Indians 101: Suppressing Indian religions in Montana, 1900-1934

According to the non-Indian social philosophers, bureaucrats, Christian ministers, and politicians of the nineteenth century, Indians were supposed to disappear, both culturally and physically, by the twentieth century. That didn’t happen and the Indian policies for the first third of the twentieth century continued to pursue a path of cultural genocide. From the viewpoint of the administrators of Indian policies, Indian religious practices—ceremonies and spiritual leaders (often called medicine men)—were barriers to programs of acculturation in which conversion of Indians to Christianity was one of the major goals.

In 1900, the Annual Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners noted that conditions on some reservations were repugnant to Christian civilization, and barbarous feasts and ceremonies which continued deteriorated commercial enterprise and land values.

In 1902, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs decreed that all Indian men were to have their hair cut short. In addition, Indian dances and feasts were to be prohibited:

“Feasts are simply subterfuges to cover degrading acts and to disguise immoral purposes.”

In 1904, the code outlawing the Sun Dance was reinforced. The Sun Dance, however, continued to be celebrated away from Euro-American eyes.

In the United States, the Indian Office was a part of the Department of the Interior. In 1921, Albert Fall, the former Senator from New Mexico, became the Secretary of the Interior. Fall was hostile toward Indian rights, particularly those involving traditional religions. One of Fall’s first acts was to enforce the prohibition against the Plains Indian Sun Dance. Those who participated in the ceremony were to be jailed for 30 days in the agency prison.

Under Fall’s Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke, the Indian Office issued a lengthy list of Indian offenses for which corrective penalties were provided. One concern was the reckless giving away of property and another concern was the Indian dances which were described as a “ribald system of debauchery”.

In 1922 Commissioner of Indian Affairs Charles Burke recommended that people be educated against Indian dances and that government employees work closely with the missionaries in matters which affected the moral welfare of the Indians. According to Burke’s biographer, Lawrence Kelly, in his chapter in The Commissioners of Indian Affairs, 1824-1977:

“Like most of his contemporaries, Burke regarded Indian religion as superstitious and backward. While the Indian service could not impose Christianity upon the Indians, Burke believed it should do everything in its power to assist the religious volunteers who worked among the Indians.”

In 1923, The Commissioner of Indian Affairs updated the list of Indian offenses—activities for which Indians could be punished. The Commissioner suggested that maypole dances be used as a substitute for traditional Indian dances at Indian schools. He was apparently unaware that the maypole dances were survivals of European pagan fertility dances around phallic icons.

In 1926, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Charles H. Burke visited Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. He told the elders in the tribal council that they were “half animals” because of their pagan religion, and then had the entire governing body of the Pueblo thrown into jail for violating the religious crimes codes.

In 1928, the Meriam Report – The Problem of Indian Administration– repudiated the philosophy of Indian policy which had prevailed since 1871. Regarding religion, the report urges the continuation of cooperation with Christian missionaries but cautions:

“The missionaries need to have a better understanding of the Indian point of view of the Indian’s religion and ethics, in order to start from what is good in them as a foundation. Too frequently, they have made the mistake of attempting to destroy the existing structure and to substitute something else without apparently realizing that much in the old has its place in the new.”

In 1934, however, everything changed. John Collier, the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs, brought about a new era regarding Indian religious freedom. In Circular No. 2970 (“Indian Religious Freedom and Indian Culture”) to superintendents of Indian agencies, Collier stated:

“no interference with Indian religious life or ceremonial expression will hereafter be tolerated.”

Not all employees, however, followed the new rule. According to JoAllyn Archambault, in her chapter on the Sun Dance in the Handbook of North American Indians:

“However, many federal employees and Christian missionaries on reservations resisted the policy and discouraged sweatbaths, the Sun Dance, and other religious practices.”

John Collier also abolished the Board of Indian Commissioners on which many Christian missionary leaders had sat. He issued an executive order requiring Indian Office workers to have an affirmative and appreciative attitude toward Indian cultures. In an article in Western Historical Quarterly, James LaGrand writes:

“Missionaries saw the combined effect of these ideas as nothing less than a competing religious worldview, and they responded accordingly.”

