aiooxEY] OFFICIAL KNOWLEDGE OF WOVOKA 767 



nials" among the Paiute. 1 This Mas discouraging, but not entirely 

 convincing, and I set out once more for the west. After a few days 

 with the Omaha and Winnebago in Nebraska, and a longer stay with 

 the Sioux at Pine Ridge, where traces of the recent conflict were still 

 fresh on every hand, I crossed over the mountains and finally arrived 

 at Walker Lake reservation in Nevada. 



On inquiry I learned that the messiah lived, not on the reservation, 

 but in Mason valley, about 40 miles to the northwest. His uncle, 

 Charley Sheep, lived near the agency, however, so I sought him out 

 and made his acquaintance. He spoke tolerable — or rather intolera- 

 ble — English, so that we were able to get along together without an 

 interpreter, a fact which brought us into closer sympathy, as an inter- 

 preter is generally at best only a necessary evil. As usual, he was very 

 suspicious ;it first, and inquired minutely as to my purpose, [explained 

 to him that I was sent out by the government to the various tribes to 

 study their customs and learn their stories and songs; that I had 

 obtained a good deal from other tribes and now wanted to learn some 

 songs and stories of the Paiute. in order to write them down so that the 



1 The letter ia given as a sample of the information possessed by sunn- agents in regard to the Indians 

 in their charge: 



"United States Indian Service, 

 "Pyramid Lake, Nevada Agency, October IS, 1891, 

 "James Mooney, Esq.. 



" Bureau of Ethnology , 

 "My Dear Sir: Tour letter of September 24 in regard in Jack Wilson, the "Messiah,' at hand and 

 duly noted. In reply will say that his Indian name is Ko-wee-jow ('Big belly'). I do not know as 

 it will be possible to gel a photo <>f him. I never saw him or a photo of him. He works among t he 

 u bites a I tout 40 miles from my Walker Lake reserve, and never comes near the agency when I visit it. 

 My headquarters are at Pyramid lake, about 7;) miles north of Walker. I am pursuing the course 

 with him of nonattention or a silent ignoring. He seems to think, so I hear, that I will arrest him 

 should he come within my reach. I would give him no Buch notoriety. He, like all other prophets, 

 lias but little h«>nor in his own country. He has been visited by delegations from various and many 

 Indian tribes, which. I think should be discouraged all that is possible. Don't know what the l Smo- 

 holier' religion, you speak of, is. lie speaks English well, but is not educated- He got his doctrine 

 in part from contact, living in and with a religious family. There are neither ghost s.m^s, dances, oor 

 ceremonials among them about m\ agem-ies. Would not be allowed. I think they died out with 

 'Sitting Bull.' This is the extent of the information 1 <';m give you. 

 "Very respectfully, yours, 



('. C. Warner, United Mates Indian Agent:' 



Here is .in agent who has under his special charge and within a lew miles of his agency the man 

 who has created t he greatest religious ferment known to the Indians of this generation, a movemenl 

 which had been engrossing the attention of the newspaper and magazine press for a year, yet he has 

 never seen him; and while the Indian < mice, from which In- gets his commission, in a praiseworthy 

 effort to get at an understanding of the matter, is sending circular letters broadcast to the western 

 agencies, calling for all procurable information in regard to the messiah and his doctrines, lie "pur- 

 sues tin- course of nonattention." He has never heard of the Smohalla religion of the adjacent norl h 

 era tribes, although the subject is repeatedly mentioned in the volumes of the Indian Commissioner's 

 report from 187D to 1ST!), which were, or Should have been, on a shelf in the office in which the letter 

 was written. He asserts that there are no ghost songs, dances, or ceremonies among bis Indians, 

 although these tilings were going on constantly and had been for at least t hree years, and only a short. 

 time before a large delegation from beyond the mountains had attended a Ghost dance mar Walker lake 

 which lasted four days ami nights. Chapman in 1800, and the author in 1891, saw the cleared grounds 

 with the willow frames where these dances were being held regularly at short intervals. I found the 

 ghost songs familiar to all the Indians with whom I talked, and had no special trouble to find the 

 no .slab and obtain bis picture. The peaceful character of the movement is sufficiently shown by 

 the tact that while the eastern papers are teeming with rumors of uprising and massacre, and troops 

 are being hurried to tbw front, the agent at the central point of tin- disturbance seems to In- unaware 

 that there is any thing special going on around him and can ' * silent 1 \ ignore' 1 the whole matter. 



14 ETH — PT L' !> 



