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

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