Still the process of reconstruction was slow. The wounds which had been
made were deep, and distrust reigned between the two parties for a time.
Although conquered, all were not converted, and some of them at times
longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt. Two things gave much opportunity for
gossip during the following winter. The business of logging had gone
down and the Indians had little to do. Also, during the previous summer,
the chiefs had not attended to their proper business, and had let a
number of crimes go unpunished, especially drunkenness, and the new
board of chiefs had so many to punish that it created considerable
feeling. At first the shakers took hold well in our meetings, as well as
if they were one with us. But a child of one of them was taken fatally
sick, and while nothing could be proved, yet there was evidence enough
to convince most of the Indians and whites that there was a little
shaking among them, and then the other Indians lost confidence in their
sincerity and did not longer want them as leaders of religion, and so
they dropped into the common ranks.
A slightly new element also kept affairs disturbed. It was Big John. At
the time of the big meeting in August he was present and was attacked
with the shaking as badly as any one. His wife belonged in that region,
and so he did not return to the reservation with the other Indians, and
was not here when the victory over them was obtained. He went to Mud Bay
and set up a party of his own, and he carried the shaking farther than
the originators had done. He even out-Heroded Herod. He claimed to be
Christ, a claim which was allowed him by his followers, and at the head
of about seventy-five of them he rode through the streets of Olympia
with his hands outstretched as Christ was when crucified. After the
conquest had been made at Skokomish, he was ordered by the agent to
return home, as he was creating so much trouble among other Indians
under Agent Eells. But he was slow to obey. He came once in November,
when he was so attacked in regard to his claims of being Christ by the
school-teacher and the Indians, that he gave up this claim and said he
was only a prophet. As he had not brought his wife with him, he returned
to her, and it was not until several orders had been given for him to
come home, and policemen had gone for him more than once, that he came.
His orders then were to remain on the reservation, and stop shaking. He
remained here for a time, but kept up a quiet kind of shaking more or
less of the time. At last he left the reservation and went back without
permission. He was again brought home and locked up for about four
weeks. This conquered him, and he made but little further trouble, and
this pretty effectually killed the return of any on the reservation to
shaking.
Three of the shaking set have now been admitted to the church, after six
and nine months’ probation.
Off of the reservation this shaking spread. It took almost entire
possession of the Indians on the Chehalis Reservation, and entered the
school in such a way that the agent and school-teacher there felt
obliged to stop it by force, or allow the school to be broken up.
At Squaxon there were no government employees and it was not possible to
put a complete stop to it there, so it was allowed to have its own way
more. Their great prophecy has been that the world would come to an end
on the Fourth of July, 1884, but, although they assembled and held a big
meeting, and waited for the expected result, it did not come, and so
their faith has been somewhat shaken, although now they have extended
the time one year. Going to various places to obtain work has also
broken them into very small parties, and also occupied them, so that at
present it seems to be dying.