? Um? And really just

46:14

using us as

46:16

a reason to say it's okay that we

46:18

own this land. I hope

46:21

that a big takeaway people will

46:23

have from this is that it's

46:25

okay to be curious and it's

46:27

okay to want to participate, but

46:30

you have to let us lead,

46:33

and you have to let us do it. And

46:36

also for reconnecting natives, It's

46:39

okay that you're not actively

46:41

participating in your nation's religion.

46:44

It's not your fault. Um.

46:47

We've had laws in place for over a century

46:49

to prevent us, and honestly,

46:51

on a darker side, we've had a lot of laws try

46:53

to humanely genocide us. And

46:56

we're still here, and you are still

46:58

valid for being here.

47:00

Like the fact that you're here is a miracle. Um.

47:03

So yeah, I think those are probably my party

47:06

words. Thank you so much to

47:08

Olivia Woodward again, and I'll

47:10

be linking to some of her work in the description.

47:13

And I want to say personally, I mean, look, most

47:15

of this history of the Cassadeca area

47:18

was not known to me prior to working

47:20

on this episode, and most Native

47:22

history remains untaught, unacknowledged,

47:25

and unpreserved in American schools.

47:29

Characters like Seneca the Spirit

47:31

Guide really don't serve to do much

47:33

more than to perpetuate existing

47:36

stereotypes an attempt to fill

47:38

this void of non history.

47:41

So by Seneca

47:43

the Spirit Guide and George Colby

47:45

decide, Hey, it's time

47:48

to get this camp up and running. To

47:50

do so, he enlisted the help of two

47:52

women who had been responsible for a considerable

47:55

amount of success at the lily Dale

47:57

Assembly, the camp that was originally

47:59

called Old Cassadega in upstate

48:02

New York. This is the camp

48:04

where the Central Floridian Spiritualists

48:06

would borrow its name. The

48:09

best information isn't always

48:11

contained in the library. The

48:14

beliefs of the Spiritualists are fascinating

48:17

and widely applicable, but there are

48:19

areas of their own history that are

48:21

completely forgotten or obscured

48:24

among the few left practicing in their

48:26

major hubs. This is done

48:28

in the expected way, by pushing

48:30

already marginalized communities to the

48:33

side and replacing areas of

48:35

their own histories with versions

48:37

that make them less uncomfortable.

48:39

And that's where I'll leave you this week, as

48:42

Cassadega continued to build on its own

48:44

legacy on its House of Cards origin

48:47

story. Next week we're going

48:49

to learn about a spirit tisma which

48:51

uses spiritism as its foundation,

48:54

and how many black spiritualists grew disillusioned

48:57

with spiritualism and flocked instead

48:59

to independently run spiritual

49:01

churches. That's next week on

49:04

Ghost Church. Ghost

49:07

Church is a Cruise On Media production, created,

49:09

written and hosted by me Jamie

49:12

Loftus. The show is produced by Sophie

49:14

Lichtman, edited by Ian Johnson.

49:16

Our theme song is by Speedy Ortiz.

49:19

That's Sadie Dupley, Andy Moholt,

49:22

Audrey C. Whitesides and Joey Dubeck.

49:24

Music is by Zoe Blade.

49:27

Special thanks to Olivia Woodward

49:30

for speaking with me for this episode. Please

49:32

check out her work. It's linked in the description. Special

49:35

shout out to Ian Johnson and Sophie

49:38

Lichterman Ghost Church Cannon

49:41

for lending their voices to this episode.

49:43

And I really tried my best pronunciation

49:46

on this. I in my defense, I did grow up

49:49

in a region where the worst accent

49:51

on the planet exists. Um

49:53

so I am open to corrections. Deep