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[He takes a shirt, painted with symbols like
his own, out of his bundle and displays it to
them. Sitting Bull and Bull Bear walk apart,
upstage. The eyes of the chorus follow them, then
turn to Kicking Bear. They begin to move up around
him.]
The wearers of this shirt, wherever seen,
Make glad the godly and appall the wicked.
The magic fibers in it none can pierce
By stinging arrow or by deadly bullet.
The gnarled and cramped grow straight as limber
[poplars,
The hungry cease to hunger and the sick
To know their pain: such is its medicine.
I find you ready as initiates?
Chorus (sundry voices)
Yes, we are ready. Teach us. Ready. Yes.
[Drumbeats in three, to which rhythm Kicking
Bear declaims the following lines.]
Kicking Bear
Who are these stricken ones?
O Father, do you see?
Their eyes tell me that they are holy ones.
I ask them in Your name,
will they accept the sign
Of servers in your blessed rite?
Chorus
We will, Father.
Kicking Bear
Then don these sacred shirts.
They will keep you holy,
howl the wind or wend the world to dust.
When the cloud of His new morning
parts forever, they will
sanctify you in its light.
[The drumbeats stop, and he begins
distributing shirts. The more feeble need
help to put them on. Drumbeats resume, in three.]
And now, O Mighty Healer, hear the blessed cry
of these your new and righteous celebrants.
From the waning roads of darkness,
lowly hearts, with a will to know
Your wonders, bring I them to You.
Receive them now; to Your immortal measure,
shaping, seeding worlds with fire,
teach their humble feet to tread.
[They are on their feet now and have begun to
sway a bit under the influence of the beat.
By the time the Ghost Dance Song starts, below,
they will have grown young and limber in movement.]
O eyes! Eyes of prophecy!
What terror, beauty do you see?
What is that dusty phantom
towering over the prairie,
pillared in the rosy air?
Unholy dens devouring,
sacred circles sparing,
how unwavering it keeps its course!
See it now, see it coming!
[Sings the Ghost Dance Song, verse 1, leading
them in a dance.]
It's the whirlwind of the new world's morning,
chasing forth the earth's chaff
from her weary face;
now she smiles up at the dark, spawning
Sacred Thundercloud, and awaits the flash
of His bright bolt to heal her.
[The chorus repeat: It's the whirlwind, etc.]
Kicking Bear
O ears! Ears of prophecy!
What distant hummings do you hear?
What is that thundrous sound,
snorting breath, cries,
as though the breezes were alive?
In holy measure beating,
dust of spirits raising,
what unworldly music do they make!
Hear it now, hear it coming!
[Sings the Ghost Dance Song, verse 2.]
It's the hoofbeats of the wild horse nation,
prancing on the new earth,
neighing as they come;
with their fierce nostrils aflare with the
breath of holiness, their immortal manes
streaming firelike behind them.
[The chorus repeat verse 2.]
Kicking Bear
O joyful ears, joyful eyes!
What visions and commotion
fill you now?
It seems the earth is heaving,
laboring and shaking
in a universal birthing tide.
Oh, see it, hear it!
[Sings verse 3.]
Now they all come, all the swarming nations,
spider, elk, hawk and roaring buffalo;
and now the holy dancing sun
glimmers in their deathless eyes,
and they are dancing all,
all are dancing.
[After the chorus repeat the final verse,
the dancing continues to instruments alone.
Bull Bear peers offstage a moment, then
comes downstage to the chorus. The instruments
begin the song again, but break off abruptly
as Bull Bear catches the attention of the
chorus.]
Bull Bear
I hate to interrupt the services,
But here come our fine-suited men of law,
And from the looks of it, it's not to dance.
[BULL HEAD enters with the Indian police. They are
dressed in blue cavalry-style uniforms, boots
and hats, with long braids showing beneath.]
Bull Head
We have been sent on orders from the agent,
Who knows the nature of this thing you do,
And will not see this peaceful camp disrupted,
As others have been, by such devilry.
Go home now, all of you. The dance is ended.
Chorus(woman)
What call has White Hair to keep us from dancing?
