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



Bad Lands was not properly a hostile movement, but was a stampede 

 caused by panic at the appearance of the troops. In his official report 

 Commissioner Morgan says: 



When tin- 1 roups reached Rosebud, about 1,800 I ml in us — men, women, and children — 

 stampeded toward Pine Ridge and the Bad Lands, destroying their own property 

 before leaving and that of others en route. 



After the death of Sitting Bull he says : 



Groups of Indians from the different reservations had commenced concentrating 

 in the Bad Lands, upon or in the vicinity of the Pine Ridge reservation. Killing of 

 cattle and destruction of other property by these Indians, almost, entirely within 

 the limits of Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations, occurred, but no signal tires were 

 built, no warlike demonstrations were made, no violence was done to any white 

 settlers, nor was there any cohesion or organization among the Indians themselves. 

 Many of them were friendly Indians who had never participated in the ghost dance, 

 but had lied thither from fear of soldiers, in consequence of the Sitting Bull affair 

 or through the overpersuasion of friends. The military gradually began to close 

 in around them and they ottered no resistance, and a speedy and quiet capitulation 

 of all was confidently expected. (Comr., 33.) 



The Sioux nation numbers over 25,000, with between 6,000 and 7,000 

 warriors. Hardly more than 700 warriors were concerned altogether, 

 including those of Big Foot's band and those who fled to the Bad 

 Lands. None of the Christian Indians took any part in the disturbance. 



While it is certain that the movement toward the Bad Lands with 

 the subsequent events were the result of panic tit the appearance of tlie 

 troops, it is equally true that the troops were sent only on the request 

 of the civilian authorities. On this point General Miles says: "Not 

 until the civil agents had lost control of the Indians and declared them- 

 selves powerless to preserve peace, and the Indians were in armed 

 hostility and defiance of the civil authorities, was a single soldier 

 moved from his garrison to suppress the general revolt.'' (War, 7.) 

 Throughout the whole trouble McGillycuddy at Standing bock con- 

 sistently declared his ability to control his Indians without flic pres- 

 ence of troops. 



In accord with instructions from the Indian Office, the several agents 

 in charge among the Sioux had forwarded lists of disturbers whom it 

 would be advisable to arrest and remove from among the Indians, using 

 the military for the purpose if necessary. The agents at the other res- 

 ervations sent in all together the names of about fifteen subjects for 

 removal, while Royer, at Pine Ridge, forwarded as a ''conservative 

 estimate" the names of sixty-four. Short Bull and Kicking Bearbeing 

 in the Bad Lands, and Bed Cloud being now an old man and too politic 

 to make much open demonstration, the head and front of the offenders 

 was Sitting Bull, the irreconcilable; but McLaughlin, within whose 

 jurisdiction he was, in a letter of November 22, advised that the arrest 

 be not attempted until later in the season, as tit the date of writing the 

 weather was warm and pleasant — in other words, favorable to the 

 Indians in case they should make opposition. ( (1. />., 32.) The worst 



