Show RELIGIOUS INDIAtS The Excitement Concerning the Messiah PRETTY LOGICAL REASONING By Chief Gall on Christian Doctrines White Men Believe Strange Things in Religion Re-ligion and Why Not Rcdmcn Special to THE HERALD Examiner Dispatch STANDING ROCK AGENCY N D Nov 17 The news that General Miles is liable I at any moment to move a regiment or two of United States regulars against theW Sioux is causing a great deal of excitement excite-ment among the redmen but their belief in L the coming of tho Messiah is in no way lessened thereby Tho Indians have evidently evi-dently in many instances gone stark mad The most exciting among the many trials which have occurred hero the last fortnight fort-night was that of the alleged Virgin Mary When the Indian court officer called her L name there came out from the murmuring crowd in the large room Walutawin tho scarlet woman the wife of Oiiksoga and a member of Watoksis band of Sioux although it is said she is not a native but came from a band of Indians across the Manitoba line Fearlessness was the leading lead-ing i clement of her attitude as she stood so gracefully before the railing behind which sat the agent and his interpreter and looking look-ing indifferently at her John Grass and the other Indians who composed tho court Who are you and what is your name were the first questions asked Then draw ing herself up to her full stature of nearly six feet she told her name Then bonding slightly forward with her hand pointed upward she said in a low tone with intense in-tense earnestness lam the mother of Christ who is now upon this earth making preparations for rebuilding it The earth is to belong to his chosen people and this continent in to be extended much farther west taking in a part of the great sunset water The eastern part of the continent will be abandoned but in the western part great herds of buffalo will wander as in the days of long ago simultaneously with tho disappearance of the whites from the earth will come the resurrection of the In finns who now sleep and forever more they will wander over the earth with no one to question their right to kill the buffalo I buf-falo no one to say do this or I will put you in the guard house With a gesture to attract at-tract the particular attention of Major Mc Laughlin the agent here she drew an imaginary line upon the floor and stepped over it saying In those days there will be no reservation no messenger of the Great Father to say to the Indians to come back here and stay on your reservation I Stepping back over the pbur reseraton lne of the floor with shamefaced expression to I illustrate her peoples dislike for the rep lations that forbid them from wandering around the earth in accordance with their romantic disposition she continued to expatiate ex-patiate upon the rosytinted dawning of the Indians millenium morning Questions calculate0 locato the whereabouts where-abouts of tho Messiah whose mother sne claims to be were warily answered and she refused to tell anything about the orgies or-gies of the ghost dance beyond the fact that she had been proclaimed by the mem bers of the order to be the Virgin Mary Pending an interview with the womans hus band and consideration of the best means to be adopted in her case she iv assent as-sent to the guardhouse to which she walked with the air I of a martyr with L a good memory and without the theoretical Christian spirit of forgiveness Sitting Bull is not fond of coming around the agency and since he was recently set it home by General Miles who found him out among the Cheyennes pawing up Lethe Le-the old fellow has not been seen around the agency but sticks close to his place on Grand river rver Chief Gall to whom is due most of the credit for the great Custer butchery treats the coming of the Messiah seriously He said Since this excitement has come upon my people I sit and listen and wonder if these things can be possible When they tell me that the buffaloes are coming back and that there is to be a resurrection of our fathers I shake my head They tel me that the Messiah can mako spring wag ons with a motion of his hand and I think this cannot be But sometimes I think of Ihe wonderful things which the white men believe in their religion and I am not so sure that these Indians are wrong I went once to the office of a newspaper and talked through a machine to some one a long way off and since then I cannot say that anything is impossible Your people believe that in the beginning of the world won derful things were done by men The In dians believe that in the future wonderful things may be done by men It seems tome to-me that the Indians are not justly to be accused ac-cused of being crazy for believing that what has happened once may happen again particularly as wonderful things are growing more common each day People who have settled on the Missouri since the Indian troubleS of 1870 do not fear any trouble but those who lived in that country during the times when the soldiers and the Sioux lived in the saddle times when life was cheap do not consider the possibility of another outbreak to be a trifling matter and would feel much safer i all was serene here Mr Roger tho Indian agent at Pine Ridge S D was here Saturday He says that serious trouble is anticipated as the result of the ghost dance He says it is crazing the Indians who openly defy the Indian police and threaten defiance to any small body of soldiers which may be sent against them Truops are being held in readiness for orders to take the field Dr I Tenapany Sixth cavalry veterinary surgeon sur-geon has left for Omaha for horses for the troops |