Bull Head
He knows well what you do. Go home, I say.
This is a plain disturbance, and forbidden.
[Kicking Bear begins circling around
Bull Head.]
Kicking Bear
O sacred Father of the spawning earth,
What visions do you smite my poor eyes with?
What breed of vermin of the latter days?
I have seen snakes that sucked the eagle's eggs,
And black fowl feasting on most famous tribes;
I have seen worms inhabiting the clothes
Of dead men, yes, but what were they to these,
These red men with blue coats and metal badges?
O most perishable of all who are
To perish, what was in your feeble minds,
What hope of evil favors from your friends,
Whose smiles light up your eyes more than their gold,
That made you climb into their doomed apparel,
As spiders make their nests in kindling wood?
O despisers and despised of all your race,
Where will you be when those smiles freeze in terror,
And all their gold together with the hands
That grasp it lies unglimmering in earth,
In caverns deeper than the deepest shaft
They ever sunk to tear it from her side?
Bull Bear (to Sitting Bull)
Our man knows how to pay his compliments.
Bull Head
I know this man already by his mouth.
Unless I'm wrong, your name is Kicking Bear.
Kicking Bear
You speak of names? What need have you of names?
For who upon this earth will hear of yours?
When your pale masters in iniquity,
Turned paler than they ever were before,
Cry mercy to the roaring waves of dust,
And feel their feet unbidden start to dance;
Where in that horrid drumming chant of theirs
Will squeaking mimic voices be discerned
Of ones who sold their mothers for a badge?
O dancers, I could almost pity those,
The wives and little children of the whites,
Who but for being of that evil race,
Might have been blameless; yes, but these, O these,
Who could have had the corn of righteousness
But chose the chaff instead, their very dogs
Will not let out a whine to pity them.
Bull Head
All right, you've talked your fill. Now come with us.
You have been ordered off the reservation.
Kicking Bear
And do you think you have the power to take me?
O foolishness! Do you know where you are?
[At a motion from him the chorus move closer
around him. Seeing their unwonted vigor,
Bull Head hesitates.]
Bull Head
I am among a crowd of foolish people,
Who bring a laughing shame upon us all.
Kicking Bear
O shame! And do you hear the white ones laughing?
Is that why they have rushed you here to stop us?
Bull Head
They do not like to see their friends deceived.
Those who deceive them are to be removed.
Kicking Bear
O fine talk of deception from deceivers!
Bull Head
You waste our time. Will you come quietly?
Kicking Bear (mocking)
"They do not like to see their friends deceived!"
[Laughter from the chorus.]
Bull Head (moving towards him)
Well, quietly or not, but come you will.
[Kicking Bear snatches off Bull Head's hat
and flings it to the ground.]
Kicking Bear
There now, let this at least cease to pollute you.
Bull Head (to the policemen)
Take him.
Kicking Bear
Fall on them, dancers!
Chorus (sundry voices)
Stop, stop, stop!
Sitting Bull (coming forward)
What is the matter here? Let go of him.
[The policemen who have seized Kicking Bear
release him. Bull Head retrieves his hat.]
Bull Head
You have no call to stop us, Sitting Bull.
Our orders were to seize the troublemakers.
Sitting Bull
Until you came I saw no trouble here.
Bull Head
And he's the most notorious of all.
Sitting Bull
Perhaps you have been in those boots so long
That you do not recall our customs here.
This man has smoked with me: he is my guest,
And if White Hair accuses him of wrong,
He first should take the matter up with me,
And not send underlings to snatch him off.
Bull Head
It is his word that goes here now, not yours.
Sitting Bull
What I speak of is merest decency,
Though that as well you seem to have forgot.
Bull Head
This man assaults our office and insults us.
Sitting Bull
I will admit he does not do you justice,
For though he says nothing but what is true,
To do so with such waste of pretty words
Is more than you deserve. So now, begone.
You make these worshippers neglect their rite.
Bull Head
You always thought you were the best of us.
Sitting Bull
The best of us are underneath the ground.
We who are slightly worse now live like dogs,
Yet such as you might well look up to us.
Bull Head
Your great conceit nobody sane admires.
