748 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [bth.ann.U 



Many went, about halt' of those on the Skokoinish reservation being among the 

 number, and they did hold a big meeting. Women did go around trying to fly 

 like angels; four persons are said to have died, and, with the power which was 

 said to have been given them from above, others were said to have brought them 

 back tn life again. This was a mixture of trying to perform miracles, as in Bible 

 times, tn prove the divinity el' their religion, and some of the ceremonies of their old 

 black tomahnoua. This was a secret society of their savage days, in which persons 

 went into a hypnotic condition, in which they became very rigid, and out of which 

 they came in the course of time. The followers of this new religion dreamed dreams, 

 saw visions, went through some disgusting ceremonies a la mode the black tomahnoua, 

 and were taken with a kiud of shaking. With their arms at full length, their hands 

 and arms would shake so fast that a common person not under the excitement could 

 hardly shake half as fast. Gazing into the heavens, their heads would also shake 

 very fast, sometimes Lira few minutes and sometimes tor hours, or half the night. 

 They would also brush each other with their hands, as they said, to brush off their 

 sins, for they said they were much worse than white people, the latter being bad 

 only in their hearts, while the Indians were so bad that the badness came to the 

 surface of their bodies and the ends of their linger nails, so that it could be picked 

 off. They sometimes brushed each other lightly, and sometimes so roughly that the 

 person brushed was made black for a week, or even sick. 



In connection with this they held church services, pia\ id to (iod. believed in Christ 

 as a savior, said much about his death, and used the cross, their services being a 

 combination of Protestant and Catholic services, though at tirst. they almost totally 

 rejected the Bible, for they said they bad direct revelations from Christ, and were 

 more fortunate than the whites, who had an old, antiquated book. 



Afier having kept up this meeting for about a week, they disbanded and went to 

 their homes, but did not stop their shaking or services. They sometimes held meet- 

 ings from 6 oclock in the evening until about midnight, lighting candles and putting 

 them on their heads I'm a long time. They became very peculiar about making the 

 sign of the cross many times a day, when they began to eat as they asked a blessing, 

 and wheu they finished their meal and returned thanks; when they shook bauds 

 with anyone — and they shook hands very often — when they went to church and 

 prayer meeting on Thursday evening, and at many other times, far more often than 

 the Catholics do. 



(in the Skokoinish reservation their indiscretions caused the death of a mother and 

 Let child, and an additional loss of time and property to the amount of $600 or $800 

 in a few weeks. It also became a serious question whether the constant shaking of 

 their heads would not make some of them crazy, and from symptoms and indications 

 it was the opinion of the agency physician, .1. T. Martin, that it would do so. 

 Accordingly, on the reservation the authority of the agent was brought to bear, and 

 to a. great extent the shaking was stopped, though they were encouraged to keep on 



in the practice of some g 1 habits which they had begun, of ceasing gambling, 



intemperance, their old style incantations over the sick, and the like. Some at 

 first said they could not stop shaking, but that at their prayer meetings anil church 

 services on the Sabbath their hands and heads would continue to shake in spite of 

 themselves; but alter a short time, when the excitement had died away, they found 

 that they could stop. 



But about Skookum bay. Mud bay, and Squaxon the shaking continued, and it 

 spread to the Nisqually and Chehalis Indians. It seemed to be as catching, to use the 

 expression of the Indians, as the measles. Many who at first ridiculed it and fought 

 against it, and invoked tin- aid of the agent to Btop it, were drawn into it altera 

 little, and then they became its strong upholders. This was especially true of the 

 medicine-men, or Indian doctors, and those who bad the strongest faith in them. 

 The Shakers declared that all the old Indian religion, and especially the cure of I lie 

 sick by the medicine men, was from the devil, and they would have nothing to do 

 with it, those who at fust originated and propagated it having been among the 



