Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance (Caddo: Nanissáanah,[1] also called the Ghost

Dance of 1890) is a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native
American belief systems. According to the millenarian teachings
of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack
Wilson), proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with
spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to fight on their behalf, end
American Westward expansion, and bring peace, prosperity, and
unity to Native American peoples throughout the region.[2]
The Ghost Dance of 1889–1891,
The basis for the Ghost Dance is the circle dance, a traditional depicting the Oglala at Pine Ridge
Native American dance.[3][4] The Ghost Dance was first practiced Indian Reservation in South Dakota,
by Frederic Remington in 1890
by the Nevada Northern Paiute in 1889. The practice swept
throughout much of the Western United States, quickly reaching
areas of California and Oklahoma. As the Ghost Dance spread from its original source, different tribes
synthesized selective aspects of the ritual with their own beliefs.

The Ghost Dance has been associated with Wovoka's prophecy of an end to colonial expansion while
preaching goals of clean living, an honest life, and cross-cultural cooperation by Native Americans.
Practice of the Ghost Dance movement was believed to have contributed to Lakota resistance to
assimilation under the Dawes Act. The Lakota variation on the Ghost Dance tended towards
millenarianism,[5] an innovation that distinguished the Lakota interpretation from Jack Wilson's original
teachings. The Caddo still practice the Ghost Dance today.[6]

History

Paiute influence
The Northern Paiutes living in Mason Valley, in what is now the U.S. state of Nevada, were known
collectively as the Tövusidökadö (lit. '(Cyperus) bulb eaters') at the time of European contact.[7] The
Northern Paiute community at this time was thriving upon a subsistence pattern of fishing, hunting wild
game, and foraging for pine nuts and roots such as Cyperus esculentus.

The Tövusidökadö tended to follow various spiritual leaders and community organizers. Community
events centered on the observance of seasonal ceremonies such as harvests or hunting. In 1869,
Hawthorne Wodziwob, a Paiute man, organized a series of community dances to announce a vision. He
spoke of a journey to the land of the dead and of promises made to him by the souls of the recently
deceased. They promised to return to their loved ones within a period of three to four years.[8]
Wodziwob's peers accepted this vision, likely due to his reputable status as a healer.
He urged the populace to dance the common circle dance as was customary during
a time of celebration. He continued preaching this message for three years with the
help of a local "weather doctor" named Tavibo, father of Wovoka.[8]

Prior to Wodziwob's religious movement, a devastating typhoid fever epidemic

struck in 1867. This and other European diseases killed approximately one-tenth of
the total population,[9] resulting in widespread psychological and emotional trauma.
The disruption brought disorder to the economic system and society. Many families
were prevented from continuing their nomadic lifestyle.
Cyperus
Round Dance influence esculentus, a root
that the Northern
A round dance is a circular community dance held usually around an individual Paiutes used to
who leads the ceremony. Round dances may be ceremonial or purely social. eat
Usually, the dancers are accompanied by a group of singers who may also play
hand drums in unison. The dancers join hands to form a large circle. The dancers
move with a side-shuffle step to reflect the long-short pattern of the drum beat, bending their knees to
emphasize the pattern.

During his studies of the Pacific Northwest tribes the anthropologist Leslie Spier used the term "prophet
dances" to describe ceremonial round dances where the participants seek trance, exhortations and
prophecy. Spier studied peoples of the Columbia plateau (a region including Washington, Oregon, Idaho,
and parts of western Montana). By the time of his studies the only dances he was allowed to witness were
social dances or ones that had already incorporated Christian elements, making investigation of the round
dance's origin complicated.

The Prophet
Jack Wilson, the prophet otherwise known as Wovoka, was believed to have had a
vision during a solar eclipse on January 1, 1889. It was reportedly not his first time
experiencing a vision, but as a young adult, he claimed that he was then better
equipped, spiritually, to handle this message. Jack had received training from an
experienced holy man under his parents' guidance after they realized that he was
having difficulty interpreting his previous visions. Jack was also training to be a
"weather doctor", following in his father's footsteps. He was known throughout
Mason Valley as a gifted and blessed young leader. Preaching a message of
universal love, he often presided over circle dances, which symbolized the sun's
heavenly path across the sky.[10][11] Wovoka–
Northern Paiute
Anthropologist James Mooney conducted an interview with Wilson prior to 1892. spiritual leader
and creator of the
Mooney confirmed that his message matched that given to his fellow Indians.[2]
Ghost Dance
This study compared letters between tribes. According to Mooney, Wilson's letter
said he stood before God in heaven and had seen many of his ancestors engaged in
their favorite pastimes, and that God showed Wilson a beautiful land filled with wild game and instructed
him to return home to tell his people that they must love each other and not fight. He also stated that Jesus
was being reincarnated on Earth in 1892, that the people must work, not steal or lie, and that they must
not engage in the old practices of war or the traditional self-mutilation practices connected with mourning
the dead. He said that if his people abided by these rules, they would be united with their friends and
family in the other world, and in God's presence, there would be no sickness, disease, or old age.[12]

