“Do you not see that the Whites on the reservation are afraid of you? Why do you pray to great Wakantanka to send the Saviour on earth when the remedy lies in your own hands? Be men, not children. You have a perfect right to dance upon your own reservation as much as you please, and you should exercise the rights, even if you find it necessary to use your guns. Be brave, and the good and great Wakantanka will aid your arms. Be cowards, and he will be ashamed of you.”
Now let us consider the Messiah craze as it appeared in its purity.
In nearly all religious beliefs the candidate for admission to the church or body of worshippers is compelled to pass through certain ceremonies. In our own day we maintain certain practices which have nothing whatever to do with one’s salvation, but which have been handed down both by tradition and historical record, and on this account are sacredly preserved.
There do not appear to have been any special preparations on the part of the candidates. The sweat-lodge was in frequent use, and many Indians purified themselves. The sweat-bath was common among the Sioux in 1889–1890. But during the Messiah craze its use became widespread, and the dancers thought it prepared them, or purified them, for the dance. The pipe is also smoked during the sweat. When the young men issue from their bath the perspiration is fairly streaming from every pore. If it is not cold weather they plunge into a pool in the creek nearby, but if it is chilly they wrap blankets about their bodies. None of the Whites and half-breeds who have witnessed these things ever saw a Sioux rub himself after issuing from the bath.
The largest camp of the dancers prior to the departure for the North was located upon Wounded Knee creek. Other camps of considerable extent existed upon White Clay creek, four miles from the agency headquarters, upon Porcupine and Medicine Root streams. No Water’s camp became, later, the general rendezvous.
The shamans took the dance under their charge. One of them seemed to be “high priest,” or at least controlled the affair. Three or four assistants served, and had power to stop or start the dance.
NO WATER’S CAMP OF GHOST DANCERS, 1890
A. Council Lodge. B. No Water’s Tipi
Sketch by Husté, Pine Ridge.
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.