appears from official documents in the Indian Office and from other
obtainable information that the Ghost dance and the doctrine, if known
at all, were never accepted by the Blackfeet of Montana; the Ojibwa of
Turtle mountain and Devils lake in North Dakota, or by the rest of the
tribe farther to the east in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan; the
Omaha, Winnebago, and Ponka in Nebraska; the small band of Sauk and
Fox in Iowa; the still smaller band of Sauk and Fox, the Potawatomi,
Kickapoo, Iowa, and Ojibwa in northeastern Kansas; or by the Sioux
of Devils lake in North Dakota, Lake Traverse (Sisseton agency) and
Flandreau in South Dakota, and Santee agency in Nebraska. All or most
of these Sioux belong to the Santee or eastern division of the tribe,
and have long been under civilizing influences. According to official
statements the dance was not taken up by any of the Sioux of Crow Creek
or Yankton agencies in South Dakota, but they were certainly more or
less affected by it, as they knew all about it and are in constant
communication with the wilder bands of Sioux which were concerned in
the outbreak. I was informed by the Omaha and Winnebago in 1891 that
they had been told of the new messiah by visiting Sioux from Pine
Ridge agency in April, 1890, and later on by other Sioux from Yankton
agency, but had put no faith in the story, and had never organized a
Ghost dance. According to the agent in charge, the Crow of Montana
were not affected. This, if true, is remarkable, in view of the fact
that the Crow are a large tribe and comparatively primitive, and have
living near them the wildest of the Ghost-dancing tribes, the northern
Cheyenne especially occupying practically the same reservation. It is
possible that their experience in the Sword-bearer affair in 1887,
already mentioned, had a tendency to weaken their faith in later
prophets. Dr George Bird Grinnell, a competent authority, states, in
reply to a personal letter, that nothing was known about the dance by
the Blackfeet of Montana or by the Blackfeet, Sarsi, or Plains Cree on
the Canadian side of the boundary line.
Within the same general region, east of the Rocky mountains and north
of Oklahoma, the doctrine and the dance were accepted by the Asiniboin
(Fort Belknap and Fort Peck agencies), Grosventres (Arapaho subtribe,
Fort Belknap agency), northern Cheyenne of Montana; the Arikara,
Grosventres (Minitari), and Mandan of Fort Berthold agency, North
Dakota; the Shoshoni and northern Arapaho on Wind River reservation in
Wyoming, as already mentioned; and by the great body of the Sioux, at
Fort Peck agency (Yanktonais), Montana, and at Standing Rock, Cheyenne
River, Lower Brulé, Pine Ridge, and Rosebud agencies in North Dakota
and South Dakota. The whole number of Sioux concerned was about 20,000,
of whom 16,000 belonged to the Teton division, among the wildest
and most warlike of all the western tribes. A few Cheyenne are also
associated with the Sioux at Pine Ridge.
The northern Arapaho and the Shoshoni of Wyoming were the medium by
which the doctrine of the new messiah was originally communicated to
all these tribes. In the spring of 1889, Nakash, “Sage,” the Arapaho
chief already mentioned, crossed the mountains to investigate the
reports of the new religion, and brought back a full confirmation of
all that had been told them from the west. A visiting Grosventre, then
among the Arapaho, heard the story and brought back the wonderful news
to the Grosventres and Asiniboin of Fort Belknap, but although his
account was received by some with unquestioning faith, the excitement
had in it nothing of a dangerous character. (_G. D., 18._)
In a short time the news spread to the Cheyenne in Montana and the
Sioux of the Dakotas, and in the fall of 1889 delegates from these two
tribes arrived at Fort Washakie to learn more about the messiah in the
west. The principal Cheyenne delegate was Porcupine, while Short Bull
and Kicking Bear were the leaders of the Sioux party. After hearing the
statements of the Arapaho and Shoshoni, it was decided that some of the
Cheyenne should return and report to their tribe, while Porcupine and
one or two others, with the Sioux delegates, several Shoshoni, and the
Arapaho, Sitting Bull, and Friday, should go to Nevada, interview the
messiah himself, and learn the whole truth of the matter. Accordingly,
about November, 1889, Porcupine and his companions left Fort Washakie
in Wyoming for Fort Hall reservation in Idaho, where they met the
Shoshoni and Bannock and were well received and entertained by them.
