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Wovoka Remained with the Wilsons for Several Years Before Returning to His Reservation

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Wovoka Remained with the Wilsons for Several Years Before Returning to His Reservation Wovoka remained with the Wilsons for several years before returning to his reservation. In 1888 he fell ill and in a state of fever he received in a dream what was to be the basis of his Messiah Craze. (2). On January ist 1889, the Paiutes near Walker Lake, Nevada, witnessed an eclipse, and being sun worshippers, they regarded it as an attack on their god. To scare away the evll spirit they believed was the cause, they set up a great clamour, and became very excited. It was at this traumatic time that Wovoka revealed what he had dreamed; that he died and was taken up to heaven where he met the Great Spirit, and saw all the long dead Indians happy and forever young enjoying all their sports and earthly pastimes. He was told to return to earth with these instructions for his people: they must be good and love one another, have no quarreling and llve in peace with the whites; that they must work, and not lle or steal; that they must put away all the old practices that savoured of war; that if they faithfully obeyed his instructions they could at last be reunited with their friends in the other world, where there would be no more death or sickness or old age ..." To bring about all of this, the Indians were to perform a dance, and in his dream, Wovoka was instructed by the Great Spirit to teach the Indians the Ghost Dance~ as it became known. The Indians were to Join hands in a circle and shuffle to the left; food and water was prohibited, and the ceremony was to last for five days. As the message spread it would be per- formed by hundreds of Indians at a time, many of whom would go into a trance or die in an attempt to see a vision. As the son of a prpphet, Wovoka was greatly respected by his tribesmen, and in their superstitious state of fear they eagerly accepted his teachings, and began to perform the Ghost Dance. Wovoka told them that he was Christ who had returned to earth. He told them that God had made the earth and had sent Christ to teach the ~ite men but they had been bad to him so that he returned to heaven. He told them that he had now returned to earth as an Indian, and that he would help those who believed In him, promising that: ",.,,,Pretty .soon in next spring Great Spirit come. He bring hack all game of every kind. The game be thick everywhere, All dead Indians come back and live again, Old blind Indian see again and get young and have fine time,." His message was one of peace; the Indians were to dance, and the Great Spirit would remove the white men who hadcease4 to enjoy his love because they killed Christ. The way in which this was to come about is told differently in various books. The Indians were to go into the mountains and a flood would destroy the white men. Those who did not believe would shrink to about one foot in height~ while others would turn to wood and be burnt. Another version ~s that the Indians would be suspended in the air while a new level of earth would come burying the white men but sparing all Indians who believed Wovoka (3)4 Wovoka’s teachings, llke his father before him were to spread to other tribes. However circumstances had changed since Tavibo’s time, and many tribes across the nation quickly adopted the religion. All across the land the tribes were locked in reservations, their hunting grounds gone and the game dead; the land was swamped with settlers, and twenty years had shownthe Treaties were worthless. For various reasons therefore the tribes eagerly turned to the hope Wovoka offered and began dancing as instructed. Indians from far and wide came to the Paiute Reser~atlon at Walker Lake to second hear the new Messiah, and his teachings quickly disseminated to many tribes, Some thirty to thlrty-flve tribes with an aggregate population of 60~00Otook up the Ghost Dance. Among the more important who adopted the dancesWere!the 4 Arapaho, Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux, while among the smaller tribes who began dancing were the Oto, Palute, Shoshonl and Witchlta. The reasons for and the extent of acceptance varied, but it was only among the Sioux, where the message became distorted, and that the Ghost Dance was to cause trouble.