Mooney writes that Wilson was given the Ghost Dance and commanded to take it back to his people. He
preached that if the five-day dance was performed in the proper intervals, the performers would secure
their happiness and hasten the reunion of the living and deceased. Wilson said that the Creator gave him
powers over the weather and that he would be the deputy in charge of affairs in the western United States,
leaving current President Harrison as God's deputy in the East. Jack claims that he was then told to return
home and preach God's message.[13]

Jack Wilson claimed to have left the presence of God convinced that if every Indian in the West danced
the new dance to "hasten the event", all evil in the world would be swept away, leaving a renewed Earth
filled with food, love, and faith. Quickly accepted by his Paiute brethren, the new religion was termed,
"Dance In A Circle". Because the first European contact with the practice came by way of the Lakota,
their expression "Spirit Dance" was adopted as a descriptive title for all such practices. This was
subsequently translated as "Ghost Dance".[13]

Spread of the prophet's message

Through Native Americans and some white settlers, Wilson's
message spread across much of the western portion of the United
States. Early in the religious movement, many tribes sent members
to investigate the self-proclaimed prophet, while other
communities sent delegates only to be cordial. Regardless of their
initial motivations, many left as believers and returned to their
homeland preaching his message. The Ghost Dance was also
investigated by many Mormons from Utah, for whom the concepts
of the Indian prophet were familiar and often accepted.[14] While Great Sioux Nation tribe dancers, in
many followers of the Ghost Dance believed Wovoka to be a dance regalia, 1894
teacher of pacifism and peace, others did not.

An elaboration of the Ghost Dance concept was the development of ghost shirts, which were special
clothing that warriors could wear. They were rumored to repel bullets through spiritual power. It is
uncertain where this belief originated. Scholars believe that in 1890 Chief Kicking Bear introduced the
concept to his people, the Lakota,[15] while James Mooney argued that the most likely source is the
Mormon temple garment (which Mormons believe protect the pious wearer from evil).[16]

The Lakota interpretation drew from their traditional idea of a "renewed Earth" in which "all evil is
washed away". This Lakota interpretation included the removal of all European Americans from their
lands:[17]

They told the people they could dance a new world into being. There would be landslides,
earthquakes, and big winds. Hills would pile up on each other. The earth would roll up like a
carpet with all the white man's ugly things – the stinking new animals, sheep and pigs, the
 fences, the telegraph poles, the mines and factories.
Underneath would be the wonderful old-new world as it
had been before the white fat-takers came. ...The white
men will be rolled up, disappear, go back to their own
continent. (p. 228)

— Lame Deer

Political influence
In February 1890, the United States government broke a Lakota
treaty by adjusting the Great Sioux Reservation of South Dakota
(an area that formerly encompassed the majority of the state) and
breaking it up into five smaller reservations.[18] The government
An Arapaho buckskin ghost shirt, ca
was accommodating white homesteaders from the eastern United
1890
States; in addition, it intended to "break up tribal relationships"
and "conform Indians to the white man's ways, peaceably if they
will, or forcibly if they must".[19] On the reduced reservations, the government allocated family units on
320-acre (1.3 km2) plots for individual households. The Lakota were expected to farm and raise livestock,
and to send their children to boarding schools. With the goal of assimilation, the schools taught English
and Christianity, as well as American cultural practices. Generally, they forbade inclusion of Indian
traditional cultures and languages.

To help support the Lakota during the period of transition, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was to
supplement the Lakota with food and to hire white farmers as teachers for the people. The farming plan
failed to take into account the difficulty that Lakota farmers would have in trying to cultivate crops in the
semi-arid region of South Dakota. By the end of the 1890 growing season, a time of intense heat and low
rainfall, it was clear that the land was unable to produce substantial agricultural yields. Unfortunately, this
was also the time when the government's patience with supporting the so-called "lazy Indians" ran out.
They cut rations for the Lakota in half. With the bison having been virtually eradicated a few years
earlier, the Lakota were at risk of starvation.

