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
“‘My grandchildren! I am glad you have come far away to see your
relatives. This are your people who have come back from your
country.’ When he said he want us to go with him, we looked and
we saw a land created across the ocean on which all the nations
of Indians were coming home, but, as the messiah looked at the
land which was created and reached across the ocean, again
disappeared, saying that it was not time for that to take place.
The messiah then gave to Good Thunder some paints—Indian paint
and a white paint—a green grass [sagebrush twigs?]; and said, ‘My
grandchildren, when you get home, go to farming and send all your
children to school. And on way home if you kill any buffalo cut the
head, the tail, and the four feet and leave them, and that buffalo
will come to live again. When the soldiers of the white people
chief want to arrest me, I shall stretch out my arms, which will
knock them to nothingness, or, if not that, the earth will open and
swallow them in. My father commanded me to visit the Indians on a
purpose. I have came to the white people first, but they not good.
They killed me, and you can see the marks of my wounds on my feet,
my hands, and on my back. My father has given you life—your old
life—and you have come to see your friends, but you will not take
me home with you at this time. I want you to tell when you get home
your people to follow my examples. Any one Indian does not obey me
and tries to be on white’s side will be covered over by a new land
that is to come over this old one. You will, all the people, use
the paints and grass I give you. In the spring when the green grass
comes, your people who have gone before you will come back, and you
shall see your friends then, for you have come to my call.’”
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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