[1][2] Although the word "powwow" is Native American, these ritual traditions are of European origin and were brought to colonial Pennsylvania in the transatlantic migrations of German-speaking people from Central Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
[5] These practices were brought to North America, and formed the basis of both oral and literary ritual traditions in Pennsylvania.
[2] The majority of the early ritual traditions of the Pennsylvania Dutch were rooted in German language, but the term "Powwow" became widely used by speakers of English by the late 18th century.
[1][6] "Powwaw" (in one of its early spellings) was appropriated from the Algonquian language by 17th century missionaries in New England, where it originally described a healer, derived from a verb implying trance, or dreaming for divination or healing purposes.
[7] Evidence suggests that the term was applied to the Pennsylvania Dutch out of a perceived similarity in ritual healing, consistent with its borrowed meaning in English for "conjuration performed for the cure of diseases and other purposes.
"[8] Later, at the turn of the 20th century, the term "powwow" became associated with the title of the English edition of a celebrated manual of ritual procedures, entitled Pow-Wows; or, Long Lost Friend, written by John George Hohman and first published in German as Der Lange Verborgene Freund (literally "The Long Hidden Friend") in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1820.
The tradition is also called Braucherei, or simply Brauche, in Pennsylvania Dutch; an adept is referred to as a "Powwower" or Braucher, though not all practitioners use the same terminology.
However, the majority of practitioners were superstitiously fearful of this work and believed it invoked all manner of evil and devilry, as explained in The Red Church by author and Braucher Christopher Bilardi, who emphasizes the importance of being a good member of the local Christian community.
Reese practices the folk magic rituals in a small Pennsylvania town whose residents believe they have fallen under a curse.
The 2016 Lifetime original horror movie "Amish Witches: The True Story of Holmes County"[24] received mixed reviews on IMDB.