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
Q. You said a “general resurrection in favor of the Indians takes
place;” when or how soon will this be?—A. The father sends word to
us that he will have all these caused to be so in the spring, when
the grass is knee high.
Q. You said “father;” who is this father?—A. It is the new messiah.
He has ordered his children (Indians) to call him “father.”
Q. You said the father is not going to send the buffalo until the
resurrection takes place. Would he be able to send a few buffaloes
over this way for a sort of a sample, so as to have his children
(Indians) to have a taste of the meat?—A. The father wishes to do
things all at once, even in destroying the white race.
Q. You said something about the destroying of the white race.
Do you mean to say that all mankind except the Indians will be
killed?—A. Yes.
Q. How, and who is going to kill the white people?—A. The father is
going to cause a big cyclone or whirlwind, by which he will have
all the white people to perish.
Q. If it should be a cyclone or whirlwind, what are we going to
do to protect ourselves?—A. The father will make some kind of
provisions by which we will be saved.
Q. You said something about the coming destruction on the white
people by your father. Supposing your father is sick, tired out,
forget, or some other accidental cause by which he should not be
able to accomplish his purpose, what would be the case about the
destroying of the white people?—A. There is no doubt about these
things, as the miracle performer or the father is going to do just
as what he said he would do.
Q. What other object could you come to by which you are led to
believe that there is such a new messiah on earth at present?—A.
The ghost dancers are fainted whenever the dance goes on.
Q. Do you believe that they are really fainted?—A. Yes.
Q. What makes you believe that the dancers have really fainted?—A.
Because when they wake or come back to their senses they sometimes
bring back some news from the unknown world, and some little
trinkets, such as buffalo tail, buffalo meat, etc.
Q. What did the fainted ones see when they get fainted?—A. They
visited the happy hunting ground, the camps, multitudes of people,
and a great many strange people.
Q. What did the ghost or the strange people tell the fainted one
or ones?—A. When the fainted one goes to the camp, he is welcomed
by the relatives of the visitor (the fainted one), and he is also
invited to several feasts.
Q. Were the people at Rosebud agency anxiously waiting or expecting
to see all of their dead relatives who have died several years
ago?—A. Yes.
Q. We will have a great many older folks when all the dead people
come back, would we not?—A. The visitors all say that there is not
a single old man nor woman in the other world—all changed to young.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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