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
Smohalla is the chief of the Wa′napûm, a small tribe in Washington,
numbering probably less than 200 souls, commonly known rather
indefinitely as “Columbia River Indians,” and roaming along both banks
of the Columbia from the neighborhood of Priest rapids down to the
entrance of Snake river. They are of Shahaptian stock and closely
akin to the Yakima and Nez Percés, and have never made a treaty with
the government. Among his own people and his disciples in the
neighboring tribes he is known as Shmóqûla, “The Preacher.”[5] He is
also frequently called Yu′yunipĭ′tqana, “The Shouting Mountain,” from
a belief among his followers that a part of his revelation came to
him from a mountain which became instinct with life and spoke into
his soul while he lay dreaming upon it. Still another name by which
he is sometimes known is Waip-shwa, or “Rock Carrier,” the reason
for which does not appear. The name which belonged to him in youth,
before assuming his priestly function, is now forgotten. For more
than forty years he has resided at the Wanapûm village of Pʿnä on
the west bank of the Columbia, at the foot of Priest rapids, in what
is now Yakima county, Washington. The name Pʿnä signifies “a fish
weir,” this point being a great rendezvous for the neighboring tribes
during the salmon-fishing season. These frequent gatherings afford
abundant opportunity for the teaching and dissemination of his peculiar
doctrines, as is sufficiently evident from the fact that, while his own
tribe numbers hardly two score families, his disciples along the river
are counted by thousands.
[Illustration: PL. LXXXVIII
DISTRIBUTION OF TRIBES OF THE UPPER COLUMBIA REGION IN WASHINGTON,
OREGON AND IDAHO INCLUDING ALL THOSE OF THE SMOHALLA AND SHAKER
RELIGIONS BY JAMES MOONEY 1894]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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