The age-herald., 1898-10-13
INDIAN GHOST AND
 CEREMONIAL DANCES
D. s. Richardson in the Chicago Times

D. s. Richardson in the Chicago Times Herald.
 Most of the Indian wars and threatened uprisings of Indians of which we hear are brought about by the prevention of the per- formance of their ceremonies by the h. dians. Of such nature are the ghost dances and others. Although usually or dery and never indulged in with the avow- ed purpose of war, they have often awak- ened the dormant warlike spirit of the red- skins. and on this account the Indian agents and officers at the army posts do all that they can to prevent them. Hence the dances grow less numerous each year, and those that were once indulged in are no longer seen.
 The most noted among the Indians for their dances were the Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Sioux Indians The Chippewas of Min nesota and Dakota indulged in these cere- monies to a less extent than did most of their neighbors. The three tribes first men, toned however, were noted far and wide for the variety and number of their dances. While now the dances are of rare occur renee and done in perfunctory manner, it was far different in the old days before the Indian reached his present semi-civilized condition
 Indian dances are of three kinds-religous ceremonial, secular ceremonial and social. The hoch-e-a-yum or medicine dance of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes is identical with the famous sun dance of the Sioux, and all the wild tribes had dance which presented the same idea. In the more warlike nations the dance was followed by horrible tortures. The endurance of these tortures with stoic- ism was great honor, for they were looked upon as a test of endurance, and with the red men, as everybody knows, endurance was accounted the greatest of human vir- tues. They were not a part of the medicine dance, but followed 1t as a supplemental ceremony.
 A generation ago. when the Indian youth desired to put away childish things and be- come a man, he was obliged to go through an ordeal as brutal and bloody as it is pos sible 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 an then, as an act of penance to plate some wrong, an old buck would offer himself for the torture. Those who volun- teered for the torture did not join in the dance, but spent 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 ex- amined to note if it were likely that they could undergo the torture without fatal injury. After this examination had been passed by all eligible there were simple re- ligous ceremonies, and then the chief medi- cine man approached with sharp knife. On some men he would make sharp incis- ions, two vertical incisions on each breast, about two inches apart, passing the knife through the pectoral muscles. The portions between the incisions would be lifted up and the ends of a horse hair rope passed through and lasted to 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 up into the air and left to hang until their weight and struggles tore out the flesh and released them.
 
 food or water in this condition until by their own efforts or the softening of their tissues they were able to tear themselves loose from the rope. Each man would make the most strenuous efforts to release him. self They realized that it would be well to get loose as soon as possible, not only because the torture would be more quickly ended, but also from a religious point of view as it was "good medicine to tear loose at once, but 'bad medicine to be a long time about 1t. 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 l congratulations of h.s friends.
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 1 Each tribe usually had one purely re- | ligious dance each year. If a tribe was | in good circumstances it would sometimes | have two or more. Of all the ceremonial | dances the medicine dance took preced- l ence and the scalp dance came next in inn portance. Ths always took place on the | day following the return of a successful war party, andf was only participated in by l the members of that party Before the | dance a ceremony 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 l this would form a circle, when the skin of | the scalps would be cured and all feshy l matter removed. Then each scalp would | be stretched on wooden stick and the 1 hair dressed. Each warrior then attached hs scalps to a small pole When this ceremony had been completed l the circle was broken and all the warriors | marched back to the camp and planted l their poles, with the dangling scalps, in a l circle in the middle of the spot selected for l the dance Those who had scalps were | then joined by others who had taken part