Speaker 1: I've finally made it to the Cassadeca Library, but as
Speaker 1: with everything in this place, they did not make it easy.
Speaker 1: It's a Tuesday night and the sun is setting. For
Speaker 1: my entire time here, I don't ever feel afraid or
Speaker 1: threatened when night falls near the Ghost Church. And I
Speaker 1: mean that. I mean. One of the first things I
Speaker 1: was told by Pastor deb when I was planning my
Speaker 1: trip to Cassadeca was that there was this energy vortex
Speaker 1: in the area, a spirit vortex. It sounds a little scary,
Speaker 1: but all it means is that this is a place
Speaker 1: where contact with the dead is more possible than almost
Speaker 1: anywhere else in the country. Other areas that have vortexes
Speaker 1: include Arizona, New Mexico, the Midwest in many places, New England,
Speaker 1: and of course of State, New York, basically anywhere spiritualism
Speaker 1: popped off. The b and Game in Memorial Library is
Speaker 1: on Stephens Street in Cassadakeh, right by where I did
Speaker 1: my session with the Reverend Doctor Louis Gates and the
Speaker 1: Ferry Trail where tourists leave those little trinkets and remembrances
Speaker 1: of themselves and they're dead. And Gaiman herself was trained
Speaker 1: as a medium in Cassadega, beginning as a teenager and
Speaker 1: served as a medium to lobbyists and congress people in
Speaker 1: the DC area for decades. Make of that what you will.
Speaker 1: The library itself doubles as an educational building where classes
Speaker 1: take place and as another example of a property in
Speaker 1: Cassadega that could definitely use a renovation. Lawn is a
Speaker 1: little bit barren. There's some detritus close to one of
Speaker 1: the exits, and there don't seem to be any lights
Speaker 1: on inside on the street where most of the houses
Speaker 1: have soft lights from the interior, telling you that at
Speaker 1: least someone is home, either making dinner or possibly helping
Speaker 1: someone connect with the dead mother they never got closure with.
Speaker 1: I crossed the lawn and try one of the entry
Speaker 1: says it's a lucky guess, And suddenly I'm standing in
Speaker 1: what appears to just look like someone's house with the
Speaker 1: lights off. There's a voice coming from down the hallway.
Speaker 1: It sounds like there's a man talking to himself, or actually,
Speaker 1: the longer I listened, I realize he's talking to a dog.
Speaker 1: I call the number I was given for the librarian
Speaker 1: who works here, and feel deeply paranoid because if I
Speaker 1: miscalculated this, There's virtually no other time to see whatever
Speaker 1: is going on in this building. The library is open
Speaker 1: exactly two hours per week Tuesday night, seven pm to
Speaker 1: nine pm, and has run by someone who has what
Speaker 1: I feel is the most noble profession in the entire world,
Speaker 1: a volunteer librarian. As I'm trying to get my nerve
Speaker 1: up to follow this voice down the hall, a couple
Speaker 1: enters the building behind me. I've actually met the woman
Speaker 1: before at a class called Healing one oh one at
Speaker 1: the Andrew Jackson Davis building around the corner. She had
Speaker 1: been excited to learn that I was a reporter. Did
Speaker 1: I want to read the children's books she self published
Speaker 1: not too long ago. It's on Amazon. The two are
Speaker 1: also volunteer librarians here. I learned she and her husband
Speaker 1: are Rhode Islanders who moved to Cassadega sometime in the
Speaker 1: middle of the pandemic. They had retired they were sick
Speaker 1: of mask mandates, yet another common feeling here in Cassadega
Speaker 1: that seems to go against the traditional, assumed progressivism of
Speaker 1: the religion. She had taken an interest in spiritualism and
Speaker 1: is training as a medium. Herself, so at this point
Speaker 1: the couple had been involved at the camp intimately for months, volunteering,
Speaker 1: taking classes, and attending services for the full year that
Speaker 1: it's necessary to before one can qualify to rent land
Speaker 1: from the camp to live on. As we've discussed in
Speaker 1: past episodes, becoming a medium at Cassadega takes at least
Speaker 1: four years, and she'll have to find a mentor to
Speaker 1: approve and keep track of her training and volunteer hours,
Speaker 1: and seems to have found the person she's looking for
Speaker 1: via the librarian, who as we get to the end
Speaker 1: of the hall, is there with a little wheezing dog.
Speaker 1: He asks, am I, Jamie. I say yes and apologize
Speaker 1: for all the calls. I'm just worried that I'll miss
Speaker 1: it when there's so few hours available. He's a total sweetheart,
Speaker 1: a man in his seventies with this low musical voice
Speaker 1: named Richard Russell. It is recognized that everything in the
Speaker 1: universe's energy and vibration. As an extension of that knowledge,
Speaker 1: we in accord our energy and are affected by the
Speaker 1: vibrations around us. He's been at Cassadega for twenty five
Speaker 1: years and the library is sort of his side project.
Speaker 1: You could say, he tells me. It started in seventeen
Speaker 1: with a donation of eighteen hundred books from Endgame in
Speaker 1: herself and has since ballooned to a collect of over
Speaker 1: six thousand books and texts. Every Tuesday, he and a
Speaker 1: few volunteers continue the work of organizing the titles into
Speaker 1: an infinity Google spreadsheet. Six thousand volumes is pretty impressive,
Speaker 1: But what I'm most curious about on this night is
Speaker 1: what kind of texts we're talking. For the most part,
Speaker 1: I find the same history is reported over and over
Speaker 1: over a century of spiritualists working out their ideas, working
Speaker 1: out their inviting some texts that reference more Eastern religion,
Speaker 1: self help, idealism, American individualism. It's a fascinating collection, but
Speaker 1: it feels like there's a lot missing. So over the
Speaker 1: next two weeks, we're going to take a look at
Speaker 1: the corners of spiritualism that are even less discussed than
Speaker 1: the religion itself. Will take a look at the cultures
Speaker 1: that spiritualism appropriates in order to distance itself from traditional Christianity.
