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
Just beyond the limit of the map, toward the west, the ravine forms
a bend, in which a number of hostiles took refuge, and from which
Lieutenant Hawthorne was shot. Captain Wallace was found near the
center of the council ring. Big Foot was killed two or three yards
in front of his tent. Father Craft was near the center of the ring
when stabbed. The Indians broke to the west through B and K troops.
While in the council ring all the warriors had on blankets, with their
arms, principally Winchester rifles, concealed under them. Most of
the warriors, including the medicine-man, were painted and wore ghost
shirts.
At the first volley the Hotchkiss guns trained on the camp opened fire
and sent a storm of shells and bullets among the women and children,
who had gathered in front of the tipis to watch the unusual spectacle
of military display. The guns poured in 2-pound explosive shells at
the rate of nearly fifty per minute, mowing down everything alive. The
terrible effect may be judged from the fact that one woman survivor,
Blue Whirlwind, with whom the author conversed, received fourteen
wounds, while each of her two little boys was also wounded by her side.
In a few minutes 200 Indian men, women, and children, with 60 soldiers,
were lying dead and wounded on the ground, the tipis had been torn down
by the shells and some of them were burning above the helpless wounded,
and the surviving handful of Indians were flying in wild panic to the
shelter of the ravine, pursued by hundreds of maddened soldiers and
followed up by a raking fire from the Hotchkiss guns, which had been
moved into position to sweep the ravine.
There can be no question that the pursuit was simply a massacre,
where fleeing women, with infants in their arms, were shot down after
resistance had ceased and when almost every warrior was stretched
dead or dying on the ground. On this point such a careful writer as
Herbert Welsh says: “From the fact that so many women and children
were killed, and that their bodies were found far from the scene of
action, and as though they were shot down while flying, it would look
as though blind rage had been at work, in striking contrast to the
moderation of the Indian police at the Sitting Bull fight when they
were assailed by women.” (_Welsh, 3._) The testimony of American Horse
and other friendlies is strong in the same direction. (See page 839.)
Commissioner Morgan in his official report says that “Most of the men,
including Big Foot, were killed around his tent, where he lay sick. The
bodies of the women and children were scattered along a distance of two
miles from the scene of the encounter.” (_Comr., 35._)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account