The Ghost Dance and the Measuring Woman

The Ghost Dance originated in 1881 when a Paiute shaman named Wovoka told a group of tribal representatives who visited him at his home in Nevada that during a seizure he believed he had visited the Great Spirit in Heaven.  There he had been told that a time was coming when the buffalo would fill the plains and dead tribesmen would be restored to their families.  All would have a blissful life, free of the white man and his works.  Wovoka assured his followers that if they adhered to certain ideals and performed the proper ritual dance - called the Ghost Dance by whites because of its association with the resurrection of the dead, they would be given a glimpse of the beautiful world that would be theirs for eternity.  The dance became a symbol of hope in the 1880s.

Also during this period is the story of the "measuring woman",  Alice Cunningham Fletcher.  Alice was born of well-to-do parents and became interested in Indian welfare in the 1870s.  Determined to learn about the Plains Indians first hand, she went to Nebraska in 1881 and stayed in the camps of the tribes for months.  Alice went to Washington DC to plead for the Indians cause, then returned for another two years from 1883-1885 as a government agent who supervised the parceling out of 76,000 acres of land to the Indians.

The "Measuring Woman" directed the surveying and allotment of lands for the Omaha, Winnebago, and Nez Perce until 1891, working in blazing heat and bitter cold.  Following her work in the field, Alice held a fellowship at Harvard's Peabody Museum for 25 years, where her Indian work greatly influenced the work of American archaeologists until her death in 1923.

Next time...Finishing up the prelude to Wounded Knee
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On March 12, 1888, China approves a treaty forbidding Chinese laborers to enter the United States for 20 years after agreeing to cooperate with a policy unilaterally adopted by Congress six years earlier. 

An Witting Ally

It seemed that the US Army as reduced as it was in the post Civil War plains, was incapable of subduing the warrior tribes of the frontier, but they had a ally, one they didn't even realize...the Indian himself.

Most Indians, with the exception of the Apache, fought the Army as if they were fighting just another tribe competing for temporary control of hunting grounds.  Each time the Army backed off of battle, the Indians assumed permanent and total victory.

The Indian's highly individualistic societies of hunting men and warriors weren't adapted to fight a modern army whose intentions were permanent take over.  The animosities of old between tribes kept coalitions against the white man short-term.  Ancient tribal hatred was stronger than hate of the white man's intrusion.

Unity within a tribe of any kind was even difficult.  Each brave was his own master, free to join any band of warriors and to seek accommodations with whites as he chose.  General Cook, for instance, made effective use of friendly Apache in hunting down hostiles within the Apache nation. 

In older times when warfare on the plains was an inter tribal affair, personal glory remained the crown of Indian warriors.  The "coup" was to ride up to a few Army soldiers and tap them on the shoulders with the coup stick before vanishing into the prairie - that was considered a great victory.  But modern Army soldiers didn't fight for glory or fun, they fought to win a continent and the civilization in it.  To achieve their aims, the Army launched both massive expeditions and small, swift striking forces against the Indian tribes.

During the winter months the warriors and their families were temporarily immobile.  Food was scarce, the weather was fierce and they needed to conserve food and supplies.  They found it inconceivable that the white man would or could even fight in winter, so they made little provision for the defense of their camps.  It was their fatal mistake...

Next time...A Winter War of Terror
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Today in Pioneer History: "On January 8, 1867,  Congress overrides President Andrew Johnson’s veto of a bill granting all adult male citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote, and the bill becomes law. It was the first law in American history that granted African-American men the right to vote. 

Broken Promises, Broken Arrows

November 1868 brought Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Calvary to a Cheyenne camp on the Washita River.  The Indians didn't take much to fighting in the winter so the village, with Black Kettle as resident didn't sight the Army until it was too late.  At dawn on November 26th, Custer  and his men attacked the camp and killed 100 Indians, including Black Kettle. 

Warriors from nearby camps heard the battle cries and forced Custer to retreat with his Indian captives, but he left 19 men under Major Joel Elliott behind.  Cut off from the main unit, the men were quickly surrounded and killed.  Custer was commended by his superiors.for his bold actions...(I am not a Custer fan btw!) and his victory seemed to have crushed the southern plains Indian rebellion.  In March 1869, Gen. Philip Sheridan reported that "the tribes were living quietly on the reservations."  Not for long...

A new threat arose from the Kiowa who were raiding the Texas Panhandle - their traditional hunting grounds..  Kiowa and Comanche had agreed to leave Texas in 1867 for reservations originally given them and resettle on barren land in Indian Territory!  (can't make this up)  In 1871, fed up with the white man's broken promises, they rebelled under Chief Satanta.  Satanta was a long-time foe of the US Army who had fought Kit Carson at Adobe Walls before.