Speaker 1: How a supposedly russ of religion managed to lose the
Speaker 1: vast majority of their Black American believers in the offshoot
Speaker 1: of spiritualism that enmeshed with the beliefs of enslaved people
Speaker 1: who had been moved to Imperial Land and created a
Speaker 1: religious movement that is far more popular and practiced than
Speaker 1: spiritualism in America itself. Let's create a corner of the
Speaker 1: library that doesn't exist. Meet me at the energy vortex
Speaker 1: down at Seneca Pond. Wait o, Seneca Wait. Let's do
Speaker 1: the theme song first? Is that Vera so Richard shows
Speaker 1: me into this library that's being organized as a volunteer
Speaker 1: project by medium slash librarians. Some of the materials are
Speaker 1: primary sources and pamphlets that have been hanging around the camp,
Speaker 1: semi organized for decades, and other texts were inherited by
Speaker 1: retired or passed into spirit mediums, still to be arranged
Speaker 1: and determined what their use in the camp might be.
Speaker 1: The two rooms that compose the library have these low
Speaker 1: ceilings and are lit with fluorescent lights. Most of the
Speaker 1: shelves are full, others are semi organized arranged. Categories so
Speaker 1: far include biographies of mediums, metaphysical topics, women's books, self
Speaker 1: help books. I can't account for this, but there's a
Speaker 1: pile of books on the ground that seemed to have
Speaker 1: to do with the history of Nazis between the late
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties and World War Two. It's not pro Nazi rhetoric,
Speaker 1: but I don't understand why it's there. Richard is kind
Speaker 1: of talking me through these categories as he walks me around.
Speaker 1: He says, we try to be inclusive, but he gestures
Speaker 1: around a little helplessly before earnestly begging me to please
Speaker 1: put books back where I found them. They don't have
Speaker 1: the infrastructure to organize them. Again, he says, our system
Speaker 1: is not the best and if we get books out
Speaker 1: of whack. He trails off, just completely overwhelmed by the
Speaker 1: idea of books out of whack, and he leaves me
Speaker 1: to it. So where to start. I'm trying not to
Speaker 1: trip over the random stacks of books and paper that
Speaker 1: have yet to be categorized, and decided that I'll try
Speaker 1: and start by seeking out something I've been looking for
Speaker 1: since I got here, any record or context for the
Speaker 1: spiritualists preoccupation with generalized indigenous history. But for all the
Speaker 1: books that I can find, just a sampling of titles.
Speaker 1: They've got a copy of Women who Love Too Much,
Speaker 1: They've got shelves dedicated to natural law and angels and
Speaker 1: aura color and astral projection, and even a copy of
Speaker 1: that book by Dr Phil that everybody's auntie has that
Speaker 1: book called Self Matters? Why do they have that? What
Speaker 1: there's none of is anything that concerns spiritual practices outside
Speaker 1: of American spiritualism, for questions what cultural influences they took
Speaker 1: in order to build their own religion. In the several
Speaker 1: volumes that exist on Cassadega's history, one story always features prominently,
Speaker 1: the Cassadega Founding story. I find it in a number
Speaker 1: of titles throughout the library, and it's been repeated pretty
Speaker 1: often online as well, and I think it's high time
Speaker 1: that we take a closer look at it. On Ghost Church,
Speaker 1: that's the show you're listening to. By the way, mm,
Speaker 1: the myth goes a little bit like this. The Fox Sisters,
Speaker 1: who had first heard the spirit rappings in Hydesville, New
Speaker 1: York in eighty eight as kids, were dead and gone
Speaker 1: by the mid eighteen nineties, after decades of prosperity, struggle, destitution,
Speaker 1: and establishing themselves as some of the premier female religious
Speaker 1: leaders of their time. While the Sisters Maggie and Kate
Speaker 1: Fox in particular, died in relative poverty and obscurity. The
Speaker 1: legacy they left behind was enormous. Spiritualism had managed to
Speaker 1: cross lines of fashionality, of gender, of race, of class.
Speaker 1: It now belonged to the whole world, and communities were
Speaker 1: forming to continue the observance and development of this Christian
Speaker 1: influenced religion with no heaven or Hell that emphasized spirit
Speaker 1: communication and mediumship entered George Colby, born just weeks before
Speaker 1: the Fox sisters made a splash in upstate New York.
Speaker 1: Colby grew up in Pike, New York, an hour outside
Speaker 1: of Rochester, before the family moved to Minnesota, and Colby
Speaker 1: developed an interest in spiritualism as a teenager, beginning to
Speaker 1: work as a medium in the eighteen sixties and formally
Speaker 1: leaving his Baptist upbringing in eighteen sixty seven after the
Speaker 1: conclusion of the Civil War. Legend has it that one
Speaker 1: of the main messages Colby received during this time was
Speaker 1: that it was his destiny to start a spiritualist camp
Speaker 1: in the US. But with all due respect, George Colby
Speaker 1: said a lot of things, and so did his primary
Speaker 1: spirit guide, an indigenous man named Seneca, which we've been
Speaker 1: beating around the bush on Seneca long enough. I've mentioned
Speaker 1: before that Seneca is a prominent name here at the
Speaker 1: Cassadega Camp. One of the main parks that one I
Speaker 1: was telling you about with the energy Vortex is named
Speaker 1: for Seneca, and another meditation garden, refers to Native American
Speaker 1: spiritual practices in this very Anglo centric, vagueified way. It's
Speaker 1: called Medicine Wheel Park, right around the corner from the library.
