Page 25 - 2003 DT 12 Issues

What’s Inside!

Featured Articles
The Ghost Dance.................................1
Boot Tracks.........................................5

Special
Hooked on Cacti, part II......................6

Departments
April 2003 News & Notes......................................2
Programs & Hikes...............................4
Desk Schedule......................................6
Bulletin Board.....................................8

THE GHOST DANCE ○ visit to Wovoka in Nevada. A wondrous ○ with hands on another’s shoulders. “Fa-
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miracle would soon occur. New grass ○ ther, I come; mother I come; brother, I
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by Chuck Kleber ○ ○ would cover rich soil, fresh trees and ○ come; father, give us back our arrows.”
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water would be everywhere, the buffalo The words would be repeated again and
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○ and wild horses would return. All Indi- ○ again and the mood became trance-like.
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he buffalo are coming!” “The ○ ans who danced the Ghost Dance would ○ One woman “. . . came toward us, her
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eagle has brought the message!” ○ ○
TIt was exciting news. The world ○ be taken up into the sky while the new ○ hair flying over her face . . . arms mov-
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○ earth was born. When they returned, the ○ ing wildly . . . and she went down like a
was about to be reborn . . . an Indian ○
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○ white man would be gone. It would be ○ log . . . she lay there motionless.” Mrs.
world in which the white man would be ○ as before. ○ Parker said that some Indians told her it
no more. The dead would come back, ○ ○ seemed as if the ground were rising to-
Wovoka’s message was clear; the
young and healthy. Antelope and buf- ○ ○ Indian must meditate, pray and chant, ward them. “They kept dancing until
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falo would roam, free as always. And ○ ○ ○ fully 100 persons were lying uncon-
the beautiful land would belong to no ○ but most important . . . perform the Ghost ○ ○ scious.”
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one, but it would always be there for the ○ Dance. It was not a message of violence ○
○ All of these activities began to dis-
Crow, Sioux, Kiowa, Cheyenne and ○ ○ ○
Shoshone . . . all the Native American tribes. ○ ○ turb the Indian Agents. After all, it was
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○ only a few years before that, General
After 400 years of struggle against ○ One woman “came toward us, ○
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○ Custer and the 7th Cavalry had ridden
the ever-advancing world of the white ○ her hair flying over her face, ○ to disaster at the Little Bighorn. One
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man, it was the twilight of Indian life as ○ arms moving wildly, and she ○ ○ agent, James McLaughlin, telegraphed
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it had been. It was 1889. Life was about ○ went down like a log, she lay ○ Washington to ask for troops, and
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as miserable and constrained as it could ○ there motionless” ○ claimed that Sitting Bull was at the core
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be for the Indian. But a strange event ○ ○ of this “pernicious” series of events. His
was about to take place. The Paiute ○ ○ ○ ○ was not the only communication. Many
mystic, Wovoka, had a vision during a ○ ○ were panicky, but some agents urged re-
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solar eclipse in which Christ appeared or war. It was an inspired communica- ○ straint. Agent Valentine McGillycuddy
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to him. He would restore everything to ○ tion with the Great Spirit. In her ○ saw no harm in the dances, and he saw
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the way it was long ago. The land would ○ first-hand account, Mrs. Z.A. Parker de- ○ ○ nothing but trouble if troops began to
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be Indian again—the lakes, the sky, the ○ scribed a Ghost Dance observed at Pine ○ appear. But his was a lonely voice. Many
woods . . . everything. Word spread to ○ Ridge in the Dakota Territory on June ○ ○ white settlers viewed the Indian proph-
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other tribes like a prairie fire. An ○ 20, 1890. Both men and women wore a ○ ecy as a precursor to rampaging war
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Arapaho hunting party claimed to have ○ ghost shirt or ghost dress, each richly ○ parties.
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seen the messiah. Delegations were sent ○ ornamented with signs and figures—ar- ○ ○ On December 12, 1890, Sitting
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to see Wovoka; men with names like ○ rows, birds, stars, bright colors and ○ ○ Bull was arrested on the premise that he
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Good Thunder and Kicking Bear. In- ○ feathers. All the faces were painted red ○ was behind much of the “dangerous”
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deed, it was Kicking Bear, a ○ with a black half-moon on the forehead ○
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Minneconjou, who visited Sitting Bull ○ or cheek. She estimated three or four ○
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at Standing Rock to tell him about his ○ hundred dancers moved in a circle, each ○ Ghost Dance, continued on p. 7
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