The tribes at this place were firm believers in the new doctrine, and
Porcupine states that from there on to the end of the journey all the
Indians they met were dancing the Ghost dance. After stopping a few
days at Fort Hall, they went on again, accompanied by several Bannock
and Shoshoni, and going rapidly by railroad soon found themselves in
the country of the Paiute, and after stopping at one or two camps
arrived at the agency at Pyramid lake. Here the Paiute furnished them
conveyances and guides to the other agency farther south at Walker
river. Porcupine is our principal authority for the events of the trip,
and although he claims that he undertook this journey of a thousand
miles without any definite purpose or destination in view, it is
evident enough from his own narrative that he left Wyoming with the
fixed intention of verifying the rumors of a messiah. He has much to
say of the kindness of the whites they met west of the mountains, who,
it will be remembered, were largely Mormons, who have always manifested
a special interest in the Indians. He also states that many of the
whites took part with the Indians in the dance.
They were now in the messiah’s country. “The Fisheaters, near Pyramid
lake, told me that Christ had appeared on earth again. They said Christ
knew he was coming; that eleven of his children were also coming from a
far land. It appeared that Christ had sent for me to go there, and that
was why, unconsciously, I took my journey. It had been foreordained.
Christ had summoned myself and others from all heathen tribes. There
were more different languages than I had ever heard before, and I did
not understand any of them.” The delegation of which Porcupine was
a member was probably the one mentioned by the agent in charge at
Pyramid lake as having arrived in the spring of 1890, and consisting of
thirty-four Indians of different tribes. (_G. D., 19._)
In a few days preparations were made for a great dance near Walker
lake, with all the delegates from the various tribes and hundreds of
Indians in attendance. They danced two nights or longer, the messiah
himself—Wovoka—coming down from his home in Mason valley to lead the
ceremony. After the dance Wovoka went into a trance, and on awaking
announced to those assembled that he had been to the other world and
had seen the spirits of their dead friends and of his own father and
mother, and had been sent back to teach the people. According to
Porcupine he claimed to be the returned Christ and bore on his body
the scars of the crucifixion. He told them that the dead were to be
resurrected, and that as the earth was old and worn out it would be
renewed as it used to be and made better; that when this happened the
youth of everyone would be renewed with each return of spring, and that
they would live forever; that there would be universal peace, and that
any tribe that refused his message would be destroyed from the face of
the earth.
It was early in the spring of 1890 when Porcupine and his Cheyenne
companions returned to their tribe at Tongue River agency in Montana
with the news of the appearance of the messiah. A council was called
and Porcupine made a full report of the journey and delivered the
divine message, talking five days in succession. The report aroused
the wildest excitement among the Cheyenne, and after several long
debates on the subject the Ghost dance was inaugurated at the various
camps in accordance with the instructions from beyond the mountains.
In June the matter came to the attention of the military officer on
the reservation, who summoned Porcupine before him and obtained from
him a full account of the journey and the doctrine. (See page 793.)
Porcupine insisted strongly on the sacred character of the messiah and
his message, and challenged any doubters to return with him to Nevada
and investigate for themselves. He claimed also that the messiah could
speak all languages. As a matter of fact, Wovoka speaks only his native
Paiute and a little English, but due allowance must be made for the
mental exaltation of the narrator.
Grinnell states that the failure of certain things to happen according
to the predictions of the messiah, in September, 1890, caused a
temporary loss of faith on the part of the Cheyenne, but that shortly
afterward some visiting Shoshoni and Arapaho from Wyoming reported that
in their journey as they came over they had met a party of Indians who
had been dead thirty or forty years, but had been resurrected by the
messiah, and were now going about as if they had never died. It is
useless to speculate on the mental condition of men who could seriously
report or believe such things; but, however that may be, the result was
that the Cheyenne returned to the dance with redoubled fervor. (_J. F.
