mooney] INAUGURATION OF THE DANCE 847 



bad assembled for a dance at the same rendezvous, when Agent Gal- 

 lagher sent out several police with orders to the dancers to quit and go 

 home. They refused to do so, and the agent himself went out with 

 more police to enforce the order. On repeating his demand a number 

 of the warriors leveled their guns toward him and the police, and told 

 him that they were ready to defend their religion with their lives. 

 Under the circumstances the agent, although known to be a brave man, 

 deemed it best to withdraw and the dance went on. (Comr., 31; G. 

 D.,23.) 



On Rosebud reservation, which adjoins Pine Badge on the cast and is 

 occupied by the turbulent and warlike Brules, the warning given to 

 Short Bull had such an effect that there was no open manifestation 

 until September, when the Ghost dance was inaugurated at the various 

 camps under the leadership of Short Bull the medicineman, Crow 

 Dog, and Two Strike. Agent Wright, then in charge, went out to the 

 Indians and told them the dance must be stopped, which was accord- 

 ingly done. He expressly states that no violence was contemplated 

 by the Indians, and that no arms were carried in the dance, but that 

 he forbade it on account of its physical and mental effect on the par- 

 ticipants and its tendency to draw them from their homes. In some 

 way a rumor got among the Indians at this time that troops had 

 arrived on the reservation to attack them, and in an incredibly short 

 lime every Indian had left the neighborhood of the agency and was 

 making preparations to meet the enemy. It was with some difficulty 

 that Agent Wright was able to convince them that the report was false 

 and persuade them to return to their homes. Soon afterward circum- 

 stances obliged him to be temporarily absent, leaving affairs in the 

 meantime in charge of a special agent. The Indians took advantage of 

 his absence to renew the Ghost dance and soon defied control. The 

 agent states, however, that no Indians left the agency until the arrival 

 of the troops, when the leaders immediately departed for Pine Ridge, 

 together with 1,800 of their followers. (<!. />.. 24; ('mm:. 32.) 



On October Kicking Bear of Cheyenne River agency, the chief high 

 priest of the Ghost dance among the Sioux, went to Standing Rock by 

 invitation of Sitting Bull and inaugurated the dance on that reserva- 

 tion at Sitting Bull's camp on Grand river. The dance had begun on 

 Cheyenne river about the middle of September, chiefly at the camps of 

 Hump and Big Foot. On learning of Kicking Bear's arrival, Agent 

 McLaughlin sent a force of police, including two officers, to arrest him 

 and put him off the reservation, but they returned without executing 

 the order, both officers being in a dazed condition and fearing the power 

 of Kicking Bear's "medicine." Sitting Bull, however, had promised 

 that his visitors would go back to their own reservation, which they did 

 a day or two later, but he declared his intention to continue the dance, 

 as they had received a direct message from the spirit world through 

 Kicking Bear that the} must do so to live. He promised that he would 

 II eth— pt 2 II 



