How The Ghost Dance Came To The Lakota

"The Ghost Dance Of The Oglala Lakota At Pine Ridge," by Frederic Remington.
How The Ghost Dance Came To The Lakota
From The Northwest To The Great Plains
By Dakota Wind
GREAT PLAINS - The origin of the Ghost Dance stemmed from the introduction of Christianity to the native people of the Northwest, specifically the Shaker Movement in which Christians prayed and danced for the Second Appearance of Jesus Christ.

Pictured here is the Rev. John Slocum. The Indian Shaker church still exists today.

In October 1881, a Squaxin Indian man living on the Southwestern arm of Puget Sound known locally as John Slocum knelt down in the woods to pray. Slocum reflected about the impacts that hard liquor, gambling, idleness, and general vice had affected his life and the life of his people. He took ill and by all accounts, died. By those same accounts, later in the day, Slocum revived and told everyone of his journey to heaven, where he was given a choice: either go to hell or return to the world and minister to his people. He chose to live again.

Slocum’s shaker ministry quickly spread to the native population in the Northwest, causing some unease among settlers because the Indian Shakers had their own priests and built their own churches. The Presbyterian ministers actively sought to include the Indian shakers in the body of the Presbyterian Church.

The Indian shakers became known for visiting the shut-in and sick, and just as known for praying themselves into a trance over the same. A ritual followed the trance in which the sickness was pulled out of the patient and absorbed by the priest/medicine man who fell down dead and the patient recovered.

 

James Moony worked for the Bureau of Ethnology. Moony traveled to various native reservations to preserve and analyze as many native traditions as he could. He wrote many ethnological reports, one of which was his "The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890."

James Mooney, author of The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee, collected the story of two shaker medicine men venturing south into central Oregon to a tribe there where they apprenticed a young Indian man of the tribes, whom Mooney postulates could be none other than Wovoka, The Cutter.

Wovoka was the son of a highly respected medicine man or prophet of the Indian people in Mason Valley, called Tavibo. Tavibo died about 1870, leaving a fourteen-year-old Wovoka. Wovoka came into the employment of David Wilson and was given the Anglo name, Jack Wilson. David Wilson employed Wovoka until about 1886, when Wovoka decided it was time to share his experience of heaven and the message he received.

During the solar eclipse of August, 1868, Wovoka had fallen asleep and was taken up to heaven. There he saw all the people who had already departed and he met with God. Wovoka received the mission to go back to his people and tell them “They must be good and love one another, have no quarrelling, and live in peace with the whites; that they must work, and not lie or steal; that they must put away the old practices that savored of war; that if they faithfully obeyed his instructions they would at last be reunited with their friends in this other world, where there would be no more death or sickness or old age.”

Wovoka is seated here with leaders of the Northern Arapaho tribe.

Wovoka was given a dance to take to the Indian peoples, a dance which must be performed for five consecutive days. Mooney, who interviewed Wovoka when he made a study of the Ghost Dance religion in December, 1890 to April 1891, said that Wovoka disclaimed responsibility and association with the Ghost Dance shirt which had become an important part of the Sioux Ghost Dance. In fact, Wovoka asserted to Mooney, that it was “better to follow the white man’s road, and to adopt the habits of civilization,” and that his religion or practices were ones of universal peace. 

Wovoka had gone to live among the Paiute Indians of Utah and spread his message and vision. From there his message spread east to the Northern Arapaho and Shoshoni of Wyoming, then on to the Lakota and Cheyenne. A few of the Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan became caught up in the news from Fort Washakie, WY.

In the fall of 1889, three principle delegates, Porcupine (a Northern Cheyenne from Montana), Kicking Bear (Mniconjou Lakota, Cheyenne River Agency, SD) and Short Bull (Sicangu Lakota, Rosebud Agency, SD) made a pilgrimage to Fort Washakie to hear about the Ghost Dance for them selves.

 

Fort Washakie in 1892.

The Ogallala Lakota, Sword, had this to say, “In 1889, the Ogalala [sic] heard that the son of God had come upon earth in the west. They said the messiah was there, but he had come to help the Indians and not the whites, and it made the Indians happy to hear this.”

Porcupine, Kicking Bear, and Short Bull didn’t stop at Fort Washakie, but continued on to Pyramid Lake stopping along the way to witness the Ghost Dance. According to Porcupine, they were treated with kindness by the whites as they journeyed to the lake, and that even the whites participated in the Ghost Dance.

From Pyramid Lake, the delegation journeyed to Walker Lake where Wovoka himself led the Ghost Dance. After the dance there, Wovoka entered into a trance. According to Porcupine, Wovoka awoke and proclaimed to all that he went to heaven, saw all those who had died before, and that he had been sent back to instruct the native people. Porcupine essayed further that Wovoka claimed to be the returned Christ, that the dead would be resurrected, the Indian people would live forever; that there would be universal peace, and death and destruction to those who refused his message.

The delegation returned home.

The Ghost Dance at Sitting Bull's camp along the Grand River in South Dakota, on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. Unknown photographer, 1890.