Historian Angie Debo, in her book A History of the Indians of the United States, writes that response to changes brought about by Collier in 1934 were not always favorable:

“Some missionary organizations – not all, but some – resented the religious toleration.” She goes on to say: “Superpatriots even detected the hidden hand of Red Russia behind the policy, and Collier had to defend himself before the House Indian Affairs Committee against charges of atheism, Communism, and sedition.”

The Bureau of Catholic Missions, scandalized by John Collier’s acceptance of Indian religions, characterized him as communistic and circulated a questionnaire to collect data on defections to paganism which could be attributed to Collier’s announcements on Indian culture.

In Gallup, New Mexico Indian leaders opposed to John Collier met to organize the American Indian Federation (AIF). The leaders of the new group were J.C. Morgan, a Navajo Christian missionary, and Joseph Bruner, an Oklahoma Creek. Seneca journalist Alice Lee Jemison became the Washington lobbyist for the new organization. The AIF sought the removal of John Collier as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the repeal of the Indian Reorganization Act, and the abolition of the Indian Office. Historian John Finger, in his book Cherokee Americans: The Eastern Band of Cherokees in the Twentieth Century, notes:

“A favorite attention-getting ploy of the AIF was a right-wing rhetoric that accused Collier and his program as being atheistic, communist inspired, and pawns of the American Civil Liberties Union.”

Briefly described below are some of the actions suppressing American Indian religions in Montana from 1900 until 1934.

Blackfeet Reservation

In 1910, Father John Carroll, the Jesuit priest at St. Michael’s Church in the Blackfoot community of Browning, complained that the Blackfoot 4th of July celebration was a disgrace to the United States and a stain upon the flag. According to Howard Harrod, in his book Mission Among the Blackfeet:

“He was less concerned with the country’s honor than he was the threat which the celebrations posed to programs for civilizing and Christianizing the tribe.”

Regarding the 4th of July celebration, Father Carroll wrote:

“Little baptized children, upon whom much care and labor have been lavished in the different schools, you can now see decked out in paints and feathers, looking like young demons that have just emerged from the lower regions.”

Father Carroll argued that the Constitution protected only the true worship of God and therefore offered no protection to Blackfoot religious practices. He felt that there should be no Constitutional protection of a religion based upon “the direct worship of the devil, the arch-enemy of the Creator and Great Father, from whom every good comes. Now, the religion of the Piegan Indians is devil-worship, clearly so.”

Northern Cheyenne Reservation

In 1919, A. J. Dennis (aka David Israel), the self-proclaimed Head Chief and King Priest of the Restored Kingdom of Israel, came to the Northern Cheyenne reservation. He claimed that the Indians must be adopted into the tribes of Israel. He held some meetings with the Cheyenne and then was removed from the reservation by the Indian agent. The agent then advised the Cheyenne to pay attention to the real missionaries and to ignore the teachings of Dennis. Despite the opposition by the Indian agent and the missionaries, the new movement gained some followers. In her University of Montana M.A. Thesis, The Northern Cheyenne, Missionaries,and Resistance on the Tongue River Reservation 1884 through 1934, Nancy Pahr reports:

“His religious message conveyed the belief that a judgment day would arrive in which non-Indians would be destroyed, the buffalo would return and the Indians live as they had.”

In 1919, the Mennonite pastor for the Northern Cheyenne reservation, a man who was respected because he spoke fluent Cheyenne, preached a series of homilies on “The Kingdom of Satan.” In his book Sweet Medicine: The Continuing Role of the Sacred Arrows, the Sun Dance, and the Sacred Buffalo Hat in Northern Cheyenne History, Father Peter J. Powell reports:

“The pastor’s message was soon made clear to the people; the Kingdom of Satan lay in the practice of the Cheyenne sacred ways.”

In 1919, the Indian agent for the Northern Cheyenne Reservation summoned all of the known Indian priests and doctors to his office. Having prepared for the confrontation by placing a loaded pistol in his desk drawer, the agent then explained to the Cheyennes that their healing ceremonies were dangerous. He then presented of list of rules aimed at limiting the power of the Indian healers:

Doctors were forbidden to initiate other doctors
Doctors could not charge money or property for their services
Doctors were not allowed to advise anyone against stock raising, farming, placing their children in school, or anything which prevented them from becoming “self-supporting, respectable people”
The use of the rattle and singing songs to a sick person were also forbidden

Father Peter J. Powell reports:

“The Cheyennes were temporarily silenced, but certainly not beaten.”

