504 The Book of Woodcraft 



sisted chiefly of a ceremonial dance. The doctrine taught the 

 same code as the Ten Commandments, but especially forbade 

 drinking, gambling and horse-racing. — (14 Ann. Rep. B. A. E., 

 p. 706.) 



In 1885 the local Indian agent, Patrick, wrote in a curi- 

 ously superior vein of this ancient faith revived. 



These Indians are chaste, cleanly, and industrious, and would 

 be a valuable acquisition to the Prairie band if it were not for 

 their intense devotion to a religious dance started among the 

 northern Indians some years since. This dance was introduced 

 to the Prairie band about two years ago by the Absentee Pot- 

 tawatomies and Winnebagoes, and has spread throughout the 

 tribes in the agency. They seem to have adopted the religion 

 as a means of expressing their belief in the justice and mercy of 

 the Great Spirit and of their devotion to him, and are so earnest 

 in their convictions as to its affording them eternal happiness 

 that I have thought it impolitic, so far, to interfere with it any 

 further than to advise as few meetings as possible and to dis- 

 countenance it in my intercourse with the individuals practising 

 the religion. It is not an unmixed evU, as, under its teaching, 

 drunkenness and gambling have been reduced 75 per cent., and 

 a departure from virtue on the part of its members meets with 

 the severest condemnation. As some tenets of revealed re- 

 ligion are embraced in its doctrines, I do not consider it a back- 

 ward step for the Indians who have not heretofore professed 

 belief in any Christian religion, and beUeve its worst features are 

 summed up in the loss of time it occasions, and the fanatical 

 train of thought involved in the constant contemplation of the 

 subject. — (Comr., 6.) (Mooney's "Ghost Dance Rehgion," 

 14 Ann. Rep. B. A. E., p. 706.) 



CHIEF JOSEPH HINMATON OF THE SAHAPTIN OR 

 NEZ PERCES 



They [Nez Perces and Flat-heads] were friendly in their 

 dispositions, and honest to the most scrupulous degree in their 

 intercourse with the white men. . . . Simply to call these 



