lucky hits are sufficient to establish the reputation of a clairvoyant. In this class are to be found individuals superior to their fellows in shrewdness, perspicacity, and general worldly knowledge; it is, therefore, not surprising that a succession of verified forecasts should lift a prophet to the highest pinnacle of respect and influence.
In 1881, a seer, prophet, or Shaman, named Na-kay-da-klinni, or, as he was known to the white men, Bobby-da-klinni, rose to eminence among the Apaches, He arrogated to himself great powers of divination, held constant communication with the Chidin, and asserted that he had power to raise the dead from their graves. One dead man he had pulled out of his tomb as far as the knees, but could not get him any further; the reason for the failure being that the spirit declined to come back to Arizona so long as the whites remained in the country. He prophesied that the whites would have to leave when the corn ripened. He preached that the red men must cease fighting each other and must unite and be one people as they once had been. He drilled the various bands near Fort Apache in a dance to which they attached great importance. It was entirely different from anything ever before seen among them. The participants, men and women, arranged themselves in files, facing a common centre, like the spokes of a heel, and, while thus dancing, Hoddentin and corn-meal were thrown upon them in profusion.
This "prophet", or "doctor", was killed in the engagement in the Cibicu Cañon, Arizona, August 30, 1881.[1]
In all that relates to war, from the blessing of the warbonnet to the march upon the trail and a selection of the auspicious moment for attack, the influence of the "medicine-man" is supreme. He superintends the war-dance before
- ↑ The power possessed over the minds of the Indians of the Mississippi Valley, one generation ago, by the Prophet, equalled, if it did not surpass, that wielded by the great chief Teemuseh himself.
