THE GHOST DANCE.
While the guide was engaged in tossing out the shoes so that the
soldiers could examine them he kept his eyes busy, and finally
discovered something that fastened his gaze. It looked like a tuft of
grass on the top of a swell, but as Carl looked at it he saw it move
just a trifle. He was as certain as he wanted to be that there was an
Indian behind that grass. He was watching the soldiers, and he had
pulled up that grass to conceal the movements of his head.
“You are joking, ain’t you?” said the captain.
“I don’t joke in a case like this,” said the guide. “There is an Indian
up there, and he wants to see what we are going to do.”
Carl pointed out the object that drew his attention, and the captain
brought his binoculars to bear upon it. After gazing at it for a long
time he said:
“I see some grass up there.”
“That’s grass, but there is a Comanche not far off. My advice would
be to turn around and ride the other way as though we had missed the
trail, and hide behind some of these swells until that tuft of grass
goes away. That will give them confidence in themselves, and as soon as
it comes dark we’ll take the trail again.”
“You don’t suppose you can follow this trail in the night-time, do you?”
“I can try,” said the guide, modestly.
Very reluctantly the captain gave the order to turn about, and in the
course of an hour they got behind one of the swells, out of sight. Then
the guide told the captain that if he would go back with him he would
show him something. The officer left the command behind the swells, and
after a long and toilsome creep up the hill they took off their hats
and Carl made a hole in the grass for him to see through.
“I see that tuft of grass yet,” said the captain, looking through his
binoculars.
“So do I; but if you watch it for a few minutes you will see it go
away.”
They watched that swell for more than half an hour, and then the tuft
of grass was laid aside, and the Indian showed his head and breast
above the hill. He held that position for five or ten minutes, and then
jumped to his feet and ran out of sight. The captain was much amazed
to learn how easily Carl had picked out some grass that sheltered an
Indian, and declared that if the guide had not been with him he never
would have seen those Comanches again. They made their camp there
behind the swell, eating hardtack and raw pork for want of a fire to
cook by, and shortly after dark started on the trail again. At midnight
the men stopped to rest, and Carl set out with a single soldier to hunt
up the Indians’ camp. Of course it was miserable going, with rocks and
trees to impede their progress, but finally they came to the end of the
gorge, and there Carl smelled smoke. The Indian camp was around there
somewhere, so the guide left the soldier and went on ahead.
“I tell you there is no fun in creeping up on an Indian camp in the
dead of night when you don’t know how many savages there are watching
you,” said Carl, once more interrupting himself in his story. “I made
out that there were just three Indians in the lot——”
“How did you make that out?” said Lieutenant Parker.
“They had to dismount when they went into camp, didn’t they?” asked
Carl. “That was the time I counted them. I found three moccasin tracks
of different sizes, and that’s the way I found out how many of them
there were.”
“Three Indians go into a camp of—how many men did you say you had?”
“About sixty, I reckon.”
“The idea of three Indians going into a camp of sixty soldiers and
stealing a dozen horses!” said Parker, in surprise. “They must have
been horse-thieves indeed.”
“Oh, I can tell you worse things than that,” said Carl. “Yes; the
three savages went into that camp and stole a dozen horses, and now
we were close onto them. When I reached a point a little farther on I
came to an open space in the gully, and there I saw their camp fire. I
took just one look at it, and then turned and went back. Of course the
camp was alive after they found that I had located the Indians. Three
or four men were left to care for the horses, and the rest of us crept
forward to make the attack. The captain would not listen to my advice
in regard to surrounding the camp, but when he arrived within sight of
it he was going to make a rush, and kill or capture the Indians right
there. That settled one thing in my mind. The captain may have been a
brave man, but he was going to find an empty camp when they charged
upon it; but I said nothing. If he had a mind to ride two hundred miles
to turn the Indians loose, it was nothing to me.”
Carl then proceeded with his story. In the course of time they
arrived within sight of the fire, and then with a fierce yell the men
bounded to their feet and rushed upon the camp. For himself, Carl did
nothing. He just waited to find the Comanches, but he did not hear
anybody shoot. After a time he walked up and found the soldiers rushing
frantically about looking for the redskins; but the last one of them
had skipped out.
“Where have they gone?” asked the captain.
“They ran when they heard you getting ready to charge,” said the guide.
“You did pretty well during the pursuit, but you are no man to fight
Indians. You have got your horses, but you will have to look somewhere
else to find the Comanches.”
The captain was astonished and mortified beyond measure, as Carl knew
he would be if he attempted to capture the Indians in that way, but he
had but little to say. He sent a couple of men down after the horses he
had left in the ravine, and ordered the soldiers to go into camp. It
was good to feel the fire once more, for the nights were getting cold,
and to get some pork that they did not have to devour raw.
“But how did you get the name of The Trailer?” asked Parker, when his
companion knocked the ashes from his pipe.
“Well, you see the soldiers belonging to that troop were mostly new to
the business. It was the first time they had ever been on a scout, and
the way I followed the trail was something marvellous to them. Some of
them had friends in Fort Scott, and when I went back I took a lot of
mail for them. Of course they had something to say about their scout
after the Comanches, and I came in for a share of the praise. Some one
spoke of me as Carl, the Trailer, and I have been known by that name
ever since.”
