Publication Date
6-25-1973
Abstract
Studies of American Indian acculturation have completely ignored the phenomenon op opiate addiction. Between 1896 and 1934, Northern Paiutes living in Smith and Mason Valleys (Nevada)—the Tovusidokado—were addicted to yen shee and then morphine. Opiate addiction began four years after the end of the 1890 Ghost Dance, a religious movement originated by Jack Wilson in Mason Valley in 1888. Twenty years earlier, Smith and Mason Valley Paiutes participated in the 1870 Ghost Dance, a religious movement originated by Wodziwob in 1869 in nearby Walker Lake Valley. The dissertation is a study of Smith and Mason Valley Paiute acculturation which focuses upon the 1870 and 1890 Ghost Dance, and opiate addiction.
“Disillusionment” almost always appears in the literature as a variable used to explain the reasons for the failure of Ghost Dances, or succeeding behaviors (e.g., the spread of peyote). Because a long period of opiate addiction followed the end of the 1890 Ghost Dance, and because of the author’s ethnohistorical interests, the dissertation poses this question as its central problem: Did disillusionment follow the 1870 or 1890 Ghost Dance, and if so, can disillusionment explain Smith and Mason Valley Paiute opiate addiction?
Three types of disillusionment are identified: (1) with the prophecy; (2) with the belief system; (3) with the formal organization which develops during the lifetime of a religious movement.
The reconstruction of the 1870 Ghost Dance reveals it to have been a transformative movement, Because Wodziwob’s prophecies did not materialize, there was disconfirmation; however, none of the three types of disillusionment were evidenced.
The reconstruction of the 1890 Ghost Dance reveals it to have been a redemptive movement. Although it too was shortlived, there is no evidence that it failed, nor that any of the types of disillusionment occurred.
Birth cohorts provided both a method of collecting data, to express the incidence of addiction, as well as a vehicle to explain its relative presence and absence among Smith and Mason Valley Paiutes of different ages.
Members of the first birth cohort (1835-1859) originated the 1870 Ghost Dance: in general, their responses to acculturation were creative, and opiate addiction was absent among them.
Members of the 1860-1884 birth cohort originated the 1890 Ghost Dnace: a large percentage of the men (Including Jack Wilson’s younger brother) were addicts; and they were close in age to the 1885-1909 cohort, for whom the highest incidence of addiction was evidenced.
The explanation for opiate addiction among 1885-1909 cohort members emphasized the following factors: the loss of traditional Paiute culture; directed culture change via the schools and churches; a demographic transition; year-round employment opportunities occasioned by the migration of Italian potato farmers; the availability of opiates from Chinese sources. Opiates provided a means of escape from these circumstances, especially from the “tiredness” caused by arduous potato work.
Document Type
Dissertation
Language
English
Degree Name
Anthropology
Level of Degree
Doctoral
Department Name
Anthropology
First Committee Member (Chair)
Philip K. Boch
Second Committee Member
Bruce Joseph Rigsby
Third Committee Member
James Marshall Sebring
Recommended Citation
Hittman, Michael. "Ghost Dances, Disillusionment And Opiate Addiction: An Ethnohistory Of Smith And Mason Valley Paiutes.." (1973). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds/244