The times., 1899-10-01

OGDEN, Utah, Sept. 30.-when the red
man goes through the wild gyrations of
the ghost dance it is time for the whites to
look to their rifles and be ready for treach-
cry. The White River Uncompaghre and
Uintah Utes have just finished one of
these frenzied worshipings of the Great
Father, and the guardians OF the peace in
the vicinity of the dancing are watching
narrowly for the outcome. The Indians
are not allowed to indulge in any of the
wild orgies of the tribes without the con-
sent cf the Indian agents, and so when H.
P. Myton, the Indian agent at White
rocks, Utah, was approached by the lead
ers of the Utes and asked permission for
the ghost dance to be celebrated he per-
emptorily refused, knowing by experience
what followed the frenzed antics of the
red men when this ceremony is gone
through.
The Indians gathered at the agency,
| however, 2.000 strong, and obtained the
permission of Mr.. Myton to dance the
harvest dance, a comparatively harmless
exercise. The permission obtained the
Indians built an enclosure to keep out
prying white men and kodak fiends Es-
pSbloiis NciS iAOy N6SlHOiS I'll Keeping
away the camera manipulation, for the rea-
son, as explained by MIR Myton, that they
have superstition that if a picture is
taken of them at the time of the ceremon-
ial dances just that much Of their life will
have gone out from them.
They had an enclosure probably 900
feet around" writes Mr.. Myton, to friend
here, all fenced in with brush, with the
exception of an entrance about four feet
! across. In the centre was pole ON which
was fixed the head of buffalo When the
time came for the dance TO begin over
hundred Indians, of from twenty
one to thirty years of age, entered the
enclosure and took their places around the
pole.
Every man was nude except for breech-
cloth. To the accompaniment of wailing
music and weird sounding instruments the
dancing began. AS they danced the braves
cried to the Great Father to send the buffalo
back and take the white man away. There
was little of the harvest dance about il. II
was the ghost dance, whatever name they
might call it. This was always dance for
the purpose of making bad medicine
In former years the Indians would tor
ture themselves most horribly, go without
food and drink for four days and nights
strip their skin loose and nail 1t to a post,
and then fall back and pull the skin from
the flesh, and take other horrible means of
torturing themselves, those who could stand
the most suffering being the heroes of the
occasion. Death came to many during the
wild dance. OF late it has been dance OF
death TO some for, although the braves
do not torture Themselves a ley once did
they continue to dance without eating or
drinking for days together until. they drop
to the ground exhausted, sometimes TO lie
there until they die, for to fall during the
dance is TO inspire contempt rather than
pity among the stronger dancers.
''On this occasion the wild cries of the
dancers could be heard far outside the en-
closure. II was useless TO interfere as
well as risky, for the Indians were in
dangerous mood, and all around the en-
closure were massed those who did not
take part in the wild gyrations, but who
were as maddened as those inside, owing
to the fact that the cries of those who flung
themselves through the movements of the
dance could be heard so plainly that they
lashed the listeners into almost as much
frenzy as the dancers themselves.
AS the wild racket died down it became
evident that the Indians believed that the
understanding wrath of the Great Father
had been appeased. That boded no good TO
the white man. So | mixed with the In
dians TO learn their intentions. / soon
found out. Twenty years ago the White
River Ute Indians murdered a family
named Mecker, in Colorado. AT that time
the Indians had land in Colorado and
might have had it still but for this upris-
ing and the Mecker massacre.
For this crime the Utes were banished
from Colorado and ordered to pay pension
of $4,000 to the heirs of their victims They
have writhed under the infiction ever since.
and / learned that one of the results of the
dance just held was that the tribe had
firmly resolved to return on their trail to
Colorado and wrest the lost land from the
hands of the whites. The White River
Utes, | learned, had purposely made bad
medicine at the dance TO work up the
others to the desired pitch of frenzy where
they would be willing to join an expedition
into the forbidden territory.
81 sought out the most powerful chief and
tried to dissuade him by showing him the
folly of such raid into the white mans
land, but It was quite without avail. /
threatened and warned, but the only answer
| got was that the start would be made
as soon as the present moon is full. They
are now all camped in bunch, and the
bucks who are still allied to old Sowowie,
who says he will lead shem back to Col
orado, are Wild with anger and drunk with
the dancing. AS soon as the Green River
has gone down so that it will permit of
their taking their ponies md squaws across,
they say they will strike their tents