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Chapter 4 Two Trails Resistance, Accommodation, and the 1870 Ghost Dance There was a lot of confusion among our people at that time. Relatives and families were split. Some wanted to make a new life on the reservation while others wanted to stay out on the deserts and prairies where they would have to work a little harder but would still be their own bosses. Willie George, “Two Trails,” 1963 113 The decade between the founding of the Fort Hall Reservation and the end of the Bannock War marked the last period of true off-reservation freedom for Newe peoples. It was also a decade for decisions as their options narrowed. As Willie George saw it, his people increasingly faced a choice between “two trails.” White settlements expropriated or destroyed the very resources that made an autonomous life possible, while white settlers and politicians were increasingly calling for an end to the Indians’ “roaming.” Some groups, most notably the Fort Hall Bannocks, resisted the reservation system and maintained their customary life ways for as long as possible. Others chose a more accommodating path, either settling on the reservation and trying agriculture or casting their lot with the Mormons. Throughout this period of dislocation, adjustment, and warfare, the ethnic and tribal identities that gained such saliency in treaty making took on greater meaning. Yet as Shoshone and Bannock peoples made their varying choices, their shared experiences also suggested an identity that could encompass these ethnic and tribal differences. They often negotiated and expressed these competing identities through the discourse of prophetic religion. In this context, the waves of religious excitement that began with the first Ghost Dance prophecies of 1869 were not short-lived and desperate fantasies, as some observers have con- cluded, but part of an ongoing process of identity formation that would last for the rest of the century. The Ghost Dance movement of 1870 was the first recorded pan-Indian religion to emerge from the Great Basin.1 Unlike the more famous 1890 Ghost Dance, it remained obscure, mostly because non-Indian observers did not recognize the larger pattern from scattered reports of religious disturbances and rumors of Indian “outbreaks.” James Mooney, who was among the first to recognize the existence of the religion some two decades later, believed that the 1870 prophet was Ta’vibo, or “White Man,” whom he also believed to be the father of Wovoka, or Jack Wilson, the 1890 prophet. Ta’vibo reportedly began preaching around 1869 and died very soon thereafter. The finding gave a nice symmetry to the movements, but from the beginning there were uncertainties. Mooney also recorded the 1870 prophet’s name as Waughzeewaughber but assumed that Ta’vibo, like his son, went by different names or that this man was simply a disciple of the Ghost Dance prophet.2 It was not until 1939 that Cora Du Bois established that Wodziwob (“Gray Hair” or “Gray Head)” and Numataivo (“Indian White Man”) were two different men. Numataivo was Jack Wilson’s father, but he was not the “true originator of the 1870 Ghost Dance.” According to Du Bois, Wodziwob died in 1872, whereas Numataivo lived until 1912.3 More recently, Michael Hittman has confirmed Wodziwob’s role as the principal prophet of the 1870 Ghost Dance, but he is far less certain that Jack Wilson’s father played any important role in the religion. Hittman also asserts that both men lived past the turn of the century.4 Though the details of the prophet’s life are in question, the outlines of his religion are fairly well established. Wodziwob’s message was “transformative ”: by following the prescribed ceremonies, Indian people could radically transform the present through supernatural means. He prophesied a return of the old ways, with plentiful game and plant foods and all Indians, living and dead, reunited on a renewed earth.5 The message was revolutionary, but the ritual was quite conservative. The ceremonial base of the both the 1870 and 1890 Ghost Dances was the traditional Paiute round dance. Round dances could be social occasions, but they often served important ritual purposes, like the increase rites performed at the beginning of a particular food-gathering season. It was in this context, during the annual piñon harvests, rabbit drives, and fish runs, that Wodziwob announced his prophecies.6 Men, women, and children all participated. Forming a circle, they alternated sexes, interlocked fingers, 114 Identity, Prophecy, and Reservation Life [18.119.107.161] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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