Mr. James Mooney of the Bureau of Ethnology, published a very comprehensive monograph, in 1896, entitled “The Ghost Dance Religion”, in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. I shall draw the information presented in this chapter partly from Mr. Mooney’s account, but more especially from my own investigation made in the winter of 1890 at Pine Ridge reservation, South Dakota, where among the Oglala Sioux the Messiah craze reached its culmination.
The music of the Oglala dances was taken down at the time by Mr. George E. Bartlett (Husté) and myself. Our work was not copyrighted, and soon found its way into various publications, and after being harmonized, our music was soon in general use. It is no more than fair to say that as I lay no claim to special skill as an ethnologist, Mr. Mooney, having more training and experience in such studies, was able to present the songs and their translations more accurately. I believe, in my original articles published in the Illustrated American of New York in January and February, 1891, some of the Sioux word-syllables were not properly spaced, a number of accent marks omitted, and there were a few minor errors. But in the main the account as published was correct, although it was a “popular”, rather than a technical paper.
I did not investigate the Messiah in the West, although the new religion was inaugurated by him. The Sioux told me a great deal concerning him. He was known to them as Johnson, whereas Mooney gives as his proper name, Wovoka. In November, 1891, a year after the trouble at Pine Ridge, Mr. Mooney set out for Pine Ridge, where he spent considerable time, and then visited Walker Lake reservation in Nevada, where Wovoka (Johnson) lived. Here he obtained at first hand the information concerning the origin of the Messiah religion, and has presented us with a very valuable and interesting account.
As in the case of all Messiahs or prophets, Wovoka was a dreamer. He inherited the spirit of prophecy, for his father before him was known as a prophet. The young man at the time of Mooney’s visit, had never wandered beyond the valley wherein he resided—a small area, some thirty miles in length. Wovoka belonged to the Paiute, and his religion may be summed up in this statement which Mooney records.
“When the sun died, I went up to heaven and saw God and all the people who had died a long time ago. God told me to come back and tell my people they must be good and love one another, and not fight, or steal, or lie. He gave me this dance to give to my people.”
If the missionaries and Government employees had seized upon the beautiful sentiment uttered in this remarkable paragraph, the new religion might have been turned to good account. Instead of that, as we shall see presently, an Agent utterly ignorant of Indians, saw in this sacred ceremony nothing beyond a “war dance” and he sent for troops—the very worst possible thing he could have done.
Mooney spent many days conversing with this interesting person, Wovoka, who told him that he had given to his people this dance about two years previously. He seems to have talked very freely with Mr. Mooney, permitting him to take his photograph, and when Mooney left, the prophet gave him as souvenirs to exhibit to his friends, a blanket of rabbit skins, sacred paint endowed with miraculous powers and which plays an important part in the ritual of the Ghost dance religion, and other trinkets.
In Oklahoma Mooney met with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes and they gave him a written statement of the doctrine of Wovoka, which he was permitted to take to Washington to convince the authorities, “that there was nothing bad or hostile in the new religion.”
Mooney traveled many months West and South and his excellent report is evidence that he studied every phase of the dance. My work was confined to Pine Ridge where I studied the dance while it was in progress. There it appeared in all its purity; there the white people made of it a “warlike” demonstration; there stupidity and ignorance transformed a peaceful, religious ceremony into a bloody tragedy—Wounded Knee.
I employed three interpreters: the Weasel (Itonkasan,) George Bartlett (Husté), and a Frenchman, whose name I do not recall.