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



eastern Kansas, by visiting Potawatomi, Winnebago, and Ojibwa from 

 Wisconsin. As usual, the ritual part consists chiefly of a ceremonial 

 dance. In doctrine it teaches the same, code of morality enjoined 

 by the ten commandments, and especially prohibits liquor drinking, 

 gambling, and horse racing, for which reason the agents generally have 

 not seen fit to interfere with it, and in some cases have rather encour- 

 aged it as a civilizing influence among that portion of the tribes not 

 yet enrolled in Christian denominations. The movement is entirely 

 v^distinct from the Ghost dance, and may perhaps be a revival of the 

 system preached by KiinakiJk more than fifty years before. In 1891 

 the majority of the two tribes, numbering in all 74!>, were reported as 

 adherents of the doctrine. (Comr., 5, 6, ', : also reports from the same 

 agency for 1887 anil 1889.) A large number of the Sauk and Fox. Kick- 

 apoo, and Potawatomi of Oklahoma are also believers in the religion. 

 In 1885 Agent Patrick says on this subject: 



These Indiana are chaste, cleanly, and industrious, and would be a valuable 

 acquisition to the l'i airie band it' it were not for their intense devotion to a religious 

 dance started among the northern Indians some years since. This dance was intro- 

 duced to the Prairie band about two years ago by the Ab sentee T ottawatomies 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 Creat 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 impoli- 

 tic so far to interfere with it any further than to advise as few meetings as possible 

 and to discountenance it in my intercourse with the individuals practicing the 

 religion. It is not an unmixed evil, as uuderits teaching drunkenness and gambling 

 have been reduced 75 per cent, and a departure from virtue on the part of its mem- 

 bers meets with the severest condemnation. As some tenets of revealed religion are 

 embraced in its doctrines, I do not consider it a backward step for the Indians who 

 have not heretofore professed belief in any Christian religion, and believe 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.) 



CHEEZ-TAH-PAEZH THE SW ORD-BEARER 



It is probable that something of the messiah idea entered into the 

 promises held out to his followers by Sword-bearer, a Crow medicine- 

 man, in Montana in 1887. The official records are silent on this point, 

 although it is definitely stated that he asserted his own invulnerability, 

 and that his claims in this respect were implicitly believed by his 

 people. Clieez tak-paezh, literally " Wraps his tail" (also written Chees- 

 chapahdisch, Cheschopah, Obese cha-pahdish, and Chese-Topah), was 

 without any special prominence in his tribe until the summer of 1887, 

 when, in company with several other young men of the Crows, he par 

 ticipated in the sun dance of the Cheyenne, and showed such fortitude 

 in enduring the dreadful torture that he was presented by the Cheyenne 

 with a medicine saber painted red, in virtue of which he took the title 

 of Sword bearer. This naturally brought him into notice at home, and 

 he soon aspired to become a chief and medicineman. Among other 

 things, he asserted that no bullet or weapon had power to harm him. 