L., 5._)
The Sioux first heard of the messiah in 1889. According to the
statement of Captain George Sword, of that tribe, the information
came to the Ogalala (Sioux of Pine Ridge) in that year, through the
Shoshoni and Arapaho. Later in the same year a delegation consisting
of Good Thunder and several others started out to the west to find the
messiah and to investigate the truth of the rumor. On their return they
announced that the messiah had indeed come to help the Indians, but not
the whites. Their report aroused a fervor of joyful excitement among
the Indians and a second delegation was sent out in 1890, consisting of
Good Thunder, Cloud Horse, Yellow Knife, and Short Bull. They confirmed
the report of the first delegation, and on this assurance the Ghost
dance was inaugurated among the Sioux at Pine Ridge in the spring of
1890.
The matter is stated differently and more correctly by William Selwyn,
an educated Sioux, at that time employed as postmaster at Pine Ridge.
He says there was some talk on the subject by Indians from western
tribes who visited the agency in the fall of 1888 (?), but that it
did not excite much attention until 1889, when numerous letters
concerning the new messiah were received by the Indians at Pine Ridge
from tribes in Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Dakota, and Oklahoma. As Selwyn
was postmaster, the Indians who could not read usually brought their
letters to him to read for them, so that he was thus in position to
get accurate knowledge of the extent and nature of the excitement. It
may be remarked here that, under present conditions, when the various
tribes are isolated upon widely separated reservations, the Ghost dance
could never have become so widespread, and would probably have died
out within a year of its inception, had it not been for the efficient
aid it received from the returned pupils of various eastern government
schools, who conducted the sacred correspondence for their friends at
the different agencies, acted as interpreters for the delegates to the
messiah, and in various ways assumed the leadership and conduct of the
dance.
In the fall of 1889, at a council held at Pine Ridge by Red Cloud,
Young Man Afraid, Little Wound, American Horse, and other Sioux chiefs,
a delegation was appointed to visit the western agencies to learn more
about the new messiah. The delegates chosen were Good Thunder, Flat
Iron, Yellow Breast, and Broken Arm, from Pine Ridge; Short Bull and
another from Rosebud, and Kicking Bear from Cheyenne River agency.
They started on their journey to the west, and soon began to write
from Wyoming, Utah, and beyond the mountains, confirming all that had
been said of the advent of a redeemer. They were gone all winter,
and their return in the spring of 1890 aroused an intense excitement
among the Sioux, who had been anxiously awaiting their report. All the
delegates agreed that there was a man near the base of the Sierras
who said that he was the son of God, who had once been killed by the
whites, and who bore on his body the scars of the crucifixion. He had
now returned to punish the whites for their wickedness, especially
for their injustice toward the Indians. With the coming of the next
spring (1891) he would wipe the whites from the face of the earth, and
would then resurrect all the dead Indians, bring back the buffalo and
other game, and restore the supremacy of the aboriginal race. He had
before come to the whites, but they had rejected him. He was now the
God of the Indians, and they must pray to him and call him “father,”
and prepare for his awful coming. Selwyn’s account of this delegation,
which was accompanied by representatives of several other tribes,
including Porcupine the Cheyenne, and Sitting Bull the Arapaho, agrees
with the statements of the Arapaho as given in chapter +XIV+. Three of
the Sioux delegates found their way to Umatilla reservation in Oregon
and remained there several days discussing the new doctrine. (_Comr.,
30_—_Dorchester, 529_.)
The delegates made their report at Pine Ridge in April, 1890. A council
was at once called to discuss the matter, but Selwyn informed the
agent, Colonel Gallagher, who had Good Thunder and two others arrested
and imprisoned. They were held in confinement two days, but refused
to talk when questioned. The intended council was not held, but soon
afterward Kicking Bear returned from a visit to the northern Arapaho
in Wyoming with the news that those Indians were already dancing,
and could see and talk with their dead relatives in the trance. The
excitement which the agent had thought to smother by the arrest of the
leaders broke out again with added strength. Red Cloud himself, the
great chief of the Ogalala, declared his adhesion to the new doctrine
and said his people must do as the messiah had commanded. Another
council was called on White Clay creek, a few miles from Pine Ridge
agency, and the Ghost dance was formally inaugurated among the Sioux,
the recent delegates acting as priests and leaders of the ceremony.
