ek 
THe SHAKE DANCE OF THE QUILENTE INDIANS, WiTH Draw- 
ING BY AN Inp1AN PupPIt oF THE QUILENTE Day ScHOOL. 
By ALBert B. REAGAN. 
In this dance the Indians worship Jesus, calling Him Jesus-Man, con- 
founding him with Kwatte, their god. This religious movement began 
in the early eighties. It is a compromise between the old Indian worship 
and Christianity. The former having been forbidden by the government, 
the Shaker ‘‘church” was organized so that the Indians could still have 
their performances under the constitutional rights granted to all religious 
denominations. And in this they have entirely won, for Judge James 
Wickersham, of Tacoma, Wash., fought the Shaker Church case through 
the courts and obtained for the aborigines the right to worship God ac- 
cording to the dictates of their own conscience. 
The movement began on the Big Skookum River, near Shelton, Wash., 
in 1882. An Indian, John Slocum, was very sick and was unconscious for 
several days. Regaining consciousness, coming back to “life’’ again as the 
Indians say, he said he had been dead and in heaven, but that the keeper 
of that blissful place had told him that he was a bad Indian and that he 
would have to go to hell. But one more chance would be given him. If 
he would go back to earth, lead a good life and teach other Indians to do 
the same, he would in time be admitted into the happy hunting ground. 
He at once began to preach the Shaker doctrine, exhibiting the power 
conferred upon him by those above in a vigorous shaking and quivering 
of all the muscles of his whole body. And all his followers exhibit their 
power the same way to this day. 
They have candles and usually a cross. They begin their services 
with a prayer and close them with a “doxology.” The Shaker dancing 
ceremony which usually lasts for hours is a hypnotic performance. 
The watchword of the organization is: “Do good to those who do good 
to you and get ‘even’ with those who mistreat you.” And the guiding 
prayer “Our God is in heaven. If we die He will take cur life to heaven. 
Help us so that we shall not die. Wherever we are, help us not to die. 
Our Father who is there, always have a good mind to us.” 
