902 THE GHOST-DANCE RELICxION [f.thanx.H 



on tlit' Little Washita and other streams on the northern boundary of 

 the reservation, adjoining the tribes most interested in the Ghost dance. 

 These Comanche held a few ( rhost dances and made a few songs, but the 

 body of the tribe would have nothing to do with it. This lack of interest 

 was due partly to the general skeptical temperament of the Comanche, 

 evinced in their carelessness in regard to ceremonial forms, and partly 

 to their tribal pride, which forbade their following after the strange gods 

 of another people, as they considered their own mescal rite sufficient to 

 all their needs. Quanah Parker, their head chief, a shrewd half-blood, 

 opposed the new doctrine and prevented its spread among his tribe. 



The Ghost dance was brought to the Pawnee, Ponca, Oto, Missouri, 

 Kansa, Iowa, Osage, ami other tribes in central Oklahoma by delegates 

 from the Arapaho and Cheyenne in the west. The doctrine made slow 

 progress for some time, but by February, 1892, the majority of the 

 Pawnee were dancing in confident expectation of the speedy coming of 

 the messiah and the buffalo. Of all these tribes the Pawnee took most 

 interest in the new doctrine, becoming as much devoted to the Ghost 

 dance as the Arapaho themselves. The leader among the Pawnee was 

 Frank White, and among the Oto was Buffalo Black. The agent in 

 charge took stringent measures against the dance, and had the < >to 

 prophet arrested and contined in the Wichita jail, threatening at the 

 same time to cut off supplies from the tribe. As the confederated Oto 

 and Missouri number only 36:2 in all, they were easily brought into sub- 

 jection, and the dance was abandoned. The same method was pursued 

 with the Pawnee prophet and his people, but as they are stronger in 

 number than the Oto, they were proportionately harder to deal with, 

 but the filial result was the same. {Comr., 4.3.) The Osage gave but 

 little heed to the story, perhaps from the fact that, as they are the 

 wealthiest tribe in the country, they feel no such urgent need of a 

 redeemer as their less fortunate brethren. The Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, 

 and Potawatomi engaged in the dance only to a limited extent, for the 

 reason that a number of the natives of these tribes, particularly the 

 Potawatomi, are under Catholic influences, while most of the others 

 adhere to the doctrine of Kiinakuk, the Potawatomi prophet mentioned 

 in chapter v. 



The Ghost dance doctrine was communicated directly to the Caddo, 

 Wichita, Kichai, Delaware, and Kiowa by the Arapaho and Cheyenne, 

 their neighbors on the north. We shall speak now of the tribes first 

 mentioned, leaving the Kiowa until the last. The Caddo, Wichita. 

 Kichai, and several remnants of cognate tribes, with a small band of 

 the Delaware, numbering in all about a thousand Indians, occupy a 

 reservation between the Washita and the South Canadian in western 

 Oklahoma, having the Arapaho and Cheyenne on the north and west, 

 the Kiowa on the south, and the whites ot Oklahoma and the Chick- 

 asaw nation on the east. The Caddo are the leading tribe, numbering 