As the result of all he could learn, Selwyn, in November, 1890, warned
the agent in charge of Yankton agency that the Indians intended
a general outbreak in the spring. Six months earlier, and before
Porcupine’s statement had been made to the officer at Camp Crook,
a letter dated May 29, 1890, had been addressed to the Interior
Department from a citizen of Pierre, South Dakota, stating that the
Sioux, or a portion of them, were secretly planning for an outbreak in
the near future. This was the first intimation of trouble ahead. (_G.
D., 20._)
Wonderful things were said of the messiah by the returned delegates.
It was claimed that he could make animals talk and distant objects
appear close at hand, and that he came down from heaven in a cloud. He
conjured up before their eyes a vision of the spirit world, so that
when they looked they beheld an ocean, and beyond it a land upon which
they saw “all the nations of Indians coming home,” but as they looked
the vision faded away, the messiah saying that the time had not yet
come. Curiously enough, although he came to restore the old life, he
advised his hearers to go to work and to send their children to school.
Should the soldiers attempt to harm him, he said he need only stretch
out his arms and his enemies would become powerless, or the ground
would open and swallow them. On their way home if they should kill a
buffalo—the messiah had evidently not read Allen’s monograph—they must
cut off its head and tail and feet and leave them on the ground and the
buffalo would come to life again. They must tell their people to follow
his instructions. Unbelievers and renegade Indians would be buried
under the new earth which was to come upon the old. They must use the
sacred red and white paint and the sacred grass (possibly sagebrush)
which he gave them, and in the spring, when the green grass came, their
people who were gone before would return, and they would see their
friends again.
Now comes the most remarkable part, quoting from the statement given to
Captain Sword:
The people from every tipi send for us to visit them; they are
people who died many years ago. Chasing Hawk, who died not long
ago, was there and we went to his tipi. He was living with his
wife, who was killed in war long ago. They live in a buffalo skin
tipi—a very large one—and he wanted all his friends to go there
to live. A son of Good Thunder, who died in war long ago, was one
who also took us to his tipi, so his father saw him. When coming
we come to a herd of buffaloes. We killed one and took everything
except the four feet, head, and tail, and when we came a little
ways from it there was the buffaloes come to life again and went
off. This was one of the messiah’s word came to truth. The messiah
said, “I will short your journey when you feel tired of the long
ways, if you call upon me.” This we did when we were tired. The
night came upon us, we stopped at a place and we called upon the
messiah to help us because we were tired of long journey. We went
to sleep and in the morning we found ourselves at a great distance
from where we stopped.
It is useless to assert that these men, who had been selected by
the chiefs of their tribe to investigate and report upon the truth
or falsity of the messiah rumors, were all liars, and that all the
Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other delegates who reported equally wonderful
things were liars likewise. They were simply laboring under some
strange psychologic influence as yet unexplained. The story of the
revivified buffalo became so widely current as to form the subject of a
Kiowa ghost song.
Having mentioned some characteristics of the Ghost dance west of the
Rockies, we shall notice here some of the peculiar features of the
dance as it existed among the Sioux. The ceremony will be described in
detail later on.
Before going into the dance the men, or at least the leaders, fasted
for twenty-four hours, and then at sunrise entered the sweat-house for
the religious rite of purification preliminary to painting themselves
for the dance. The sweat-house is a small circular framework of willow
branches driven into the ground and bent over and brought together at
the top in such a way that when covered with blankets or buffalo robes
the structure forms a diminutive round-top tipi just high enough to
enable several persons to sit or to stand in a stooping posture inside.
The doorway faces the east, as is the rule in Indian structures, and at
the distance of a few feet in front of the doorway is a small mound of
earth, on which is placed a buffalo skull, with the head turned as if
looking into the lodge. The earth of which the mound is formed is taken
from a hole dug in the center of the lodge. Near the sweat-house, on
the outside, there is frequently a tall sacrifice pole, from the top of
which are hung strips of bright-colored cloth, packages of tobacco, or
other offerings to the deity invoked by the devotee on any particular
occasion.
