Awaiting “Wanikiya” the Messiah

Teachings about a Messiah that will come to save mankind from inevitable self-destruction and destruction of Ina Maka (Mother Earth), who will usher in a time of peace and harmony with the creator and all of creation and regenerate the earth, is as ancient as time itself.

So, during the late 1800’s when word of a Wanikiye (Savior) spread throughout the Makoce’ (land) it found an eager audience amongst Indigenous people, as they had lost more than any other race in the history of mankind. They lost their aboriginal homelands on three continents, nearly half the land base of the entire world, they lost food sources that had sustained them for millennia, their population was nearly decimated by disease, they were losing their languages, their religions and their identity.

Although this new religion was a hybrid religion, mixing ancient ceremonies with Christianity, it spread quickly throughout the tribes as Indigians needed hope, they needed to believe something could change their stark dreadful reality. Because of the disheartening conditions amongst the Oceti Sakonwin (seven council fires), many fires including the Tetonwan Oyate readily adopted this new religion, incorporating many of the features of the Wiwanyang Wacipi (Sun Dance) ceremonies into what became known as the Wanagi Wacipi (Ghost Dance).

In 1889, this new religion made its way to the Hunkpapa Oyate living on the Northern Plains at the Standing Rock Sioux Agency, when Kicking Bear an Oglala Lakota brought word about the Wanagi Wacipi and the prophesy of the coming of the Wanikiya (Indian Messiah). Kicking Bear prophesied that the Wanikiya would rid the world of the ska wicasa (white man) and bring back the Pte hca ka (buffalo) and all their lost relatives. Kicking Bear told them that they need not fear reprisal from the U.S. Army if the dancers wore sacred garments, Ghost Shirts, painted with the sun, moon, stars, the eagle and the buffalo, because according to Kicking Bear the shirts were bullet-proof.

Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake, the Hunkpapa Lakota Chief Sitting Bull who was one of the most renowned Lakota Chiefs at the time allowed the Wanagi Wacipi to be practiced amongst his followers.

The prophesy of the imminent arrival of the Wanikiya is one of the most overlooked aspects of the Wanagi Wacipi and its connection to the Massacre at Čhaŋkpé Ópi Wakpála (Wounded Knee Creek) in December of 1890.

Louis S. Warren writes in his book titled, “The Lakota Ghost Dance and the Massacre at Wounded Knee:

How the American drive to force Indian assimilation turned violent on the plains of South Dakota,” that

“The killing of Sitting Bull sent waves of panic and fear across the reservation. When Lakota Indians there and at other reservations heard the news, they began to crisscross the countryside looking for refuge from the troops.”

Warren states that after Sitting Bull’s death the Hunkpapa Ghost Dancers were seeking refuge, an apt description of their quest to meet Wanikiye (the Savior), who would rid the Makoce of the plague of Ska Wicasa encroachment on their homelands. 

Stanley Vestal in his book “Sitting Bull: Champion of the Sioux” writes that in December of 1890, Sitting Bull received an invitation from Short Bull, the leader of the Oglala Ghost Dancers, who had a revelation that “the Messiah was to hasten His coming, since the whites were interfering too much. Now the time was at hand.” Short Bull believed that Sitting Bull as chief “ought to be on hand to greet the Indian Christ.”

Sitting Bull is said to have consulted his people “who voted that he ought by all means to go.” Sitting Bull said he would write a letter to James McLaughlin, the Indian Agent at the Standing Rock Sioux Agency, requesting a pass so he could witness the coming of the promised Messiah.

However, the next day the Indian Policeman Running Hawk handed Sitting Bull a letter from McLaughlin ordering Sitting Bull to tell all the Ghost Dancers to disburse and go home to their farms. Running Hawk also told Sitting Bull that the authorities planned to disarm them and take away their ponies.

Sitting Bull prompted his son-in-law Andrew Fox to write the letter to McLaughlin in spite of the threats in which he chastises the Indian Agent, “I wish to write a few lines today and let you know something. I held a meeting with all my Indians today, and am writing you this message [from them]. God made you – made all the white race and also made the Red race – and gave them both might and heart to know everything in the world, but gave the whites the advantage over the Indians.  Today God, our Father, is helping us Indians, so all we Indians believe.”

He told the Indian agent, “You should say nothing against our religion, for we said nothing against yours. You pray to God. So do all of us Indians, as well as the whites. We both pray to only one God, who made us all.”

He concludes his letter by telling McLaughlin he intends to honor Short Bulls invitation, “I am obliged to go to [ Pine Ridge Agency] and investigate this Ghost Dance. So, I write to let you know that.” (The words “Pine Ridge Agency” were interjected into the sentence by the author). 

Bull Ghost delivers the letter to Mclaughlin, however the order to have Sitting Bull arrested came earlier that same day.

According to Attorney Mario Gonzalez, Short Bull was a close relative of Sitting Bull and was also part Hunkpapa and lived in the area that is now Pass Creek near the east end of the Badlands. Short Bull had traveled with Kicking Bear to Nevada to visit Wovoka the leader of the Ghost Dance movement.

To believe that Sitting Bull’s destination had he lived to travel and was to meet with Short Bull and witness the arrival of the prophetic “Wanikiya” (Indian Messiah) is very plausible. So it is even more believable that when his followers fled south they also intended to seek shelter with Short Bull and other Ghost Dancers and await the arrival of Wanikiya.

A contrary belief is that the Ghost Dancers who had fled South after Sitting Bull’s death, were traveling to consult with Chief Mahpiya Luta (Red Cloud) at his Agency. However, they would have been walking into a trap.

According to an article in WE”RE HISTORY titled “Midterms and Troops: The Bid to Save a Party that Led to the Wounded Knee Massacre” by Heather Cox Richardson, “In November of 1890 President Harrison had ordered 9,000 troops to South Dakota—the largest mobilization of the army since the Civil War—to protect settlers against an Indian “uprising.”

In 2018, Bradley C. Upton, fifth generation descendant of Major General James Forsyth, who had ordered the massacre of hundreds of Mniconjou and Hunkpapa men, women and children on December 29, 1890, at Chankpé Ópi Wakpála (Wounded Knee Creek), shared Forsythe’s diaries with Native Sun News Today.

According to Forsythe’s diary Major Forsyth along with the Seventh Cavalry Regiment had been camped at Red Cloud’s Agency for two weeks awaiting word of movement of the Ghost Dancers.

So, it is not too farfetched to believe that when the Hunkpapa Ghost Dancers fled south to seek refuge with their Mnicoujou relatives at Bridger after Sitting Bull was killed and the subsequent movement of Hehaka Gleska (Spotted Elk) also known as Si Tanka (Big Foot) and his followers, who were also Ghost Dancer, that it was their intension to reach the camp of Short Bull to witness the coming of Wanikiya” the Indian Christ.

(By Ernestine Anunkasan Hopa at editor@nativesunnews.today)

The post Awaiting “Wanikiya” the Messiah first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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