The ghost dance
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance was a new religious movement incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka, proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to fight on th…
What did the Ghost Dance do?
The Ghost Dance (Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems.According to the 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 ...
What is the meaning of the Ghost Dance?
What is the meaning of the Ghost Dance? Definition of Ghost Dance. : a group dance of a late 19th century American Indian messianic cult believed to promote the return of the dead and the restoration of traditional ways of life.
What is the Native American Ghost Dance?
The Ghost Dance (Natdia) is a spiritual movement that came about in the late 1880s when conditions were bad on Indian reservations and Native Americans needed something to give them hope. This movement found its origin in a Paiute Indian named Wovoka, who announced that he was the messiah come to earth to prepare the Indians for their salvation.
What does Ghost Dance mean?
The Ghost Dance was a new religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the prophet Jack Wilson's teachings, proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with the spirits of the dead and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to native peoples throughout the region.
What is the significance of the Ghost Dance?
The Ghost Dance was a spiritual movement that arose among Western American Indians. It began among the Paiute in about 1869 with a series of visions of an elder, Wodziwob. These visions foresaw renewal of the Earth and help for the Paiute peoples as promised by their ancestors.
What do the ghosts represent in ghost dances?
“The 'ghost dances were part of Indian culture, both North and South America. They celebrated death and they wore wonderful masks. The Ghosts that come on to the stage are the Dead on their way to heaven or hell.
What is the significance of the Ghost Dance quizlet?
The ghost dance was a religious revitalization uniting Indians to restore ancestral customs, the disappearance of whites, and the return of buffalo.
What was the purpose of the Ghost Dance and what role did it play in the events at Wounded Knee?
The Ghost Dance preached peaceful co-existence with Euro-Americans, but the Sioux interpretation of the religion foretold that the Ghost Dance would remove non-Indians from their lands. Indian agents on the Sioux reservation banned the Ghost Dance religion and used the military to enforce the ban.
What was the outcome of the Ghost Dance?
The 1870 Ghost Dance Scholars interpret the end of the dance as a result of the US government forcing tribes to stop, responding to the fears of those white settlers who saw it as a threat and tribes losing interest as the prophecies were not coming to pass.
What does the Ghost Dance costume communicate to the audience?
The Ghosts wear wigs, rags and skull-like masks. They are covered in white and grey body paint. Having such a minimal costume allows the audience to see the dancers' muscular bodies, creating a feeling of strength and power.
What was the purpose of the ghost dance movement of the late 19th-century?
Ghost Dance, either of two distinct cults in a complex of late 19th-century religious movements that represented an attempt of Native Americans in the western United States to rehabilitate their traditional cultures.
What was the outcome of the ghost dance quizlet?
It involved a set of dances and rites that its followers believed would cause white men to disappear and restore lands to the Native Americans. The Ghost Dance religion was outlawed by the U.S. government, and army intervention to stop it led to the Wounded Knee Massacre.
How did the ghost dance lead to the Wounded Knee massacre?
Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull On December 15, 1890, reservation police tried to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux chief, whom they mistakenly believed was a Ghost Dancer, and killed him in the process, increasing the tensions at Pine Ridge in South Dakota. Did you know?
Why did the U.S. government try to ban the Ghost Dance?
Some traveled to the reservations to observe the dancing, others feared the possibility of an Indian uprising. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) eventually banned the Ghost Dance, because the government believed it was a precursor to renewed Native American militancy and violent rebellion.
What is the significance of the Wounded Knee Massacre?
The massacre at Wounded Knee, during which soldiers of the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment indiscriminately slaughtered hundreds of Sioux men, women, and children, marked the definitive end of Indian resistance to the encroachments of white settlers.
How did the U.S. government respond to the Ghost Dance?
As the ghost dance spread through western Native American reservations, the federal government moved aggressively to stop the activity. The dancing and the religious teachings associated with it became issues of public concern widely reported in newspapers.
Which statement best describes the Ghost Dance?
Which of the following best describes the meaning of the Ghost Dance? It expressed losses suffered by Native Americans and hope for a better future.
What is the structure of Ghost Dances?
Ghost Dances is a one-act dance work in which three skeletal Ghost Dancers await a group of Dead who will re-enact moments from their lives before passing on.
What was the purpose of the Ghost Dance movement of the late 19th century?