The sweat bath is in frequent use, both as a religious rite of
purification and as a hygienic treatment. Like everything else in
Indian life, even the sanitary application is attended with much detail
of religious ceremony. Fresh bundles of the fragrant wild sage are
strewn upon the ground inside of the sweat-house, and a fire is kindled
outside a short distance away. In this fire stones are heated by the
medicine-men, and when all is ready the patient or devotee, stripped
to the breechcloth, enters the sweat-house. The stones are then handed
in to him by the priests by means of two forked sticks, cut especially
for the purpose, and with two other forked sticks he puts the stones
into the hole already mentioned as having been dug in the center of
the lodge. Water is then passed in to him, which he pours over the hot
stones until the whole interior is filled with steam; the blankets are
pulled tight to close every opening, and he sits in this aboriginal
Turkish bath until his naked body is dripping with perspiration. During
this time the doctors outside are doing their part in the way of
praying to the gods and keeping up the supply of hot stones and water
until in their estimation he has been sufficiently purified, physically
or morally, when he emerges and resumes his clothing, sometimes first
checking the perspiration and inducing a reaction by a plunge into the
neighboring stream. The sweat bath in one form or another was common to
almost every tribe in the United States, but as an accompaniment to the
Ghost dance it seems to have been used only by the Sioux. It may have
been used in this connection among the Shoshoni or northern Cheyenne,
but was not among any of the tribes of the southern plains. The
Ghost-dance sweat-house of the Sioux was frequently made sufficiently
large to accommodate a considerable number of persons standing inside
at the same time.
[Illustration: PL. XCIV
SIOUX SWEAT-HOUSE AND SACRIFICE POLE]
After the sweating ceremony the dancer was painted by the medicine-men
who acted as leaders, of whom Sitting Bull was accounted the greatest
among the Sioux. The design and color varied with the individual, being
frequently determined by a previous trance vision of the subject, but
circles, crescents, and crosses, representing respectively the sun, the
moon, and the morning star, were always favorite figures upon forehead,
face, and cheeks. As this was not a naked dance, the rest of the body
was not usually painted. After the painting the dancer was robed in
the sacred ghost shirt already described. This also was painted with,
symbolic figures, among which were usually represented sun, moon, or
stars, the eagle, magpie, crow, or sage-hen, all sacred to the Ghost
dance among the Sioux. In connection with the painting the face and
body were rubbed with the sweet-smelling vernal grass (_Hierochloe_),
used for this purpose by many of the prairie tribes, and sometimes also
burned as incense in their sacred ceremonies or carried as a perfume in
small pouches attached to the clothing.
The painting occupied most of the morning, so that it was about noon
before the participants formed the circle for the dance. Among the
Sioux, unlike the southern and western tribes generally, a small tree
was planted in the center of the circle, with an American flag or
colored streamers floating from the top. Around the base of this tree
sat the priests. At a great dance at No Water’s camp on White river
near Pine Ridge, shortly before the arrival of the troops, a young
woman standing within the circle gave the signal for the performance by
shooting into the air toward the cardinal points four sacred arrows,
made after the old primitive fashion with bone heads, and dipped in
the blood of a steer before being brought to the dance. These were
then gathered up and tied to the branches of the tree, together with
the bow, a gaming wheel and sticks, and a peculiar staff or wand with
horns. (See plates +XC+, +XCI+.) Another young woman, or the same one,
remained standing near the tree throughout the dance, holding a sacred
redstone pipe stretched out toward the west, the direction from which
the messiah was to appear.
At the beginning the performers, men and women, sat on the ground in a
large circle around the tree. A plaintive chant was then sung, after
which a vessel of some sacred food was passed around the circle until
everyone had partaken, when, at a signal by the priests, the dancers
rose to their feet, joined hands, and began to chant the opening song
and move slowly around the circle from right to left. The rest of the
performance, with its frenzies, trances, and recitals of visions, was
the same as with the southern tribes, as will be described in detail
hereafter. Like these tribes also, the Sioux usually selected Sunday,
the great medicine day of the white man, for the ceremony.
* * * * *
We come now to the Sioux outbreak of 1890, but before going into the
history of this short but costly war it is appropriate to state briefly
the causes of the outbreak. In the documentary appendix to this chapter
these causes are fully set forth by competent authorities—civilian,
military, missionary, and Indian. They may be summarized as (1) unrest
of the conservative element under the decay of the old life, (2)
repeated neglect of promises made by the government, and (3) hunger.