In October, 1890, Kicking Bear introduced the Ghost Dance to Standing Rock at Sitting Bull’s invitation to perform the dance at his camp along the Grand River. The Indian Agent, Major James McLaughlin, dispatched the Indian police to arrest Kicking Bear, but they returned to the agent’s office unsuccessful. Sitting Bull promised McLaughlin that Kicking Bear would leave when he was finished, which he did after two days.  Sitting Bull didn’t not discourage the Ghost Dance on Standing Rock, and on the Cheyenne River reservation, the Indian police couldn’t stop Big Foot’s band from dancing.

It is important to note that as the Ghost Dance was coming to a head North and South Dakota had recently entered the Union as states. Indian reservations were made smaller. Hunting grounds were being settled and turned into farmland. Traditional and culturally significant landmarks were given over to citizens for farming or ranching. Drought had caused native farmers’ crops to fail two years in a row and those who received government issued rations received a third to a half of what was promised by treaty. People were nearly starving. It was a desperate time and the native peoples turned to a desperate faith.

 

General Nelson A. Miles pictured here with former U.S. Army Scout Buffalo Bill Cody. Together they survey the field after Wounded Knee.

General Miles, of Civil War fame and for capturing Indian leaders like Chief Joseph and Geronimo, advised that no additional military force was necessary, to let the Ghost Dance run its course, that “the excitement would die out of itself.” Indian agents at Lakota Sioux agencies became increasingly alarmed because they could not stop the dancing.

On October 31, 1890, Short Bull rounded up his Ghost Dance followers and encouraged them to gather in one place and prepare for the coming of the messiah, even if they were surrounded by troops, even if they were fired upon. The Lakota who participated in the Ghost Dance firmly believed that their Ghost Dance shirts made them impervious to bullets; that the bullets would pass through them without causing injury.

On November 17, 1890, soldiers were ordered to report throughout the Indian agencies at Cheyenne River, Lower Brule, Rosebud, and Pine Ridge, under the field command of General Miles, altogether about 3,000 soldiers. No action was needed as the mere presence of soldiers was enough to dissuade dancers from dancing. John Noble, Secretary of the Interior, immediately ordered full rations to be distributed as was agreed to in treaty.

Farmers near New Salem rally to defend themselves against the perceived Ghost Dance threat. The farmers even went so far as to build an earthen fort, even cristening it "Fort Saurkraut." This farmer's volunteer militia wasn't authorized by General Miles or the Department of War. Unknown photographer, 1890.

The Department of War assumed control of Standing Rock, with arresting Sitting Bull as the next step. To convince Sitting Bull that his cooperation was necessary, former US Military Scout William F. Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, was sent to persuade Sitting Bull to turn himself in. Cody arrived at Fort Yates on November 28, 1890, but his orders to continue to Sitting Bull’s camp were halted by Agent McLaughlin.

According to Mooney, Agent McLaughlin believed that a conflict would follow if the military were to arrest Sitting Bull. The military arrest was delayed on the advice of McLaughlin who told Cody that he’d send Indian police, which he did on December 14^th, 1890. Lt. Bull Head lead the attempt to arrest Sitting Bull came with the dawn on Dec. 15 and ended in disaster with the death of Sitting Bull and seven of his followers, and the death of Bull Head and seven of his police officers.

Traditional Lakota Courtship

Saint Valentine recieves a rosary from the Virgin Mary.

Traditional Lakota Courtship
Lakota Demonstrations Of Affection

By Dakota Wind
GREAT PLAINS - Valentine’s Day is a day most associated with romantic love, often celebrated with affectionate cards, fresh flowers, or gifting of sweets to loved ones. Its my understanding that celebrating Valentine’s Day as it is celebrated today wasn’t always so, that it wasn’t until the Middle Ages that the saint’s day became associated with courtly love.

Amongst the Lakota there is a courting practice, an old tradition seldom performed today, but reaching back nearly a thousand years, and it starts with serenading one’s object of affection with the haunting sound of flute music.

Like many ancient world traditions, the Lakota used to arrange marriages for their daughters. This practice, along with polygamous marriages (when a man took more than one wife), have not been put into practice in well over a century.

The origin of the flute on the Northern Plains has many stories, about as many stories as there are tribes with variations among the bands or clans of those tribes.

Kevin Locke from his Makoche album "Open Circle." Artistically speaking, it is Kevin's best piece of work. Gratify yourself and get a copy on Amazon or buy it through Makoche in Bismarck, ND.

Traditional flute-players Bryan Akipa and Kevin Locke tell the story of a young man who fell in love with a young woman a long time ago. The young man became so smitten around the woman of his affections, that he found he could not talk to her. Motivated by his silence of melancholy, the young man removed himself from the village.

They say this young man came to the river and followed it. He eventually came to rest under the shade of a tree; some say it was a cedar tree. He fell asleep, or as he was drifting off to sleep, he heard the wind passing through the branches of the tree. In the branches of the tree were holes that a woodpecker had drilled, probably looking for termites or bore beetles. As the wind passed over the holes of the branch, a melody was produced.

