CHAPTER X. THE DANCE
Several sweat-houses are erected in order to prepare the young men for the dance. When a good number of young men, say fifty or sixty, have taken the sweat-bath, and prepared themselves, the high priest and his assistants come forward. The high priest wears eagle-feathers in his hair, and a shirt reaching nearly to his knees. The assistants are dressed in similar manner, but wear no ornaments other than the eagle-feathers. The dancers wear no ornaments whatsoever, and enter the circle without their blankets.
That Indians should lay aside all ornaments and finery and dance without the trappings which they so dearly love proves conclusively that some powerful religious influence is at work. In their other dances, (the Omaha, the Old Woman, the Sun) feathers and bangles; weapons, herbs or painted and plaited grasses; porcupine quills, horses’ tails and bits of fur-skins; necklaces, bells, silver discs, etc., are worn in great profusion.
At Pine Ridge few candidates for “conversion” fasted. After they have come forth from the sweat-house they are ready to enter the sacred circle. The high priest runs quickly from the village to the open space of ground, five or six hundred yards distant, and, stationing himself near the sacred tree, begins his chant as follows:
“Hear, hear, all you persons!
“Come, hurry up and dance, and when you have finished running in the circle, tell these people what you have seen in the spirit land.
“I myself have been in the spirit land and have seen many strange and beautiful things, all of which my eyes tell me are good and true.”
As the speaker proceeds, the men and women crowd to the dance-ground. They form two or three circles, according to the number of persons who wish to participate, and, grasping hands with fingers interlocked (“Indian grip”), the circles begin to move around toward the left.[[17]]
In the center, at No Water’s camp, stands the sacred tree. It is a nearly straight sapling thirty or forty feet high, trimmed of branches to a height of several feet. To the topmost twigs is attached a small white flag or canvas strip, supposed to be an emblem of purity, together with some colored strips. The base of the tree is wrapped with rushes and flags to a thickness of some feet. Between the reeds the dancers from time to time thrust little gifts or peace-offerings. These offerings are supposed to allay the anger of the Great Spirit, and are given in perfectly good faith by the poor natives. They consist of small pieces of calico, bags of tobacco, or pipes. During the height of excitement, those worshippers most deeply affected cut small particles of flesh from their arms, and thrust these, also, between the rushes of the holy tree.
Henry Hunter (the Weasel, “Itonkasan”) informs me that after the dance had been running some days, the rushes covering the base of the tree were literally besmeared with human blood!
As the circle moves toward the left, the priest and his assistants cry out loudly for the dancers to stop a moment. As they pause he raises his hands toward the west, and upon all the people acting similarly, begins the following remarkable prayer:
“Great Spirit, look at us now. Grandfather and Grandmother have come. All these good people are going to see Wakantanka, but they will be brought safely back to earth. Everything that is good you will see there, and you can have these things by going there. All things that you hear there will be holy and true, and when you return you can tell your friends how spiritual it is.”
As he prays, the dancers cry aloud with all the fervor of religious fanatics. They moan and sob, many of them exclaiming: “Great Father, I want you to have pity upon me.”
One can scarcely imagine the terrible earnestness of these people. George E. Bartlett, and Mr. Sweeney, one of the agency school-teachers, the chief herder, Mr. John Darr, and others, have informed me that during their extended experience at the agency, of many years’ duration, they have witnessed many different dances. They describe the scene of the dance, especially at night, as most weird and ghostlike. The fires are very large, and shed a bright reflection all around; the breasts of the worshippers heave with emotion; they groan and cry as if they were suffering great agony, and the priest begs them to ask great Wakantanka to forgive their sins.
After prayer and weeping, and offerings have been made to the sacred pole, the dance is started again. The dancers go rather slowly at first, and as the priests in the center begin to shout and leap about, the dancers partake of the enthusiasm. Instead of moving with a regular step, each person jumps backward and forward, up and down, as hard as he or she can without relinquishing their hold upon their neighbor’s hand. One by one the dancers fall out of the ranks, some staggering like drunken men, others wildly rushing here and there almost bereft of reason. Many fall upon the earth to writhe about as if possessed of demons, while blinded women throw their clothes over their heads and run through brush or against trees. The priests are kept busy waving eagle-feathers in the faces of the most violent worshippers. The feather is considered sacred, and its use, together with the mesmeric glance and motion of the priest, soon causes the victim to fall into a trance or deep sleep. Whether this sleep is real or feigned the writer does not pretend to say, but sufficiently deep is it that Whites visiting the dance have been unable to rouse the sleepers by jest or blow.
Unquestionably the priests exercise an influence over the more susceptible of the dancers akin to hypnotism. One of the young men, who danced in the ghost circle twenty times, told me that the priest “Looked very hard at us. Some of the young men and women could not withstand his snake-like gaze, and did whatever he told them.”
Regarding what is seen by the converts when in the spirit land, I have secured interviews with three prominent Oglalas touching upon this matter.
Little Wound said:
“When I fell in the trance a great and grand eagle came and carried me over a great hill, where there was a village where the tipis were all of buffalo hides, and we made use of the bow and arrow, there being nothing of white man’s manufacture in the beautiful land. Nor were any Whites permitted to live there. The broad and fertile lands stretched in every direction, and were most pleasing to my eyes.
“I was taken into the presence of the great Messiah, and he spoke to me these words:
“‘My child, I am glad to see you. Do you want to see your children and relations who are dead?’
