Ababinili

Also Known As: Chickasaw Abaꞌ Binniꞌliꞌ, “Sitting Above” or “Dwelling Above”; also written Aba Binili; called Inki Abu, “Father Above”, under Christian influence; recorded in 1775 by James Adair as Loak-Ishtohoollo-Aba, “the great, beneficent, supreme, holy spirit of fire”
Region/Culture: North America
Mythos: Native American Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: Ababinili is the sole maker of warmth, light and all animal and plant life, a composite power made up of the Four Beloved Things above: the clouds, the sun, the clear sky and He that lives in the clear sky.
Role in Mythos: He is the supreme being of the Chickasaw, above a host of lesser powers, good and evil spirits and witches.
Relation to Humans: The Chickasaw worshipped him in smoke and cloud and in the element of the holy fire that each town kept burning. He was held to live above the clouds and, on earth, only among people who kept themselves ritually clean.

Every Chickasaw town kept a fire that was not allowed to die. Old men tended it, men past the age of hunting and war, and from it came the coals that lit every hearth in every house, so that the flame under a family’s supper was the same flame that burned for the whole town. Nobody put it out with water. Quenching even a cooking fire that way was counted the work of evil spirits. Somewhere in that heat and that rising smoke, the Chickasaw said, was Ababinili.

The name, spelled Abaꞌ Binniꞌliꞌ by the Chickasaw Nation today, means Sitting Above or Dwelling Above. He has no arrival story. The Nation’s own account says plainly that the Chickasaw have no tradition of a time when they did not believe in him, which is a stronger claim than any creation myth could make. He is the sole source of warmth and light and of every animal and plant that lives. Under Christian influence he also came to be called Inki Abu, Father Above, and the older name stayed in use alongside it.

What he is made of is less simple than the title suggests. The Chickasaw spoke of four Beloved Things above: the clouds, the sun, the clear sky, and He that lives in the clear sky. Ababinili is described as a composite of all four, a single power assembled from weather, light and open air, with a presence inside the clear sky counted among his own parts. Reference books that file him as a sun god or a fire god have caught one of the four and dropped the rest.

No source gives him a body. There is no face, no height, no hand that holds anything. The Chickasaw worshipped him, in the words of their Nation’s account, “in smoke and cloud,” believing that he lived above the clouds and in the holy fire. The nearest thing to a physical description is sensory: the dry heat of the town fire on the shins, the smell of seasoned wood, the glare of the sun, the grey ceiling of cloud. For the Chickasaw that was enough. The fire was the point.

The oldest written account comes from James Adair, an Irish-born trader who went to live among the Chickasaw in 1744 and published his History of the American Indians in London in 1775. Adair gave the name as Loak-Ishtohoollo-Aba and translated it as the great, beneficent, supreme, holy spirit of fire. In his own word lists loak is fire and aba is the space of the heavens. He wrote that this spirit lived above the clouds and on earth also with unpolluted people, and that he was the sole author of warmth, light and all animal and vegetable life. Those phrases have lasted: the Chickasaw Nation’s description of Abaꞌ Binniꞌliꞌ today follows them almost word for word.

Adair is not a neutral witness, and it matters. His book was written to prove that the peoples of the Southeast descended from the ancient Hebrews, and he read everything he saw through that argument. His insistence that the Chickasaw adored no images and paid no worship to the heavenly bodies served the thesis as much as it reported the practice, and it sits awkwardly beside a supreme being who includes the sun among his four parts. The eyewitness core of his account is valuable, because he lived in Chickasaw towns for years. The frame around it is his. John R. Swanton later gathered the scattered record for the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1928, and that study has remained the standard compilation.

The rhythm of the year ran through the fire. At the first new moon after the spring equinox the Chickasaw marked the new year with fasting and purging, feasting, dancing and games, and further festivals followed the start and end of the harvest. In those days of ceremony the holy men, whose office passed down by inheritance, kept the town’s fire, reading signs and dreams and the turn of events while the smoke climbed toward the place where Ababinili was said to live.

No recorded Chickasaw telling shows him making the world step by step. A story in wide circulation online, in which he hands the elements their separate duties toward men and women, could not be traced to any documented collection, and it is left out here. What the record does keep is the sky’s own drama. Lightning and thunder were called Hiloha, and the rumbling had a name of its own. When rain fell for a long time, with thunder and hard wind that would not stop, the beloved or holy people were believed to be at war above the clouds. Chickasaw warriors would step out into the downpour and fire their guns into the sky, the reports cracking under the thunder, to show that they were not afraid to die and to lend their strength to the holy people fighting overhead.

Beneath Ababinili the Chickasaw world was crowded. There were lesser deities, good spirits and evil ones, witches who did harm, and a personal spirit to guide and guard each individual. At death the good went to a heaven in the west, while the wicked were left to wander in a land of witches. Good spirits helped those who kept the rituals, which is why the rituals were kept with such care.

His power is the plainest thing about him. Warmth, light and every living thing come from Ababinili, and his presence could be approached in the holy fire and in the smoke that rose from it. His limits are written into the same sentences. He dwelt on earth only with people who were free of pollution, so ritual carelessness put distance between a town and its god, and the fire that carried him could be profaned by water in a way the Chickasaw treated as the work of evil spirits. A god who lives in a flame has one obvious enemy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Ababinili in Chickasaw belief?

Ababinili is the supreme being of the Chickasaw, the sole source of warmth, light and all animal and plant life. His name, spelled Abaꞌ Binniꞌliꞌ by the Chickasaw Nation, means Sitting Above or Dwelling Above. He was believed to live above the clouds and in the holy fire that every Chickasaw town kept burning.

Is Ababinili a sun god?

Ababinili is not simply a sun god. The Chickasaw described him as a composite of four Beloved Things above: the clouds, the sun, the clear sky, and He that lives in the clear sky. The sun is one of those four parts, and he is also closely tied to the holy fire.

What is Ababinili’s other name?

Under Christian influence Ababinili also came to be called Inki Abu, which means Father Above. The trader James Adair recorded the supreme being in 1775 as Loak-Ishtohoollo-Aba, which he translated as the great, beneficent, supreme, holy spirit of fire.

Who first wrote about Ababinili?

The earliest written account comes from James Adair, a trader who lived among the Chickasaw from 1744 and published The History of the American Indians in London in 1775. Adair was trying to prove that Native Americans descended from the ancient Hebrews, so his interpretations need care. John R. Swanton later compiled the Chickasaw record for the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1928.

Why could the Chickasaw holy fire not be put out with water?

The Chickasaw treated the holy fire as the element in which Ababinili was present, and coals from the town fire lit every household hearth. Putting out even a cooking fire with water was considered the work of evil spirits.