The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-11-18
RELIGIOUS INDIANS.
The Excitement Concerning the
Messiah.
PRETTY LOGICAL REASONING
By Chief Gall on Christian Doctrines-White
Men Believe Strange Things in Re-
iigiOn and Why Not Redmen?
Especial to THE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

--N- --S>AAASAA'
Especial to THE Observation-Disclosures Dispatch I
STANDING Rock AGENCY, n. D., Nov.
H. The news that General Miles is liable
at any moment to move a regiment or two
OF United States regulars against the
Sioux is causing great deal of excite
ment among the redmen, but their belief in
the coming of the Messiah is in no way
lessened thereby. The Indians have evil
IDENTIFY in many instances gone stark mad.
The most exciting among the many trials
which have occurred here the last fort
night was that of the alleged Virgin Mary.
When the Indian court officer called her
name there came out from the murmuring
crowd in the large room Walutawin, the
scarlet woman the wife of Oiiksoga and
member of the Watoksis band of Sioux,
although 1t is said she is not native but
came from band of Indians across the
Manitoba line. Fearlessness was the lead
ing element of her attitude as she stood SO
gracefully before the railing, behind which
sat the agent and his interpreter, and look
ing lndifferently at her, John Grass and
the other Indians who composed the court
VINO are you, and what is your name?'
were the first questions asked. Then draw
ing herself up to her full stature of nearly
six feet, she told her name Then bending
slightly forward, with her hand pointed
upward, she said, in low tone with in
tense earnestness: 81 am the mother of
Christ, who is now upon this earth making
preparations for rebuilding it. The earth
IS to belong to his chosen people, and this
continent is to be extended much farther
west, taking in part of the great sunset
water. The eastern part of the continent
Will be abandoned, but in the western part
great herds of buffalo will wander as in the
days OF long ago and simultaneously with
the disappearance of the whites from the
earth Will come the resurrection of the In
dlans who now sleep, and forever more
they Will wander over the earth with no
one TO question their right to kill the buff
falo, no one to say do this or l will put you
in the guard house" With gesture to at
tract the particular attention Of Major Nc
Laughlin, the agent here, she drew an
imaginary line upon the floor and stepped
oyer 1t saying: I'm those days there will
be no reservation, no messenger of the
Great Father to say to the Indians to come
back here and stay on your reservation"
Stepping back over the imaginary line of
the floor, with shamefaced expression to
Illustrate her peoples dislike for the regu-
lations that forbid them from wandering
around the earth in accordance with their
romantic disposition, she continued to ex-
patiate upon the rosy-tirted dawning of
the Indians millennium morning.
Questions CALCULATED % locate the where
abouts of the Messiah whose mother she
claims to be, were warily answered, and
she refused to tell anything about the or
gles of the ghost dance beyond the fact
that she had been proclaimed by the men,
bers OF the order to be the Virgin Mary.
Pending an interview with the woman's
husband. and consideration of the best
means TO be adopted in her case, she was
sent to the guardhouse, to which she
walked with the air of martyr with a
good memory and without the theoretical
Christian spirit of forgiveness
Sitting Bull is not fond of coming around
the agency, and since he was recently sent
home by General Miles, who found him ont
among the Cheyennes paving up trouble
the old fellow has not been seen around the
agency, but sticks close to his place on
Grand river.
credit for the great Custer butchery. treats
the coming of the Messiah seriously. He
said: ''Since this excitement has come
upon my people [ sit and listen and wonder
II these things can be possible. When thew
tell me that the buffaloes are coming back.
and that there is to be resurrection of
our fathers, | shake my head They tell
me that the Messiah can make spring Wap-
ons with motion of his hand, and | think
this cannot be. But sometimes think of
the wonderful things which the white men
believe in their religion, and l am not so
sure that these Indians are wrong 7 went
once to the office of a newspaper and talked
through machine to some one long
way off, and since then | cannot say that
anything is impossible. Your people believe
that IN the beginning of the world won
derful things were done by men, The In
dams believe that in the future wonderful
Things may be done by men. It seems to
me that the Indians are not Justly to be ac-
cused of being crazy for believing that
what has happened once may happen
again, particularly as wonderful things are
growing more common each dayn
People who have settled on the Missouri
since the Indian troubles of 1876 do not fear
any trouble, but those who lived in that
country during the times when the soldiers
and the Sioux lived IN the saddle, times
when life was cheap, do not consider the
possibility of another outbreak to be a
trif1ing matter, and would feel much safer
if all was serene here.
Mr.. Roger, the Indian agent at Pine
Ridge, S. D., was here Saturday. He saws
that serious trouble is anticipated as the
result of the ghost dance. He says it is
Grazing the Indians, who openly defy the
Indian police and threaten defiance to anv
small body of soldiers which may be sent
a9alnst them Troops are being held In
readiness for orders to take the field. DR..
Tenapany, Sixth cavalry veterinary sur
geon, has left for Omaha for horses for the
troops.