“I replied: ‘Yes, I would like to see my relations who have been dead a long time. The God then called my friends to come up to where I was. They appeared, riding the finest horses I ever saw, dressed in superb and most brilliant garments, and seeming very happy. As they approached, I recognized the playmates of my childhood, and I ran forward to embrace them while the tears of joy ran down my cheeks.
“We all went together to another village, where there were very large lodges of buffalo hide, and there held a long talk with the great Wakantanka. Then he had some squaws prepare us a meal of many herbs, meat, and wild fruits and ‘wasna’ (pounded beef and choke-cherries). After we had eaten, the Great Spirit prayed for our people upon the earth, and then we all took a smoke out of a fine pipe ornamented with the most beautiful feathers and porcupine quills. Then we left the city and looked into a great valley where there were thousands of buffalo, deer and elk feeding.
“After seeing the valley, we returned to the city, the Great Spirit speaking meanwhile. He told me that the earth was now bad and worn out; that we needed a new dwelling-place where the rascally Whites could not disturb us. He further instructed me to return to my people, the Sioux, and say to them that if they would be constant in the dance and pay no attention to the Whites he would shortly come to their aid. If the high priests would make for the dancers medicine-shirts and pray over them no harm could come to the wearer; that the bullets of any Whites that desired to stop the Messiah dance would fall to the ground without doing anyone harm, and the person firing such shots would drop dead. He said that he had prepared a hole in the ground filled with hot water and fire for the reception of all white men and non-believers. With these parting words I was commanded to return to earth.”
GHOST DANCE AT NO WATER’S CAMP, 1890. Sketch by Husté.
Just after the dancers have been crying and moaning about their sins the priests strike up the first song, in which all join, singing with deafening loudness. Some man or woman may be at this moment at the tree, with his or her arms thrown about the rushes, sobbing as if their heart would break; or another may be walking and crying, wringing his hands, or going through some motion to indicate the deepest sorrow for his transgressions. So the singer cries aloud to his mother to be present and aid him. The appeal to the father refers, of course, to the Messiah, and its use in this connection is supposed to give emphasis to the demand for the mother’s presence and hasten her coming.
Ghost Dance
Mother come home. My little brother goes about always crying, my little brother goes about always crying. Mother come home; Mother come home. This the father says; this the father says.
Ghost Dance
My son, let me grasp your hand. My son, let me grasp your hand. This the father says, This the father says.
The second song requires a longer explanation. It expresses in brief the goodness of the father. Some one of the dancers has come to life from the trance, and has just related his or her experience in the other world. The Messiah, or Father, has been very near to the subject, and the high priest, enlarging upon the importance of this fact, runs about the interior of the circle handing several pipes around, exclaiming that these pipes were received direct from the Great Spirit, and that all who smoke them will live. The people are worked up to such a pitch of religious frenzy that their minds are now willing to receive any utterance as truth indisputable, so they pass around the pipes, singing the song meanwhile. The repetition of the words, “This the Father says,” indicates that the God inspires all that is done.
One of the visions seen by a young woman when under the influence of the trance, varied somewhat from the others. She told the following story:
“I was carried into the beautiful land as others have been, and there I saw a small but well-made lodge constructed entirely of rushes and reeds. These were woven closely together and resembled the fine basket-work that many of our squaws make during the winter. The tipi was provided with a stone wall, which was composed of small, flat stones laid up against the walls to the height of three or four feet. In this lodge the great Wakantanka dwelt and would issue forth at noon. Promptly at the time when the sun was above me the lodge trembled violently and then began its descent toward the earth. It landed near the dance-ground, and there stepped forth a man clothed in a blanket of rabbit-hides. This was the Messiah, and he had come to save us.”
The vision of Little Horse is still more remarkable. He said:
“Two holy eagles transported me to the Happy Hunting Grounds. They showed me the Great Messiah there, and as I looked upon his fair countenance I wept, for there were nail-prints in his hands and feet where the cruel Whites had once fastened him to a large cross. There was a small wound in his side also, but as he kept himself covered with a beautiful mantle of feathers this wound could only be seen when he shifted his blanket. He insisted that we continue the dance, and promised me that no Whites should enter his city nor partake of the good things he had prepared for the Indians. The earth, he said, was now worn out and it should be repeopled.
“He had a long beard and long hair, and was the most handsome man I ever looked upon.”
Before concluding my description of the dance as it appeared during the first few months of its existence at Pine Ridge, I would like to add that the dances were held throughout the day usually, but that once in a while, when a village was especially devout, they were continued all night. In that event food was prepared in large quantities, so that the worshippers could partake of refreshments when they desired.
The high priest frequently announces in a loud tone the visions related to him by the converts. His discourse is often interrupted by loud grunts of approval on the part of the assembled natives. The personal experience of the Weasel may be of interest:
“While dancing I saw no visions, but the other Indians told me to not think of anything in particular, but keep my eyes fastened upon the priests, and soon I would see all that they saw.
“The first large dance held was on Wounded Knee Creek under the guidance of Big Road. I attended this one, but did not observe Two Strike in the audience. We had been dancing irregularly for several weeks when a runner came into camp greatly excited, one night, and said that the soldiers had arrived at Pine Ridge and were sent by the Great Father at Washington. The priests called upon the young men at this juncture not to become angry but to continue the dance, but have horses ready so that all could flee were the military to charge the village. So we mounted our ponies and rode around the hills all night singing our two songs.”
I asked the Weasel: “Did you ever see the medicine-shirt worn?”
“Yes, they wore blessed shirts that night. The priests had said prayers over these garments, and they were bullet-proof. One girl tried to gash herself with a butcher-knife on the arm, but the blade was bent and the edge turned, so powerful was the medicine in the shirt.”