The people turned to the Ghost Dance ritual, which frightened the supervising agents of the BIA. Those
who had been residing in the area for a long time recognized that the ritual was often held shortly before
battle was to occur.[20] Kicking Bear was forced to leave Standing Rock, but when the dances continued
unabated, Agent James McLaughlin asked for more troops. He claimed the Hunkpapa spiritual leader
Sitting Bull was the real leader of the movement. A former agent, Valentine McGillycuddy, saw nothing
extraordinary in the dances and ridiculed the panic that seemed to have overcome the agencies,
saying:[21]

The coming of the troops has frightened the Indians. If the Seventh-day Adventists prepare the
ascension robes for the Second Coming of the Savior, the United States Army is not put in
motion to prevent them. Why should not the Indians have the same privilege? If the troops
remain, trouble is sure to come.
Nonetheless, thousands of additional U.S. Army troops were deployed to the reservation. On December
15, 1890, Sitting Bull was arrested for failing to stop his people from practicing the Ghost Dance.[22]
During the incident, one of Sitting Bull's men, Catch the Bear, fired at Lieutenant "Bull Head", striking
his right side. He instantly wheeled and shot Sitting Bull, hitting him in the left side, between the tenth
and eleventh ribs;[23] this exchange resulted in deaths on both sides, including that of Sitting Bull.

Wounded Knee
Spotted Elk (Lakota: Unpan Glešká – also known as Big Foot) was a Miniconjou leader on the U.S.
Army's list of 'trouble-making' Indians. On December 29, 1890, he was stopped while en route to
convene with the remaining Lakota chiefs. U.S. Army officers forced him to relocate with his people to a
small camp close to the Pine Ridge Agency. Here the soldiers could more closely watch the old chief.
That evening, December 28, the small band of Lakota erected their tipis on the banks of Wounded Knee
Creek. The following day, during an attempt by the officers to collect weapons from the band, one young,
deaf Lakota warrior refused to relinquish his arms. A struggle followed in which somebody's weapon
discharged into the air. One U.S. officer gave the command to open fire, and the Lakota responded by
taking up previously confiscated weapons; the U.S. forces responded with carbine firearms and several
rapid-fire light-artillery Hotchkiss guns mounted on the overlooking hill. When the fighting had
concluded, 25 U.S. soldiers lay dead, many killed by friendly fire. Among the 153 dead Lakota, most
were women and children.[24] Following the massacre, Chief Kicking Bear officially surrendered his
weapon to General Nelson A. Miles.

Aftermath
Twenty U.S. soldiers received Medals of Honor for their actions (some sources state the number as 18 or
23).[25][26] American Indian and human rights activists have referred to these as "Medals of Dis-Honor"
and called for the awards to be rescinded, but none of them have ever been revoked.[25][27][28][29]

Following the Wounded Knee Massacre, open participation in the Ghost Dance movement declined
gradually for fear of continued violence against practitioners. Like most Indian ceremonies, it became
clandestine rather than dying out completely.

Congress officially apologized for the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1990 but did not rescind any medals of
honor at that time.[30]

Rejection
Despite the widespread acceptance of the Ghost Dance movement, Navajo leaders described the Ghost
Dance as "worthless words" in 1890.[24] Three years later, James Mooney arrived at the Navajo
reservation in northern Arizona during his study of the Ghost Dance movement and found the Navajo
never incorporated the ritual into their society.
Kehoe believed the movement did not gain traction with the tribe due to the Navajo's higher levels of
social and economic satisfaction at the time. Another factor was cultural norms among the Navajo, which
inculcated a fear of ghosts and spirits, based on religious beliefs.

Today
The Wounded Knee massacre was not the end of the Ghost Dance religious movement. Instead, it went
underground. Wovoka continued to spread its message, along with Kicking Bear, Short Bull and other
spiritual leaders.[31]

During the Wounded Knee incident of 1973, Lakota men and women, including Mary Brave Bird, did the
ghost dance ceremony on the site where their ancestors had been killed. In her book Lakota Woman,
Brave Bird wrote that ghost dances continue as private ceremonies.[32]