Speaker 1: The camp's relationship to Indigenous culture is at best dissonant
Speaker 1: and bizarre. The majority white religion is sprinkled with references
Speaker 1: to Indigenous people and culture, but without any specificity or
Speaker 1: acknowledgement of these specific tribes whose land they are living
Speaker 1: and worshiping on. Instead, you'll often find them leaning into
Speaker 1: popular tropes around indigenous people as a monoculture with unified
Speaker 1: spiritual practices, characterizing more indigenous spirit guides acting in the
Speaker 1: interests of the white religion than actual people who had
Speaker 1: lived and died and had their land taken from them.
Speaker 1: So to begin, I want to present the story of
Speaker 1: George Colby and his spirit guide Seneca's journey to Cassadeca
Speaker 1: with some annotations. Look, I'm down to respect a religious
Speaker 1: legend just as much as the next girl is, but
Speaker 1: this one is regularly presented as fact in and outside
Speaker 1: of spiritualist circles, while failing to acknowledge with all due respect,
Speaker 1: actual facts, actual people, and actual human atrocities that made
Speaker 1: it possible for Cassadeca to exist in the first place. So, okay,
Speaker 1: George and Seneca, let's see what's going on. It's eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy five and the twenty something George Colby is living
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin making his living as a medium, frequently flanked
Speaker 1: by his spirit guide, Seneca. Seneca's name is the first
Speaker 1: reference to Native American culture that rings a little weird.
Speaker 1: The Seneca were and our an indigenous tribe, not one
Speaker 1: guy who live in upstate New York. This is very
Speaker 1: likely something George Colby would have known from his childhood. However, Seneca,
Speaker 1: his spirit guide, leaned heavily into what is now commonly
Speaker 1: referred to in media as the magical Native American trope,
Speaker 1: defined as stating that their power comes from innate spirituality
Speaker 1: or closeness to nature that civilized races don't have. Usually
Speaker 1: involves influence over nature or animals or other spirit powers.
Speaker 1: Quite often the native in question will be dressed very traditionally,
Speaker 1: even in modern setting. But the Seneca people have a
Speaker 1: unique and relevant history that took place adjacent to George
Speaker 1: Colby's life. Holby likely learned the term in his hometown
Speaker 1: of Pike, New York, where the Seneca tribe had lived.
Speaker 1: Pike was a town that was only incorporated by colonizers
Speaker 1: thirty years before Colby was born. Most significantly, Cassadega is
Speaker 1: a Seneca word one that means water beneath the rocks,
Speaker 1: originally named for Cassadega Lake in the area now known
Speaker 1: as the Lily Deale Spiritual Association or Cassadega's Sister Camp.
Speaker 1: As of the late two thousands, the Seneca language was
Speaker 1: considered to be endangered, with less than fifty remaining speakers,
Speaker 1: a clear and direct result of colonizers often government enabled
Speaker 1: methods of forced relocation, forced cultural assimilation, and ethnic cleansing.
Speaker 1: Here's a clip of what the Seneca language does sound
Speaker 1: like from a recent Seneca language audio newsletter on how
Speaker 1: to say grandfather's and uncle's on Glass Saint Ka East.
Speaker 1: Now today, around eight thousand Seneca are enrolled in the
Speaker 1: Seneca nation of Indians, who refer to themselves as quote,
Speaker 1: the keepers of the Western Door. A link to some
Speaker 1: resources where you can learn more in the description of
Speaker 1: this episode. Unfortunately, for George Colby's credibility promise and being
Speaker 1: sarcastic there, his spirit guide Seneca and the Seneca people
Speaker 1: had very little in common. As presented in the spiritualist legend,
Speaker 1: the spirit guide Seneca primarily served as a conduit by
Speaker 1: which George Colby was able to justify moving to Florida
Speaker 1: from Wisconsin. There he would acquire the plot of land
Speaker 1: where the Southern Cassadega Spiritualist Association would be low caated
Speaker 1: beginning in the eighteen nineties. After meeting another medium in
Speaker 1: Wisconsin in eighteen seventy five, Holby said that Seneca guided
Speaker 1: the two of them down to the Jacksonville area by railroad.
Speaker 1: Seneca was seeking out a very specific plot of land.
Speaker 1: They arrived at the end of the railroad line, but
Speaker 1: Seneca instructed them to continue on foot, seeking out land
Speaker 1: described by the most current Cassadega history book available called
Speaker 1: Cassadega the South's oldest spiritual community as quote, a great
Speaker 1: spiritual center where thousands of believers could congregate a promised
Speaker 1: land of lakes and high bluffs. Behold the land where
Speaker 1: Cassadega exists now, the legend continues. Having satisfied Seneca, Wilby
Speaker 1: filed a homestead grant in eighteen eighty, an act that
Speaker 1: was passed by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two. They gave plots of land of around
Speaker 1: one hundred sixty acres to applicants, the vast, vast majority
Speaker 1: of whom were white people, except wait, who did those
Speaker 1: acres belong to Originally? Cassadega was made possible with a
Speaker 1: land grant that was intentionally redistributing indigenous land to white people.
Speaker 1: Made plausible in Florida after the US had acquired heavy
Speaker 1: air quotes used there the land from fellow colonizers Spain
Speaker 1: back in eighteen nineteen, soon after, in humane policies like
Speaker 1: the eighteen thirty Indian Removal Act Forcibly relocated many Cherokees, Creeks,
Speaker 1: and other people indigenous to the eastern US. They were
Speaker 1: forced to go to the west of the Mississippi River
Speaker 1: to make room for more white colonizers. This led to
Speaker 1: the trail of tears, a brutal government sanctioned ethnic cleansing
Speaker 1: carried out between a teen thirty and eighteen fifty that
Speaker 1: demanded that over one hundred thousand Indigenous people relocate, with
Speaker 1: some historians estimating as many as fifteen thousand people died
Speaker 1: on the way in unlivable conditions. Add this to the
Speaker 1: fallout of the Seminole Wars, there is no doubt that
Speaker 1: Cassadega would not have been possible without the exploitation of
Speaker 1: Indigenous people whose religion and culture were being criminalized and erased.