Some say that it was the personification of elk who came to visit the young man and gifted him with the flute because they were moved by his inability to articulate his feelings to the young woman of his affections. Some say he merely reached up and carefully removed the branch and the birds taught him how to sing with it.

Englishman Paul Goble renders the first flute story in his book "Love Flute" which is published by Aladdin Paperbacks. The look and feel of the book is based on pictographs of the Plains Indians.

However he came to possess the flute, he learned its art. Then he returned to his village. He played his flute from the outskirts of the encampment, perhaps from the top of a hill or perhaps upwind so that his music could carry.

The young woman with whom he was in love with knew immediately that the music was for her. She returned his affections and they became a couple.

I have always been interested in when something happened. Like the flute story. When did the flute appear on the Northern Plains? I like to ask flute-players when they think the flute came to be, but the answer is almost always a resounding “a long time.” Then one day I asked Keith Bear, a Mandan-Hidatsa flute-player when the flute came to be. He quietly reflected that when he was young he had asked a grandfather that same question who in turn told him that when he was young, had asked the same question of a grandfather and was told, “They [the flutes] have been around for the span of ten grandfather’s lives.”

Keith Bear poses regally in a traditional quilled war shirt and carried a beautiful crane flute. He, like Kevin Locke, recorded at Makoche in Bismarck.

It was a puzzle to figure out, the span of ten grandfather’s lives. Keith ruminated that a grandfather’s life could be anywhere from forty to 100. Who knew the answer? I turned to renowned Plains Indian archaeologist Dr. Ray Wood and asked him how long the whistle has been on the northern plains, for in Lakota, one word for whistle is the same as flute, while flute also has another name for it.

As I was waiting for Dr. Wood’s response to my query, I came across the Brown Hat Winter Count in which the span of a grandfather’s life is measured at about seventy-five winters (years). I took this as a good sign, for the Mandan and Hidatsa are long ago relatives of the Lakota. Being that Keith is a grandfather himself, and he had asked a grandfather too, we could easily today say that the flute has been on the Northern Plains for the span of twelve grandfathers. Twelve times seventy-five equals 900. Now subtract 900 from the year I asked, which was back in 2000, we arrive at the year AD 1100.

Here's one of Dr. Wood's many works about the archaeology and history on the Northern Plains. Dr. Wood might not have had the excitement of Indiana Jones, but at one point fifty some years ago, he and several other archaeologists worked feverishly to salvage what they could when the dams were built by the Army Corps of Engineers back in the 1950s.

I eventually received a reply from Dr. Wood. He graciously and swiftly responded (in two weeks) and sent me images of the whistles he personally recovered from a few sites along the Upper Missouri River. He dated them to the year AD 1100.

In contrast of the flute story where the young man courts the affections of the woman and wins her heart is the story of the Homely Girl.

A long time ago, as these stories go, a young girl was relentlessly teased about her looks. She wasn’t regarded in any way beautiful. In the version I heard, she lived with her grandmother, and she was in love with the chief’s son. The grandmother was in a way, the fairy god-mother of this story.

A day came when the chief wanted to arrange the marriage of his son and he made an announcement to the people. The chief’s son was considered by many to be not just brave in battle but quite handsome in appearance. All the single young women of the village wanted to be the wife of the chief’s son. The chief proclaimed that a test would determine who would be his son’s wife.

I haven't heard the story of the Homely Girl since I was little, but the story of the "Rough-Face Girl" by Rafe Martin and David Shannon is close. Buy yourself a copy of this beautiful story.

Perhaps it was a year that passed as the women prepared for the test, perhaps a summer only, I don’t recollect that detail, but they prepared. When the young women heard that the homely girl wanted to participate, they scoffed and openly mocked her efforts.

The test consisted of a demonstration of domestic life, which at that time meant food preparation, building a fire, and a host of other skills like tanning and making moccasins.

The homely girl’s grandmother took her granddaughter out in the summer field and showed her which turnips to pick to make soup with, and they plaited them together into one long braid. The grandmother took her granddaughter into the woods and showed her which wood to pick for starting a fire and which wood to pick to burn the longest. The grandmother showed her granddaughter how best to set up the tipi and take it down in wind and rain, in the heat and cold.

The time of the test arrived, and the chief and his son visited all the families who had suitors. They visited the beautiful and the daughters of other chiefs, many who rushed to prepare food, who couldn’t maintain a fire, whose impatience showed in their beadwork or quillwork, or who couldn’t assemble or disassemble a tipi swiftly enough to satisfy the chief.

They came at last to the homely girl’s demonstration. She made simple moccasins with hard soles and modest accents of quillwork. She built a fire and it lasted through the night. For much of their time, the chief and his son quietly watched the homely girl in her demonstrations.

The test came to an end. The beautiful women were confident one of them would be chosen. The daughters of other chiefs were confident were confident one of them would chosen. At the end of the day, though, it was the homely girl who was chosen for her quality of character was revealed in her craft and preparation. She was not haughty, she was not impatient, and she did not spite any of her rivals.