Ghost Dance, either of two distinct cults in a complex of late 19th-century religious movements that represented an attempt of Native Americans in the western United States to rehabilitate their traditional cultures.
Which of the following best describes why the Ghost Dance became so popular in the late 1800s?
Which of the following best describe why the ghost dance became so popular in the late 1800s? The Ghost Dance was one of the last hopes of many Native Americans living on reservations, and with little other hope many began performing the dance. 11.
What was the purpose of the Ghost Dance?
The Ghost Dance was associated with Wovoka's prophecy of an end to white 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.
What is the ghost dance?
The Ghost Dance ( Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a new religious movement incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the 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, ...
Why did Kehoe believe the movement did not gain traction with the tribe?
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.
Why did Wodziwob dance the circle dance?
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 Jack Wilson.
Why did the Ghost Dance movement decline?
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.
What did the White Men say about the new world?
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)
Why is spirit dance called ghost dance?
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".
What is ghost dance?
Ghost Dances are key ceremonies within a broader Native American religious movement that developed in the late nineteenth century in response to the westward expansion of whites. By that time, most Colorado tribes lived on reservations outside of the state.
Why are ghost dances performed?
By that time, most Colorado tribes lived on reservations outside of the state. The dances are performed to activate the movement’s prophecy ...
Why did the Utes spread the Ghost Dance?
The Utes were one of the first groups to learn of the Ghost Dance teachings, which then spread through Colorado, over the mountains, and onto the plains in an attempt to create spiritual unity between the scattered Native American groups.
Why did Wovoka dance for five days?
Wovoka, the son of a disciple of Wodziwob’s, said he learned in his vision that he needed to tell his people they must love each other and do this dance for five consecutive days so that the sickness and death would cease and return dead Indians to this world.
Why did the ghost dance change?
This variety likely occurred because tribes would incorporate the message of the Ghost Dance into an existing dance. One commonality is that the dance occurred in a circle. Some tribes, most notably the Lakota, adopted the use of the “Ghost Dance shirt.” The dancers believed the shirt to be bulletproof. James Mooney, an ethnographer, suggested that the shirts represented influence of Mormon missionaries.
What tribes used ghost dance shirts?
Some tribes, most notably the Lakota, adopted the use of the “Ghost Dance shirt.”. The dancers believed the shirt to be bulletproof. James Mooney, an ethnographer, suggested that the shirts represented influence of Mormon missionaries.
Where did the Lakota dance?
In December 1890, a dance group fled from the Cheyenne River Reservation to the Pine Ridge Reservation.
What is ghost dance?
Robert McNamara. Updated June 15, 2019. The ghost dance was a religious movement that swept across Native American populations in the West in the late 19th century. What started as a mystical ritual soon became something of a political movement and a symbol of Native American resistance to a way of life imposed by the U.S. government.
What was the ghost dance movement?
As the 1890s began, the emergence of the ghost dance movement was viewed by white Americans as a credible threat.
What did the Little Wound say about the ghost dancers?
In "It Looks More Like War," the New York Times claimed that Little Wound, one of the leaders at the Pine Ridge reservation, "the great camp of the ghost dancers," asserted that the Indians would defy orders to cease the dancing rituals. The article said the Sioux were "choosing their fighting ground," and preparing for a major conflict with the U.S. Army.
How did white society view the ghost dance?
An example of how white society viewed the ghost dance appeared in the form of a lengthy story in the New York Times with the subheadline, "How the Indians Work Themselves Up to a Fighting Pitch." The article explains how a reporter, led by friendly Indian guides, trekked overland to a Sioux camp. "The trip was extremely hazardous, owing to the frenzy of the hostiles." The article described the dance, which the reporter claimed to have observed from a hill overlooking the camp. 182 "bucks and squaws" participated in the dance, which took place in a large circle around a tree. The reporter described the scene:
How many squaws participated in the dance?
The article described the dance, which the reporter claimed to have observed from a hill overlooking the camp. 182 "bucks and squaws" participated in the dance, which took place in a large circle around a tree. The reporter described the scene: "The dancers held on another's hands and moved slowly around the tree.
Where did the ghost dance originate?
The story of the ghost dance began with Wovoka, a member of the Paiute tribe in Nevada. Wovoka, who was born about 1856, was the son of a medicine man. Growing up, Wovoka lived for a time with a family of white Presbyterian farmers, from whom he picked up the habit of reading the Bible every day.