See also
Taki Unquy, a millenarian spiritual movement of the Indigenous Andean peoples, that took
expression in dancing and chanting, against the then recent and ongoing Spanish conquest
of the Inca Empire.
Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901), during which Boxers claimed that the spirits protected them
from bullets.
Mumboism, a spiritual movement that protested British colonial rule in Kenya.[33]
Caroline Weldon, an artist and activist helping Sitting Bull.
Medicine man
Millennarianism in colonial societies
Native American Church
Nemattanew, a captain of the Powhatan, died in 1622, who believed himself invulnerable to
bullets.
New religious movement
Nongqawuse, a Xhosa prophetess who in the 1850s led the Xhosa cattle-killing movement.
Papa Isio, a shaman who led forces in the Philippine Revolution

References
1. Edmonds, Randlett. Nusht'uhti?ti? 3. "The Ghost Dance Religion among the
Hasinay: Caddo Phrasebook. Richardson, Sioux" (https://teachingamericanhistory.or
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2003: 19. ISBN 1-884655-00-9. ng-the-sioux/). Teaching American History.
2. Mooney, James (August 15, 2012). The Retrieved October 14, 2023.
Ghost-Dance Religion and Wounded Knee 4. Hall, Stephanie (November 17, 2017).
(https://books.google.com/books?id=d0nC "James Mooney Recordings of American
AgAAQBAJ). Courier Corporation. Indian Ghost Dance Songs, 1894 | Folklife
ISBN 9780486143330. Today" (https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/1
1/james-mooney-recordings-ghost-dance-s
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October 14, 2023.
 5. Rahal, Sheryl Ann. “The Ghost Dance as a 17. John Fire/Lame Deer & Richard Erdoes,
Millenarian Phenomenon.” Caliban 3, no. 1 Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions, Chapter 14:
(1998): 171–81. (https://www.persee.fr/doc Roll Up the World; Simon & Schuster, NY,
AsPDF/calib_1278-3331_1998_num_3_1_ 1972 ASIN B010EUWHDS (https://www.a
1362.pdf) mazon.com/dp/B010EUWHDS).
6. Cross, Phil. "Caddo Songs and Dances" (h 18. Kehoe, The Ghost Dance, p. 15.
ttp://caddolegacy.com/CaddoSongsandDa 19. Wallace, Anthony F. C. "Revitalization
nces.aspx) Archived (https://web.archive.or Movements: Some Theoretical
g/web/20100824074430/http://caddolegac Considerations for Their Comparative
y.com/CaddoSongsandDances.aspx) Study", American Anthropologist n.s.
August 24, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. 58(2):264–81. 1956
Caddo Legacy from Caddo People.
20. Boyd, James (1891). Recent Indian Wars.
Retrieved December 9, 2009. [Philadelphia] Publishers Union.
7. Stewart, Omer C. (1939). "The Northern 21. Brands, H.W. (2002). The Reckless
Paiute Bands" (https://digitalassets.lib.berk Decade: America in the 1890s (https://boo
eley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar002-004.p ks.google.com/books?id=pOBpgsNQMwQ
df) (PDF). Anthropological Records. 2 (3). C&pg=PA18). University of Chicago Press.
Berkeley, California: University of p. 18. ISBN 9780226071169.
California Press: 142.
22. Kehoe, The Ghost Dance, p. 20.
8. Kehoe, Alice Beck (2006) [1989]. The
Ghost Dance: Ethnohistory and 23. "Sitting Bull: Biography" (https://spartacus-
Revitalization (https://books.google.com/bo educational.com/WWsittingB.htm).
oks?id=edMYAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA34) Spartacus-Educational.com. Archived (http
(2nd ed.). Long Grove, Il: Waveland Press. s://web.archive.org/web/20120525001229/
p. 34. ISBN 1-57766-453-1. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWs
ittingB.htm) from the original on May 25,
9. Kehoe, The Ghost Dance, p. 33. 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
10. "Paiute prophet Wovoka preached about 24. Kehoe, The Ghost Dance, p. 24.
peace" (https://www.reviewjournal.com/ne
ws/paiute-prophet-wovoka-preached-about 25. Green, Jerry (1994). "The Medals of
-peace/). Las Vegas Review-Journal. Wounded Knee" (https://web.archive.org/w
January 3, 2014. Retrieved October 14, eb/20120402161933/http://nebraskahistor
2023. y.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH19
94MedalsWKnee.pdf) (PDF). Nebraska
11. "Wovoka | Biography, Ghost Dance, & History. 75. Nebraska State Historical
Facts | Britannica" (https://www.britannica. Society: 207. Archived from the original on
com/biography/Wovoka). April 2, 2012. Retrieved September 22,
www.britannica.com. September 27, 2023. 2011.
Retrieved October 14, 2023.
26. "Indian Wars Period" (https://web.archive.o
