Hoklonote'she (the shape-shifting spirit that reads the mind)
Choctaw · numen · Choctaw traditional religion; continuing · numen
Hoklonote'she is a malevolent Choctaw spirit distinguished by two powers: it can read what a person is thinking, and it can freely assume the form of any bird or animal, most often an owl. Because it could wear any shape, an encounter with a strange or bold animal might in fact be Hoklonote'she, and medicine men and women were consulted to determine whether a given creature was the spirit in disguise. Its ability to know the mind made it especially dangerous, since it could anticipate and thwart a person's intentions, and it belongs to the broad Choctaw category of deceptive, thought-knowing woodland spirits.
Domains
shape shifting and illusion
Powers
to read the thoughts of a person
to take on the form of any bird or animal at will
Sources
John R. Swanton, Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 103, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1931.
David I. Bushnell Jr., The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 48, Smithsonian Institution, 1909.