Speaker 1: While movements like Spiritualism were given the space both culturally
Speaker 1: and literally to evolve and thrive. While the abolitionist politics
Speaker 1: of most early spiritualists were emphasized, there's not much to
Speaker 1: indicate that the religion had meaningful solidarity with Indigenous people
Speaker 1: during these periods of massive violence. Another conflict that was
Speaker 1: very relevant to this area was the Seminal Wars, a
Speaker 1: still undertaught series of three wars between the Seminal tribe
Speaker 1: and Florida and white colonialists. The first war went from
Speaker 1: eighteen seventeen to eighteen, the second from eighteen thirty five
Speaker 1: to forty two, and the third and final Seminal War
Speaker 1: went from eighteen fifty five to fifty eight, just under
Speaker 1: a quarter century before George Colby was said to have
Speaker 1: shown up with his spirit guide Seneca. The latter two
Speaker 1: wars related to Cassadega directly. The second Seminal War had
Speaker 1: erupted over the Indian Removal Act. Many seminals refused to
Speaker 1: vacate to Oklahoma when it was demanded by the U. S. Military,
Speaker 1: and we're effectively using guerrilla war tactics before US generals
Speaker 1: began to play extremely dirty, doing things like abducting seminal
Speaker 1: leaders under the guise of proposed treaties. The Third Seminal
Speaker 1: War was intended by the U. S Military to remove
Speaker 1: or murder the remaining seminal from Florida, those who had
Speaker 1: survived the first two conflicts. The plan was to burn
Speaker 1: their plantations and starve them until they agreed to relocate,
Speaker 1: although it said that between two hundred and five hundred
Speaker 1: Seminole people moved deep into the Everglades instead of abandoning
Speaker 1: their land in Colby was granted one hundred acres of
Speaker 1: land central Floridian, land that had previously been the home
Speaker 1: of tribes like the Muscogo, a group of majority black
Speaker 1: Seminoles who had faced extreme marginalization for their skin color
Speaker 1: and their status as indigenous in both the US and
Speaker 1: in Mexico. Their history is a fascinating one, a result
Speaker 1: of the Seminole tribe of Florida welcoming escaped slaves and
Speaker 1: being open to blending their cultures and customs. During the
Speaker 1: years that Florida was under the control of Spain, escaped
Speaker 1: slaves could live freely here, and this resulted in a
Speaker 1: strong ally ship between the cultures formed prior to the
Speaker 1: colonial musical chairs between Spain and the US the land
Speaker 1: that belonged to neither of them in the first place,
Speaker 1: followed by the Indian Removal Act of eighteen thirty by
Speaker 1: President Andrew Jackson, who, it must be said, is one
Speaker 1: of history's greatest pieces of ship from any country at
Speaker 1: any time. It should be mentioned, though the Muskogo were
Speaker 1: forced out of the area during the Trail of Tears years,
Speaker 1: seminal leaders did have black slaves, and often black seminal slaves.
Speaker 1: When seminal leaders changed their policies to endorse chattel slavery
Speaker 1: during the Second Seminal War, the better aligned themselves with
Speaker 1: the practices of the Creek tribe. This shift and enslavement
Speaker 1: led to many Muskogo retreating to Mexico, where some of
Speaker 1: their descendants continue to live today. The relationships between the
Speaker 1: cultures was certainly not actionless, but both were being aggressively
Speaker 1: exploited and abused by the colonizers. An interesting factor between
Speaker 1: Seminoles and Black Seminoles descendants of this blended culture, was
Speaker 1: an evolving spiritual tradition. Most escaped slaves practiced some form
Speaker 1: of Christianity during the nineteenth century, leading to Christian elements
Speaker 1: being blended into seminal spiritual traditions. Sound familiar. Another tribe
Speaker 1: in central Florida was the Micosuki, who had lived in
Speaker 1: southern Georgia and northern Florida before being forcibly relocated to
Speaker 1: the Everglades during the Indian Removal Act, at which point
Speaker 1: most allied with the Seminole. I can't stress this enough,
Speaker 1: and we'll be addressing it through this episode. There is
Speaker 1: no Indigenous American monoculture. Every group has their own spiritual traditions,
Speaker 1: has their own ideas, has their own practices, and so
Speaker 1: this ally ship came with a lot of cultural adjustment
Speaker 1: for both groups. Mikosuki is the englishization of the word Mikosuki,
Speaker 1: a mixed heech Zook word from Mexico that means leader
Speaker 1: of the civilized people. Many Mikosuki fought in the Seminole Wars,
Speaker 1: only to be displaced and targeted by the US government
Speaker 1: again during the years of the Trail of Tears. After
Speaker 1: refusing to have their culture considered as one and the
Speaker 1: same as the Seminoles culture by the US, the ally
Speaker 1: ship between the Seminole and the Mikosuki soured, and the
Speaker 1: Mikosuki tribe is currently represented mainly in southern Florida, where
Speaker 1: their tribal dialect remains endangered, with only about five hundred
Speaker 1: speakers remaining. Here is a Mikosuki school teacher and tribe
Speaker 1: member named William Popeye Osceola, talking about how he tries
Speaker 1: to preserve the language and culture of the Mikosuki in
Speaker 1: the classroom in an interview the Creative Lab at McClatchy.
