Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-02
The Millennium as Painted BY the
Apostles of the New Messiah.
DELAYS OF GOVERNMENT SUPPLIES
And Broken Promises Add to the Fantastic
FervOr of the Red Men.
EXTENT OF THE NEW RELIGIOUS CRAZE
rcoREEsPoSDExcE OF THE DISPATCH.

| anu the peace uance Win W1lcp some LrlOe5
of red men ratify their treaties. have all
been described in THE DISPATCH. The
weird ghost dance with which the Sioux and
Shoshones are now celebrating what they
believe to be the approach of the Indian
millennium has never been described, for
the reason probably that it has never been
witnessed by white man.
And In the present state of feeling among
the powerful bands encamped here and at
Rosebud, as well as further to the west and
north, in Colorado and Montana, it is doubt
ful if any white man known to have seen q
ghost dance would live to write or talk
much about it. For the very motive of the
ghost dance is the resurrection OF all the
braves who have gone to the Great Spirit
since the white man first set foot on Amerie-
an soil and the determination of the whites.
Aud the power to work out this tremendous
consummatlon is to come from the wonder
!ul Messiah. the Red Savior, reported
months ago to have come down from the
happy hunting grounds and lighted on the
top OF "a mountain peak III Southeastern
Montana in the wild country Oh the borders
of the National Park.
WHAT THE DANCE MEANS.
The ghost dance seems to be intended as
/ solemn notification to the Indian dead that
they are now needed on earth to help the
remnant OF their people exterminate the
whites and seize their own again. 1t is also
a ceremonial welcome, in anticipation OF the
returning braves, and is at the same time
dirge.
The camp this friendly haI.breed led his
white companion to spy upon is in hollow
surrounded by low bare hills. From summit
to summit across the valley would perhaps
be d mile. The wagons of the braYes-many
of them as farmers aad freighters now have
their horses and wagons-are cOrraIed in the
center OF the valley.
A fringe of Tents skirts the borders of the
camp, and score or so of painted tepees
are the lodging places of the irreeoneilable
old squaws and bucks, who have never
given in to progressive" notions, gone to
wearing shirts or working like white peo-
pie. The oxen, bulls and cows, pigs and
chickens issued to these Indians by the
Government for breeding purposes-ior in
the eye o. the law most of them are farmers
have been driven into the valley also, and
are lariated or eooped on the outskirts OF the
camp, where they are being killed and eaten
at rapid rate.
A CANOPY OF SMOKE
About 800 yards east of the foot Of the hill
on which the spies were seated in q clump Of
stunted evergreens, was an open space OF an
acre in extent, toward which the squaws
seemed now urging, now driving, the rest of
the band. Around the outer rim of this open
space fires were kindled OF wood that seemed
to have been smudged, as there was little or
no flame, only dull red glow and pro-
!uSe pale, gray smoke, which, rising FROM
all sides at once, formed a sort OF canopy
over the scene. Throughout. this cloud bg
fits and starts the old squaws could be seen
forming the warriors in rows around the
eastern edge Of the exDanse, with the
younger bucks and squaws in rows behind
them. The warriors in the front row were
kneeling, the squaws behind them sitting
and the younger bucks standing behind
them.
Then the old squaws retired to the western
edge of the open ground, where they wers
screened from observation by the brush and
remained out OF sight for about ten minutes
During this time the picture was wild and
| impressive in an unusual degree. Seen bv
the smouldering light of the fires built in a
long oval about 40 feet in front of the line,
the warriors, with their women and children
behind them, knelt, or sat and stood in
absolute silence. They were all waiting
just what ior, the halfbreed on the hill
didn't know. When a ire would burn up
too bright and illuminate too clearly the
solemn groups near it q squaw would go and
pull the fagots away from the Goals and sub
due the flames.
CHANT OF THE OLD SQUAws.
When the old squaws returned they
joined hands and kneit down in tine center
OF the open. They began chanting what
sounded at first like a death song, but now
and again swelled into savagelY triumphant
| yells The smoke only parted at intervals
and while theschant was going on, but while
the strange scene was shut from view the
| warriors advanced from the ranks and
joining hands in a large circle around the
old squaws, began the ghost dance Their
chant was less shril than that started by
the squaws and was not so plainly heard. A
| portion OF it seemed lamentation for their
dead; then came the invitation to the dead
to arise and come hel p their brethren exter-
minaCe the white man.
The squaws had not been observed to
| leave the circle they had formed, but as the
warriors chant swelled into what the half
breed said was the invocation to the de-
parted Sioux to come back to earth the old
hags, one by one, stole like shadows under
the linked arms OF the braves, each with a
burning stick in her shriveled hand, the
light from which tell with gray ghastliness
on her painted face. This light for the frs.
time made visible to the watchers the iaces
| OF the braves themselves, and it was now
seen that they were in full war paint.
ALL IN FULL WAR PAINT.
The old women passed through the circle
| like a procession of speetres, each carrying
taper of grave wax to light her uuaccus-
toned feet over the rough surface Of the
valley. At all events that was what their
wild performances looked like from the hill
| top, and before the procession had more
than half passed through the circle the
smoke grew so thick and the clouds above
| the valley so dense that the hali-breed spy
declared the immediate necessity OF return
to the agency. Enough had been seen of
the ghost dance, which had then barely be
| gun, for report says it lasts we'll into the
morning and indeed until everybody con-
nected with it is exhausted, to bring out
/ clearly at least one significant fact. And
that was that the bucks had war paint on
their faces.
There is talk here that the Mormons are
| encouraging the Colorado, Montana, Utah
/ and idaho Indians to LOOK forward to thu
| determination Of the soldiers, agents and all
| white men in authority-except the Nor
mous-vheu the Red Savior eomes Tha1