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
The Canadian boundary had been established along the lakes; the Ohio
was lost to the Indians; for them there was left only extermination or
removal to the west. Their bravest warriors were slain. Their ablest
chieftain, who had led them to victory against St Clair, had bowed to
the inevitable, and was now regarded as one with a white man’s heart
and a traitor to his race. A brooding dissatisfaction settled down on
the tribes. Who shall deliver them from the desolation that has come on
them?
Now arose among the Shawano another prophet to point out to his
people the “open door” leading to happiness. In November, 1805, a
young man named Laulewasikaw (Lalawe′thika, a rattle or similar
instrument—_Gatschet_), then hardly more than 30 years of age, called
around him his tribesmen and their allies at their ancient capital of
Wapakoneta, within the present limits of Ohio, and there announced
himself as the bearer of a new revelation from the Master of Life, who
had taken pity on his red children and wished to save them from the
threatened destruction. He declared that he had been taken up to the
spirit world and had been permitted to lift the veil of the past and
the future—had seen the misery of evil doers and learned the happiness
that awaited those who followed the precepts of the Indian god. He
then began an earnest exhortation, denouncing the witchcraft practices
and medicine juggleries of the tribe, and solemnly warning his hearers
that none who had part in such things would ever taste of the future
happiness. The firewater of the whites was poison and accursed; and
those who continued its use would after death be tormented with all
the pains of fire, while flames would continually issue from their
mouths. This idea may have been derived from some white man’s teaching
or from the Indian practice of torture by fire. The young must cherish
and respect the aged and infirm. All property must be in common,
according to the ancient law of their ancestors. Indian women must
cease to intermarry with white men; the two races were distinct and
must remain so. The white man’s dress, with his flint-and-steel, must
be discarded for the old time buckskin and the firestick. More than
this, every tool and every custom derived from the whites must be put
away, and they must return to the methods which the Master of Life had
taught them. When they should do all this, he promised that they would
again be taken into the divine favor, and find the happiness which
their fathers had known before the coming of the whites. Finally, in
proof of his divine mission, he announced that he had received power
to cure all diseases and to arrest the hand of death in sickness or
on the battlefield. (_Drake_, _Tecumseh, 1._) To avoid repetition, it
may be stated that, except when otherwise noted, the principal facts
concerning Tecumtha and the prophet are taken from Drake’s work, the
most valuable published on the subject. The prophet and his doctrines
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account