Indigenous encounters with zombies in North America
Two case studies from the 16th century, with recommendations for emergency response today
REPORT PREPARED FOR THE INTER-TRIBAL ADVISORY COUNCIL OF MATRIARCHS
Case Study #1: Point Reyes
One of the first well-documented accounts of an Indigenous encounter with zombies in North America comes from Point Reyes, California in 1579. This was a remarkable 36-day encounter, which ended without loss of life. Furthermore, the apparent zombies were ultimately driven out and did not return to the West Coast for over two centuries.
The referenced incident began on 27 June, 1579, when the Coast Miwok observed a large vessel (80 feet long) entering the bay. It was seen arriving from a great distance at sea, which the Miwok consider to be the land of the dead. Thus, all crew and passengers were assumed to be paranormal, zombies or even ghosts. They were all men and extremely pallid in appearance.
(While pale skin was alarming to the Miwok at the time, we no longer consider that a diagnostic field mark for zombie identification. A more detailed discussion of zombie identification will be presented in the Conclusions below.)
When the vessel anchored near shore, Coast Miwok headmen asked the protectors to stand down and sent a lone priest aboard a small skiff to confirm their suspicions. The priest followed normal funeral protocol, bringing gifts for the dead. He made three such trips. This seemed to calm the zombies, even appeasing them to the extent that they offered gifts in return. The priest, of course, did not touch any of the items, save one hat to examine if it was indeed real and not a ghost-like vapor. That the hat was indeed a material object suggests the entire visitation was from zombies, not ghosts.
After this exchange, the zombies proceeded to run their vessel to ground on the beach. As a precaution, the Miwok constructed defensive fortifications in case of attack. While these were not needed in this case, this remains standard procedure and, the record will show, is often required.
Word of the paranormal arrival quickly spread to neighboring communities, bringing crowds of onlookers whose numbers increased with time. The Miwok established a safety corridor, keeping everyone on the bluffs, as the zombies remained on the beach below, typically in close proximity to their vessel.
With the advice of subject-matter experts regarding communication with the dead, the Miwok council then established a system of visiting the zombies every three days, using the same oration in advance, as a way to calm the zombies with a predictable pattern. As we will see in later examples, zombies are easily spooked into extreme violence when confused or frightened.
It is remarkable that the Miwok, with no prior experience with zombie visitation, quickly established emergency zombie response protocol (EZRP) to both contain the zombies and the crowds, using many of the methods now considered best practice.
Over time, with no evidence of malintent from the zombies, a rumor spread among the onlookers that they were not just the living dead, but were their very own relatives who had walked on, now coming to visit them. Essentially, ghosts. Even from a great distance, many claimed to recognize facial features of their loved ones.
To address these concerns, the Miwok priests arranged for those interested to follow them down the bluffs to visit the zombies face-to-face. At this point, we must insert that this was extremely dangerous because, again, it was a break from a predictable pattern, and the zombies could see this close approach as a threat, and possibly respond violently. Fortunately, that did not happen.
The Miwoks used an abundance of ceremony, protocol, and gift-giving in approaching closely. This created an environment whereby the actual visitation by the people seemed to be part of the ceremony. The zombies responded in kind, actually singing in response. Some of the people believed they had found long-lost relatives, though, as events unfolded, it was not possible to confirm this. Again, all credit must go to the Miwok leadership for their careful and cautious approach. It is noteworthy that, throughout this process, the zombies accepted but refused to eat gifts of food from the Miwok, which stands out as further confirmation of their identification as paranormal beings.
After 36 days, the zombies pushed their vessel back into the sea and left, returning to the land of the dead. While the Miwok leadership feared they could be going back for reinforcements, they never returned and, in fact, were not seen again in that area for many generations.
Case Study #2: Roanoke Island
The zombie visitation at Roanoke Island occurred just five years later, in 1584. In both instances, the name “Drake” was associated with the zombies, though, as this case study will illustrate, the behavior and outcome was dramatically different.
This visitation lasted from the summer of 1584 thru the summer of 1590, with some gaps between. This case is noteworthy because: 1) there were casualties from violence, as well as from unexplained phenomenon, and 2) there was on-going confusion regarding zombie identification. Ultimately, the zombies/men were driven from the area.