Speaker 1: When you go to school in America, you learn all
Speaker 1: about American history, but a big part of American history,
Speaker 1: I guess left those Native history, so I always look
Speaker 1: back to what was missing in my education. This generation
Speaker 1: is like heads and shoulders above my group. The future
Speaker 1: they have and we're they're going to take this tribe.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see if we want them to
Speaker 1: be empowered. We want them to come back and want
Speaker 1: them to help take over and they can run this
Speaker 1: and then we can also all under leadership. Their unique
Speaker 1: religious beliefs include the idea that men are transformed into
Speaker 1: angels after an attempt to visit the quote unquote great Spirit. Finally,
Speaker 1: the Tumukua tribe was represented in the Cassadeca region, a
Speaker 1: tribe that was all but wiped out by eighteen hundred,
Speaker 1: with a population that is said to have once included
Speaker 1: as many as two hundred thousand people. Their spiritual traditions
Speaker 1: included community shamans that were able to contact the spirit
Speaker 1: realm with powers that ranged from the belief that they
Speaker 1: controlled the weather to sometimes serving as herbalists that used
Speaker 1: natural remedies to ease the pain of childbirth. This culture
Speaker 1: was destroyed by colonial violence and illness, with the remainder
Speaker 1: of the Tumukua ingratiating into the Seminole and many others
Speaker 1: taken to Cuba. But it's important to note the majority
Speaker 1: of what's known about their history, and it's not that
Speaker 1: much are still taken from the records of European colonizers,
Speaker 1: not that the legend of Cassadega references well virtually any
Speaker 1: of these people or any of the history of the
Speaker 1: land they're using. It is possible that I missed references
Speaker 1: to indigenous culture during my time at Cassadega that was
Speaker 1: more specific, particularly at a library where I was only
Speaker 1: entitled to two hours of time. But any reference to
Speaker 1: any specific native group is ex dreamly hard to come
Speaker 1: by unless you're sharp enough to know what Seminole Street
Speaker 1: is referencing. In the unincorporated community where crystal shops sell
Speaker 1: their wares to tourists. If you're lucky, maybe you'll find
Speaker 1: one of those tourist dream catchers that are emblematic of
Speaker 1: the ways in which modern Americans erased the cultures of
Speaker 1: what was once around six hundred unique tribes whose land
Speaker 1: was stolen and then formed into this monocultural image by colonizers.
Speaker 1: If Seneca the Spirit Guide had any interest in this history,
Speaker 1: these lost lives and stolen land of the tribes in
Speaker 1: Central Florida, I've never seen any reference to it. For
Speaker 1: the legend of Cassadega's founding, Seneca only seemed to have
Speaker 1: a vested interest in being George Colby's sidekick, not just
Speaker 1: giving him permission to found Cassadega, but as the legend goes,
Speaker 1: it was his idea. The fallout of all of these conflicts,
Speaker 1: the Trail of Tears, the Indian Removal Act, the Seminole
Speaker 1: Wars had turned Florida into an area that was under
Speaker 1: constant change throughout the nineteenth century due to the massive
Speaker 1: loss of life that took place during the Seminole War years.
Speaker 1: By eighteen sixty, the census indicated that only about twelve
Speaker 1: hundred people were living in Valusia County, where Cassadega still
Speaker 1: is now, and that very little activity took place there
Speaker 1: throughout the Civil War years. According to Cassadega, the South's
Speaker 1: oldest spiritualist community, Belusia County was more popular during these
Speaker 1: years as a place to hide from conscription into the
Speaker 1: Confederate Army. Only beginning to be developed by colonizers in
Speaker 1: the eighteen seventies, when You're George Colby's began to show up.
Speaker 1: White industrialists began working on areas that bear their names
Speaker 1: to this day. An Ohio entrepreneur named Matthias Day incorporated Daytona, Florida,
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy six, and Henry Addison the Land founded
Speaker 1: the community that still bears his last name. Around this
Speaker 1: same time, by the nine cents is, the population of
Speaker 1: the area had increased to around people, bolstered by the
Speaker 1: end of the Civil War and expanding train accessibility in
Speaker 1: the central Florida area. In the land that Colby had
Speaker 1: acquired via the Homestead Act stealing indigenous land was now
Speaker 1: accessible and was developed to make it accessible to the
Speaker 1: people he wanted to court, majority white spiritualists from upstate
Speaker 1: New York looking for a place to worship when it
Speaker 1: got too cold at the camps in the north. So
Speaker 1: this legend is present everywhere in the library. I feel
Speaker 1: a little weird poking so many holes in it out
Speaker 1: of respect to the spiritualists, But for a religion that
Speaker 1: constantly references indigenous culture and seems to have a vested
Speaker 1: interest in the illusion of paying respect, it sounds like
Speaker 1: a bunch of colonial free form jazz by a guy
Speaker 1: who just wanted to set up a religious camp in
Speaker 1: a colonial culture that was and should have been grappling
Speaker 1: with their relation to Native American culture. From this vantage point,
Speaker 1: Seneca can be seen either as a well intentioned attempt
Speaker 1: to incorporate Native culture into spiritualism, or, as it's been suggested,
Speaker 1: this weird and offensive caricature that absolved a white landowner
Speaker 1: of the guilt of thinking anyone could truly own land
Speaker 1: that has been stolen with violence and cruelty. Quite recently,
Speaker 1: I was lucky enough to speak with the amazing Olivia
Speaker 1: Woodward about this legend, the precise reasons that it crosses
Speaker 1: from the weird into the harmful, and the conversation that
Speaker 1: surrounds indigenous culture in the United States to this day,
Speaker 1: this gelatinous monoculture, and the erasure of all these traditions, histories,
Speaker 1: and stories that are unique around six hundred tribes that
Speaker 1: exists or existed across the mainland US for centuries. Olivia
Speaker 1: writes about movies, media and Native issues and has previously
Speaker 1: appeared on My movie podcast with Caitlin Durante, the Bechtel Cast.
