The 1870 Ghost Dance

Conclusions and Speculations

313 In this section I have allowed myself a certain latitude in summarizing and speculating upon the various factors involved in the growth of modern cults in northern California and Oregon. First, a brief comment concerning terminology may be pertinent. It is apparent from the material presented in this study that, strictly speaking, the 1870 Ghost Dance and Earth Lodge cult cannot be called messianic movements, since the appearance of no great savior was anticipated. More properly they might be called adventist or revivalistic cults.No single leader can even be considered mainly responsible for these religious phenomena. They were the creation of many religiously minded individuals of varying cultural backgrounds. The Ghost Dance and Earth Lodge cult depended for their strength more upon febrile psychology than upon established institutions . As the cults developed, imaginative personalities attempted to create, especially in the Bole-Maru, a new system based on foreign and aboriginal ideas. It represented the last flash in that area of creative Indian culture and the last attempt to establish native values. Diffusion has been obviously one of the major processes that functioned in the history of the modern cult movements under consideration. I feel that the processualists have failed to stress the importance of this old anthropological concept. It is one that has been used incessantly by both anthropologists and historians, yet we have relatively little detail about the manner in which it functions. On the whole, it has been made a tool for historical reconstructions rather than being recognized as a major cultural process itself deserving of study. Until diffusion as a process is clearly understood through the study of historically substantiated cases, it seems premature to use it as a tool in cases where history fails us. Different types, varying velocities, and different mechanisms of diffusion are to be expected. In the examination of the material on the modern cults, several factors affecting diffusion suggested themselves. Conclusions and Speculations conclusion and speculations 314 Intertribal marriage has often been suggested as a device that facilitates or precipitates the transmission of cultural traits. In the Ghost Dance at least three cases have been established. There may have been more. Thus Sambo, the Shasta who carried the Ghost Dance message to the Karok, was married to a woman of that tribe. The Yurok who brought the same message back from the Tolowa had been there on a visit to his wife’s relatives. Depot Charlie, who brought word to the Tolowa, was a Tututni whose sister had married a Tolowa man and was living with that tribe. Another factor that affects diffusion is the obvious one of language. Thus, one of the proselytizers of the Ghost Dance who covered the widest territory was a Paviotso, Frank Spencer; yet with the exception of the Washo, he was everywhere within his own linguistic group. The multiplicity of linguistic groups in northern California is directly correlated with an increase in the number of missionary-messengers. The greater the number of persons involved in transmitting such concepts, the greater seems the possibility of alteration and change. For example, certain distortions arose somewhere between the introduction of the Ghost Dance doctrine to the eastern Achomawi, who stressed the return of the dead, and its introduction to the Hill Patwin and Pomo, where stress was laid on an imminent world catastrophe. In such cases, stability of doctrine may depend in part upon the proficiency of a bilingual individual who acts either as a missionary or as his interpreter. Parenthetically, attention may be drawn to the fact that bilingual individuals are usually the result of intertribal marriages and that therefore these two mechanisms of diffusion, namely, mixed marriage and language, are closely related. In a consideration of language, dialectal differences also should not be neglected. Cases can be envisaged in which direct communication by a proselytizer with a group speaking a different dialect might produce greater distortions than would occur in instances where languages are so entirely different that a bilingual interpreter is necessary . I should suggest that this may explain, at least in part, the differences of doctrine that first appear among the Hill Patwin, and for this reason: Norelputus was a Northern Yana who spoke Wintu (the result of an intertribal marriage). He carried the Ghost Dance doctrine received from the Achomawi to the Wintun, whose language differs only slightly from Wintu to the north. Among the Wintun the doctrine still centered around the return of the dead. However, Norelputus pushed on farther...