When did the ghost dance spread?
Decades earlier, in the late 1860s, during a time of privation among western tribes, there had been a version of the ghost dance which spread through the West. That dance also prophesied positive changes to come to the lives of Native Americans. The earlier ghost dance spread through Nevada and California, but when the prophecies did not come true, ...
What is the ghost dance?
The Ghost Dance – A Promise of Fulfillment. The Ghost Dance (Natdia) is a spiritual movement that came about in the late 1880s when conditions were bad on Indian reservations and Native Americans needed something to give them hope. This movement found its origin in a Paiute Indian named Wovoka, who announced that he was ...
Where did the ghost dance take place?
Mrs. Z.A. Parker observed the Ghost Dance among the Lakota at Pine Ridge Reservation, Dakota Territory on June 20, 1890, and described it: We drove to this spot at about 10:30 o’clock on a delightful October day. We came upon tents scattered here and there in low, sheltered places long before reaching the dance ground.
How long does the dance last in Wovoka?
The dance as told by Wovoka went something like this: “When you get home you must begin a dance and continue for five days. Dance for four successive nights, and on the last night continue dancing until the morning of the fifth day when all must bathe in the river and then return to their homes.
Why did the Lakota make ghost shirts?
They claimed that the Lakota developed a militaristic approach to the dance and began making “ghost shirts” they thought would protect them from bullets. They also spoke openly about why they were dancing.
What was the Natdia dance?
Central to the Natdia religion was the dance itself – dancing in a circular pattern continuously – which induced a state of religious ecstasy. Paiute Indians. The movement began with a dream by Wovoka (named Jack Wilson in English), a Northern Paiute, during the solar eclipse on January 1, 1889.
When did the Paiute dance begin?
The Paiute tradition that led to the Ghost Dance began in the 1870s in the Western Great Basin from the visions of Wodziwob (Gray Hair) concerning earth renewal and the reintroduction of the spirits of ancient Numu (Northern Paiute) ancestors into the contemporary day to help them. Central to the Natdia religion was the dance itself – dancing in ...
How long did the priest speak to the crowd?
After he had spoken for about fifteen minutes they arose and formed in a circle. As nearly as I could count, there were between three and four hundred persons.
What is ghost dance?
The Ghost Dance movement was a manifestation of Native Americans' fear, anger, and hope regarding the onslaught of white invaders, U.S. Army brutalization, and the U.S. legislative oppression of indigenous nations. Ghost Dance was the term Plains Indians applied to the new ritual; Paiutes, from which it sprang, ...
Where did the ghost dance originate?
The original Ghost Dance movement (1870) The original Ghost Dance began on the Walker Lake Reservation in Nevada, in 1870. It was initiated by Wodziwob (Gray Hair), a Northern Paiute Indian, as a result of his visionary experiences in the late 1860s. He told of having traveled, in a trance, to another world, where he was informed ...
Why did Wovoka stop teaching ghost dance?
Wovoka stopped teaching the Ghost Dance between 1891 and 1892, owing to the sorrow he felt by the misinterpretation of his vision by other Indians, particularly the Lakota. Among the Lakota. The most enthusiastic supporters of the new movement were the Lakota. Its spread to Lakota reservations coincided with a period of intense suffering there.
Why was the ghost dance performed in 1890?
Throughout the year 1890, the Ghost Dance was performed, stimulating anticipation of a return of the old ways. That turn of events was all the more remarkable for three reasons: the geographic and language barriers among the various tribes, lack of access to media or other technology to spreading the news, and.
How long did the dance of the sailor last?
It would be performed for four or five days and was accompanied by singing and chanting, but no drumming or other musical instruments. In addition, both men and women participated in the dance, unlike others in which men were the main dancers, singers, and musicians.
Where did Wodziwob's dances spread?
Wodziwob's teachings soon spread westward among Indian groups living in California and Oregon, among them the Klamath, Miwok, Modoc, and Yurok. Each group adapted the ritual to fit within its own traditions. As the movement spread it evolved; the Earth Lodge religion and the Big Head religion were among the offshoots. After a few years, the Northern Paiute Ghost Dancers became disillusioned, since Wodziwob’s prophecies did not come true, and they gave up the dance. However, other groups to which the movement had spread continued to perform it to some degree. The 1870s Ghost Dance movement gradually subsided.