Speaker 1: I'm so thrilled I got to talk with her, and
Speaker 1: here's a little bit of our conversation. All right, Well, Kombuchia,
Speaker 1: my name is Olivia Woodward. I am a citizen of
Speaker 1: the Catto nation Um. I'm also a writer for a
Speaker 1: tribe called Geek and currently my day job is working
Speaker 1: in tourism. So I was actually first raised pagan. I
Speaker 1: have never followed Christianity. I've never never been a part
Speaker 1: of that. My my parents, I'm the youngest of three,
Speaker 1: and so by the time I was born, I think
Speaker 1: they experimented experimented with Christianity with my siblings. But by
Speaker 1: the time I was born, my mom, my mom and
Speaker 1: dad like, now, Paganism makes sense to us, We're going
Speaker 1: to do that. Then, when I was about nine years old,
Speaker 1: my mother started reconnecting with her native identity and that's
Speaker 1: how we first started with the Cato nation Um. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so since I was nine years old, that's when I
Speaker 1: was introduced to our kind of Cato spirituality and as
Speaker 1: an adult, Unfortunately, modern day paganism does appropriate a lot
Speaker 1: from Data spirituality, but they have a lot of the
Speaker 1: same principles and tenants, so I still in my adulthood,
Speaker 1: kind of combined the two of them. In general, though,
Speaker 1: uh Catos do believe in Creator. Creator is a genderless
Speaker 1: being that created everything. So before we started discussing a
Speaker 1: story that George Coleby told about indigenous people. I was
Speaker 1: curious about the spiritual origins of Olivia's people, the Katam.
Speaker 1: I think a fun place to start, if you don't mind,
Speaker 1: is if I kind of share our creation story. Um.
Speaker 1: Every nation has a creation story. They're all pretty different
Speaker 1: from each other. There is a through line among all
Speaker 1: of them. There is some commonality, but we all are different.
Speaker 1: So Icado's creation story. It is believed that a very
Speaker 1: long time ago, Um humans and animals lived under the earth,
Speaker 1: like within the earth, and they lived there for forever.
Speaker 1: Then one day their leader, whose name translates to Moon,
Speaker 1: received a message from Creator Um and through that message,
Speaker 1: discovered a tunnel that led up Uh. So they followed
Speaker 1: the tunnel and realized it led to a cave which
Speaker 1: led to a different realm essentially. So with this message
Speaker 1: from Creator, Moon gathered his people and the animals and
Speaker 1: led them out of the cave. However, great Or told
Speaker 1: Moon to not look back. You're moving forward, don't look back.
Speaker 1: So they get almost all the way out of the cave,
Speaker 1: and it's also said that Moon is carried I believe
Speaker 1: drum and tobacco and his wife is carrying corn and
Speaker 1: pumpkin something else you can't remember right now. They're carrying
Speaker 1: these things though, that are essentially the foundation too for
Speaker 1: the Cattos um. And they get almost like almost all
Speaker 1: the way out, and Wolf gets too curious and turns
Speaker 1: around and looks back, and that's when the cave collapse
Speaker 1: and half of the people and half the animals are
Speaker 1: left behind, and the other half make it to earth,
Speaker 1: the other realm, and they cry and cry and cry,
Speaker 1: and that's what forms the Mississippi River um and also
Speaker 1: that's where the Cattos eventually made their land and their home.
Speaker 1: And I think what's interesting to know about our creation
Speaker 1: story and a lot of indigenous creation stories, is that
Speaker 1: we are of the earth. We come from the earth,
Speaker 1: which to me um indicates our that we have a relationship.
Speaker 1: We're guests on the earth, and so we have to
Speaker 1: maintain a relationship with the earth. So with that in
Speaker 1: mind too, that also means we a lot of animals
Speaker 1: as relative as well. That's not an exaggeration, that's not
Speaker 1: like spiritual that that is a big belief is that
Speaker 1: we have a relationship with the animals, so away we
Speaker 1: do that way we honor the animals is through dance.
Speaker 1: A lot of your spirituality is kind of through your
Speaker 1: everyday things as well, so it's a a big part
Speaker 1: of it is being aware of what's around you and
Speaker 1: being appreciative of what's around you, and also helping out
Speaker 1: when it makes sense as well. Well. I'd probably give
Speaker 1: more context to this later. A lot of our practices
Speaker 1: and our understandings have been lost on purpose by outside courses,
Speaker 1: so this might not be like a super fun answer.
Speaker 1: So right now, for my understanding, I was not raised
Speaker 1: in the cabination to believe in really an afterlife, because
Speaker 1: we are of the earth. Once we die, we return
Speaker 1: to the earth. Um. And that's kind of where it
Speaker 1: stops now. I have done some research and I believe
Speaker 1: before colonization there is a whole different subset of believes
Speaker 1: when it came to that. But because so much of
Speaker 1: vis a bit lost, uh, that's kind of where it
Speaker 1: stands now. So a difficulty I had in interacting with
Speaker 1: white mediums around the ideas of indigenous culture, as well
Speaker 1: as looking at past writings of Cassadaga mediums, was that
Speaker 1: the way that they were presenting indigenous culture was too
Speaker 1: vague and self serving to be the kind of show
Speaker 1: of respect that it was said to be. Olivia breaks
Speaker 1: down her frustration on this issue brilliantly here. I think
Speaker 1: in general, a question I start pushing on people who
Speaker 1: who believe in things like that is um. Specifically, I'll
Speaker 1: ask like, well, what nation do you think that's from? Like,
Speaker 1: what's what tribe are you referencing? And I do that
Speaker 1: because we tend to get like all put in the
Speaker 1: same group. And just to put it out there right now,
Speaker 1: there is no Native American religion. There are over five
Speaker 1: hundred nations across the continental United States. We can't all
Speaker 1: it doesn't make sense for all of us to have
Speaker 1: the same religion. Now, there is a Native American church
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma that I believe is still functioning, but that
Speaker 1: is a result of laws imposed by the US government
Speaker 1: that criminalized our religion. So we had to go underground
Speaker 1: and build these churches to continue to as a facade
Speaker 1: to practice some of our Native religion. UM. But in general,
Speaker 1: whenever I come across people who think like that, I
Speaker 1: will just push them and ask what which nation are
Speaker 1: you pulling that from? Which tribe are you're pulling that from?