In July 1584, a small party of strange men arrived at Roanoke Island on the North Carolina coast. They came from the sea. Like the Miwok, the Secotan employed diplomacy in efforts to put the men at ease. A woman, the wife of a local leader, took charge of hosting them, treating them as guests. Unlike the visitors at Point Reyes, these men accepted and ate food. The host also negotiated with Secotan protectors to avoid threatening violence toward the visitors. The strange men stayed into September.
When they left, the Secotan sent two of their own men with them, on the visitor’s vessel, to see where they came from. It is remarkable that relations were cordial enough to allow this, and that the two men were brave enough to go.
The two men survived and returned, with a larger party of visitors, the following summer (1585). This time there were more than a hundred, and again, all men. Thus, the visitors now posed the threat of a small army. Within weeks, they attacked the nearby town of Aquascogoc, burning all of its homes and corn fields. The provocation was alarmingly trivial – they suspected someone of stealing a silver cup. This kind of disproportionate violence is, of course, bizarre in civil society but a key feature of zombie attacks.
After this there was a significant internal debate among the Secotan. One party, led by Ensenor, argued that the visitors were men returned from the dead, with supernatural powers. They had no women or children with them. Wherever they visit, right after they leave, people would fall sick with strange and terrible illnesses, and many died. They were like ghosts sweeping the land. Further, none of them had died. They had weapons that shot invisible bullets. Ensenor advised continued appeasement. We must treat them well, he argued, and they will protect us. Otherwise, they will kill us.
The counter argument, led by Wingina (aka Pemisapan), was that they were regular men. We see that they starve and then demand food. They are just very violent. They are a threat and appeasement will be very difficult. We should kill them all.
As fate would have it, both Ensenor and Wingina died shortly thereafter in the manner they imagined. Ensenor fell to a mysterious illness. Wingina was murdered by the zombies/men, who severed his head and put it on a stake.
At this point, the Secotan community embraced Wingina’s position: the visitors were very violent men. Knowing they were dependent on food and confined to an island, enforced an embargo to starve them out. This worked, and the visitors, most of them, left in the spring of 1586. They left 15 of their strongest behind, but Secotan protectors overwhelmed and killed them.
But the visitors returned again. They arrived at Roanoke in the summer of 1587, this time with women and children. Nevertheless, when one of them left the island, Secotan protectors took no chances and killed him quickly, possibly using excessive force in case he was a zombie. This caused the visitors to flee Roanoke. They found a welcome at Croatoan, 60 miles to the south. Here, they were abandoned by their own supply vessel and little is known what become of them. A final visitation occurred three years later, but failed to contact the remnant at Croatoan, and quickly left. Presumably, they now feared the Secotan.
In this case study, we see the Secotan at first employed the gentle strategy of the Miwok. This seemed to work, and the visitors left them alone. However, when they returned and began to use extreme violence, the Secotan concluded they were not paranormal creatures, and responded with a variety of aggressive strategies, most notably a food embargo force through superior numbers. This was successful.
Conclusions
Extreme violence
Because of their proclivity toward extreme violence, zombies are dangerous. It is one of the primary features in zombie identification. By extreme violence, we use the standard definition from the Zombie Identification Handbook, which is “a level of violence that is strategically unnecessary to achieve any potential ends (except terror), and thus appears to be violence simply for the sake of violence.”
Classic examples are the many historical cases where one Indigenous man commits an isolated crime, such as murdering one white pioneer, killing a cow, or even just stealing a horse or a pig, or a silver cup, and the white pioneers respond with the wholesale slaughter of an entire Indigenous community. Such slaughters, furthermore, often involve targeting even babies and may include extreme mutilation of the dead.
Zombies are known to use scalps and other body parts as currency, exchanging them for money. Recent likely zombie attacks involve home invasions targeting families, but rather than capture them all, they just capture the youngest child or perhaps the mother or other primary caregiver.
This concept of “extreme and unnecessary violence” is closely related to the modern concept of terrorism, defined as attacks on civilians for the sole purpose of generating terror.
In addition to the events described above in Case Study #2, there is a long history of suspected zombie attacks due primarily to the unusual level of violence. Most well-known are the long list of massacres of Indigenous peoples, many (most?) of which targeted peaceful villages consisting primarily of elders, women, and children. These range from the Pequot Massacre in 1637 to Wounded Knee in 1890.
During the Pequot Massacre, as the Puritans surrounded the town along the Mystic River and set fire to the walls and rooftops, and then proceeded to shoot anyone coming out, their Narragansett allies, horrified, beseeched them, “Mach it, mach it! It is naught, it is naught, because it is too furious, and slays too many men.” The Puritans then proceeded to sell all living captives into slavery and ban the name of Pequot from existence.
