The Ghost-dance religion and the Sioux outbreak of 1890 : $b Fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, part 2.Mooney, James
Religion
The Ghost-dance religion and the Sioux outbreak of 1890 : $b Fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, part 2.
Mooney, James
Dakota Indians -- Wars, 1890-1891; Ghost dance
morning, and then got into a wagon with the son of the chief of the
Fish-eaters, and we arrived about noon at an agency on a big river.
There was also a big lake near the agency.
The agent asked us where we were from and said we were a long ways
from home, and that he would write to our agent and let him know we
were all right. From this agency we went back to the station, and
they told us there were some more Indians to the south. One of the
chiefs of the Fish-eaters then furnished us with four wagons. We
traveled all day, and then came to another railroad. We left our
wagons here and took the railroad, the Fish-eaters telling us there
were some more Indians along the railroad who wanted to see us. We
took this railroad about 2 oclock and about sun down got to another
agency, where there were more Fish-eaters. [From diagrams drawn
and explanations given of them in addition to the foregoing, there
seems to be no doubt that the lakes visited are Pyramid and Walker
lakes, western Nevada, and the agencies those of the same name.]
They told us they had heard from the Shoshone agency that the
people in this country were all bad people, but that they were
good people there. All the Indians from the Bannock agency down to
where I finally stopped danced this dance [referring to the late
religious dances at the Cheyenne agency], the whites often dancing
it themselves. [It will be recollected that he traveled constantly
through the Mormon country.] I knew nothing about this dance before
going. I happened to run across it, that is all. I will tell you
about it. [Here all the Indian auditors removed their hats in token
that the talk to follow was to be on a religious subject.] I want
you all to listen to this, so that there will be no mistake. There
is no harm in what I am to say to anyone. I heard this where I met
my friends in Nevada. It is a wonder you people never heard this
before. In the dance we had there [Nevada] the whites and Indians
danced together. I met there a great many kinds of people, but
they all seemed to know all about this religion. The people there
seemed all to be good. I never saw any drinking or fighting or bad
conduct among them. They treated me well on the cars, without pay.
They gave me food without charge, and I found that this was a habit
among them toward their neighbors. I thought it strange that the
people there should have been so good, so different from those here.
What I am going to say is the truth. The two men sitting near me
were with me, and will bear witness that I speak the truth. I and
my people have been living in ignorance until I went and found out
the truth. All the whites and Indians are brothers, I was told
there. I never knew this before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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