Speaker 1: And they'll get frustrated, double down on whatever. But that's
Speaker 1: the only way I can see to combat it. But
Speaker 1: it's it's frustrating. It's very frustrating because they do see
Speaker 1: this as all one entity. We all believe the same things,
Speaker 1: we all have the same practices um like especially and
Speaker 1: also to I will say some Native people will follow
Speaker 1: to this because we have been purposely disconnected from our
Speaker 1: religion and our identity for in things. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of Natives who have dream catchers, and that's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a bad thing. But dream catchers are not from
Speaker 1: my tribe. They were not created out of the southeastern tribes.
Speaker 1: They were created from the northeastern the Canadian tribes I
Speaker 1: want to say Jibre or a Nishinabe. They created dream
Speaker 1: catchers as a way to help their children not be
Speaker 1: so scared of colonists, which I don't think a lot
Speaker 1: of people understand that. Like whatever columnists started invading the
Speaker 1: nations and murdering them. A lot of children were having nightmares.
Speaker 1: So alders created these dream catchers to help them capture
Speaker 1: their nightmares. And so that's the other frustrating part too,
Speaker 1: is that they will take one thing and literally when
Speaker 1: I say take I do mean literally, they take it,
Speaker 1: they redo the definition, give no recognition to where they
Speaker 1: took it from, and then oftentimes profit off of it.
Speaker 1: So that's that's the other really frustrating thing is that
Speaker 1: not only do they just see us as one entity, um,
Speaker 1: they don't even want to recognize the beautiful differences between
Speaker 1: all of us. It's it's really frustrating when non natives,
Speaker 1: and oftentimes only white people say well, we're doing this
Speaker 1: to honor you, We're doing this to honor you, but
Speaker 1: you don't. You have to let the people tell you
Speaker 1: how they want to be honored. And so if if
Speaker 1: it's out of ignorance, understand that's understanding. But whenever you're
Speaker 1: presented the opportunity to learn about that nation, so many
Speaker 1: non natives will just double down because they're embarrassed or
Speaker 1: because they don't like being wrong. They will double down
Speaker 1: on what they're doing and saying, no, we do this
Speaker 1: because we're honoring you, and we have we come back
Speaker 1: and say, well, this is not honoring us, so this
Speaker 1: is just for you then, And I think that's where
Speaker 1: a lot of disconnect comes from, is that these other
Speaker 1: cultures religions, people don't want to accept when they're wrong.
Speaker 1: This all begs the question, what are the issues that
Speaker 1: spiritualists could and should be acknowledging to actually meaningfully move
Speaker 1: the needle on how Native culture is viewed. Where they
Speaker 1: currently live on Seminole Land in Florida, I asked Olivia
Speaker 1: and she shared a few pieces of history in particular
Speaker 1: to be aware of. And that's why I feel it's
Speaker 1: really important to get the context as to why so
Speaker 1: many of us have this quote unquote attitude in regards
Speaker 1: to white people, non natives appropriating our culture and like
Speaker 1: where that frustration, that deep seated frustration comes from. So UM, first,
Speaker 1: I'd like to talk about the establishments of boarding schools.
Speaker 1: UM Boarding schools began in the United States and Canada,
Speaker 1: but the United States around eighteen sixty and they were
Speaker 1: government funded but oftentimes run by Christian and Catholic churches.
Speaker 1: The motto of the founder of these schools, General Richard
Speaker 1: Henry Pratt, he thought he was a righteous man and
Speaker 1: he could quote unquote see the humanity and the savages.
Speaker 1: So the goal of these schools was to kill the Indian,
Speaker 1: save the man. That was a literal motto of the school.
Speaker 1: They did that by taking children from families and forcing
Speaker 1: them to be Christian, uh, taking away their native names,
Speaker 1: punishing them when they spoke their language, cutting their hair,
Speaker 1: and making them dress like white people, and essentially trying
Speaker 1: to assimilate them into the white culture. So that's happening
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixties. Um, there are technically still residential schools now,
Speaker 1: but there they functioned very differently. Now there there's not
Speaker 1: as much like religious trauma involved now. But um, as
Speaker 1: far as this this model, I think I don't have
Speaker 1: the exact date on me right now, but I think
Speaker 1: they were eliminated the seventies, maybe even the nineties, so
Speaker 1: like nineteen nineties. So the bit around for a really
Speaker 1: long line. Then in eighteen eighty three, the Code of
Speaker 1: Indian Offenses was passed by the Department of Interior, and
Speaker 1: these codes were only applied to Native Americans. And these
Speaker 1: codes and summary criminalized our religion. Um, if you were
Speaker 1: because also at this point in eighteen eighty three, a
Speaker 1: lot of the Native nations have been forced onto reservations. Um,
Speaker 1: so either you were, you were forced on a reservation, uh,
Speaker 1: taken away from your food resources. And because our re
Speaker 1: our religion and relationship is tied so closely to the earth.
Speaker 1: They were being forced away from their land that was
Speaker 1: so connected to their religion. Um, so there are forces
Speaker 1: of these reservations. The children were being taken away from them.
Speaker 1: And now the government has said, if you were caught
Speaker 1: practicing your dances and your ceremony, you will either be
Speaker 1: imprisoned or we will withhold food from you for a month.
Speaker 1: And that's important because these nations were forced onto servations
Speaker 1: because they were their land essentially stolen from them. The
Speaker 1: government said, well, in return, we will provide resources from
Speaker 1: you since we were taking a work, since you're being
Speaker 1: pushed away from the resources. So it was a big deal.
Speaker 1: Aside from imprisonment, you wouldn't get food if you were
Speaker 1: caught practicing your religion. And then if any religious leaders
Speaker 1: were caught, they were automatically sent to prison for like
Speaker 1: ten days or longer. That's like date my mother, but
Speaker 1: she was born in nineteen sixty four, right, so even
Speaker 1: as a child, she legally wasn't allowed to do even
Speaker 1: if she even if she was raised with our native religion,
Speaker 1: which because of everything I have listed, she wasn't. But
Speaker 1: even if she was, she wouldn't be allowed to do
Speaker 1: a lot of the practices we wanted to do to be.