A group of Cheyenne priests appealed directly to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to be allowed to continue doctoring, but the appeal was refused. In response, the Northern Cheyenne simply withdrew to the isolation of the pine hills where they could continue their ancient customs away from the eyes of the government.

In 1922, a delegation from the Northern Cheyenne reservation traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs and ask that they be allowed to continue their traditional religious ceremonies. They were told that all regulations must be observed and that the activities of the medicine men could not be allowed. The Indian office wrote to the Indian agent:

“You will therefore permit no deviation from the regulations in question. Please keep the Office advised relative to the medicine man situation on your reservation.”

Fort Peck Reservation

In 1917, the new superintendent for the Fort Peck Reservation addressed his concerns over Indian dances by stating: “(a) I recommend the policy of repression and at the same time instruction to show the uselessness of these practices. (b) No limitations are placed on returned students attending the infrequent dances.”

In 1920, the superintendent of the Fort Peck Reservation wrote:

“The dance itself is extremely demoralizing because when they dance they insist upon giving away property. More than one-half of these Indians if allowed to would give away all of their property. The Indian dance has a direct influence against the Church influence.”

He also mentioned that the Indians had imported the Owl Dance from the Sioux Standing Rock Reservation. David Miller, in The History of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, 1800-2000, reports:

“The social dance, the Owl Dance or Kahomani, were often done in secret in isolated places where boys, girls, men, and women danced all night, beyond the control of the superintendent, the farmers, and the agency police.”

The Owl Dance involved couples dancing to lyrics of songs which celebrated the victory of Indian soldiers over the Germans in World War I.

Sun Dance

In 1907, the four Cheyenne Old Man Chiefs—Two Moon, American Horse, Crazy Head, and Brave Bear—made a formal call on their Indian agent to protest the abolition of the Sun Dance. Little Sun spoke for the Chiefs. Understanding that the government had banned the Sun Dance because of men piercing and taking flesh from their own bodies as a public sacrifice, he suggested that they instead be allowed to conduct a Willow Dance which did not have this feature. Little Sun told the agent:

“We aren’t doing anything that isn’t religious. We are using our original ceremonies”

The agent agreed to allow the Cheyenne to hold a Willow Dance but emphasized that there must be no torture. The following year, however, the Indian Bureau informed the Northern Cheyenne that they could not continue holding their Willow Dance or any other dance of a ceremonial nature. The Bureau told them:

“you cannot continue your Willow dance and animal dance without doing great injury to your health and various industries.”

In 1915, the Northern Cheyenne explained their Willow Dance to the new Indian agent and stressed that it would be held for only two days after the crops have matured. The agent suggested that instead of the dance they have a fair where their crops can be exhibited. Father Peter J. Powell reports:

“The people responded to that suggestion by slipping off to the privacy of the hills. Maheo still heard their prayers, and the men still quietly offered their flesh as sacrifices”

The Northern Cheyenne did not give up on their attempts to obtain official permission for the Willow Dance. In 1916, they again requested that they be allowed to hold their Willow Dance. They told the Indian agent that they would allow the agent and any other government employee to attend. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, however, refused permission for the ceremony.

In 1918, the Northern Cheyenne openly performed the Sun Dance. This brought active opposition from the Mennonite missionaries who were campaigning to have the ceremony permanently banned. Nancy Pahr writes:

“They believed Cheyenne converts should take a stand against what they considered sinful dances.”

In 1910, Father Carroll, the Jesuit priest at St. Michael’s Church in the Blackfoot community of Browning, felt that the Sun Dance was one of the most dangerous weapons in Satan’s arsenal:

“It animates the Indians with the spirit of dancing, belief in Indian medicine, a passion for painting and dressing in heathen fashion, and strengthens their inborn disposition to be superstitious.”

In 1916, writer Frank Bird Linderman wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells asking that the orders requiring that Indian men cut their hair and prohibiting the Sun Dance be rescinded for the Chippewa and Cree on the Rocky Boy Reservation. Sells replied that there was no order to forcibly cut the men’s hair, but simply a strong suggestion that they do so. Regarding the Sun Dance, Sells strongly supported the ban on this ceremony citing a long-standing policy to discourage harmful Indian practices. The Indians, however, simply conduct the Sun Dance without official permission. Historian Sherry Smith, in her book Reimagining Indians: Native Americans Through Anglo Eyes, 1880-1940, reports:

“Official permission mattered little to them and apparently nobody on the reservation tried to stop it.”

