The Powwows of the Pennsylvania Dutch
Thursday March 6, 2008 8:27 AM
In their heyday, powwowers healed everything from bewitched cows to warty hands to serious human ailments. Powwowing still flourishes in some parts of America. But don't let the name fool you — it has little to do with Native Americans.
Powwowing is the term adopted by German folk healers who settled in Pennsylvania, especially in the Lehigh Valley and Lancaster County. The immigrants became known in general as the Pennsylvania Dutch, a corruption of the word "Deutsch," or German. They began arriving in the late 1600s, and most of them came to America in the 1700s.
Back home, their healers were called braucherei, and their trade was a mix of herbal lore, folk magic, spell-casting and Christianized prayers or "charms," combined with hand passes. A braucher came from a hereditary line of a family who had the "power," and the arts were taught orally.
The braucherei adopted the Algonquin word "pow-wow," which concerns a state of healing power, to describe their Americanized art.
Some powwowers were so good at healing that they became famous and even wealthy, even though they never charged fees. Their grateful clients gave generous donations.
Powwowers had certain books of their magical spells and arts. The most important was Pow-Wows; Long Lost Friend, by John George Hohman, who left Hamburg, Germany for Philadelphia in 1802. Published in 1820 and still in print today, Pow-Wows contains dozens of "arts and remedies" for humans and animals: curing ailments, preventing and curing bewitchment, and protection against robbery and violence. Hohman's book was so powerful in its own right that just to own a copy brought the "power."
Another important text was the famous Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses (a single volume), containing more than 125 magic circles, seals, talismans and hexenfoos for summoning spirits and working spells. The hexenfoos, or "hex signs," are symbols that protect against evil and bewitchment. They are circles containing stars, flowers, geometric patterns, animals, birds, fruits and so on.
According to folk tales from Germany, Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses — also still in print — is dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands or is misused.
Powwowers still work their healing arts today, though what they do has blended a great deal with various forms of energy healing, such as Reiki. In certain areas they still have mystique, and a good powwower is often preferred to a traditional physician.