In the first story, the lesson men should take is patience, and to find one’s voice. A natural lesson is to be learned from it too is that in nature it is the male who must prove his worth to the female.

In the second story, the virtues that Lakota women should practice are humility and patience. Virtue wins out in the end.

Attacks On Fort Abraham Lincoln

An aerial view of Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, 1963.

Attacks On Fort Abraham Lincoln

Fort Faces Gunfire And Skirmishes

By Dakota Wind
MANDAN, N.D. - The following is an excerpt from the article “Embracing a relation of the history of the state from the earliest times down to the present day, including the biographies of the Builders of the Commonwealth” which was published by the Bismarck Tribune in 1910 in the “History of North Dakota.” This article features the skirmishes surrounding Fort Abraham Lincoln. It should be noted that the Fort Abraham Lincoln military reservation itself was about twenty-three square miles, which is about 15,000 acres. The Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park today encompasses only 1,100 acres.

These were the ominous figures on the northern line of Sioux unceded land through which the Northern Pacific was to pass. The survey had been carried on to the Missouri river without serious interference from the Indians, and it as much menaced until the Hunkpapa leaders had gathered about them a very considerable force, composed of the fiercest and most bitter of the Sioux nation. There is not doubt that up to the summer of 1872 the work of the leaders was directed to getting the spirit of the Indians aroused. And they succeeded in drawing the Cheyennes into their quarrel. August 14, 1872, a column of the Second cavalry was attacked in Montana by Black Moon a the head of a considerable body of Sioux and Cheyennes. Two whites were killed and a number of Indians killed and wounded. The Indians might have pursued the advantage they had, and inflicted more injury on the soldiers, but for a strange policy they pursued of quitting when a battle was well night [sic] won.

WARFARE NEAR BISMARCK

Sitting Bull wears a hat with a monarch butterfly affixed to it.

This affair started the entire hostile element into activity. Twelve days later a war party attacked a detail of the Sixth Infantry from Fort Abraham Lincoln. The soldiers with some ‘Ree scouts were making a reconnoisance [sic] about twelve miles west of Bismarck when attacked. Two of the ‘Rees were killed. The affair indicated that Sitting Bull had influenced his people nearer at home to make trouble close to the settlements and Bismarck was threatened by many alarms. October 2, about four hundred Sioux attacked Fort Lincoln itself, but were repulsed by the troops after they had killed three ‘Rees -- who seem to have born the brunt of the battle in these skirmishes. There was fighting on the White River about the first of October and on the 14th a big party made a demonstration against Fort Lincoln. A company of the Sixth and body of scouts were sent out against the marauders and drove them off, with the loss of two men. The Indians suffered again, losing at least three men. These affairs took place right on the threshold of civilization for by this time the white man had advanced to the Missouri with the determination to stay.

A picture of General Custer, after the Civil War and during his Indian fighting days. He was actually a Lieutenant Colonel at the time of his death, but out of respect for the rank he once held during the Civil War, he was called "General."

An attempt was made to negotiate another treaty with the Indians to open the way for the surveyors, but it was ineffective and while it was going on, in the spring of 1873, three distincts attacks were made on Fort Lincoln. Lt. Col. Carlin was in command and he drove the Indians off on each occasion with some loss, but the eyes of the authority were opened to the reality of the menace of these attacks and Lt. Col. Geo. A. Custer, with the Seventh Cavalry, was sent to establish headquarters at Fort Lincoln and clear the hostiles out of the country, which marked the beginning of the end of Custer and the dashing organization he brought with him. The coming of Custer assembled in North Dakota and the adjacent territory the elements which entered into the playing out of the tragedy of the Indian and the breaking of the power of the Sioux nation.

It was the perspective of the Hunkpapa Lakota that Forts Rice and Lincoln represented the arrival of the US military and signaled that settlers were here to stay. The Ihanktowana (Yanktonai) were already pushed west across the Missouri after the punitive campaigns of Generals Sibley and Sully after the Dakota Conflict in Minnesota of 1862. The Cheyenne at one time dwelled on the west bank of the Missouri River, and viewed the river as a boundary line themselves. It was easy for the Hunkpapa Lakota to pique the Cheyenne by rousing their need for self-preservation.

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 stated the boundaries of the Great Sioux Nation, and that no surveyors, minors, nor settlers could enter those lands. The Hunkpapa had every right to believe they were defending their lands, especially after Fort McKeen and Fort Abraham Lincoln were built at the convergence of the Heart and Missouri Rivers, one of the boundary markers of the Great Sioux Nation, and the site of the Battle of Heart River in 1803 that determined Lakota territory.

The Treaty of Fort Abraham Lincoln, or The Treaty of 1875

Soldiers practice on the parade ground of Fort Abraham Lincoln. The Commissary sits in the background (left) and Captain Tom Custer's bachelor officer's quarters (background, right).

The Treaty of Fort Abraham Lincoln

The Treaty of 1875

By Dakota Wind

FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN, D.T. (MANDAN, N.D.) - In May, 1875, Fort Abraham Lincoln served a purpose much the same as the United States serves in the Middle East in recent times, that of intermediary between two warring nations. It worked then about as much as it works today.

