About the year 1890 a religious movement, generally known as the
“ghost-dance religion,” infected the Plains Indians. The chief feature
of this religion was the belief in a speedy return of the old time, the
buffalo, and the extermination of the white race. The different tribes
had various ideas of their duties with respect to this new faith, and,
with the exception of the Dakota, they did not manifest direct hostility
to the white race. This warlike people, however, were already greatly
dissatisfied with the treatment they received from the Government and
with the difficult conditions under which they lived. In consequence,
they received the ghost-dance religion as a herald of the good time
which, to their minds, was to be secured only by war with the white
race. While a great many of the conditions in the immediate environment
of the Dakota have been given by various writers as causes for the
outbreak, the fact that these Indians interpreted the new religion as
the manifestation of a warlike spirit was probably due to the fact that
they were at heart a warlike people. Their ideas still run toward
military things. As the essential idea of the ghost-dance religion was a
return of the old time, the ceremonies pertaining thereto made use of
the typical objects and ideas of the past. In this, of course, they were
not entirely consistent, since they did not discard the use of
fire-arms, and did not actually resurrect bows, arrows, and shields.
Yet, as a substitute for the protective power of the shield, they
introduced garments bearing protective designs. These garments are
generally known under the name of “ghost-shirts,” and at the time of the
outbreak were spoken of by white people as “bullet-proof shirts.” The
following are descriptions of these garments by eye-witnesses at the
time of their first appearance:—
“All the men and women made holy shirts and dresses they wear in
dance. The persons dropped in dance would all lie in great dust
the dancing make. They paint the white muslins they made holy
dresses and shirts out of with blue across the back, and
alongside of this is a line of yellow paint. They also paint in
the front part of the shirts and dresses. A picture of an eagle
is made on the back of all the shirts and dresses. On the
shoulders and on the sleeves they tied eagle-feathers. They said
that the bullets will not go through these shirts and dresses,
so they all have these dresses for war. Their enemies’ weapon
will not go through these dresses. The ghost-dancers all have to
wear eagle-feather on head.”[6]
“I think they wore the ghost-shirt or ghost-dress for the first
time that day. I noticed that these were all new, and were worn
by about seventy men and forty women. The wife of a man called
Return-from-scout had seen in a vision that her friends all wore
a similar robe, and on reviving from her trance she called the
women together, and they made a great number of the sacred
garments. They were of white cotton cloth. The women’s dress was
cut like their ordinary dress, a loose robe with wide, flowing
sleeves, painted blue in the neck, in the shape of a
three-cornered handkerchief, with moon, stars, birds, etc.,
interspersed with real feathers, painted on the waist and
sleeves.
“The ghost-shirt for the men was made of the same
material—shirts and leggings painted in red. Some of the
leggings were painted in stripes running up and down, others
running around. The shirt was painted blue around the neck, and
the whole garment was fantastically sprinkled with figures of
birds, bows and arrows, sun, moon, and stars, and everything
they saw in nature. Down the outside of the sleeve were rows of
feathers tied by the quill-ends and left to fly in the breeze,
and also a row around the neck and up and down outside of the
leggings. I noticed that a number had stuffed birds,
squirrel-heads, etc., tied in their long hair. The faces of all
were painted red with a black half-moon on the forehead or on
one cheek.”[7]
[Illustration: Fig. 10 (50-3053). Front of a Ghost-dance Garment.
Length, 126 cm. ]
As is noted by the above, designs on these garments were made by
individuals who had dreams or other unusual experiences similar to those
of the medicine-men; and it would seem from this account that the
designs and objects used in the dance were in every way similar to those
employed before the ghost-dance religion appeared. The writer made the
acquaintance of several individuals who had prepared such garments at
the time of the ghost-dance, and from them he secured reproductions with
explanations as to the significance of the designs. As some time had
elapsed since the ghost-dance religion was at the height of its
popularity, it is possible that the more special features belonging to
it were forgotten by these men, and that they worked into the reproduced
garments older and more conservative ideas. However, the writer is of
the opinion, and he took special pains to investigate as best he could,
that whatever may have been lost in this way made no important changes
in either the objective character of the designs or in the ideas
expressed by them. As a matter of fact, the ghost-dance in some of its
milder forms is still observed.