Who brought the Ghost Dance to the Pine Ridge Reservation?
Its spread to Lakota reservations coincided with a period of intense suffering there. Kicking Bear , a Miniconjou Teton Lakota, along with Short Bull, a Miniconjou mystic, made a pilgrimage to Nevada to learn about the new dance. Kicking Bear brought the Ghost Dance back to the Pine Ridge reservation.
Where was the first ghost dance held?
The first Oklahoma Territory ghost dance was held at Watonga in April 1890. Because the ghost dance emphasized traditional ways, many earlier dances were revived at that time.
Who wrote the ghost dance religion?
Donald N. Brown, "The Ghost Dance Religion Among the Oklahoma Cheyenne," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 30 (Winter 1952–53).
When did ghost dancing spread to the Great Plains?
The ghost dance spread to the Great Plains in 1889 as a four-day round dance.
When did ghost dances start in Oklahoma?
The ghost dance continued uninterrupted in Oklahoma until at least 1914. During 1891 and 1892 the ghost dance spread to the Pawnee, Otoe-Missouria, Iowa, Osage, and Quapaw. Each tribe composed its own songs and adapted the dance in accordance with participants' own visions, reviving old-time clothing, weapons, dances, and hand games.
Where was the ghost dancer massacre?
After the massacre of ghost dancers in December 1890 at Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Thomas J. Morgan visited Oklahoma Territory and, seeing no signs of violence as a result of the ghost dance, made no attempt to prohibit it.
Where did the Indians dance in 1890?
After the massacre of ghost dancers in December 1890 at Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, ...
What was the stimulus for Oklahoma's Indian heritage?
Tell them if they refuse troops will be sent to compel obedience.". Most important to Oklahoma's rich American Indian heritage was the stimulus this late-nineteenth-century religious movement provided to revive old traditions and to compose new music.
Overview
The Ghost Dance (Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the 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 …
History
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. 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 during this period lacked any permanent political organization or officials and …
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 …
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 homelan…
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. The government was accommodating white homesteaders from the eastern United 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 t…
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 th…
Aftermath
Outrage in the eastern United States emerged as the public learned about the deaths. The U.S. government had insisted on numerous occasions that the Indian had already been successfully "pacified". Many Americans felt the U.S. Army actions were unduly harsh; some related the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek to the "ungentlemanly act of kicking a man when he is already down". Public uproar played a role in the reinstatement of the previous treaty's terms, including f…
Rejection
Despite the widespread acceptance of the Ghost Dance movement, Navajo leaders described the Ghost Dance as "worthless words" in 1890. 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 level…
A Dark Moment in History
Origins of The Ghost Dance
- The story of the ghost dance began with Wovoka, a member of the Paiute tribe in Nevada. Wovoka, who was born about 1856, was the son of a medicine man. Growing up, Wovoka lived for a time with a family of white Presbyterian farmers, from whom he picked up the habit of reading the Bible every day. Wovoka developed a wide-ranging interest in religions. He was said to be fa…
Fear of The Ghost Dance
- In 1890, the ghost dance had become widespread among the western tribes. The dances became well-attended rituals, generally taking place over a span of four nights and the morning of the fifth day. Among the Sioux, who were led by the legendary Sitting Bull, the dance became extremely popular. The belief took hold that someone wearing a shirt that was worn during the ghost danc…
Role of Sitting Bull
- Most Americans in the late 1800s were familiar with Sitting Bull, a medicine man of the Hunkpapa Sioux who was closely associated with the Plains Wars of the 1870s. Sitting Bull did not directly participate in the massacre of Custerin 1876, though he was in the vicinity, and his followers attacked Custer and his men. Following the demise of Custer, Sitting Bull led his people into saf…
Wounded Knee
- The ghost dance movement came to a bloody end at the massacre at Wounded Knee on the morning of December 29, 1890. A detachment of the 7th Cavalry approached an encampment of natives led by a chief named Big Foot and demanded that everyone surrender their weapons. Gunfire broke out, and within an hour approximately 300 Native men, women, and children were …
Resources and Further Reading
- “The Death of Sitting Bull.” New York Times, 17 Dec. 1890.
- “It Looks More Like War.” New York Times, 23 Nov. 1890.
- “The Ghost Dance.” New York Times, 22 Nov. 1890.
- “A Devilish Plot.” Los Angeles Herald, 23 Nov. 1890.