Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-11-29
BISHOP HARE ON THE SIOUX.
The Veteran Missionary Writes East That the
Messiah Craze is Waning.

The veteran Missionary Writes East That the
Messiah Craze is Waning.
Secretary Herbert Welsh of the Indian Rights
Association in Philadelphia recently wrote to
Bishop Hare of South Dakota, who has been
engaged in missionary work among the Sioux
Indians for great many years, asking infor-
nation as to the threatened uprising due to the
Messiah craze, of which SO much haS appeared
in print. In reply, says the Philadelphia Press
today, Mr.. Welsh received the following clip
ping from Sioux Falls newspaper, taken from
Thursdays issue:
Bishop Hare returned yesterday from pro-
tracted stay on the Sioux reservation. While
there he had an excellent opportunity to view
the condition Of the Indians and to examine
into what is termed the Messiah craze He has
visited nearly all the agencies during the year,
and about October l was at Standing Rock.
He has been in constant correspondence with
Indian missionaries of the Episcopal church
and is probably able to give as correct an
opinion upon the situation any one living.
He furnished the following for the press:
1.-The spread OF civilization has alarmed the
heather party. Pressed on the one hand by
the advance of the whites and on the other by
the civilized and progressive party among the
Indians the wilder Indians find then! selves cor
nered and are like wild animals at bay. a state
which is apt to give rise to decisions and des-
pcrGte measures. Hence has arisen. think
the present delusion. which. promising as it
does the confusion of all civilized people and
the survival Of the advocates of the old Indian
life, comes to the wild Indians very oppor-
tunely and has to an alarming degree taken
possession of their minds. They gather to-
gether at points removed as much as possible
from observation and interference. and
there, by harangues and songs and dances.
into Of
destroying the implements and symbols of
civilization and supplanting them by relics of
barbarism. The excitement is. however con-
fined to particular locations. and in many parts
of the Indian country one hears less of il than
he does in Sioux Falls. ANY attack of the In
dams upon our forts and settlements seems to
ME utterly improbable. The Almighty is about
to dispose of the whites quite cffoctually, ac-
cording to the preaching of their prophets.
$50 far as am able to judge, the movement is
not gaining, but rather the reverse. should
fear the results of forcible interference with
them in their present excitement. Time will
reveal the deception practiced by the ringlead-
ers, for the promised crisis will not come and
meanwhile. the Indians will have danced them
selves out. Their prophets have said that the
quaking of the earth and the coming of the Mes.
sIah would occur at the next new moon, and
when their predictions are not fulfilled their
excitement will be allayed.
"All have doubtless read more or less in the
newspapers Of the delusion which has taken
possession of the minds of the wilder element
among the Indians. The leaders in the move
ment have invigorated old heather ideas with
snatches of Christian truth, and have managed
to excite an amount Of enthusiasm which is
amazing. They teach that the Son of God will
presently appear as the avenger OF the cause of
the wild Indian: the earth will shiver; "a great
wave Of new earth will overapread the present
face of the world and bury all the whites an d
all Indians who initiate their ways while the
real Indians will find themselves on the surface
of the new earth, basking in the light. The old
ways will ali be restored in primitive vigor and
glory, and the buffalo, antelope and deer will
return.
.'The devotees of these ideas are dressed, In
their exercises, in special garb Ga shirt made
of calico and worn like blouse, called by them
the hole or mysterious shirts, being its chief
ers and songs in which they cry, The buffalo are
comingr the people form rings by joining
hands and whirf themselves round and round
in wild dances until they fall to the ground I'M
conscious They are then said to be dead
Their leaders promise that while in this state
they will be transported to the spirit world and
will sec their friends who have died and The
Son Of God, and accordingly, when they reoavSs
consciousness, they-tel Of the strange visions
they have enjoyed.
II look upon the movement a. the etc-t y,
vigor and reinstate itself. MANY Of tba nv, ;ss
sionaries have long been exnectine snn ohis :
struggle. OF course this strange craze rav;xss
many dear memories and appeals stroneiv 20
the race feeling even in the civilized InS;ans
In these old ideas the being Of many off them
moves with the esse Of old habit lie mo
chinery well oiled.