Some garments secured by the writer are decorated on both front and back
with designs chiefly pictographic. On the front of one (Fig. 10) is a
large triangular space extending downward from the shoulders (one half
of which is in red and the other half in blue), thickly dotted over with
white spots representing hailstones. The red represents the morning; and
the blue, the night. Extending across from side to side is a large
arched figure made up of red, yellow, white, and green bands,
representing the rainbow. Above this are two four-pointed stars, the red
for the morning star and the black for the stars seen in the night.
There is a large green star with eight points on the dividing-line
between day and night, concerning which I secured no satisfactory
explanation. At the apex of the triangular space are small dots of
yellow, representing the dawn; and the sun is placed on each side of the
division between day and night. The new moon is represented by a black
crescent. On the morning-side of this design is the picture of a
butterfly; while on the night-side, extending over into the morning, is
a picture of a peculiar figure, which the artist regarded as a
spirit-bird or man-bird, as he expressed it, with the medicine-hoop in
his hand. The other portion of the dress is covered over with small dots
in various colors, representing bullets. There are also pictures of
butterflies, stars, and buffalo-tracks. On one side are two parallel
wavy red lines, and on the other two in green, representing the
lightning.
[Illustration: Fig. 11 (50-3053). Back of Garment
shown in Fig. 10.]
On the other side of this garment, or the back (Fig. 11), is the
representation of a bird, which seems to be mythical rather than
realistic. The background upon which the figure rests is dotted to
represent bullets or hail, as both have the same significance. The lower
part of the garment is the most interesting. Here we have four
buffalo-tracks arranged in rectangular relation to represent buffalo,
and a circle or medicine-hoop (half of which is red and half green) with
extending lines of the same colors, representing the thunder, or its
power. The idea of this association of the hoop, or, as it is sometimes
spoken of, the mirror, is that this buffalo escapes bullets, or perhaps
is immortal. Below the sign of the buffalo is a four-pointed figure,
usually known as the spider-web design, representing the heavens; and
below this is the rainbow. Two swallows are represented connected to the
points in the spider-web design by lines, indicating that they enjoy the
protection of this power, making them difficult to hit with bullets or
other missiles.
[Illustration: Fig. 12 (50-3054). Designs on the Front of
Ghost-dance Garment. Length, 128 cm.]
[Illustration: Fig. 13 (50-3054). Designs on the Back
of Garment shown in Fig. 12.]
On another garment (Fig. 12), the triangular area at the top is entirely
in red, covered with white spots representing hail, and bordered with
wavy lines representing the rainbow. This represents the rainbow in the
sky. The dark crescent represents the moon. Below is a large
four-pointed star in black, representing the night, with a line
extending over each side, representing the clouds. The small disk in red
represents a bullet; and the small green crescent, the moon. Below these
is the spider-web design, representing the heavens, over the four
corners of which the lightning appears; but in this case the design is
covered with dots representing the falling of the stars. Near this
design we find the butterfly and the buffalo-tracks. The remaining space
on the whole garment is covered with patches of color, representing the
hail. On the opposite side (Fig. 13) are peculiar triangular designs,
the background of which is in red bordered by straight lines, suggesting
the rainbow; while on the red background are placed the design of the
moon and two circles in such relation as to suggest a face. This design
was spoken of as the “moon-face;” but this seems to have been an
after-interpretation, since the artist wished to represent the
medicine-hoop or mirror in the sky. [It seems likely that this is simply
an adaptation of a head-dress used in the elk ceremony.] Below this we
have a combination which appears to be the spider-web design combined
with the figure of a bird, which is said to be the dream-figure,
representing the bird seen on a tree. Below this we have the moon,
rainbow, tracks of the buffalo, stars, butterfly, and a mounted warrior
riding through the hail.
[Illustration: Fig. 14 (50-3055). Front of a Ghost-dance Garment
bearing Dragon-fly Design. Length, 125 cm.]
