SIOUX KNOWLEDGE OF THE MESSIAH 819 



divine message, talking five days in succession. The report aroused 

 the wildest excitement among the Cheyenne, and after several long 

 debates on the subject the Ghost dance was inaugurated at the various 

 camps in accordance with the instructions from beyond the mountains. 

 In June the matter came to the attention of the military officer on the 

 reservation, who summoned Porcupine before, him and obtained from 

 him a full account of the journey and the doctrine. (See page 793.) 

 Porcupine insisted strongly on the sacred character of the messiah and 

 his message, and challenged any doubters to return with him to Nevada 

 and investigate for themselves. He claimed also that the messiah 

 could speak all languages. As a matter of fact, Wovoka speaks only 

 his native Paiute and a little English, but due allowance must be made 

 for the mental exaltation of the narrator. 



Grinnell states that the failure of certain things to happen according 

 to the predictions of the messiah, in September, 1890, caused a tem- 

 porary loss of faith on the part of the Cheyenne, but that shortly after- 

 ward some visiting Shoshoni and Arapaho from Wyoming reported 

 that in their journey as they came over they had met a party of Indians 

 who had been dead thirty or forty years, but had been resurrected by 

 the messiah, and were now going about as if they had never died. It 

 is useless to speculate on the mental condition of men who could seri- 

 ously report or believe such things; but, however that may be, the 

 result was that the Cheyenne returned to the dance with redoubled 

 fervor. (J. F. 1... 5.) 



The Sioux first heard of The messiah in 1889. According to the 

 statement of Captain George Sword, of that tribe, the information 

 came to the Ogalala (Sioux of Pine Ridge) in that year, through the 

 Shoshoui and Arapaho. Later in the same year a delegation consist- 

 ing of Good Thunder and several others started out to the west to 

 find the messiah and to investigate the truth of the rumor. On their 

 return they announced that the messiah had indeed come to help the 

 Indians, but not the whites. Their report aroused a fervor of joyful 

 excitement among the Indians and a second delegation was sent out in 

 1890, consisting of Good Thunder, Cloud Horse, Yellow Knife, and 

 Short Pull. They confirmed the report of the first delegation, and on 

 this assurance the Ghost dance was inaugurated among the Sioux at 

 Pine Ridge in the spring of 1890. 



The matter is stated differently and more correctly by William 

 Selwyn, an educated Sioux, at that time employed as postmaster at 

 Pine Ridge. He says there was some talk on the subject by Indians 

 from western tribes who visited the agency in the fall of 1888 ( '.'), but 

 that it did not excite much attention until 1889. when numerous letters 

 concerning the new messiah were received by the Indians at Pine 

 Ridge from tribes in Utah, Wyoming. Montana, I >akota, and Oklahoma. 

 As Selwyn was postmaster, the Indians who could not read usually 

 brought their letters to him to read for them, so that he was thus in 



