THE INDIAN REVOLT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2146, 6 January 1891, Page 4

THE INDIAN REVOLT.

The recent revolt of Indiana in the United States appears, like most of our troubles with the Maoris, to have originated in the religious mania of socalled prophets. A report from the Standing Kock Agency, Dakota, dated October 2.B,giveß the following particulars of the Btate of affairs on that date: —

Indian Agent M'Claughlin has given the Sioux to understand that he will stand > no nonsense in regard to the coming of the Messiah. More than a dozen of the red men now lie in the guard-house for unseemly conduct, and Kicking Horse, who claims to have just rerurned from Heaven, has been ordered to leave the reservation for ever. Close watch is also being kept on Sitting Bull, who is constantly inciting the young bucks to deeds of violence. Both night and day have been made hideous by the dancing and Binging of the Indians. Kicking Horse, the prophet, claims to have gone to heaven through a hole in the clouds. He is cunning enough to mix Christian doctrines with his. prophetic preaching to make it more real. The Great Spirit told Kicking Horse that His children, the Indians, had suffered long enough, and the time had arrived when they would again occupy the earth so long held by the whites, but they must not kill nor molest the whites. The Great Spirit said He Himself would wipe out the white race from the face of the earth. The Great Spirit said also the earth was getting full of holes and many places are rotten. He would gradually send a wave of earth, 20ft, or more, over the country. It would move slowly. The Indians must keep oa'dancing so as to keep on the top, and when the wave had passed all the whites would be buried underneath it and the Indians would be on top. All the dead Indians would be restored to life again, the alleged revelation adds, and all buffaloes, horses, game, and all their old hunt ing grounds would be as they were hundred of years ago, and the Indians would for all time in the future own and occupy this earth. Indians who would not listen to the words of the prophet and would not keep dancing would be turned into fishes and occupy the rivers and streams.

Kicking Horse said ihafc while talking to the Great Spirit the devil came to them. He describes the devil as being yery tall, with immense knee joints and a monster mouth and long teeth. He ia covered all over with coarse hair. Hegasked for half of the people, meaning the Indians. The Great Spirit denied *us request. He asked again, and the Great Spirit replied, " You can have none of my chosen Indian children, but you can have all the whites." Mrs Weldon, a white woman from the East, is here, and the Indians report her to be converted to Kicking Horse's doctrine. She furnishes the food for the dance, as, with their faith, the Indians cannot dance without somethnig to eat. The Indians are fast becoming converts. It is easy for them to be led back to their old superstitions. Some really bright Indians say you cannot shake hands with this prophet, for when, you touch his hands it burns like fire. What the outcome of it will be cannot be told at this time, but the Indians are greatly excited now. Although Kicking Horse has been run off he

has left many converts at Standing Eocfe.

The belief of the plains Indians has been the same among all tribes, and that is that the buffalo never went back to the south to winter, but that new bands of the animals made their appearance from a large hole in the ground in the pan handle of Texas every spring and went north, where they disappeared. The fact that after several years of absence of these! animals from the plains they have been seen in small numbers again has caused much excitement among all the tribes, who regard it as an evidence of the good God. Wilson says that among the hioux and other wild tribes this belief is so streng that many of the chiefs advocate the throwing off of friendship to the whites even now, feeling that they can make war during the winter and when spring comes they will be able to clear the land of the whites.