Satanta boldy showed up at Fort Sill after a wagon train raid and boasted of having killed seven men.  Instead of rations, he was arrested, tried for murder in a Texas court and sentenced to hang until the Bureau of Indian Affairs appealed to the governor and Satanta was paroled in 1873.  Satanta then joined Comanche Quanah Parker and 700 warriors in another battle at Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874.  Against the Sharp shooting rifles of the Army, the Indians held their own for a good while.

The Kiowa and Comanche continued raids across southern plains but slowly weakened.  Satanta surrendered to prison in October 1874, where he died by suicide four years later. 

Next time...The Army's Logistics and Tactics
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On December 28, 1869,  the Knights of Labor, a labor union of tailors in Philadelphia, hold the first Labor Day ceremonies in American history. The Knights of Labor was established as a secret society of Pennsylvanian tailors earlier in the year and later grew into a national body that played an important role in the labor movement of the late 19th century.

A Doomed Plains' Peace

As a result of the Great Pow-Wow of 1851, the Indians of the Plains would no longer be permitted to range far and freely in pursuit of buffalo.  Instead they would be hemmed into specific areas where the government would force them to give up their land bit by bit.  They would be forced to subsist on government handouts or become farmers.  Days after Colonel Mitchell's speech,  the tribal chiefs agreed to the government's demands,  and on September 17th a primary chief from each tribe made his mark on the treaty the white man had drawn up.  It was a sad day for the Indian, although they didn't know it yet.

Many looked upon the treaty at Horse Creek as the beginning of a new era of harmony in the Plains.  Congress, however, immediately reduced the number of years that the Indians would receive the government stipend.  The tribes were forced to compete among themselves for hunting grounds with the declining number of buffalo. 

Indian Agent, Thomas Fitzpatrick wrote in 1853, just two years after the treaty...
"they are in abject want of food half the year,  the travel on the roads drives the buffalo off or confines them to a narrow path during the period of emigration and the different tribes are forced to contend with hostile nations.  Their women are pinched with want and their children constantly crying with hunger."

Clearly something was bound to happen.  In 1854 a minor incident set off the powder keg.  A pioneer traveling the Oregon Trail lost a cow which a young Sioux found and butchered for food.  The owner demanded $25 payment, the Sioux offered $10.  A young lieutenant at Fort Laramie nearby, John L. Grattan, was eager for glory and had little love for Indians.  He persuaded his commanding officer to let him lead a group of 30 troopers to the Sioux camp to arrest the " cow thief". When the Sioux didn't cooperate, Grattan opened fire and killed the Sioux chief.  The Indians, enraged and betrayed, surrounded the white group and killed every one of the 30 men.

The peace of the Plains was broken...

Next time...The Indian Agent
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 28, 1542, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovers San Diego Bay while searching for the Strait of Anian, a mythical all-water route across North America.  Though San Diego Bay–as well as all the other inlets he subsequently explored–never led to the mythic Strait of Anian, Cabrillo did succeed in mapping many of the most important features of the California coast, though he missed discovering San Francisco Bay.

Rituals of the Great Plains Indians

The Plains Indians were a different world from that of the forest tribes back East.  Iowa, Omaha, Arikara, Mandan, Otto and Hidatsa tribes were semi-sedentary people who led a fairly settled life, growing corn, weaving and making pottery.  In the summer they took their horses for expeditions to track down buffalo.  They traded with nomadic tribes from further west.

These Plains Indians admired physical courage, reflected in their ceremonies.  For example, in the
sun dance of the Hidatsa, warriors reenacted their victorious battles.  In the Mandan tribe, the most sacred religious ritual was the Okipa, dramatization of the creation of the Earth and history of the tribe.  The ritual was performed to modify the spirits to ensure the welfare of the Mandan tribe, and it was a test of courage and endurance for young braves.

To begin the Okipa was fasting and ceremony dances. 
The initiates crawled to the medicine man who used a knife to pass through and under the skin on each arm above and below the knee.  Through these  wounds the medicine man passed splints, then a cord of raw hide was lowered down through the top of the wigwam and fastened to the splints on the breasts or shoulders.  The person then hung, raised and suspended, from the top of the lodge.  They quietly endured the pain until the pain rendered them unconscious.

All I can say is Ouch!....

Next time...More Ritual and Visions
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On this Day in Pioneer History: On April 18, 1906, the San Francisco earthquake and resulting fire started.  The first of two vicious tremors shook San Francisco at 5:13 a.m., and a second followed not long after. The quake was powerful enough to be recorded thousands of miles away in Cape Town, South Africa, and its effect on San Francisco was cataclysmic. Thousands of structures collapsed as a result of the quake itself. However, the greatest devastation resulted from the fires that followed the quake. The initial tremors destroyed the city’s water mains, leaving overwhelmed firefighters with no means of combating the growing inferno. The blaze burned for four days and engulfed the vast majority of the city.