Black Velvet Fairies

Pennsylvania Dutch powwower Nelson D. Rehmeyer was murdered in 1928. The Philadelphia Record called the murder trial “the weirdest and most curiously fascinating [trial] in the history of modern jurisprudence.” Because Rehmeyer’s killers feared he was practicing witchcraft against them, the trial captured national attention – and nearly destroyed the practice of powwow, a Pennsylvania Dutch healing tradition. This episode features Patrick Donmoyer, Director of Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, Kutztown University; Daniel Harms, translator and editor of Der Lange Verborgene Freund (The Long Lost Friend by John George Hohman) and Associate Librarian, SUNY College at Cortland; Thorn Nightwind, Initiated Witch & Powwower; and Robert Phoenix, Powwowe, and author of 'The Powwow Grimoire'. Learn more at https://www.magicintheunitedstates.com/.