SIOo;, " E1 EELLS ON SHAKER RELIGION 7 4y 



more intelligent and progressive of the uneducated Indians. Very few of those 

 who had learned to read and Lad been in Sabbath school for a considerable length 

 of time were drawn into it. It was the class between the most educated and the 

 most superstitious who at iirst upheld it. They seemed to know too much to con- 

 tinue in the old style religious ceremonies, but not to know enough and to be too 

 superstitious to fully believe the Bible. Consequently, the medicine-men were at 

 first bitterly opposed to it. About this time, however, an order came from the 

 Indian department to stop all medicine-men from practicing their incantations over 

 the sick. As a respectable number of the Indians had declared against the old style 

 of curing the sick, it seemed to be a Rood time to enforce this order, as there was 

 sufficient popular opinion in connection with the authority of the agent to enforce 

 it. Til is was done, and then the medicine-men almost entirely joined tin- Shakers, 

 as their style was more nearly in accordance with the old stylo than with the religion 

 of the Bible. 



As it spread, one Indian went so far as to declare himself to be Christ again come to 

 earth, and rode through the streets of ( llympia at the head of several scores of his 

 followers with his hands outstretched as Christ was when he was crucified. But he 

 was so ridiculed by other Indians and by the whites that he gave up this idea and 

 simply declared himself to be a prophet who bad received revelations from heaven. 



For several years there has been very little of the shaking or this mode of worship 

 among the Indians on the reservation, excepting secretly when persons were sick. 

 Still, their native superstition and their intercourse with those oft' the reservation, 

 who sometimes hold a special gathering and meeting when their followers grow- 

 cold and careless, has kept the belief in it as a religion firm in their hearts, so that 

 lately, since they have become citizens, and are hence more free from the authority 

 of the agent, the practice of it has become more common, especially when persons 

 are sick. 



In fact, while it is a religion for use at all times, yet it is practiced especially over 

 the sick, and in this way takes the place of the medicine-men and their methods. 

 Unlike the system of the medicine-men, it has no.single performer. Though often 

 they select for leader one who can pray the best, yet in his absence another may 

 take the had. Like the old system, it has much noise. Especially do they use hells, 

 which are rung over the person where the sickness is supposed to be. The others 

 present use their influence to help in curing the sick one, and so imitate the attend- 

 ants on an Indian doctor, getting down upon their knees on the floor and holding 

 up their hands, with a candle in each hand, sometimes for an hour. They believe 

 that by so holding up their hands the man who is ringing the bell will get the sick- 

 ness out more easily than he otherwise would. They use caudles both when they 

 attempt to cure the sick and in their general service, eschewing lamps for fear id' 

 being easily tempted, as they believe coal-oil lights to be from Satan. 



In another point also this resembles very closely their old religion. For a long 

 time before a person is taken sick they foretell that his spirit is gone to heaven and 

 profess to be able to bring it back and restore it to him, so that he will not die as 

 soon as he otherwise would. This was also a part of the old tomahnous belief. 



They have also prophesied very much. Several limes when a person has died they 

 have told me that someone had foretold this event, but they have never told me this 

 until after the event happened, except in one case. They have prophesied much in 

 regard to the end of the world and the day of judgment. Generally, the time set 

 has been on a Fourth of July, and many have been frightened as the time drew 

 near, but, alas, in every instance the prophecy failed. Like Christians, they believe 

 in a Supreme Being, in prayer, the sabbath, in heaven ami hull, in man as a sinner, 

 and Christ as a savior, and the system led its followers to stop drinking, gambling, 

 betting, horse racing, the use of tobacco, and the old-style incantations over the 

 sick. Of lato years, however, some of them have fallen from grace. 



It has been a somewhat strange freak of human nature, a combination of morals 

 and immorals, of Protestantism, Catholicism, and old Indian practices, of dreams 



