The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-17
INDIAN CEREMONIAL DANCES
USUALLY PEACEABLE AFFAIRS,
RELIGIOUS OR SOCIAL.
Sometimes Awaken a Warlike Spirit
and Trouble Follows-Psrformed.
as a Matter of Duty.

I Most of the Indian wars and threat
ened uprisings of Indians of which W
hear are brought about by the preveI
ton Of the performance of their Ger e
: monies by the Indians, says D. S. Ric n
5 ardson in the Chicago Times-Herald. o
such nature are the ghost dances an,
> others. Although usually orderly anC
never INDUCED in with the avowed pur
pose of war, they have often awakened
the dormant war-like spirit of the red
SKINS and on this account the IndiaI
agents and officers at the army posts
, do all that they can to prevent them
each year, and those that were once in
dulged in are no longer seen.
The most noted among the Indians
for their dances were the Cheyenne,
Arapahoe and Sioux Indians. The Chip
Ipewas of Minnesota and Dakota indulg-
ed in these ceremonies to a less extent
than did most of their neighbors The
three tribes first mentioned, however,
were noted far and wide for the variety
and number of their dances. While now
the dances are of rare occurrence and
done in a perfunctory manner, it was
far different in the old days before the
Indian reached his present semi-civ-
ilized condition.
Indian dances are of three kinds-r.-
ligious ceremonial, secular ceremonj al
and social. The hoch-e-a-yum or mes1i-
cine dance of the Cheyennes and ARABIA
hoes is identical with the famous sun
dance of the Sioux, and all the wild
tribes had a dance which present ed the
same idea In the more warlilie ma
tons the dance was followed by horri-
BILE tortureS. The endurance of these
tortures with stoicism was a great hon
or. for they were looked upon as test
OF endurance. and, with the red men,
as everybody knows, endurance was
accounted as the greatest of human
| virtues. They were not a part of the
medicine dance. but followed it as a
supplemental ceremony.
! \ generation ago, when the Indian
youth desired to put away childish
I things and become a man, he was oblig-
ed to go through an ordeal as brutal
and bloody as it is possible to conceive.
At the close of every medicine dance
there would be a call for volunteers for
! torture Those who offered themselves
were usually young men, but now and
then, as an act of penance to eXpiate
some wrong. an old buck would offer
himself for torture. Those who volun-
teered for the torture would not join
in the dance, but spend the few days
preceding in fasting and seclusion.
When the old medicine men decided
that the proper time had arrived they
would send for the volunteers one by
one. First they were stripped and then
carefully examined to note if they were
likely TO undergo the torture without
fatal injury. After this examination
had been passed by all eligible there
were simple religious ceremonies, and
then the chief medicine man approach
ed with a sharp knife. On some he
would make sharp incisions, about two
inches apart, passing the knife through
~ VI
tween the incisions would be lifted up
and the ends of a horse hair rope pass
ed through and fastened to a piece of |
wood. The free ends of the rope were |
then fastened to the top of the lodge |
pole. Sometimes the incisionS would be |
made through the muscles of the back |
and the rope stretched to blocks of |
wood or buffalo skulls. Others were |
dragged I'D into the air and left to |
hang until their weight and struggles
tore out the. flesh and released them.
The candidates would remain with
out food or water in this condition I'M
til by their own efforts or the softening
of the tissues they were able to tear
themselves loose from the rope. Each
man would make the most strenuous
efforts to release himself. They realiz-
ed that it would be well to get loose
as soon as possible, not only because
the torture would be ended quickly,
but also from d religious point of view
as it was good medicine to tear loose
at once. but bad medicine TO be a
long time about it. AS soon as the vic
tim was freed he was examined by the
medicine chief and religious ceremonies
gone through with, after which the
wounds were dressed and the warrior
received the congratulations of his
friends.
Each tribe usually had one purely re-
ligiouS dance each year. If a tribe was
in good circumstances it would some
times have two or more. OF all the GER
emoniaI dances the medicine dance took
precedence and the scalp dance came
place on the day following the return
of a successful war party, and was
only participated in by the members of
that party. Before the dance a cere-
mony was performed by the warriors
who took the scalps, no one else being
permitted to be present or to see what
was done. Those who took part in this
would form a circle. when the skin of
the scalps would be cured and all the
feshy matter removed. Then each
scalp would be stretched on wooden
stick and the hair dressed. Each war
rior then attached his scalps to a small
pole.
pleted the circle was broken and all the
warriors marched back to the camp and
planted their poles, with the dangling
scalps, in a circle in the middle of the
spot selected for the dance. Those who
had scalps were then Joined by others
who had taken part in the fight, and
who had thus won a right to take part
in the dance.
A circle would be formed by the party
around the scalp-laden poles. At a sig
nal, the warriors joined hands and COM
menced a monotonous song keeping
time with slow steps while turning
about the scalps. Faster and faster
grew the dance, wilder and wilder. AS
it progressed, whoops and yells We're
uttered. Higher and higher the men
would leap, loosing hands and bran
their weapons. This would con-
tinue until not only the dancers but
those who witnessed the ceremony,
would become intoxicated with mad ex-
element. Then one of the participants
would spring from the circle and stand
ing IL the middle, would relate his
story and by his actions repeat again
and again the operation of taking
scalps. When he finished, another took
his place and told of his personal Prov
ess, while finally those who had no
scalps would tell of their deeds and
how the bad god" had prevented them
from securing any scalps.
The two dances I have mentioned
were the great ones of the two wild
tribes. There was also the green-corn ;
dance of the Sioux and the Navajos,
which took place in honor of the ripen- J