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



APPENDIX— THE INDIAN STORY OF WOUNDED KNEE 



[From the Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1891, volume l,pages 179-181. Extracts 

 from verbatim stenographic report of council held by delegations of Sioux with < 'om missioner of Indian 

 Affairs, <tt Washington, February 11, 1891.'] 



Tl'i;nin(, Hawk, 1 'im- Ridge (Mr Cook, interpreter). Mr Commissioner, my pur- 

 pose to-day is to tell you what I know of the condition of affairs at the agency where 

 I live. A certain falsehood came to our agency from the west which had the effect 

 of a fire upon the Indians, and when this certain fire came upon our people those 

 who had farsightedness and could see into the matter made up their minds to stand 

 up against it and fight it. The reason we took this hostile altitude to this fire was 

 because we believed that you yourself would not be in favor of this particular mis- 

 chief-making thing; but just as we expected, the people in authority did not like 

 this thing and we were quietly told that Ave must give up or have nothing to do with 

 this certain movement. Though this is the advice from our good friends in the east, 

 there were, of course, many silly young men who were longing to become identified 

 with the movement, although they knew that there was nothing absolutely bad. 

 nor did they know there was anything absolutely good, in connection with the 

 movement. 



In the course of time we heard that the soldiers were moving toward the scene of 

 trouble. After awhile some of the soldiers finally reached our place and we heard 

 that a number of them also reached our friends at Rosebud. Of course, when a 

 large body of soldiers is moving toward a certain direction they inspire a more or 

 loss amount of awe, and it is natural that the women and children who see this large 

 moving mass are made afraid of it and be put in a condition to make them run away. 

 At first we thought that Pine Ridge and Rosebud were the only two agencies where 

 soldiers were sent, but finally Ave heard that the other agencies fared likewise. We 

 heard and saw that about half our friends at Rosebud agency, from fear at seeing 

 the soldiers, began the move of running away from their agency toward ours (Pine 

 Ridge), and when they had gotten inside of our reservation they there learned that 

 right ahead of them at our agency was another largo crowd of soldiers, and while 

 the soldiers were there, there was constantly a great deal of false rumor Hying back 

 and forth. The special rumor I have in mind is the threat that the soldiers had 

 come there to disarm the Indians entirely and to take away all their horses from 

 them. That was the oft-repeated story. 



So constantly repeated was this story that our friends from Rosebud, instead of 

 going to Tine Ridge, the place of their destination, veered off and went to some 

 other direction toward the •• Bad Lands." We did not know definitely how many, 

 but understood there were 300 lodges of them, about 1,700 people. Eagle Pipe, 

 Turning Bear, High Hawk, Short Bull, Lance, No Flesh, Pine Bird, (row Dog, Two 

 Strike, and White Horse were the leaders. 



Well, tin- people alter veering oil' in this way, many of them who believe in peace 

 and order at our agency, were very anxious that some influence should be brought 

 upon these people. In addition to our love of peace we remembered that many of 

 these people were related to us by blood. So we sent out peace commissioners to the 

 people who were thus running away from their agency. 



I understood at the time that they were simply going away from fear because of 

 so many soldiers. So constant was the word of these good men from Pine Ridge 

 agency that finally they succeeded in getting away half of the party from Rosebud, 

 from the place where they took refuge, and finally were brought to the agency at 

 Pine Ridge. Young-Man-Afraid-of-his-Horses, Little Wound, Fast Thunder, Louis 

 Shangreau, John Crass, Jack Red cloud, and myself were some of these peace- 

 makers. 



The remnant of the party from Rosebud not taken to the agency finally reached 

 the wilds of the Bad Lands. Seeing that we had succeeded so well, once more we 

 seutto the same party in the Bad Lands and succeeded in bringing these very Indians 



