Ghost Dancing Among the Indians; Schweigert Awake While Others Nap
The winter of 1889-90 passed without any particular change in the community life. One night, Tom Callahan and another from over south of Antelope became quite loaded up at one of the saloons and they left to go home becoming involved in a snow drift in the creek on the south edge of town and tipped over. They lay in the creek all night and the next morning they came back with faces and hands frozen a little, but after getting some more whiskey under their belts they made another start for home with better success.
By this time it had become quite a common custom for quite a number of people to get their coal supply from the railroad company's bin. One night as Murray was going home from the depot he came across an old timer getting railroad coal from the chute.
He stopped and gave him some wholesome talk about his responsibilities as agent to see that railroad property was protected. The man said he was sent over by his employer to get a gunny sack full, but that he would not do it anymore. Murray later suspected that the effect of his lecture was that the man's employer had him choose a little later hour in visiting the N.P. bin.
The Red Lodge coal used by the railroad company always made a black smoke, while ordinary lignite coal made light smoke. They used to cast about town and watch the chimneys and observe from which the black smoke issued for some had rather dark looking smoke coming out. There was dire poverty among some of the people and it is said that during this winter some men actually walked to New Salem and carried back a sack of potatoes on their backs.
A new saloon was built by Burt Cohen, said to have been an English Jew. It was located in the street between where the Columbia Hotel and Ewald Store building now stand. This building was later moved to near the alley close to the rear of the present Urban store to be closer to the center of business.
The W. Bratzel family moved from their homestead to town and purchased a small building of Leutz and Kisso that stood just north of the present Buelow house and occupied this for a residence, while he worked for Leutz & Krauth on the ranch at $20 per month. One day Bratzel and C.F. Ewald decided to make a trip out to the present Golden Valley country to visit the Wiege ranch and in order to make sure that they could find their way back threw up piles of earth on the way as guiding landmarks.
People in those days who had riding ponies which they wished available when wanted, used to picket them out where they could find plenty of grass. Fred Schweigert had a pony which he used to picket out in that way. Krauth and Leutz also had some horses around but which they did not picket. During the night these horses would wander around and look for company and coming to Schweigert's pony would sociably eat up all the grass around the picket and only move farther away after all the grass was eaten, while Schweigert's horse could not move farther away and often fell short of feed. One day Schweigert went to Krauth & Leutz and told them that he had bought a rope from them to picket his horse and he wished them to picket their horses, too; that it was necessary for him to picket his to prevent it from wandering away too far. They gave Schweigert the horse laugh saying this was a free country and they did not have to picket theirs; suggesting that he could do as he pleased with his horse but they were not going to picket theirs.
Schweigert then bethought himself and remembered that Ezekiel Chase had a fine field of wheat out near the present Spoer place. That night he led his pony out next to the wheat field and picketed it just far enough away so it could not reach the grain. That night the Krauth and Leutz horses came down to visit Schweigert's and being free banqueted on the Chase wheat. The next morning Chase came to town with kindled wrath and made Krauth and Leutz pay for the damages their horses had done. After that their horses were picketed, too.
About this time and during the summer of 1890 there was a rise of a religious movement among some of our western Indians that led up to a great deal of local excitement. Out in western Nevada there was a young Paiute Indian who during a severe illness had been befriended by the wife of a rancher. She also taught him something about the white man's Bible and religion. His name was Vo-vo-ka but was also known as Jack Wilson. As he lay with the fever he thought he saw visions and resolved, on recovering, to preach a new gospel to the Indians in which the second coming of Christ was emphasized. He preached brotherly love, taught the Indians not to fight, that they should do right, tell no lies, to hold a sacred dance at least once in six weeks and to bathe frequently in the river, that by reason of the misdeeds of the white man he had lost the divine favor and that the Lord was to make the Indians his chosen people at his second coming, if they were good.
He enjoined upon them secrecy, that they were to keep this religion to themselves and explain it to no white. He predicted an eclipse of the sun and in other ways rapidly gained for himself the reputation of a great prophet of the Messiah. Dancing among the Indians was considered as much a sacred prayer to the Great Spirit. The whites contemptuously called it Ghost dancing.
In an amazing short time this form of religion spread for hundreds of miles. Indian disciples of the Prophet varied the forms to suit the temperament of various tribes that adopted it. It had the attractions of a secret society and offered opportunities for all kinds of would-be preachers. Thus, overnight, Sitting Bull's land became Christianized. The more enthusiastic preachers figured that if dancing once in six weeks was good, then dancing every six days was better, and some notaries danced almost daily. Of course the white missionaries of long established sects would not admit that the Ghost Dance was a Christian church, for they held to the view that the white race alone held the exclusive monopoly of Christian sects.
However, it is difficult to imagine one believing in the second coming of Christ without believing in the first.
Their teachings and rituals had far more significance for Indians than any the missions could offer. The white missionaries became alarmed; they were no longer sure of their converts. They all took a stand against the new sect and denounced its ritual with pious slander. But the enthusiasm of the great Indian dance meetings could be no more abated by them than the spirit that pervades a Methodist Revival, or a meeting of the Holy Rollers, Jumpers or any other of a hundred so called christian sects. The Indians simply went on with their dancing, refusing to explain anything, while the white man's newspapers were filled with alarming descriptions and scareheads.
Sitting Bull at that time lived in retirement on the Grand River. He was an old, experienced and practical man among his people. He had lived in Canada some years, had visited Washington and other large eastern cities, had put in a season with "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show" and with it toured the east and Europe. He had seen the multitudes of whites and knew their ruthless greed. He saw the whites disagree over the various creeds. He could not fathom it so he rejected it all. He had a system of his own that served his needs and those of his people. He thoroughly understood it while the complications of the white man's belief confused him. As a practical politician he did not oppose the new cult anticipating that the fad would die out as rapidly as it sprung up.
About 200 men with their families gathered at his camp where they carried on their dancing. He sometimes went out as a matter of curiosity to see them. He still had a great reputation as a Medicine Man, and as the winter season approached he foretold his people that he would give them such a mild winter that they could dance out in the open all the time. It turned out just as he said.
By this time the whole surrounding country was agitated and riled on account of the newspaper reports of the alleged activities of Sitting Bull whose name was world famous, and for a radius of hundreds of miles people were leaving the country, while those who remained fortified their homes in preparation of sudden attack. The world at large termed these Indians "hostiles" and very dangerous.
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