Ghost Dance

Ghost Dance, either of two distinct religious movements in the late 19th century that represented an attempt by Native Americans in the western United States to revitalize their traditional cultures. Both movements arose from Northern Paiute (Paviotso) prophet-dreamers in western Nevada who announced the imminent return of the dead (hence “ghost”), the ousting of the whites, and the restoration of Native American lands, food supplies, the buffalo, and traditional ways of life. These ends, it was believed, would be hastened by the dances and songs revealed to the prophets in their visionary visits to the spirit world and also by strict observance of a moral code that resembled Christian teaching and forbade war against either Native Americans or whites. Many dancers fell into trances and received new songs from the dead they met in visions or were healed by Ghost Dance rituals.

History

The first Ghost Dance movement developed in 1869, led by the dreamer Wodziwob (died c. 1872) near Walker Lake in Nevada. A prominent feature was a ritual dance in which men and women joined hands and stepped sideways in a circle. In 1871–73 the movement spread to tribes in California and Oregon; it soon died out or was transformed into other variants. The second main Ghost Dance iteration was developed and promulgated by Wovoka (c. 1856–1932), whose father, Tavibo, had assisted Wodziwob.

Wovoka had been influenced by Presbyterians on whose ranch he worked, by Mormons, and by the Indian Shaker Church. In particular, the millennialism of 19th-century American Christianity—that is, the belief in a coming end-time and the glorious return of Jesus Christ—inspired this Native American movement’s belief in the resurrection of the dead and a restoration of Native American lifestyles. Ghost Dancers’ wearing of special shirts, thought to have protective capabilities, was possibly inspired by Mormon temple garments.

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During a solar eclipse on January 1, 1889, Wovoka had a vision of dying, speaking with God in heaven, and being commissioned to teach the new dance and millennial message. Native Americans from many tribes traveled to learn from Wovoka, whose self-inflicted stigmata on his hands and feet encouraged belief in him as a new messiah, or Jesus Christ, come to the Native Americans.

The Wounded Knee Massacre

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This second version of the Ghost Dance spread as far as the Missouri River, the Canadian border, the Sierra Nevada, and northern Texas. Early in 1890 it reached the Oceti Sakowin (Sioux) in South Dakota and coincided with an uprising in late 1890, for which the Ghost Dance movement was wrongly blamed. Quite the opposite, the United States government feared that the Ghost Dance was a threat to its authority and attempts to “civilize” and control the Oceti Sakowin, particularly the Lakota tribe, which was already suffering from disease and hunger. U.S. opposition to the movement and restlessness among the oppressed Oceti Sakowin led to the death of Lakota chief Sitting Bull in a skirmish. The situation culminated in the Wounded Knee Massacre, during which the “ghost shirts” failed to protect their wearers, as promised by Wovoka. Hundreds of Lakota were killed.

Decline and impact

As conditions changed, the second Ghost Dance declined in popularity, though it continued into the 20th century in attenuated form among a few tribes. These religious movements helped reshape traditional Native American shamanism (a belief system based on the healing and psychic transformation powers of the shaman). Yet they also laid the groundwork for further Christianization and accommodation to white culture.