Fort Abraham Lincoln was built partly on the remains of the Mandan Indian village site, On-A-Slant, located on the west bank of the Missouri River, across from Bismarck, Dakota Territory. Fort Abraham Lincoln is also built at the convergence of the Heart River and Missouri River, where in 1803, a battle between the Ihanktowana Dakota and the previous claimants to this locale was fought, it ended in victory for the Dakota and the contested land became part of “Sioux” territory.

After the treaty was signed, a great celebration at Fort Abraham Lincoln ensued lasting several days. There was feasting and dancing, but after the parties returned to their respective agencies, conflict resumed.

The Indian Scout standing on the porch wearing a military blanket is often misidentied as Bloody Knife, an Arikara Indian and General Custer's favorite scout. Bloody Knife stood about 5'7". The Indian in this picture is most probably the Hunkpapa Lakota Indian Scout Long Soldier who stood at 7' (observe his height in relation to the front door). Long Soldier served at Fort Abraham Lincoln. A leader of his band of Hunkpapa, he signed the treaty of Fort Abraham Lincoln.

Fort Abraham Lincoln served as host to the Hunkpapa Lakota, the Sihasapa Lakota, the Ihanktowana Dakota (Yanktonai), the Sahnish (Arikara), the Hidatsa (Gros Ventres), and the Nu’Eta (Mandan). Here follows the text of the Treaty of Fort Abraham Lincoln:

TREATY BETWEEN THE YANKTONAI, HUNKPAPA, AND BLACKFOOT SIOUX AND THE ARIKARA, HIDATSA, AND MANDAN

May 29, 1875

Whereas war has prevailed for many years between the Sioux Indians on one side and the Arickaree, Mandan, and Gros Ventres on the other, and whereas, it is now the desire of the Yanctonnais, Uncpapa and Blackfeet bands of the Sioux Nations and of the Arickaree, Mandan and Gros Ventres to put an end to such hostilities forever:--

We, the undersigned chiefs and headmen of the tribes and people above named do solemnly and in good faith promise—

First

That we the undersigned chiefs and headmen of the Sioux Nations and the people we here represent will from this day forward live in peace and friendship with the chiefs and headmen of the Arickaree, Mandan and Gros Ventres and the people they here represent, and that we will exert all our power and influence over our people to prevent them or any of them from committing any unfriendly or hostile acts against the Arickaree, Mandan and Gros Ventres.

Second

That we the understood chiefs and headmen of the Arickaree, Mandan and Gros Ventres tribes of Indians and the people we here represent will from this day forward live in peace and friendship with the chiefs and headmen of the Yanctonnais, Uncpapa and Blackfeet bands of the Sioux Nation and the people they here represent, and that we will exert all our power and influence over our people to prevent them or any of them from committing unfriendly or hostile against the people of individuals of the tribe of Sioux represented in this council.

Third

That we the chiefs and headmen of the Yanctonnais, Uncpapa and Blackfeet tribes of Sioux will use all our power and influence toward preventing Sioux of the Cheyenne River Agency from committing hostile or unfriendly acts against the Arickaree, Mandan and Gros Ventres.

Fourth

That we the undersigned chiefs and headmen of the Arickaree, Mandan and Gros Ventres of Indians will use all our power and influence towards preventing hostile or unfriendly acts on the parts of the people we represent against the Sioux of the Cheyenne River Agency.

Five

That if any of the chiefs and headmen who have signed this treaty shall learn that their young men are engaged in organizing expeditions or war parties intended to or likely to violate this treaty, they will forthwith inform their Agents in order that he may take such measure as will prevent any violation of the treaty made and entered into this day.

Done at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, this 29^th day of May, A.D. 1875, in presence of

                                                                        W.P. Carlin

                                                                        Lieut. Colonel 17^th Infantry

                                                                        Commdg Fort A. Lincoln D.T.

L.B. Sperry                                                      John Burke

U.S. Indian Agent for the Arickarees,      U.S. Indian Agent for the Sioux Tribes

Gros Ventres, and Mandan Indians.

Arickaree      Son of the Stars        [x]        Lower             Two Bears                  [x]

                        White Shield              [x]        Yanctonnais  Mad Bear                  [x]

Gros Ventres Crow Breast              [x]                                Bulls Ghost                 [x]

                        Lean Wolf                  [x]        Uncpapa       Running Antelope   [x]

Mandans       Bad Gun                    [x]                                Thunder Hawk          [x]

                        Flag Lance                [x]                                Bear’s Rib                  [x]

                                                                                                Slave                          [x]

                                                                                                Long Soldier              [x]

                                                                                                Bears Eye                   [x]

                                                                        Blackfeet       The Grass                   [x]

                                                                                                Fire Heart                   [x]

                                                                                                Sitting Crow              [x]

                                                                        Upper             Wolf Necklace         [x]

                                                                        Yanctonnais  Black Eye                   [x]

Signed in Quadruplicate

one copy given to Sioux Agent John Burke

one copy given to Ree, Mandan and Gros Ventres Agent L.B. Sperry

one copy forwarded to Headqrs, Dept. Of Dakota

one copy retained at Post headquarters

                                                                        James Calhoun

                                                                        1^st Lieut 7^th Cavalry

                                                                        Adjutant

"Go West" by Michelle Hespe

In the summer of 2011, I had a chance to visit Michelle Hespe over lunch at the Blarney Stone in Bismarck, ND. Michelle came to North Dakota to write a story about the American West, the Western spirit that's still alive here on the Northern Plains.

