Chapter VI: Appendix (3)

Thus, by imposing on an ignorant, savage people, “gods many,” gods of life and gods of death, gods of hate and revenge and lust, gods of cold and of heat, gods of all the various passions, gods of lying, deceit and wrong, gods of gluttony and drunkenness, gods of lasciviousness and impurity, gods of conception and abortion, gods innumerable—hideous and horrid monsters, which are the creation of the inflamed and bedeviled imaginations of these Thugs—these wakan men—they exert an influence over them, in the various official capacities which they assume, which is absolute and which pervades Dakota society—an influence which bears with all its force on each individual of their victims, which tends to crush him down still deeper, if indeed there are depths below them, in ignorance, superstition, degradation and misery of soul and body, and force them into an unreserved surrender to their own whims and caprices. Of these wakan men there are from five to twenty five in each of the little clans of Dakotas.

Alkalies and acids mingled produce effervescence. A like result attends the contact of any opposing influences. Nothing can exceed the antagonism that lies between TRUTH and the system of superstition which is the subject of the foregoing paper. Root, trunk, branches and leaves there is not the smell of truth to be found on it. It is plainly opposed to truth and truth is opposed to it. It is opposed by the truth of history, the truth of science, the truth of “animated nature,” social truth, political truth and spiritual truth. _All_ truth tends directly to its destruction. A little boy was one day listening to a missionary who was endeavoring to explain to him the workings of the magnetic telegraph. The little half naked fellow seemed to catch an idea of natural truth, and starting up, excitedly exclaimed. “If that is true, then all our religion is false.” A glimpse of truth broke the spell that bound his mind, and shook their whole system of superstition to its foundations. It never recovered its hold on him. For more than thirty years, truth, in variety, has been held to the Dakota mind. With a keen and jealous eye, these wakan men have watched its workings. It has mortified and pained them to see their cords of error snapped by it, one after another, and their hold on their blind victims loosened. Their “craft was in danger.” They have cried with voice and soul, these thirty years, “Great is the Taku-Wakan—the Taku-Wakan is wakan, and I am their prophet.”

They have done all they could and dare do, in the circumstances, to oppose the progress of truth among their people, by slanders and snares, gibes and abuse, and violence, and even murder. But in spite of their vigilance and efforts to oppose, truth advanced with slow but steady step, and worked like “leaven in the meal.” Old men and young men, old women and young women, boys and girls, left them, and by open profession of regard for truth, stood boldly up in the face of their lies. The symbols of the gods, which the priests, war prophets and doctors had painted, wreathed and paraded “on every hill,” were defiantly spurned from their places by the feet of those who had been used to obey their caprices and crouch to their authority. The feasts and dances were less fully attended, the medicine-sack cast away, while hundreds of their former dupes, emancipated, read daily in their Bibles, sung the song of Zion, and prayed, in their houses, to their “Father in heaven;” and on the Sabbath assembled in the Christian church, erected by their own hands, and seriously, reverently, joined in the holy worship of the God of heaven. At sight of this, the rage of these demons in human form boiled over. The effervescence was mighty. Threats were fulminated and nothing but opportunity was wanting for them to rise, and re-establish by violence, the waning power of the TAKU-WAKAN, and to return, wading through the blood of Christians, if need be, to the homes of their pagan fathers. They hoped to be able to roll back the providential wheels of the Almighty God.

That opportunity, they deemed, had arrived when all our young men were being marched off to the South, probably to be swept away by the great rebellion. Hence, the “out-break” of 1862. True, it has been said that the _Christian_ Indians were our worst enemies, but where is the evidence of this? Were not those _Christian_ Indians, at least by profession, who rescued companies of our people from death, and conducted them, through perils, to a place of safety? Which is the exception? Were not those _Christian_ Indians who, in a considerable number of cases sacrificed their little all and risked their lives to protect individuals and conduct them to safety? Were there any exceptions? Which was the _pagan_ Indian who performed such a deed? Were not those _Christian_ Indians, who, encouraged by General Sibley, effected the deliverance from bondage and death, or treatment worse than death, of hundreds of captives at “Camp Release?” Did not the leaders of that band bear _Christian_ names, given to them in the holy ordinance of baptism? Who are they who have composed the band of faithful “scouts,” three long years standing on our frontiers to protect our citizens from the scalping-knife of the worshippers of the _Taku-wakan_, but _Christian_ Indians? Was there an exception here? It is not claimed for these Indians that they were _model Christians_, but they were Christians by profession, and their names and the names of their wives and children stood enrolled on the records of the Christian church.

On the other hand, who led the murderous bands in work of the destruction? “_Little Crow_” and his _Wakan_ associates, who, from old time, had been the open and determined enemies of the Christian religion, and most zealous and devoted worshippers of the _Taku-wakan_. It is not denied that individuals, professing Christians, were involved in the wrong and fled with the pagans to the plains. We could name a few such.

Even those of the pagan party who surrendered themselves to our military authorities, felt that the Wood Lake battle was the result of the strife between their _Medicine-men_ and “_God Almighty_;” and from that day, in their minds, the doom of their gods and of their representatives was sealed. They soon cast away even the symbols of their divinities, and a large portion of them began to seek to know how to worship the God of the Bible.

Those wakan-men will never suffer their people to enter into an honest treaty of peace with us while they are wakan-men. They can never be trusted. Circumstances may render them harmless, but by their own showing, they are _essentially wakan_. They are devils incarnate.