Speaker 1: That's also important because it's a big reason why my
Speaker 1: mom raised me pagan for the first nine years of
Speaker 1: my life, and then we were able to switch to
Speaker 1: or transition a little bit to our native religion, like
Speaker 1: be as of these laws. My grandmother wasn't raised with
Speaker 1: her religion, so how could she raise my mom with
Speaker 1: her religion. So that's why this is important. Everyone likes
Speaker 1: to act like this happened so long ago and that
Speaker 1: Natives are complaining for no reason, but we're not. Like
Speaker 1: laws were still in practice when my grandma was alive,
Speaker 1: Like this wasn't that long ago. So Olivia was not
Speaker 1: aware that the majority white religion of American spiritualism was
Speaker 1: appropriating from indigenous culture without really any accurate information prior
Speaker 1: to listening to Ghost Church to prepare for this interview,
Speaker 1: But she was not surprised. You know, before I listened
Speaker 1: to the series, I didn't know that they were using
Speaker 1: Native natives as their avatar essentially. Uh. Sure, that is
Speaker 1: a very weird feeling, especially because during the time of
Speaker 1: I feel like spiritualism reaching its popularity, Natives were fighting
Speaker 1: for their fucking lives to just exist and no in
Speaker 1: that these people were starting to use us to give
Speaker 1: them strength but not but not supporting us in any
Speaker 1: material way is uh disupporting? So what does Olivia make
Speaker 1: of the story of George and Spirit Seneca? Okay, this
Speaker 1: is my genuine like first time hearing the story, I
Speaker 1: purposely didn't look it up so that I could have
Speaker 1: a more genuine reaction. Um. So caught a lot of thoughts, Um,
Speaker 1: why would a native spirit guide tell you to go
Speaker 1: own land for your benefit rather than tell you to
Speaker 1: go help the natives get their land back? That makes
Speaker 1: no sense. That makes absolutely good sense. I think. The
Speaker 1: other frustration is, Um, a lot of this just feels
Speaker 1: like they are using us as a to mask her
Speaker 1: greediness to be frank, so that I feel a lot
Speaker 1: all that I think it's funny is that expensed to
Speaker 1: be does it really aligned with any native spirituality? Like
Speaker 1: at all? Um? And really just using us as a
Speaker 1: reason to say it's okay that we own this land.
Speaker 1: I hope that a big takeaway people will have from
Speaker 1: this is that it's okay to be curious and it's
Speaker 1: okay to want to participate, but you have to let
Speaker 1: us lead, and you have to let us do it.
Speaker 1: And also for reconnecting natives, It's okay that you're not
Speaker 1: actively participating in your nation's religion. It's not your fault. Um.
Speaker 1: We've had laws in place for over a century to
Speaker 1: prevent us, and honestly, on a darker side, we've had
Speaker 1: a lot of laws try to humanely genocide us. And
Speaker 1: we're still here, and you are still valid for being here.
Speaker 1: Like the fact that you're here is a miracle. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think those are probably my party words.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much to Olivia Woodward again, and I'll
Speaker 1: be linking to some of her work in the description.
Speaker 1: And I want to say personally, I mean, look, most
Speaker 1: of this history of the Cassadeca area was not known
Speaker 1: to me prior to working on this episode, and most
Speaker 1: Native history remains untaught, unacknowledged, and unpreserved in American schools.
Speaker 1: Characters like Seneca the Spirit Guide really don't serve to
Speaker 1: do much more than to perpetuate existing stereotypes an attempt
Speaker 1: to fill this void of non history. So by Seneca
Speaker 1: the Spirit Guide and George Colby decide, Hey, it's time
Speaker 1: to get this camp up and running. To do so,
Speaker 1: he enlisted the help of two women who had been
Speaker 1: responsible for a considerable amount of success at the lily
Speaker 1: Dale Assembly, the camp that was originally called Old Cassadega
Speaker 1: in upstate New York. This is the camp where the
Speaker 1: Central Floridian Spiritualists would borrow its name. The best information
Speaker 1: isn't always contained in the library. The beliefs of the
Speaker 1: Spiritualists are fascinating and widely applicable, but there are areas
Speaker 1: of their own history that are completely forgotten or obscured
Speaker 1: among the few left practicing in their major hubs. This
Speaker 1: is done in the expected way, by pushing already marginalized
Speaker 1: communities to the side and replacing areas of their own
Speaker 1: histories with versions that make them less uncomfortable. And that's
Speaker 1: where I'll leave you this week, as Cassadega continued to
Speaker 1: build on its own legacy on its House of Cards
Speaker 1: origin story. Next week we're going to learn about a
Speaker 1: spirit tisma which uses spiritism as its foundation, and how
Speaker 1: many black spiritualists grew disillusioned with spiritualism and flocked instead
Speaker 1: to independently run spiritual churches. That's next week on Ghost Church.
Speaker 1: Ghost Church is a Cruise On Media production, created, written
Speaker 1: and hosted by me Jamie Loftus. The show is produced
Speaker 1: by Sophie Lichtman, edited by Ian Johnson. Our theme song
Speaker 1: is by Speedy Ortiz. That's Sadie Dupley, Andy Moholt, Audrey C.
Speaker 1: Whitesides and Joey Dubeck. Music is by Zoe Blade. Special
Speaker 1: thanks to Olivia Woodward for speaking with me for this episode.
Speaker 1: Please check out her work. It's linked in the description.
Speaker 1: Special shout out to Ian Johnson and Sophie Lichterman Ghost
Speaker 1: Church Cannon for lending their voices to this episode. And
Speaker 1: I really tried my best pronunciation on this. I in
Speaker 1: my defense, I did grow up in a region where
Speaker 1: the worst accent on the planet exists. Um so I
Speaker 1: am open to corrections. Deep