About
1250 people from throughout the United States and from some foreign nations
attended a spiritual event called a “Ghost Dance” on the Jack Salmond family
ranch west of Choteau Aug. 5-8.
Traffic
was intermittently heavy on the Bellview Road early last week as the
participants in the program streamed into the Deep Creek-area property, where,
according to witnesses, they set up a tent camp and took part in a peaceful
program put on by representatives of the Wolf Lodge Cultural Foundation, a
non-profit organization based in Spokane, Wash.
Wolf
Lodge Cultural Foundation promoted the event on the Internet, saying on the
registration form, “We will sleep in tents, and everyone is expected to bring
food that we will all share. We will work together and dance together. We will
cross the borders of separation, for in the end, it is the people of this world
who will inherit it.” The form also stated that no drugs or alcohol of any
kind would be permitted at the Ghost Dance.
Rumors
of what the group was doing zipped around town all weekend, but Sheriff George
Anderson said most of the speculations were not based in reality. “We had
absolutely zero problems at all,” he said, commenting that he and several
deputies patrolled the area throughout the event. There were two injuries at the
camp over the weekend, he said, one involved a dog bite and the other a head
injury due to a fall. Both those injured were treated initially at Teton Medical
Center in Choteau. Anderson said only one person in the enclave, the chief of
security was armed, and that was as a precaution due to the concerns about
mountain lions. About half the participants had departed by Monday morning and
the rest were due to leave on Tuesday, Anderson said. Anderson also added that
his department had been warned that the group had received threats, and officers
were detailed to do the additional patrolling as a precaution, but none of the
threats materialized. He also said that he advised other area landowners of the
planned gathering. Jack Salmond, contacted on Monday, deferred questions on the
gathering to his daughter, Mary Ranf of Choteau, who handled local arrangements.
Ranf was at the camp, about 30 miles southwest of Choteau on Monday and was
unreachable by telephone.
According
to the Wolf Lodge Internet site, the organization was founded to support Native
American Culture, Spiritual Heritage, arts and the environment. According to the
Internet site, the Ghost Dance at Deep Creek was the first of four global Ghost
Dances, and was called by Wolf Lodge spokesman Robert Ghost Wolf.
In
a special message posted on the site to “All People of All Nations Around the
Globe,” Ghost Wolf says he is Metis who has studied Native American
spirituality of various tribes and has studied the beliefs and traditions of his
own grandparents and ancestors.
Ghost
Dance tradition dates back to the late 1880s, when it was first performed by a
medicine man of the Paiute tribe of Nevada, according to author Lori Soard. The
theme of the Ghost Dance was to train people to stop fighting and live together
in peace. The movement grew and spread to other tribes. The Ghost Dance also
figured in the death of Sitting Bull and in the massacre at Wounded Knee,
according to history.
Ghost
Wolf, however, said in his special message that the ceremony at Deep Creek was
not traditional. “This ceremony that I do is a new tradition, being done in a
new time. It is not being done as it was done 109 years ago. These are new
times, with new circumstances, and life is very different.”
The
poster advertising the gathering promoted it as a celebration of one people and
one vision to create a new dream for humanity. The gathering emphasized strength
through unity rather than separation.
Ghost
Wolf did not refer to the Deep Creek location by name, but called it “A place
of wonderment, where tribes traveled from North to South, gathered to trade and
lived.” Ghost Wolf’s special message also stated that there was no donation
required to attend the event.
Melody
Martinsen, Acantha Editor