“Now, if you have got all through with that story, I want to ask you
about something else,” said Lieutenant Parker. “Do you know anything
about the Ghost Dance? Some people in the East think it is a myth, a
new religion that has been taken up by a few fanatics, but which will
fade away by the time the white folks quit noticing it.”
“I know all about it,” answered Carl, “fully as much as the Indians
themselves know. If the people down East think it is a myth, they want
to go among the Sioux at the present time. They will think there is a
dread reality in it before they have been there very long.”
“It was gotten up for the sake of going to war with the whites, I
suppose?”
“No, it was not. It was gotten up by Wovoka, better known as the
Cutter. He was a Piute Indian, and lived on the borders of the Mason
Valley, which is a long way from here. The time he discovered the new
religion was once when ‘the sun died’ and he was taken up into the
other world.”
“What in the name of sense is the meaning of that?” asked Parker.
“I will tell you how I account for it. About that time the Cutter,
as I shall call him, was taken very ill with a fever, and some of the
ranchmen attended him. You see he was very well known by the farmers,
used to work for them, and so when he was sick they did all they could
for him. While he was on what everybody supposed to be his deathbed the
eclipse of the sun took place, and that is an event that is regarded
with horror by all primitive people. The Indians hold that the sun
is a living being, and that some monster is trying to devour it; and
the noise and hubbub which they create to frighten this monster away,
such as firing off guns, blowing upon horns and yelling, is enough to
drive one crazy. The excitement and alarm, acting upon a mind and body
already enfeebled by disease, resulted in delirium, during which time
he was taken up into the other world. Between 1884 and 1890 there was
one eclipse which was total in Nevada; that was in 1889. Ever since
that, the Cutter has been subject to cataleptic fits; and I suppose you
know what they are.”
Lieutenant Parker listened to Carl in silent admiration. Here was a boy
who had never been to school a day in his life, and yet knew more about
some things than he did. He began to look upon him with a great deal of
respect.
“Yes, I know what catalepsis is,” said Lieutenant Parker. “It is
a sudden suspension of sensation and volition, the body and limbs
preserving whatever position may be given them. For example, you put
the hand up, and it stays there till you put it down; or you put the
foot up, and it remains there.”
It was now Carl’s turn to look in surprise toward the lieutenant.
There was something in West Point after all, if it taught their young
officers such things.
“And when he came to himself I suppose he was all ready for war,”
continued Parker.
“No, he wasn’t. The Cutter is a peaceful man; he has never been seen on
the warpath; when he came back to this earth he was more for peace than
he ever was. He told his people that they must send their children to
school and cultivate the ways of the white man as nearly as they could.
They must all love one another and stop fighting.”
“The Sioux don’t take it that way,” said Parker.
“I will come to the Sioux after awhile,” said Carl. “Of course such a
tale as that speedily spread to all the tribes round about. The Piutes
gave it to the ones nearest them, and in less than a year it was spread
all over the plains. It even got to Washington, and the Department
sent out a man to inquire into it. I might have gone with that man as
well as not, but I was like the majority of our people out here. We
heard of the new religion and laughed at it; but it seems that there
was something in it. Wovoka did not claim to be the Messiah, but he
did claim to be a dreamer. But an Indian never does anything without a
dance, and he taught them this thing which has since developed into the
Ghost Dance. To render his visit more binding he gave the Washington
man a cloak of rabbit skins, some piñon nuts, some tail feathers of the
magpie, and a quantity of red paint, which they were to mix with red
paint of their own and put on whenever they engaged in the Ghost Dance.”
“Well, what is the doctrine of the Ghost Dance, anyway?” asked
Lieutenant Parker.
“The doctrine is that the time will come when the whole Indian race,
living and dead, will reunite upon the earth and live a life of
happiness, free from death, disease and misery.”
“But their game is all gone,” said Parker.
“They can’t live the same as they did before.”
“Their game is going to come back. During one of his fits the Cutter
caught a glimpse of an immense crowd of warriors coming toward the
earth driving before them a lot of animals—buffalo, deer, elk and
ponies. But the Great Spirit—that is the Messiah—turned them back, for
he said the proper time had not yet come.”
“And the Sioux think this can only come by extinction of the whites?”
inquired Parker.
“The whites must be rooted out before the time arrives. They are going
to keep up this Ghost Dance to help the matter along. I am almost to
the Sioux now.”
“I beg your pardon,” said Lieutenant Parker. “I will not interrupt you
again, but I want to get at the truth of the matter.”
“This is just what I want you to do. I want you to see that, while
this new religion came upon the earth as a gospel of peace, it has
taken such a hold of the Sioux that it means war. Whether or not the
men they sent out to investigate the matter lied to them I don’t know;
but if this thing is not put a stop to right away, we are going to have
an outbreak as sure as you are born. If all the Sioux look upon it as
do those six hundred men that go with Sitting Bull and Red Cloud, we
shall have a war here that will do your heart good.”
“How many men can the Sioux raise if they all go to war at once?”
inquired Parker.
“Probably five thousand men; and we can bring about three thousand to
oppose them.”
“How many people does the Sioux nation number altogether?”
“About twenty thousand.”
As Carl said this he brought out his tobacco-bag and filled up for
another smoke.