676 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [eth.ann.14 



] unity of the Mide" rites. Instead of these the prophet gave them new 

 songs and new medicines. Their women must cease from any connec- 

 tion with white men. They were to love one another and make an end 

 of their constant wars, to be kind to their children, to keep but one dog 

 in a family, and to abstain from lying and stealing. If they would listen 

 to his voice and follow his instructions, the incarnate Manabozho prom- 

 ised that at the end of four years (i. e., in 1811) he would bring on two 

 days of darkness, during which he would travel invisibly throughout 

 the land, and cause the animals which he had created to come forth 

 again out of the earth. (Kendall, :.'.) They were also promised that 

 their dead friends would be restored to them. 



The ideas as to the catastrophe that was to usher in the new era seem 

 to have varied according to the interpreter of the belief. Among the 

 Ottawa, and perhaps among the lake tribes generally, there was to be 

 a period of darkness, as already stated. Among the Cherokee, and 

 probably also among the Creek, it was believed that there would be a 

 terrible hailstorm, which would overwhelm with destruction both the 

 whites and the unbelievers of the red race, while the elect would be 

 warned in time to save themselves by fleeing to the high mountain tops. 

 The idea of any hostile combination against the white race seems to 

 have been no part of the doctrine. In the north, however, there is 

 always a plain discrimination against the Americans. The Great Father, 

 through his prophet, is represented as declaring himself to be the com- 

 mon parent alike of Indians, English, French, and Spaniards; while the 

 Americans, on the contrary, "are not my children, but the children of 

 the evil spirit. They grew from the scum of the .meat water, when it 

 was troubled by an evil spirit and the froth was driven into the woods 

 by a- strong east wind. They are numerous, but I hate them. They 

 are unjust; they have taken away your lauds, which were not made for 

 them." (Kendall, 3.) 



From the venerable James Wafford. of the Cherokee nation, the 

 author in 1891 obtained some interesting details in regard to the excite- 

 ment anion- the Cherokee. According to his statement, the doctrine 

 first cam.' to them through the Creek about 1812 or 1813. It was prob- 

 ably given to the Creek byTecumtha and his party on their visit to that 

 tribe in the fall of 1811, as will be related hereafter. The Creek were 

 taught by their prophets that the old Indian life was soon to return, 

 when "instead of beef and bacon they would have venison, and instead 

 of chickens they would have turkeys." Great sacred dances were 

 inaugurated, and the people were exhorted to be ready for what was to 

 come. From the south the movement spread to the Cherokee, and one 

 of their priests, living in what is now upper Georgia, began to preach 

 that on a day near at hand there would be a, terrible storm, with a 

 mighty wind and hailstones as large as hominy mortars, which would 

 destroy from the face of the earth all but the true believers who had 

 previously taken refuge on the highest summits of the Great Smoky 



