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



'•The Presbyterian church occupies a queer position with regard to 

 these people. The Reverend M. G. Mann has been the missionary to 

 the Indians of Puget sound for many years, and has succeeded in mak- 

 ing a very favorable impression upon them. Be has been specially 

 attentive to the Shakers, and, to his credit be it said, has never tried to 

 coerce them, and has only dealt with them kindly. So far has this 

 gone that Louis Yowaluch was long ago taken into the Presbyterian 

 church, and is now an accredited elder therein. Louis does not know, 

 seemingly, how to escape from his dual position, or rather does not seem 

 to think that he needs to escape. It all seems to be for the best inter- 

 est of his people, so he continues to occupy the position of elder in the 

 Presbyterian church and headman of the Shaker church. 



"At a recent meeting of the Presbyterian ministers the position of 

 these Shaker people was fully discussed, and the strongest language 

 was used in saying only good about them, and every effort seems to be 

 made by the Presbyterians to claim the Shakers in a body as members 

 of the Presbyterian church. If this account were not already too long, 

 the reports of the church ou the subject would be quoted, but the fact 

 speaks volumes for the character of the Shakers aud their teaching. 



"In conclusion : I have known the Shaker people now intimately, as 

 their attorney, for more than a year, and out of the many drunken 

 Indians I have seen in that time not one was a Shaker. Not one of 

 their people has been arrested for crime in that time. They are good 

 citizens, and are. far more temperate and peaceable than those Indians 

 belonging to the other churches. I feel that their church is a grand 

 success in that it prevents idleness and vice, drunkenness and disorder, 

 and tends to produce quiet, peaceable, citizens, and good Christian 

 people. I think the Presbyterians make a mistake in trying to bring 

 the Shakers into their fold — they ought rather to protect them and give 

 them every assistance in their autonomy. It adds the greatest incen- 

 tive to their labors, and makes them feel as if they were of some 

 account. It lets them labor for themselves, instead of feeling, as always 

 heretofore, that some one else — they hardly knew who — was responsible. 

 Their forms of Christianity are not very unorthodox — their Christianity 

 is quite orthodox, not exactly because they take Slocum's revelation 

 instead of the Bible, but the result is the same — a Christian. 



"James Wickbesham. 



"Tacoma, Washington, June .'.', 1893." 



From competent Indian informants of eastern Washington — Charles 



Ike, half 1)1 1 Yakima interpreter, and Chief Wolf Necklace of the 



Pa'lus, we gather additional particulars, from which it would appear 

 that there are more things in the Shaker system than are dreamed of 

 in the philosophy of the Presbyterian general assembly. 



According to their statements, Yowaluch, or Ai-yal, as he is known 

 east of the Cascades, was noted as a gambler before he received his 

 revelation. His followers are called Shiipwpu-'l&ma, or "blowers," by 