You spit upon the men who pardoned you.
Sitting Bull
You lick the toes of those who took your land.
If any land would own such ones as you.
Bull Head
Since we would work instead of starve, we're bad?
Your stubbornness has lost you more than that.
Sitting Bull
And may yet lose me more. Yet not one bit
Would I buy back by wagging of my tail.
Bull Head
Well, we will see what insolence will buy you.
Come on, you men, we have reports to make.
The agent will soon know that Sitting Bull,
Who thinks himself the greatest man alive,
Keeps as his private guest a foul-mouthed preacher,
And calls his causing riots playful games.
We will see how he likes this information.
[Exit with policemen.]
Kicking Bear
Ha, ha!
Chorus (sundry voices)
Hoo hoo, they're gone!
Sitting Bull
Bull Bear.
Bull Bear
Yes, chief?
Sitting Bull
Has wind of this been in the other camps?
Bull Bear
I think they've come down with a case or two.
Just yesterday, across the reservation,
I saw what looked like these same priceless shirts.
Sitting Bull
Keep Bull Head and his men in constant sight,
And should his men molest them in the slightest,
I want to know of it. Don't lose them, now.
[Exit Bull Bear.]
Kicking Bear
O chief, you see, almost against your will
You feel the righteousness of what we do,
And soon I do not doubt that like your namesake,
That fierce broad-shouldered one of the wooly herds,
Whose slow deliberation all his tribe
Waits on with rapt respect, you will shake off
This late oppression of your matchless spirit,
And be fully at one with us at last.
But it is lucky for those wicked dogs
Our good chief kept them from their wickedness,
For truly it was them he saved, not me,
Though saved they are but for the final fire.
Oh, I could feel your surging hearts behind me,
Surging with power the righteous only feel,
And what would your wild hands have left of them
But poor blue tatters on the laughing wind?
[Sitting Bull turns his back on him and goes
upstage. Drumbeats in four.]
Chorus
Now shall the seed of sin be shaken,
now are the winnowed hearts made strong.
O Power, Power, healing Power,
how the old bones are charged by you!
How your blissful searing song
unfilms the aged vision!
[Drumbeats change to three.]
How the aching limbs
limber to your touch
and feel the grace of your compelling tread!
Kicking Bear
O eyes, eyes of worldly blindness!
What terror opens you so wide?
Is it some dusty phantom
on the world's horizon,
seeming to seek you everywhere?
Your sinful selves devouring,
those you spited sparing;
however shall you stay its dreadful course?
See it now, see it coming!
Chorus (singing)
It's the whirlwind of the new world's morning,
chasing forth the earth's chaff
from her weary face;
now she smiles up at the dark, spawning
Sacred Thundercloud, and awaits the flash
of His bright bolt to heal her.
Kicking Bear
O ears, ears unhearing now!
How well the swirling dust has stopped you!
For you no dance of thunder,
beats, nor breath of rapture
boom along the living air.
For us their holy measure,
ours the shimmering pastures,
ours the deathless music that they make.
Hear it now, hear it coming!
Chorus (singing)
It's the hoofbeats of the wild horse nation,
prancing on the new earth,
neighing as they come;
with their fierce nostrils aflare with the
breath of holiness, their immortal manes
streaming firelike behind them.
Kicking Bear
O sorry ears! Sorry eyes!
What joyous bright commotion
do you miss?
For you the earth is dying
but for us she's dancing
in her universal birthing round.
Oh, see it, hear it!
Chorus (singing)
Now they all come, all the swarming nations,
spider, elk, hawk and roaring buffalo;
and now the holy dancing sun
glimmers in their deathless eyes,
and they are dancing all,
all are dancing.
[The dance continues as before, to instruments
alone, but more frenzied than ever.]
Bull Bear (offstage)
Ho, White Hair comes with red dogs on the leash!
[They ignore this shout and the instruments begin
the song again but break off abruptly at the
entrance of WHITE HAIR with Bull Head and policemen.]
Ghost Dancers main page | Preface | (1)
| (2) | (3) |
(4) | (5) | (6)
| Notes for performers