Doctor Charles A. Eastman, the Sioux, some years after my account was published, informed me that it was correct, and he was present before, during and after the trouble at Pine Ridge, and knew all the actors intimately.
Summing up Mr. Mooney’s conclusions in a few words, the Messiah craze of 1890 was a mixture of Christianity and Indian religion.
In a nutshell, the Messiah craze conformed to the sentiments of Jesus Christ. It was not expressed in His language, but the frequent repetitions of such sentiments as “you must not fight”, and, “do injury to no one”; “give up the bad white man’s ways”; “live as brothers as you did before the Whites came”; “Dance faithfully to the Great Spirit”; “Father and Mother are talking”; etc., indicate a belief in the better things of life and of the hereafter. Instead of hostility, peace was proclaimed; instead of avarice, the communistic life was advocated.
There was only one discontented element, or discordant note, and that was the stand taken by Sitting Bull and a few other Indians, who seized upon this craze to further their own personal aims. Major McLaughlin has commented in full on Sitting Bull’s attitude in his book, pages 183–220. And while I do not entirely agree with him, it is beyond question that Sitting Bull sought to gain through the Messiah craze. To a certain extent he advocated armed resistance, but the dominating desire in his mind, a careful review of events would indicate, was that Sitting Bull desired above all things to see the Indians restored to their old-time domination. Like the others, he prayed for the return of the buffalo, without which “the good old days” would be impossible. He probably believed that volcanic action (“wave of mud”, as the Oglala called it) would sweep across the country, destroy the Whites and leave the red men happy possessors of the Plains and countless herds of bison, elk and deer. That was the belief of many of the Indians, and so expressed by them during the Ghost dance.
The Ghost dance, or Messiah craze, was seized upon by all these Sioux as a means of salvation out of their troubles. We must remember that these Indians had lived but a few years on the reservation at Pine Ridge. In 1876, only fourteen years before, they killed Custer and wiped out several companies of the Seventh Cavalry. They had made some progress, but they were still ration Indians, and the cutting down of the supply of beef, etc., hundreds of thousands pounds, before the Indians had become self-supporting, caused widespread suffering.
It is not necessary to repeat the troubles of the Sioux here. I have referred to some of the treaties, Indian cause for dissatisfaction, in other pages of this book. In the spring of 1889, so I was informed at Pine Ridge, Congress passed an act authorizing the purchase of a large tract of land from these people. Honorable Charles Foster, ex-Governor of Ohio, and several other gentlemen were appointed a committee to negotiate with the Indians. According to the Indians’ version, many councils were held and a great deal of discussion ensued. Sometimes the debates were rather strenuous and they all related to purchase of lands—to the further curtailing of the Sioux reservation—the same old story. An intelligent educated Indian summed up their cause as follows:—
“The lands secured by the treaty were divided into three classes. All tracts selected for farming or grazing purposes within a period of three years from February 15, 1890, were to be sold at $1.25 per acre. Those purchased during the two years following were valued at seventy-five cents per acre. The portions remaining unsold after the expiration of five years could be bought for fifty cents per acre. The money received from the sale of the land was to be placed in the United States Treasury, subject to interest, which was to be paid to the Indians at regular intervals.
“Any Sioux whom his Agent considered qualified for supporting himself was to be allowed to select for his own use a tract of land, the area of which was determined by the number of members in his family. Farming implements and utensils, oxen or horses, seed, etc., and fifty dollars in cash were also to be given him. Notices to acquaint the Sioux with this proposition were posted in conspicuous places in the agency buildings, and every inducement was offered the people to take the land in severalty. So far, about one hundred at Rosebud, a smaller number at Standing Rock, and some two hundred at Pine Ridge have made applications to the Agents for allotments.
MODERN SIOUX CABIN AND SUMMER TENT. PINE RIDGE, 1909