Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1890-11-23
DESCRIPTION OF THE DANCE.
The Antics the Indians Go ThrouGh-A
Woman's Testimony.

KANSAS CITY, Mo, November 22.-Mrs
James y. Finley, wife of eX-Councilman
Finley, Of this city, now Postmaster and
Post Trader at Pine Ridge Agency, is in
this city. Mrs. Finley left the agency u
few DAYS ago by direction of her husband
who sent her here for safety. In an inter
view today she described the ghost dances.
She said these dances have been in pro-
greSS for some time. The first the agent
learned of them was last August, when a
crowd of Indians left the reservation to
hold a council, and when the police found
them they were engaged in the dance.
Since then they have been holding them
regularly. One ghost dance that
4 saw was participated in by 40
Indians. In preparing for the
dance they cut the tallest tree they can lind,
and having dragged il 10 a level piece of
prairie set il up in the ground. Under this
tree four of the head men stand. The others
I form a circle, and begin 10 90 around and
around the tree. They begin the dance on
FRIDAY afternoon. II is kept up Saturday
and Sunday until sun down. During all
/ this time they do not eat or drink. They
| keep going around in one direction until
they become 50 dizzy that they can scarcely
stand. then turn and go in another direc-
tiOn, and keep il up till they swoOn from
exhaustion.
This is what they strive TO do, for while
they are in a SwOOn they think they see and
talk with the new Christ. When they re-
gain consciousness they tell their expert
ences 70 the four wise men under the tree.
All their tales end with the same story
about the two mountains that are to belch
forth mud and bury the white man and the
return of good old Indian times. They lose
all their senses in the dance. They think
they are animals. Some get down on all
fours and bob like buffalOs. When they
cannot lose their senses from exhaustion
they butt their heads together, beat them
upon the ground, and do anything to become
insensible so that they may be ushered into
the presence of the new Christ.
"One Door Indian. when he recovered his
senses, said that Christ had told him he
must return 10 earth because he had
not brought with him his wife and child.
the way the poor fellow cried was the most
heartrending thing ever saw. At the end
of the dance they have grand feast, feast
ing all Sunday night. They kill several
steers and eat them raw, drink and gorge
themselves TO make up for the fast.
The arrival of the troops there will
make the Indians much worse, and they
will surely fight They have said all along
that nothing should break up the ghost
then, if they had been allowed to continue
il l think they would have gone crazy. so
that they would have taken to the war
path any way. They are all we'll armed
and have plenty of ammunition.
AT last Fridays dance one of the braves
was TO 20 into a trance and remain in this
condition four days. At the close of this
period ne was 10 come to life as buffalo
he would still have the form of man, but
be would be buffalo. They were then to
kill the buffalo, and every Indian who did
not eat piece of him would become dog.
The man who was 70 turn into buffalo
was willing, and it is supposed they have
killed and eaten him by this time.
If the Government Just lets them alone
there will be no need of troops; they will
kill themselves dancing. Seven or eight
of them died as result of one dance near
Wounded Knee. They are now dancing on
a creek about five miles south of Wounded
Knee. Every Indian has about four war
clubs, made out of round stones twisted in
rawhide. They throw these around during
the dance and beat their heads against
them. The agent, with his Indian police,
cannot control them, and it was necessary
TO have the troops on the ground"