In Fig. 14, the triangular space at the top is similar to that on the
preceding garment, and need not be described here. The body of the dress
is covered with dragon-flies as they appear when flying over water. The
stars represent reflections in the water; and the dashes of color, the
hail. The wavy green lines extending down the full length of the garment
represent the lightning. In this case the red at the top is spoken of as
the thunder-cloud. On the opposite side (Fig. 15), the triangular area
with its tail-like extension represents the rattlesnake. In addition we
have tracks of the buffalo dragon-fly, and butterfly, all associated as
in nature. Upon the sides of this garment are the designs of the lizard,
swallow, and turtle.
[Illustration: Fig. 15 (50-3055). Back of Garment shown in Fig. 14.]
The above detailed statements concerning the designs and their import do
not convey their full significance as it was brought out in discussions
between the writer and the men who made these garments. In the first
place we find on them symbols to be described in another section of this
paper; namely, the spider-web designs and the medicine-hoop. It will be
seen that in most cases the living creatures represented are those that
seem to have power to escape the hailstones, because, as they say, no
matter how severe the hailstorm may be, no one observes their dead or
maimed upon the ground: therefore they assume that these creatures
possess some extraordinary power, or receive the attention of some
protective power. The bird represented does not seem to be the
thunder-bird, as is usually the case in Dakota art, but such species,
usually birds of prey, as soar above the destructive range of the hail.
The lizard and the turtle are spoken of as animals of great power, since
they are killed with great difficulty, from which it follows that they
also enjoy the protection of some power. This we may generalize by
saying that the Indian placed upon these garments representations of
living creatures that, according to his observation and experience, were
seldom hit by missiles, or that possessed great vitality, making it
difficult to kill them. Placed on the garments, they express a prayer, a
hope, or an actual realization, on the part of the wearer, of the
protective power by which these creatures are enabled to survive.
The triangular designs at the top of these garments were spoken of as
shields, the idea being that they were in some measure shield-designs,
and performed the same function as did those upon shields in former
times. Mr. Mooney expresses the opinion that the protective designs on
garments used in the ghost-dance religion were not aboriginal with the
Indian.
“The protective idea in connection with the ghost-shirt does not
seem to be aboriginal. The Indian warrior habitually went into
battle naked above the waist. His protecting ‘medicine’ was a
feather, a tiny bag of some sacred powder, the claw of an
animal, the head of a bird, or some other small object which
could be readily twisted into his hair or hidden between the
covers of his shield, without attracting attention. Its virtue
depended entirely on the ceremony of the consecration, and not
on size or texture. The war-paint had the same magic power of
protection. To cover the body in battle was not in accordance
with Indian usage, which demanded that the warrior should be as
free and unincumbered in movement as possible. The so-called
‘war-shirt’ was worn chiefly in ceremonial dress-parades, and
only rarely on the war-path.”[8]
This statement, however, suggests that Mr. Mooney based his opinion upon
objective evidence, while the opinion expressed by the writer is based
upon subjective evidence. A comparison of the interpretations of
shield-designs and ghost-dress designs seems to leave little opportunity
for any other conclusion than that the protective designs used in the
ghost-dance were essentially the same as those used in former times upon
shields and other objects. The garments may be foreign; but the idea of
protective designs is most certainly not peculiar to the ghost-dance
religion, since it was widely distributed among American tribes, and
associated with ceremonial objects that were in use at least a century
before the ghost-dance religion appeared.
If the writer had no other information at hand than that furnished by
Mr. Mooney in his comprehensive study of the ghost-dance religion, he
would be inclined to regard the whole as the manifestation of aboriginal
religious ideas in response to a single foreign conception; namely, that
of the coming of a messiah and the destruction of the present order of
the world. The way in which the ghost-dance ceremonies were performed,
the ideas expressed in the songs, the things the priests dreamed of, and
the objects used in the ceremonies, are so characteristically Indian,
that no other interpretation seems possible. However, in the present
connection we are concerned with these designs as types of the universal
primitive expression of belief in the presence of a guiding personal
agency that looks into the affairs of men.
-----
[6] George Sword, on Ghost-dance Religion (Fourteenth Annual Report of
the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 798).
[7] Mrs. Z. A. Parker (Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
American Ethnology, p. 916).
[8] Mooney (Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, p. 790).