[6] The letter is given as a sample of the information possessed by some agents in regard to the Indians in their charge:

“United States Indian Service,
Pyramid Lake, Nevada Agency, October 12, 1891.”

“James Mooney, Esq.,
Bureau of Ethnology.”

“My Dear Sir: Your letter of September 24 in regard to Jack Wilson, the ‘Messiah,’ at hand and duly noted. In reply will say that his Indian name is Ko-wee-jow (‘Big belly’). I do not know as it will be possible to get a photo of him. I never saw him or a photo of him. He works among the whites about 40 miles from my Walker Lake reserve, and never comes near the agency when I visit it. My headquarters are at Pyramid Lake, about 70 miles north of Walker. I am pursuing the course with him of nonattention or a silent ignoring. He seems to think, so I hear, that I will arrest him should he come within my reach. I would give him no such notoriety. He, like all other prophets, has but little honor in his own country. He has been visited by delegations from various and many Indian, tribes, which I think should be discouraged all that is possible. Don’t know what the ‘Smoholler’ religion, you speak of, is. He speaks English well, but is not educated. He got his doctrine in part from contact, living in and with a religious family. There are neither ghost songs, dances, nor ceremonials among them about my agencies. Would not be allowed. I think they died out with ‘Sitting Bull.’ This is the extent of the information I can give you.”

“Very respectfully, yours,
C. C. Warner, United States Indian Agent.”

Here is an agent who has under his special charge and within a few miles of his agency the man who has created the greatest religious ferment known to the Indians of this generation, a movement which had been engrossing the attention of the newspaper and magazine press for a year, yet he has never seen him; and while the Indian Office, from which he gets his commission, in a praiseworthy effort to get at an understanding of the matter, is sending circular letters broadcast to the western agencies, calling for all procurable information in regard to the messiah and his doctrines, he “pursues the course of nonattention.” He has never heard of the Smohalla religion of the adjacent northern tribes, although the subject is repeatedly mentioned in the volumes of the Indian Commissioner’s report from 1870 to 1879, which were, or should have been, on a shelf in the office in which the letter was written. He asserts that there are no ghost songs, dances, or ceremonies among his Indians, although these things were going on constantly and had been for at least three years, and only a short time before a large delegation from beyond the mountains had attended a Ghost dance near Walker lake which lasted four days and nights. Chapman in 1890, and the author in 1891, saw the cleared grounds with the willow frames where these dances were being held regularly at short intervals. I found the ghost songs familiar to all the Indians with whom I talked, and had no special trouble to find the messiah and obtain his picture. The peaceful character of the movement is sufficiently shown by the fact that while the eastern papers are teeming with rumors of uprising and massacre, and troops are being hurried to the front, the agent at the central point of the disturbance seems to be unaware that there is anything special going on around him and can “silently ignore” the whole matter.

[7] This battle, probably the most important conflict that ever occurred between the Paiute and the whites, was fought in April, 1860, near the present agency at Pyramid lake and about 8 miles from Wadsworth, Nevada. Some miners having seized and forcibly detained a couple of Indian women, their husbands raised a party and rescued them, without, however, inflicting any punishment on the guilty ones. This was considered an “Indian outrage” and a strong body of miners collected and marched toward Pyramid lake to wipe out the Indian camp. The Paiute, armed almost entirely with bows and arrows, surprised them in a narrow pass at the spot indicated, with the result that the whites were defeated and fled in disorder, leaving nearly fifty dead on the field. The whole affair in its causes and results was most discreditable to the whites.

[8] Hoopa Valley, Siletz, and Grande Ronde reservations are occupied by the remnants of a number of small tribes. Klamath reservation is occupied by the Klamath, Modoc, and Paiute. On Umatilla reservation are the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Wallawalla. The Nez Percé are at Lapwai to the number of over 1,800. On the Cœur d’Alêne reservation are the Cœur d’Alênes, Kutenai, Pend d’Oreilles, and part of the Spokan. On Jocko reservation in Montana are the Flatheads, Kutenai, and a part of the Pend d’Oreilles. Warmspring reservation in Oregon is occupied by the Warmspring, Wasco, Tenino, Paiute, and John Day Indians.

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