1913 - if the white people were shown at an exposition the state they were in before they were civilized more money would be made, and bigger crowds would be interested than will be in the Indians.

Wierd [Weird] Indian Dances

Oklahoma Indian Writes of Indian Ceremonies and Medicine

                                                                                1913, Feb 4   The Pantagraph 
     J.W. Gibson, Kansas City Star -- I notice where someone was giving his experience with the medicine men and ghost dances, which are being held by the Indians of Oklahoma. He as a given a good description of those dances and the ceremonies, except he does not understand the Indian language. I am a member of that tribe and have taken part in all of the dances and know at least one hundred Indian songs - the wolf dance, buffalo turkey dance (not turkey trot), medicine and ghost dance songs. The medicine he speaks about is no more than what is known as the mescal bean, which resembles a dried peach and grows in western Texas and New Mexico. Scientists assert opium is made from this herb. In any event, it has the same effect. While you are under the influence of this medicine you imagine you see ghosts, animals and birds. In fact, anything you want to see. This medicine (mescal bean) was discovered by the late Geronimo (pronounced Heronimo), chief of the Apaches. The use of it once was prohibited by the United States government. But the tribes that had taken up the use of it filed a petition to the secretary of the interior, headed by Geronimo, asking to be allowed to use this medicine for religious purposes. As I remember, the request was granted.

1913, Feb 4   The Pantagraph 

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TURKEY TROT VS INDIAN DANCE

Bishop Biller Says Some Modern Dances Are Worse Than Indians'

1913, Feb 13  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 

     "The Indian has been commercialized, and Buffalo Bill is largely responsible for it," said Bishop George Biller today in talking to the members of the Women's Auxiliary.....
     "As a result," he went on, "the old heathen custom of the dance, with all its heathenish practices, is being revived. Even now there are plans under way to show the Indian in a Wild West dance at the Panama Canal Exposition, and to show him as he was before coming under the influence of the Christian missionaries. If this is done, it would undo the work of centuries.
     "These dances in themselves are less harmful than some of the dances of the white men of the present day, but the practices resulting from them are what does the harm. The Indian agents or superintendents say that dancing keeps the Indians quiet, but they say this simply because the Indian, when he is dancing, keeps away from the agency and does not bother the agent."
     The bishop is of the opinion that if the white people were shown at an exposition the state they were in before they were civilized more money would be made, and bigger crowds would be interested than will be in the Indians. "The Indians as a race," he went on, "are dying out, not as individuals, but as a race. Within the next twenty years there will be very few Indians. He will be absorbed, and the time of his passing is not the time for the Christian Church to desert him." 

1913, Feb 13  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 

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INDIAN GHOST DANCE WILL BE GIVEN AT 

WINNIPEG EXHIBITION

Washington Authorities Permit Sioux Tribe to Revive It 

1913, May 31   The Winnipeg Tribune 

Permission for the Sioux Indians to dance the long prohibited "Ghost Dance" has been obtained from Washington authorities by the Irwin Brothers for their Wild West [show]. 

1913, May 31   The Winnipeg Tribune 

1913, July 4  Oakland Tribune 

1913, Nov 16  The Times Democrat