Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1890-11-06
The Sioux Looking for Messiah.

A chapter Of unusual interest in the re-
EZiouS history of the world, or something
very nearly akin To religious history, is
The remarkable report which comes from
the Sioux Indians relative to the expected
coming of the New Messiah" The re-
port is not simply a story Of the strange,
religious or >uperstitious ideas of savage
race; it j. wl.>: all religious ideas have
been since human life began, a sort of
Thermometer measuring the degree of pro-
gress and civilization in the world In
other words, having as given quantity
the average religious ideas which prevail
among any people, it would be easy for a
person skilled in the religious lore of the
world, to tell at once and with approx
mate accuracy the progress which that
people have made in civilization, educa-
ton and moral advancement.
And what is true of races. tribes and ma
tions is also true of individuals. In this
age and country, as well as in all past ages
and in all countries, the individual sees
relative to God and His laws and govern
lnent, just what such individuals advance
mtnt and moral progress make him capa-
hle Of seeing-nothing more, nothing less.
For reasons such as these the following
j. q matter of deep and peculiar interest.
1t is more than a piece of interesting
news; it is a sort of religious mercury
which, as it falls or rises, designates the
mental and moral status of the Sioux In
dians. The report says:
The Indian Bureau has received from
Agent Mclaughlin, at the Standing Rock
Indian Agency, report upon the prospec-
tive outbreak among the Sioux in con-
sequence of the promised coming of
the New Messiah" The agent says:
II trust that | may not be considered
an alarmist, and do not wish to be IN
derstood as considering the present state
of excitement so alarming as to apprehend
any immediate uprising or serious out
come, but do feel it my duty to report
the present craze and nature of the eX-
element existing among the Sitting Bull
faction of Indians over the expected In
dian millennium, the humiliation of the
white man and supremacy of the Indian
which is looked for soon and promised by
tie Indian medicine man as not later than
next spring, when the new grass begins to
appear, and is known among the Sioux as
the return of the ghosts Some members
of the Sioux tribe who have lately de-
veloped into medicine men say that the
Great Spirit has promised them that their
punishment by the dominant race has been
sufficient and that their numbers having
now become so decimated, will be rein
forced by all Indians who are dead that
the dead are all returning to reinhabt this
earth, which belongs to the Indians; that
they are driving back with them as they
return immense herds of buffalo and ele-
CANT wild horses to have for the catching;
that the Great Spirit promises them that
the white men will be unable to make gun
powder in future, and all attempts at such
will be failure and that the gunpowder
now on hand will be useless as against In
dians, as it will not throw a bullet with
sufficient force to pass through the skin of
an Indian that the Great Spirit mad de-
serted the Indians for long period but is
now with them, and against the whites,
and will cover the earth over with thirty
feet of additional soil, well sodded and
timbered, under which the whites will all
be smothered, and any whites who may es-
cape this great phenomenon will become
fishes in the rivers of the country, but in
order to bring about this happy result the
Indians must do their part and become be-
levers and thoroughly organize"