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



ami then sat down. We danced all that night, the Christ lying down beside us 

 apparently dead. 



The next morning when we went to eat breakfast, the Christ was with ns. After 

 breakfast four heralds went around and railed out that the Christ was back with 

 US and wanted to talk with us. The circle was prepared again. The people 

 assembled, and Christ came among us and sat down. {(!. I)., 9.) 



We come now to the other tribes bordering on the Paiute. First 

 in order are the Washo, a small band dwelling on the slopes of the 

 sierras in the neighborhood of Carson, Nevada, and speaking a peculiar 

 language of unknown affinity. They are completely under the domi- 

 nation of the Paiute. They had no separate dance, but joined in with 

 the nearest camps of Paiute and sang the same songs. Occupying 

 practically the same territory as the Paiute, they were among the first 

 to receive the new doctrine. 



Farther to the south, in California, about Bridgeport and Mono lake 

 and extending across to the westward slope of the sierras, arc several 

 small Shoshonean bands closely akin to the Paiute and known locally 

 as the "Diggers." The Paiute state that bands of these Indians fre- 

 quently came up and participated in the dance on the reservation. 

 They undoubtedly had their own dances at home also. 



According to the statement of the agent in charge of the Mission 

 Indians in southern California in 1891, the doctrine reached them also, 

 and the medicine-men of Potrero began to prophesy the destruction of 

 the whites and the return of Indian supremacy. Few believed their 

 predictions, however, until rumors brought the news of the overflow 

 of Colorado river and the birth of "Stilton sea" in the summer of 1801. 

 Never doubting that the great change was near at hand, the frightened 

 Indians tied to the mountains to await developments, but after having 

 gone hungry for several days the millennial dawn seemed still as far 

 away as ever, and they returned to their homes with disappointment 

 in their hearts. Although the agent mentions specifically only the 

 Indians of Potrero, there can be no doubt that the inhabitants of the 

 other Mission rancherias in the vicinity were also affected, and we 

 are thus enabled to fix the boundary of the messiah excitement in this 

 direction at the Pacific ocean. (Comr r 27.) 



In northern California the new doctrine was taken up kite in 1890 by 

 the Pit River Indians, a group of tribes constituting a distinct linguistic 

 stock and scat tcred throughout the whole basin of Pit river, from ( loose 

 lake to the Sacramento, which may have formed the boundary of the 

 <! host dance movement in this direction. (.1. (I. <)., 7.) As a number of 

 these Indians are living also on Pound Valley reservation in California, 

 it is possible that the doctrine may have reached there also. Having 

 obtained the dance ritual directly from the Paiute. their neighbors on the 

 east, the ceremony and belief were probably the same with both tribes. 



So far as can be learned from the reports of agents, and front the 

 statement of Wovoka himself, the dance was never taken up by the 

 Indians of Hoopa Vallej reservation in California; of Klamath, Siletz, 