Let me just say that I respect the writings of the Corps of Discovery. I do think that there's a lot left out when studying the Corps' writings, like the fact that the French, English, and Spanish all made the journey to the Knife River Indian Villages - the Corps of Discovery, however, did document and map all that was unknown to western science after they left the Mandan and Hidatsa.

In Michelle's article, I related to her the visit of a traditional Lakota man to my elementary school, he could very well have been a medicine man, I don't quite recall, but he did relate to the students the prophecy of the 7th generation, that seven generations after the post-reservation period began, the Lakota culture would experience a revival or resurgence, a Lakota Renaissance if you will.

I remember in the sixth grade having about twenty classmates. By the time I graduated there were only six of us. In my graduating class I was the only one with a traditional Lakota name. I mentioned my cousin Rick who also was the only one in his graduating class to bear a traditional name.

There's two parts to ensuring the legacy of culture. Tradition, that which is handed down, and appropriation, that which is made one's own. I wished I had seized more when I was younger.

Here's Michelle Hespe's article:
"Go West" by Michelle Hespe

Spotted Elk's (Big Foot's) Journey Ends In Tragedy At Wounded Knee

Major James McLaughlin, BIA Indian Agent at the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. Photo by D.F. Barry.

Spotted Elk's (Big Foot's) Journey
Tragedy At Wounded Knee
By Dakota Wind
STANDING ROCK - The Ghost Dance came to the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation sometime in 1889, about the time that North and South Dakota entered the union as states. Major James McLaughlin ordered BIA Indian Police to Sitting Bull’s home on the Grand River in South Dakota, in an attempt to halt the Ghost Dance. The arrest was to happen in the early morning of Dec. 15, 1890. The BIA Indian Police surrounded Sitting Bull’s cabin, knocked on the door, and informed the Lakota leader that he was under arrest. Sitting Bull’s camp awoke and tried to inhibit the arrest. Anxiety gripped the camp and the police alike. Catch-The-Bear shot Bullhead, Bullhead shot Sitting Bull in the chest, Red Tomahawk fired a round into Sitting Bull’s temple. At the end of the gunfight, the bodies of Sitting Bull, six policemen, and eleven warriors turned the winter snow red with blood.

Unphan Gleska (Spotted Elk), also known as Si Tanka (Big Foot), a chief of the Mniconjou band of Lakota, is pictured here with his wife Cetan Ska Win (White Hawk Woman).

Spotted Elk, also known as Big Foot, a Mniconjou Lakota Chief, took flight and lead his band south, the destination: Pine Ridge. There, perhaps Spotted Elk might find refuge among the Lakota of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse.

On Dec. 28, 1890, Spotted Elk’s band stopped near Porcupine Creek. Spotted Elk called for the men to raise the white flag. Major Whiteside of the 7th Cavalry parlayed with Spotted Elk, promising food to the hungry and blankets for the cold, and then escorted Spotted Elk’s band to Wounded Knee Creek where the 7th Cavalry was camped. Two companies of cavalry took the lead, followed by an ambulance carrying Spotted Elk, Spotted Elk’s band (now on foot), wagons, and two cavalry companies, and bringing up the rear was a battery of Hotchkiss guns.

In this picture are seven Lakota scouts and four soldiers posing with a Hotchkiss gun.

When the column of cavalry and Lakota reached the military camp at Wounded Knee, the Lakota were counted at about 120 men and 200 women and children. After camp was established, Major Whiteside ordered two troops of cavalry stationed around the camp to serve sentry duty with two Hotchkiss guns placed on a rise overlooking the camp. Later that night, Colonel Forsyth arrived with orders to take Spotted Elk and his band to a military prison in Omaha, NB. A few spectators and a self-serious Jesuit priest named Francis Craft came with Forsyth. Fr. Craft was selected to use his influence with the Lakota as a Black Robe to persuade them to come in peaceably (as Fr. John Lutz had done earlier that month with the Sicangu Lakota chief Two-Strike). Forsyth placed his Hotchkiss guns alongside Whitesides’s guns.

Colonel James Forsyth pictured here in his Brigadier General uniform. He made the rank of general in November 1894.