The Narragansett were shocked, as this level of violence contrasted strongly with the norms of Indigenous wars, which generally sought to limit casualties. Intertribal Native conflicts were often limited to tit-for-tat “mourning wars” focused on revenge for specific family members.
The massacres at Redding (1846), Bear River (1863), Sand Creek (1864), Washita River (1868), Marias (1870), Camp Grant (1871), and Wounded Knee (1890), among many others, had classic zombie attributes: the attackers targeted peaceful encampments of families rather than enemy combatants. In all cases, they did this knowingly.
The Wounded Knee Massacre had parallels to Case Study 1, in that it involved ceremonial dancing. In this case, however, the dancing seemed to enrage the zombies. As with the examples listed above, the violence was completely unnecessary because the victims were unarmed, impoverished, and already confined in a concentration camp. Thus, this is a rather textbook case of a likely zombie attack.
There are many other examples from the same era – attacks on Blacks, Latinos, Chinese, and others – as well as contemporary examples, which generally get classified as “white terrorism.” These include attacks on churches, synagogues, restaurants, shopping malls, etc.
These all fit the classic criteria of a zombie attack. There appears to be no other goal than violence and terror. Robbery or personal vengeance against specific victims were not a factor. Furthermore, the perpetrators likely face personal harm. In some cases, these were suicide missions.
It is noteworthy to point out that, in the massacre examples, the perpetrators were not always state-sanctioned actors, but still found immunity from white governance.
Current ICE raids also fit these criteria. While official rationale is law enforcement, to capture and deport criminals, the raids specifically target those contributing to society – workers, mothers, children, etc. Again, the perpetrators themselves will suffer. In a world with a declining workforce, the targeted immigrants fill key roles in our communities. Their loss harms our economy, our businesses, our towns, our schools, and the very fabric of a civil society. The only point of the raids, it seems, is the cruelty.
That the ICE “staff” are anonymous, in unmarked vehicles with faces masked, and without names or badges, lends further support to a zombie hypothesis. They may or may not be state actors, but they appear to have immunity from state prosecution.
Zombie identification
There is a competing theory for the cases studied here – that the attackers were just regular men, however deranged. There are no unique identifying features that enable us to distinguish between zombies and deranged men. (Women have been involved in suspected zombie attacks, though this is rare.)
It is worth noting that the word zombie is derived from the Haitian Vodou “nzambi.” The term is still used today and is applied to regular humans, not paranormal revenants, who have committed serious crimes, often rape or land theft, and have escaped official government prosecution. In response, the community has risen up and applied vigilante justice. The perpetrator is drugged, captured, briefly buried, then revived in a stupor, and kept drugged as a slave. They are then called a nzambi. This practice highlights the gray area between zombies and bad men, the social structures that often condone their violence, and the need for community-level responses.
Recommendations
Relying on this history of potential zombie visitors, and on the response examples from Point Reyes, Roanoke, and Haiti, this report draws three main conclusions:
1) Zombie identification is difficult. Confirmation is often impossible. In the cases described above, the primary distinguishing feature of zombies – a lust for violence – may be shared by certain deranged white men.
2) Distinguishing between zombies and white men is not critical. A correct identification does not change our emergency zombie response protocol (EZRP).
3) As the Miwok demonstrated over 500 years ago, the most effective response involves the whole community. Zombies – and deranged white men – may be driven out by large groups of people, even if unarmed. The response, however, should be quick, large, and loud. The primary aim is to tap into whatever shred of decency they may have, to induce a fear of revealing their identities and their actions, and thus cause them to flee.
Detailed protocol for communications and local action plans are beyond the scope of this report, though we strongly urge each community to create and practice local-specific EZRP.
Uncanny piece. Brought to mind the image of Vance Boelter with his mask and dead-appearing eyes. I don’t know exactly what zombies are, but that image conjured it nonetheless. Let’s follow the Miwock path, as you state here: “As the Miwok demonstrated over 500 years ago, the most effective response involves the whole community. Zombies – and deranged white men – may be driven out by large groups of people, even if unarmed. The response, however, should be quick, large, and loud. The primary aim is to tap into whatever shred of decency they may have, to induce a fear of revealing their identities and their actions, and thus cause them to flee.”