Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1890 — MILES ON THE INDIANS. [ARTICLE]

MILES ON THE INDIANS.

He Has Been Looking Into the Messiah Question. > Major General Nelson Ar Miles, U. S: A., commander of the Military Division of the Missouri, has been interviewed by a reporter,and in the course of a long conversation made some interesting statements regarding the ' causes and nature of the religious craze now existing among the Indian tribes of the West. “I have been out in Utah, Montana and the “Cheyenne reservation,” said General Miles, “investigating this craze. You have no doubt heard that the Indian tribes in the districts I have mentioned are reported to believe that a Messiah has come who is to restore them to their former glory, bring back tbe buffalo and drive the whites from the land. I have learned that this belief exists among the various Vibes of Sioux, Cheyennes, Black Feet, Shoshones a&d other tribes. In all the craze has extended to sixteen tribes, the Snake Indians being the only ones to repudiate it. There is no doubt that many of the Indians holding this belief in the Indian Messiah are sincere, and some few have certainly seen some person whom they took to be the Messiah. “Several small parties of Indians have gone westward from their tribes to some point, which is, as near as I can locate, in Nevada, and there they have been shown somebody disguised as the Messiah and have spoken with him. lam inclined ’to believe that there is more than one person impersonating this Messiah, as when Sioux have spoken with him he has replied in the Sioux language, and to Black Feet he has spoken their'tongue, and so on, the representative of each nation or tribe speaking their own language to each.” : • ‘What do you think is responsible for this imposition upon the Indians?” <<i ca n not state positively, but it is my belief the Mormons are the prime movers in it. This is not a hard statement to believe. for there are 200,000 Mormons. They themselves claim to believe in prophets and spiritual manifestations, ana they even now claim to holj intercourse with the spirit of Joe Smith. Besides, they have had missionaries at work among the Indians for many years and have many converts." I“Do you think this new belief of the Indians will lead to an outbreak and bloodshed?” *‘l don’t think so, but where an ignorant race of people become religious fanatics it'is hard to tell just what they will do. It is noteworthy, however, that this so-called Messiah tells the Indians that when he comes to reign them firearms will no longer be used or necessary. He tells them also that with his coming the dead Indians will all be raised to lifs, the buffalo will return and he will draw a line behind on which he will gather all the Indians, and then he will roll the earth back upon the whites. This has naturally excited the Indians and large numbers have accepted the new belief. Among those who'have done so none are more ardent than Sitting Bull, who is intensely Indian in all his ideas.” “Do you think that person who is impersonating the Messiah is a white man or an It dlan?” - “Those who have seen him say he is muffled up and disguised so that they do not see his face, but I believe that he is a full-blooded white. The argument the Indians used in discussing the matter is, that the whites have had their Messiah, and the Indians now have theirs. “That if it is reasonable for the whites to believe in a Messiah it is reasonable for the Indians to do so too, and that they have as much right to have an Indian Messiah as the whites have' to have a white Messiah. The situation is not alarming in any way, and I do'not know whether any action will be taken by the Government regarding the matter until after I have made my report.”