According to Fr. Craft’s account of the Wounded Knee Massacre, Forsyth made a peaceful speech and asked the Lakota to surrender their arms. The Lakota denied that they had any. Forsyth sent soldiers amongst the Lakota to retrieve any arms they found. A medicine man began to pray and sing. Some of the Lakota men came forward, one by one to leave their arms, and when about twenty rifles were collected, a soldier spied rifles under blankets and cried out, “Look out, look at that,” followed by nervous laughter on both sides. Forsyth assured the Lakota that he would not take their arms by force even if he had ten years to wait. Then according to Fr. Craft, he walked among the Lakota calming them as best as he could as he passed out cigarettes. Craft further says that several Lakota men threw aside their blankets and actually raised their guns to companies B and K, and he identified many of the Lakota arms as repeating twelve-shot Winchester rifles. Craft says that he ran along the line of Lakota warriors and begged them to stop, at which the Lakota warriors laughed then lowered their arms, all but one. Craft identified the remaining Lakota rifleman as Black Fox, a deaf-mute, who was unable to understand the exchange between priest and warriors and who then fired off a round.

Fr. Francis Craft carried a pipe. He fought in the Union army in the Civil War at the age of ten. He recieved a bayont wound to the head at the Battle of Gettysburg. His maternal great-grandfather, a mohawk chief in New York fought for the States in American Revolution. Craft was a descendant of Nathanial Greene, who also fought in the American Revolution.

Fr. Craft says that the Lakota women and children were standing behind the Lakota warriors, looking on. When the 7th retaliated with gunfire, the Lakota broke into small parties and tried to break past the lines of the soldiers. Hotchkiss gunfire mowed down all who were in its line of fire, whether they were soldier or Lakota. Scouts ordered the women and children down on, but were likely not heard over the gunfire or couldn’t understand English, but few obeyed.

Caught in the crossfire, Fr. Craft tried to give absolution to a dying cavalry soldier and was accidentally shot by him, a passing Lakota warrior tried to bring Craft to his feet but it looked to the soldiers as an attack on the priest and the dying soldier. The soldiers raised their weapons to fire on the Lakota who was assisting Craft, but Craft pushed the Lakota man down and interjected his body between the soldiers and the Lakota. A Lakota called Aimed-At-Him saw Craft push the Lakota down and he retaliated by stabbing the priest.

Fr. Craft is pictured here recovering from the wounded he received at Wounded Knee. The words on the image say, "Father Craft, the Hero of Wounded Knee Fight."

Fr. Craft paints an entirely different scene of the soldiers after the massacre, that after the gunfire was finished, soldiers carried the bodies of the children off the field in their coats, many of the men breaking down and crying. In contrast, American Horse’s account gives readers a view of cold-blooded murderers: “There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce...A mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing...The women as they were fleeing with their babies were killed together, shot right through...and after most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed or wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys...came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there."

General Nelson Miles, a Civil War hero, captured Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce, captured Geromino and his band of Apache, and surrounded the Lakota at White Clay in the last military engagement between the Lakota and the US military. Miles also served in the Spanish-American War. He wanted to serve in World War I, but was considered too old.

Hugh McGinnis, First Battalion, Co. K, Seventh Cavalry: “General Nelson A. Miles who visited the scene of carnage, following a three day blizzard, estimated that around 300 snow shrouded forms were strewn over the countryside. He also discovered to his horror that helpless children and women with babes in their arms had been chased as far as two miles from the original scene of encounter and cut down without mercy by the troopers. ... Judging by the slaughter on the battlefield it was suggested that the soldiers simply went berserk. For who could explain such a merciless disregard for life?... As I see it the battle was more or less a matter of spontaneous combustion, sparked by mutual distrust...”
Fr. Craft was a mix-blood Mohawk from upstate New York who was called to the priesthood because of his native heritage. Craft said that he “would not have endured the trials of religious profession for any other purpose.” Craft sought an appointment out west and eventually came to Pine Ridge where he learned the Lakota language and was adopted into Chief Spotted Tail’s family. Craft was given the name Waŋbli Cica Aglahpaya, The-Eagle-That-Covers-Its-Young, or simply Hovering Eagle. Fr. Craft wasn’t the typical religious zealot who forced conversion by persecuting traditional practices, in fact, he encouraged the traditional songs and dances. It would seem that Fr. Craft would have little reason to lie about what he saw at Wounded Knee, and perhaps from his vantage point as he lie wounded between soldier and Lakota he saw no more. He certainly didn’t see less.

Sinte Gleska, Spotted Tail.

According to Dee Brown in his book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, Col. Forsyth broke fast and then ordered the Lakota to disarm. The Lakota stacked their arms in the center of the camp and when there weren’t enough arms piled up, the soldiers were ordered to go through the Lakota’s belongings and retrieve them all. The soldiers collected two more guns and removed axes, knives, and even tipi stakes. A medicine man named Yellow Bird began to sing and dance. One of the rifles belonged to a deaf Lakota named Black Coyote. Black Coyote shouted about how much he had paid for the gun and raised it above his head. Soldiers grabbed him, and though he hadn’t directed his rifle at anyone, then the rifle. Somehow, Black Coyote was spun around and as he was spun, the gun went off. Brown’s resources say that Black Coyote was of bad influence and that he fired his gun at no one, possibly in hopes of keeping it. Brown quotes Weasel Bear as saying, “They shot us like we were buffalo. I know there are some good white people, but the soldiers must be mean to shoot women and children. Indian soldiers would not do that to white children.” Brown estimates that as many as 300 of Big Foot’s band were killed or mortally wounded. Four men and forty-seven women and children were taken to the fort at Pine Ridge and left in the open winter, at least until the Episcopal mission church there opened.