(4) The reasons for discontent among the Sioux were several, but at the root was the loss of their tribal lands and consequent hunger. Upon the conclusion of the Sioux and Cheyenne War of 1865-67, the Indians accepted a reservation in the Dakotas under a Treaty made in 1868, over w~at amounted to most of what was to be South Dakota, west of the Missouri River. Because the treaty was not honored another war broke out with the Indians in 1876, and the ensuing Treaty of that year separated the Indians from another fifty miles of land on the west of the reservation. The Sioux nation is divided into seven tribes, .and. it was one tribe, the Teton Sioux~ho lived on the prairies who were to cause the most trouble to the U,S, Army between 1865-90. Following the 1876 Treaty this tribe, which was itself sub-divided into seven further tribes established themselves in six places on the reser~atlon, The Ogalallas established themselves at Pine R~dge, Nebraska, along several creeks. The Brules were established at the Rosebud Agency in Nebraska, the M~nneconJous ~ at Cheyenne River, South Dakota, and the Hunkpapas at Standing Rock North Dakota. The remaining three Teton tribes, the Blackfeet Sioux, the Sans Arc, and the Oohenonpa were established at L~wer Brule and ~ow Creek. In1882, and 1887 attemptes were mace to induce the Teton Sioux to sell their land and accept six s~all reser~atlons around the existing agencies, and it was not until August 3rd 1889 that the necessary agreement was signed. By this agree- ment the Teton Sioux lost some eleven million square miles of land which was made available by the Government for settlement. Under the 1868 Treaty the Sioux were allowed off the rsservatlon to hunt and were thus self supporting, but under the 1876 Treaty this right was denied them and they were obliged to rely on the Government for their needs. Unfortunately this Treaty was not fully honored and much of the tlme~ the Indians were living on half rations. Also in the years following 1876,.much of the game, particularly the buffalo had died out, and to supplement their rations the Indians had to try to grow good. However in 1889 and 1890 throughout Nebraska, drought with its conse- quential crop failure frustrated the Indians in this and hardships were caused to both Indians and the white men, In summmry the, the loss of their tribal lands, the end of their nomadic exlstenee so cherished by the Indians, the dying out of the game~ their traditional means of existence~ and the threat of nearstarvatlon, provided a fertile ground among the Teton Sioux for the spread of the Messiah Craze. Moreover the situation was to be exercerbated by the settlers, the Army, the Indian Bureau Agents, and the Press, resulting in the Sioux War of 1890-91o Precisely when the Messiah Craze came to the attention of the Sioux tribes of the Dakotas and Nebraska is unclear. According to one account it was brought tO their attention by a Cheyenne named Porcupine sometime in 1889, and that at a Counci! at Pine P~ldge it was resolved to scud a delegation to Nevada to meet Wovoka, comprising men from the Pine Ridge, Rosebud, and Cheyenne River Agencies. The delegation travelled by train to Nevada, return-_ Ing in 1890 when another Council was arranged to listen to the delegates speak. Before it was held, however, several of the delegates were arrested, and the message was spread by other delegates, particularly Kicking Bear, a Chief of the Minneconjou tribe. Another version places the pilgrimage in 1890 and has Kicking Bear recount how a voice commanded him to go to Nevada and meet the ghosts of Indians who were to return and inhabit the earth. This recounts how he and a party of ten other Indians travelled by train to Nevada for five days, and then travelled a further two days by horse to a Paiute Camp near Pyramid Lake. Here Wovoka appeared before the Sioux and several hundred Qther Indians from other reservations and~told them of his visions and the passing of t6e white men after th~ winter of 1890-91. The delegates then returned totheir Tribe~ and began implementing the Ghost Dance at Pine Ridge, the Rosebud, and Cheyenne River. Unfortunately the story they brought back had changed; the Sioux were told that if they wore Ghost Shirts, which were garments painted with magic symbols, they could defy the shire man and be immune from their bullets. Hearing of all this Sitting Bull at Standing Rock sent for Kicking Bear so that he could hear more of the story. On 9th October 1890, Kicking Bull recounted the story to a skeptical Sitting Bull. He doubted the validity of Wovoka’a claims but as the Standing Rock Indians were frightened they would die with the white man if they did not dance the Ghost Dance, Kicking Bear was asked to stay and teach it zo them.
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