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



copied and commented on at the time, urging the faithful to arrange 

 their affairs and put their houses in order to receive the long-awaited 

 wanderers. 



According to the statement of the agent then in charge at Fort Hall, 

 in Idaho, the Mormons at the same time — the early spring of 1S75 — 

 sent emissaries to the Bannock, urging them to go to Salt Lake City to 

 be baptized into the Mormon religion. A large number accepted the 

 invitation without the knowledge of the agent, went down to I "tali, and 

 were there baptized, and then returned to work as missionaries of the 

 new faith among their tribes. As an additional inducement, free rations 

 were furnished by the Mormons to all who would come and he baptized, 

 and '-'they were (old that by being baptized and going to church the 

 old men would all become young, the young men would never be sick, 

 that the Lord had a work for them to do, and that they were the chosen 

 people of God to establish his kingdom upon the earth." etc. It is also 

 asserted that they were encouraged to resist the authority of the gov- 

 ernment. (Comr., ;.'.) However much of truth there maybe in these 

 reports, and we must make considerable allowance for local prejudice, 

 it is sufficiently evident that the Mormons took an active interest in 

 the religious ferment then existing among the neighboring tribes and 

 helped to give shape to the doctrine which crystallized some years later 

 in the Ghost dance. 



NAKAI-DOKL! NI 



Various other prophets of more or less local celebrity have arisen 

 from time to time among the tribes, and the resurrection of the dead 

 and the return of the olden things have usually figured prominently 



in tlieir prophecies. In fact, this idea 



• has probably been the day-dream of 



• every Indian medicineman since the 



• # whites first landed in America. Most 

 • , • of these, however, have been unknown 



• • to fame outside of their own narrow 



••••••••• circles, except where chance or delib- 



• • * erate purpose has given a warlike mean- 



. # m ing to their teachings and thus made 



• • them the subjects of official notice. 



Among these may be mentioned the 

 Apache medicine-man Nakai' dokll'ni, 



Fig. 63— Nakai'-dokli'iii'a dance-wheel . . ,. c 



who attracted some attention tor a time 

 in southern Arizona in 1881. {Bourke, J.) In the early part of this 

 year he began to advertise his supernatural powers, claiming to be 

 able to raise the dead and commune with spirits, and predicting 

 that the whites would soon be driven from the land. He taught his 

 followers a new and peculiar dance, ill which the performers were 

 ranged like the spokes of a wheel, all facing inward, while he, stand- 