Ghost Dance

While popular histories claim that the Ghost Dance, inspired by the visions of the Paiute prophet Wovoka, died with the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, the government continued to attempt to suppress this religious revitalization movement in Montana during the early twentieth century.

In 1900, the Department of the Interior, at the request of the Indian agent for the Northern Cheyenne reservation, ordered that Porcupine be arrested, confined, and punished for being a leader in Wovoka’s Ghost Dance movement. He was subsequently arrested and turned over to the commanding officer of Fort Keogh where he was to do hard labor. In her University of Montana M.A. Thesis, The Northern Cheyenne, Missionaries, and Resistance on the Tongue River Reservation 1884 through 1934. Nancy Pahr writes:

“Porcupine’s punishment symbolized the fate of those persons who resisted Indian Bureau assimilation policies. Incarceration was used to quell any Indians who went against the programs promoted for their betterment.”

It should be noted that there was no trial: Porcupine was arrested and imprisoned solely at the request of the Indian agent. The following year, the Northern Cheyenne participated in a Ghost Dance. The Indian agent ordered the ceremonial leaders beaten and imprisoned at hard labor.

In 1900, the Assiniboine of the Fort Belknap Reservation obtained the Ghost Dance Hand Game from the Gros Ventre. According to Raymond DeMallie and David Reed Miller, in their chapter on the Assiniboine in the Handbook of North American Indians:

“In earlier times the hand game was played to gamble, but the new hand game was a religious ceremony in which no gambling occurred.”

In 1902, the Ghost Dance was revived among the Assiniboine on the Fort Belknap and Fort Peck Reservations by Kicking Bear and Short Bull, Sioux Ghost Dance leaders from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Raymond DeMallie and David Reed Miller report:

“Incorporated into these dances were sacred red and white paint, feathers, and medicines for healing, which the Assiniboines received through the mail from Jack Wilson (Wovoka), the Northern Paiute Ghost Dance prophet, in exchange for money and goods.”

Native American Church

The Native American Church arose in the late nineteenth century as a pan-Indian religious movement. It incorporates many Christian elements as well as Indian elements. The difficulty that the church encountered was that it uses peyote as a sacrament. During the twentieth century, the battle against this religious movement intensified. In 1917, for example, the media continued to label the Native American Church as a “cult” and an article in the Denver Post reported that

“to get a better hold on the victims, the peyote peddlers have lent a religious tone to the ceremony of eating the drug, so that the peyote is worshipped in a semi-barbaric festival before the orgy is held.”

In 1918, a bill was introduced in Congress which would outlaw the use of peyote by Indians. In his testimony before Congress, Francis La Flesche, introduced as “Bureau of American Ethnology, an Omaha Indian,” said:

“I am thoroughly convinced that these Indians are worshipping God in their own simple way, and if their religion is interfered with by the Government or anybody else, and it is suppressed, the consequences will be very grave.”

Testimony against peyote was heard from the Indian Rights Association, the Society of American Indians, the National Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Associations, the Bureau of Catholic Missions, the Anti-Saloon League of America, the Carlisle Indian School, and the Indian Office. The Native American Church was incorporated in preparation to defend their religion. The bill was passed by the House but was rejected by the Senate. However, non-Indians continued to work to eradicate the religion.

In 1925, a group of Crows (including Big Sheep, Tom Stewart, and Frank Bethune) together with some Cheyennes incorporated themselves as the Native American Church of Montana. Big Sheep had been arrested in 1924 under Montana’s law prohibiting peyote and the case was being appealed to the Montana Supreme Court. The charges against Big Sheep would be dropped in 1926.

In 1928, Crow and Northern Cheyenne members of the Native American Church began a campaign to have Montana law amended to allow the religious use of peyote.

In 1932, William Denny (Cree) was taken to a peyote (Native American Church) meeting on the Crow Reservation. At the meeting he was cured of an illness and became a convert. According to Carl Couch and Joseph D. Marino, in their chapter in Lifeways of Intermontane and Plains Montana Indians: In Honor of Verne Dusenberry: