654 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [eth.axn.U 



the War I >epartment. Another trip was then made to tin- field for the 

 purpose of investigating the dance among the Sioux, where it had 

 attracted must attention, and among the Paiute, where it originated. 

 On this journey the author visited the Omaha, Winnebago, Sioux of 

 Pine Ridge, Paiute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho; met and talked with the 

 niessiah himself, and afterward, on the strength of this fact, obtained 

 from the Cheyenne the original letter containing his message and 

 instruct ions to the southern tribes. This trip occupied about three 

 months. 



A few months later, in the summer of 1892, another journey was 

 made to the West, in the course of which the southern tribes and the 

 Sioux were revisited, and some time was spent in Wyoming with the 

 Shoslioni and northern Arapaho, the latter of whom were perhaps 

 the most earnest followers of the messiah in the north. This trip con- 

 sumed four months. After some time spent in Washington in elabo- 

 rating notes already obtained, a winter trip (1892-93) was made under 

 another commission from the World's Fair to the Navaho and the Hopi 

 or Mold, of New Mexico and Arizona. Although these tribes were not 

 directly concerned in the Ghost dance, they had been visited by apostles 

 of the new doctrine, and were able to give some account of the cere- 

 mony as it existed among the Havasupai or < Johonino and others farther 

 to the west. On the return journey another short stay was made among 

 the Kiowa ami Arapaho. In the summer of 1893 a final visit, covering 

 a period of live months, was made to the western tribes of Oklahoma, 

 bringing the personal observation and study of the Ghost dance down 

 to the beginning of 1894. 



The field inves igation therefore occupied twenty two months, involv- 

 ing nearly 32. 000 miles of travel and more or less time spent with about 

 twenty tribes. To obtain exact knowledge of the ceremony, the author 

 took part in the dance among the Arapaho and Cheyenne. He also 

 carried a kodak and a tripod camera, with which he made photographs 

 of the dance and the trance both without and within the circle. Sev- 

 eral months were spent in consulting manuscript documents and printed 

 sources of information in the departments and libraries at Washington, 

 and correspondence was carried on with persons in various parts of the 

 country who might be able to give additional facts. From the begin- 

 ning every effort was made to get a correct statement of the subject. 

 Beyond this, the work must speak for itself. 



As the Ghost dance doctrine is only the latest of a series of Indian 

 religious revivals, and as the idea on which it is founded is a hope 

 common to all humanity, considerable space has been given to a discus- 

 sion of the primitive messiah belief and of the teachings of the various 

 Indian prophets who have preceded Wovoka, together with brief 

 sketches of several Indian wars belonging to the same periods. 



In the songs tin', effort has been to give the spirit and exact render- 

 ing, without going into analytic details. The main purpose of the work 



