Ghost Dance at Eshom Valley

The Wuksache, not given to much worry 

Or cares for property, 

Occupied Upper Rattlesnake Creek,

Territory around Badger,

And Eshom Valley (The Clover Place).

No one remembers when they came,

Paiute doctors from Nevada,

To convince the people to dance.

“So many Indians had been dying,”

They arranged for a Ghost Dance 

To be held in Eshom Valley.

“They could all stop dying,

And bring back the dead.”

A big, new kind of dance.

The same dance dead people dance

In the Land of the Dead.

Indians appeared from everywhere, 

The mountains east of Ash Spring, 

Bear Mountain, Deer Creek, 

Kings River and Farmersville.

They danced in a big circle

Near a water hole in Eshom Creek,

Singing for the dead’s return.

The song: “I will be anything, 

Crow, rock, stick, rattlesnake, 

Or anything if our dead people 

Would only come back."

Everybody danced and swayed, 

Holding each other's hands.

When called upon, they all ran 

into the creek and bathed.

Dancing for six days and nights

Wore a deep rut in the ground.

Two brothers came to the creek

And told all the dancers,

“White men were coming to kill them.”

The dancers hid in a canyon. 

About the poet

Stephen Barile is an award-winning poet, and was a long-time member of the Fresno Poet’s Association. He attended Fresno City College, Fresno Pacific University, and California State University, Fresno.  His poems may be found in numerous publications, both print and on-line. He taught writing at Madera College, and CSU Fresno.