Analysis of Article the Messiah by John Neihardt - Essay Example

The article The Messiah by John Neihardt discusses the distress of people from hunger because the wasichus never gave them enough food as they promised. The people were hungry the time he left, and this became worse when he came back because the drought had prevailed. The people could not live on the lies of wasichus because they delivered few cattle as each day passed (Neihardt 17). The wasichus conducted another agreement to take the land, which was not to their consent. They were interested in the land between smoky earth, and Good River and when three stars came, he pushed the people away, leaving them desperate.

The time he was away, he could not help the people, and this made him feel powerless. He wandered around like a person without vision, and when his vision came, it just appeared like a mere dream. His powers were gone and he thought they would not come back. After returning back, people told him to heal a sick man, and he was afraid that his powers would not work. Fortunately, his powers did not disappoint him because he continued healing sick people (Neihardt 18). Children died of measles, and this became worse because most of them were suffering from hunger.

The people become hopeless and desperate and they felt they had no solution to their problem. At the time, he came back there was some rumor spreading around the people. The news was being talked about by everybody, and this is the first time he heard of it. The rumor was received by the ogalalas first and then it was passed to the people by the Shoshones. When he initially heard of the news, he never believed it because he felt it was a mere rumor from people. There was a mixed reaction between the people, as some believed the news while some did not (Neihardt18).

The news was about a sacred man who lived in the west at the top of the mountains, people believed the man had a way to help the Indians by sending away the wasichus. He was said to have a way of bringing back the dead and explain how new earth was to be formed. The people sent three men to talk to the sacred man and clarify whether the matter was true. People held a crucial meeting to hear what the three men had to say. He never participated in the meeting because he did not believe the news.

He believed that desperation made people believe the news just as a hungry man hopes for plenty of food to shower on him. The three men said that they were told that another world was to come from the west like a passing cloud (Neihardt 19). This world was to clear everything that was old and dying. The old man told them that there was to be plenty of meat like in the early days. The sacred man offered one of the men red paint and eagle feathers. The red paint was to be applied to the face of the people.

This was to help them move to the subsequent world, but the wasichus would not be able to. The sacred men taught them a ghost dance that they were to perform.