12. "Ghost Dance – The Messiah Letter from rg/web/20130803232814/http://www.histor
Wovoka" (http://www.ghostdance.us/histor y.army.mil/html/moh/indianwars.html).
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www.ghostdance.us. Center of Military History. Archived from
13. Andrew Rippin Muslims: Their Religious the original (http://www.history.army.mil/ht
Beliefs and Practices Psychology Press ml/moh/indianwars.html) on August 3,
2005 ISBN 978-0-415-34888-1 page 86 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
14. Kehoe, The Ghost Dance, p. 5.
15. Kehoe, The Ghost Dance, p. 13.
16. Hittman, Michael, Wovoka and the Ghost
Dance, pp. 84–88, University of Nebraska
Press, 1997 ISBN 0-8032-7308-8.
27. "Support the Action to Revoke the 30. Winkie, Davis (July 20, 2022). "Medals of
Congressional Medals of Honor to the Honor for soldiers who perpetrated
Soldiers of the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Wounded Knee massacre may be
Knee" (https://web.archive.org/web/201203 rescinded" (https://www.militarytimes.com/
28055336/http://www.ncai.org/ncai/data/re news/pentagon-congress/2022/07/20/med
solution/2001annual/163.pdf) (PDF). als-of-honor-for-soldiers-who-perpetrated-
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November 30, 2001. Archived from the d/). Military Times. Retrieved October 14,
original (http://www.ncai.org/ncai/data/resol 2023.
ution/2001annual/163.pdf) (PDF) on March 31. Renee Sansom Flood, Lost Bird of
28, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2011. Wounded Knee (Scribner, 2014).
28. Winter Rabbit (February 9, 2011). "Action: 32. Mary Crow Dog with Richard Erdoes,
Rescind Wounded Knee Medals of Dis Lakota Woman (Grove Weidenfeld, 1990).
Honor" (https://www.dailykos.com/story/20 33. Lahti, Janne (September 21, 2018). The
11/02/09/942397/-Action:-Rescind-Wound
American West and the World (https://dx.d
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Retrieved September 22, 2011. York: Routledge. p. 141.
29. Paul, Daniel N. (ed.). "Massacre: Wounded doi:10.4324/9781315643212 (https://doi.or
Knee, South Dakota, USA, December 29, g/10.4324%2F9781315643212).
1890" (http://www.danielnpaul.com/Wound ISBN 978-1-315-64321-2.
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Further reading
Andersson, Rani-Henrik. The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890. Lincoln, Neb.: University of
Nebraska Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8032-1073-8.
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West.
New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8050-6669-2.
DuBois, Cora. The 1870 Ghost Dance. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.
ISBN 978-0-8032-6662-9.
Gage, Justin. We Do Not Want the Gates Closed Between Us: Native Networks and the
Spread of the Ghost Dance. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0-
8061-6725-1.
Kehoe, Alice Beck (2006) [1989]. The Ghost Dance: Ethnohistory and Revitalization (https://
books.google.com/books?id=edMYAAAAQBAJ) (2nd ed.). Long Grove, Il: Waveland Press.
ISBN 1-57766-453-1. (1st ed. (https://archive.org/details/ghostdanceethnoh0000keho/page/
n4/mode/1up))
Osterreich, Shelley Anne. The American Indian Ghost Dance, 1870 and 1890. New York:
Greenwood Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0-313-27469-5.
Stannard, David E. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-19-508557-0.
Warren, Louis S. God's Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern
America. New York: Basic Books, 2017. ISBN 9780465015023.

External links
"Communicating the Ghost Dance" on NativeAmericanNetworks.com (https://nativeamerica
nnetworks.com/ghostdance/)
 Ghostdance.us (https://web.archive.org/web/20190123015324/http://www.ghostdance.us/)
Wovoka (Jack Wilson) (http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_043900
_wovoka.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20021130074539/http://www.college.h
mco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_043900_wovoka.htm) November 30, 2002, at
the Wayback Machine
Speech (https://web.archive.org/web/20091027134520/http://www.geocities.com/RainFores
t/Vines/9656/kickingbear2.html) by Kicking Bear
Short video about Wovoka and the Ghost Dance on YouTube.com (https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=cI0Jfdkq4z8)
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Ghost Dance Religion (https://web.archive.
org/web/20100720012046/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/G/GH001.ht
ml)

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