One of the images of the scene of Wounded Knee after the firefight.

General Miles pressed charges against Colonel Forsyth for the murders of the women and children, but Forsyth was exonerated. The Lakota were outraged and united at White Clay, south of Pine Ridge. The Lakota camp there numbered about 4,000, meaning that there were anywhere from 800 to 1000 able-bodied warriors. On Dec. 30, 1890, the Lakota ambushed the 7th Cavalry at Drexel Mission and a small skirmish followed until the buffalo soldiers of the 9th Cavalry came to the rescue. Meanwhile, Gen. Miles quietly surrounded the Lakota war party with a force of 3,500 men, and what nearly became the Lakota’s Last Stand became complete surrender on January 15, 1891.

One of the most iconic images of the Wounded Knee Massacre is this one of Spotted Elk (Big Foot).

John Keegan writes in his book Fields Of Battle: The Wars of North America, that “soldiers caught up with the last hostiles at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, surrounded them, and when they refused to be disarmed, opened fire with automatic cannon. Within a few minutes, 150 Sioux were dead, and within the month, Native American resistance to white power in the continent was over for ever. Custer had been avenged. The 7th Cavalry paraded its colour to mark the surrender of his rifle by Kicking Bear, the last fighting Indian chief.”

If no one actually ever said “revenge,” it was implied. On January 21, 1891, one week after complete surrender, a grande parade passed before General Miles as the military band played “Garry Owen” when the 7th Cavalry marched by. It goes further to say that when a soldier shouted, “Remember Custer,” during the Wounded Knee Massacre retaliation of some kind was being executed.

A view of the canyon where the Mniconjou were killed in the Wounded Knee Massacre.

General Miles’ words regarding Wounded Knee were that the rudeness of the white soldiers frightened the women and children and that “a remark was made by some of the soldiers that ‘when we get the arms away from them we can do as we please with them’ indicating that they were to be destroyed. Some of the Indians could understand English. This and other things alarmed the Indians and [a] scuffle occurred between warrior who had [a] rifle in his hand and two soldiers. The rifle was discharged and a massacre occurred, not only the warriors but the sick Chief Spotted Elk, and a large number of women and children who tried to escape by running over the prairie were hunted down and killed.”

Mr. Will Robinson, Secretary of the South Dakota State Historical Society, 1946-68, said, “It is the army viewpoint that they are not only dead but bad Indians and deserved what they got. That is not realistic but it is the apparent army line dating back into antiquity. It is the basis of their denial of the right of the survivors to compensation. It is not based on fact or sound logic but on guilt complex so strong that they gave out Congressional Medals of Honor to the participants in the Wounded Knee affair (eighteen) and 12 more to the people who did next to nothing at the Mission and White River fracas later of which were of minor importance. They built a great monument at Ft. Riley eulogizing the dead soldiers in this lamentable affair. When one considers that in World War II, sixty-four thousand South Dakotans were engaged for the better part of four years and that they received only three Congressional Medals the incongruity of the Army’s attitudes toward Wounded Knee is emphasized.”

Did Spotted Elk have to go to Pine Ridge at all? Some might say that he went to find a chance at a better life for his band. Others might say that he went because he had no sureties for the survival of his band of Lakota, especially after the tragic death of Sitting Bull. Yet another possibility, a reason why, exists as to his disastrous journey to Pine Ridge. Spotted Elk was said to be the keeper of a white swan wing. This symbol tasked Spotted Elk with the responsibility of bringing peace and settling differences between the various Lakota bands. In the case of Spotted Elk’s pilgrimage to Pine Ridge, he was to bring reconciliation between the followers of Red Cloud and the followers of Crazy Horse. It was his obligation to his people that made him go, but it was the death of Sitting Bull that hurried him.

It is always too late to play “what if,” but if Sitting Bull was not killed, Spotted Elk may have waited until the spring to go to Pine Ridge, but he would have gone nonetheless, and Wounded Knee might not have happened or may have been delayed. It is a matter of honor to remember that it did.

Updated April 6, 2016.
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Bibliography:

Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: A History Of The American West, page 440, Henry Colt and Company LLC, 1970.

Foley, Thomas, Father Francis M. Craft: Missionary To The Sioux, page 87, University of Nebraska Press, 2002.

Utley, Robert M., & Wilcomb E. Washburn, Indian Wars, page 300, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977.

Keegan, John, Fields Of Battle: The Wars For North America, pp. 311-312, Vintage Books (A Division of Random House), 1997.

Wagner, Sally, Editor, Daughters Of Dakota: Stories From The Attic, Vol. 2, Yankton, SD, 1990.

Ricker, Eli Seavey, Voices of the American West: The Indian interviews of Eli S. Ricker, 1903-1919.

Hugh McGinnis, "I Took Part In The Wounded Knee Massacre", Real West Magazine, January 1966.