Omaha daily bee., 1919-09-26

An Indian messiah, known under
the name of Wovoka, Kwchitsuag
and Jack Wilson, Piute, came into
Nevada. He claimed to have been
to heaven, and from him sprang up
a new religion, included in the
ritual of which was the ghost
dance" The religion spread like
wildfire, its proselytes number
ing thousands. Short Bull, chief
of the Sioux from the Rosebud
reservation, and other Sioux dele
gates from other reservations visited
the messiah. They returned about
March, 1890.
Ghost Dance Menace.
Soon after their return ghost
dances" started, dances where the
Indians danced until they worked
themselves into a frepzy and fell ex-
hausted, only to regain conscious
ness even more frenzied and fanati-
cal. Short Bull preached the doc
trine and advent of the messiah in
the Rosebud reservation; Chief Red
Cloud preached it in the Pine Ridge
reservation, Chief Sitting Bull
preached it in the Sanding Rock
reservation, Chief Kicking Bear
preached it in the Cheyenne River
reservation. On October 9, 1890,
Kicking Bear went to Standing
Rock by invitation of Sitting Bull
and inaugurated the dance on Grand
River.
Excitement grew in the reserva-
tons. Efforts were made to stop
the "ghost dances" The dances
could not be stopped. Reports of
the most alarming nature startled
the country and Indian agents called
upon the military authorities for aid.
The War department finally took
charge of the situation, and thus it
was, on November q, 1890, tele-
graphic orders were received by Col
onel Carr of the Sixth cavalry mott
flying him to prepare for a change
of station and to take the field in the
Dakotas.
Jack Pershing, with all the other
officers of the Sixth, made hasty ar
engagements for the transfer, and, ON
December |, final orders were re-
ceived. The troops entrained imme-
diately and proceeded north through
New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and
Nebraska. They detrained Decem-
her 9 at Rapid City, S. D., on the
eastern slope of the Black Hills.
5000 in Field.
With the arrival of the Sixth cav
airy 5000 troops were in the field.
General, Miles meantime had been
placed in charge of the department
Of the Missouri and was ready for
any eventuality. He established his
headquarters at Rapid City and the
of the Sioux war found him
The Sixth cavalry, with Second
John Joseph Pershing,
after detraining on De-
cember 9, 1890, at Rapid City, S. D.,
was given a leading part in the
bloody Sioux campaign.
Indians equal in numbers to the
total force of troops in the field,
fully 5000 Indians, indeed, led by
Chiefs Short Bull, Kicking Bear and
others, had fled from their homes on
the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reser-
vations and gathered in the Bad |
Lands, threatening to precipitate the
bloodicst Indian war in our history.
Sitting Bull Changes Mind.
Three days later, December II,
Colonel Drum, in command at Fort
Yates, was ordered to arrest Chief
Sitting Bull, who was in camp on
the Standing Rock reservation. Sit
ting Bull, the government knew,
planned mischief. All his life he
had been an irreconcilable hostile,
ever plotting uprisings of the In
dams. 1t was at his, camp and on
MS invitation that Kicking Bear had
the first Ghost Dances"
which were a part of the ritual of