At the end of the nineteenth century the Native peoples of the American West were living through an unprecedented crisis. The buffalo had been almost wiped out, lands reduced to reservations, ceremonies banned, disease and hunger widespread. In this context a religious movement arose that spread rapidly from one nation to another: the Ghost Dance. Its history is one of the most studied examples of how a prophecy can answer a people's despair.
A precedent: 1870
There was an earlier Ghost Dance around 1870, linked to a Paiute prophet called Wodziwob, in the Nevada and California area. It announced the return of the dead and the renewal of the world. The movement faded within a few years, but left a legacy of ideas and dances that would resurface twenty years later.
Wovoka's vision
The central figure of the second and better-known Ghost Dance was Wovoka, a Paiute from Nevada also known among settlers as Jack Wilson. He had grown up working for a family of white ranchers and was familiar both with his people's traditions and with elements of Christianity.
On 1 January 1889, during a solar eclipse, Wovoka fell into a death-like state and, on waking, said he had been taken up to heaven. There he had seen God and the dead, happy, engaged in their old pursuits in a renewed land. He had received a message to bring to people:
- live in peace with everyone, white people included;
- do not fight, do not lie, do not steal;
- work and behave righteously;
- dance a circle dance for five consecutive days.
If the people followed these instructions, a renewed world would come, where the dead would return and the earth would regain its abundance.
The circle dance
The dance consisted of a large circle of men and women holding hands and moving slowly to the left, singing. During the dance some participants fell into trance and, on waking, said they had met dead relatives. The songs were simple and repetitive, often born from these very visions.
Delegates from many nations, including the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Shoshone and Lakota, travelled to Nevada to meet the prophet and brought the message back to their communities. Each people interpreted it according to its own culture.
The Lakota ghost shirts
Among the Lakota the Ghost Dance took on particular features. In a situation of severe tension with the government, after cuts to land and rations, some interpreted the prophecy as foretelling the disappearance of white people. Ghost shirts appeared, garments of cloth or hide painted with stars, birds and other symbols, which some dancers believed would protect those who wore them.
US authorities saw the movement as a threat and sent troops to the reservations. On 15 December 1890 Sitting Bull, the famous Hunkpapa leader, was killed during an attempted arrest by Indian police.
Wounded Knee
A few days later, a group of Miniconjou Lakota led by Spotted Elk, also known as Big Foot, was intercepted by the cavalry and taken to Wounded Knee Creek, on the Pine Ridge reservation. On 29 December 1890, during the disarming, a shot went off and the soldiers opened fire. Hundreds of Lakota were killed, among them many women and children.
Wounded Knee is remembered as the symbolic end of the Indian Wars and as a wound still open in Native memory. Black Elk, who was there as a young man, later said that a people's dream had died there.
After 1890
The Ghost Dance did not vanish entirely. In some communities of the southern Plains it continued for decades in peaceful form. The ethnologist James Mooney published an extensive study of it in 1896, still a fundamental source today. Wovoka lived until 1932, continuing to receive visitors and letters.
Scholars of religion consider the Ghost Dance an example of a revitalization movement: a religious response to an extreme cultural crisis, combining old and new elements to give hope to a threatened people.
In short
- The Ghost Dance arose from the vision of the Paiute Wovoka during the eclipse of 1 January 1889.
- The original message was peaceful: righteousness, non-violence and a circle dance.
- Among the Lakota ghost shirts appeared and tension with the government grew.
- On 29 December 1890 hundreds of Lakota were killed at Wounded Knee.
- It is considered a classic religious revitalization movement.
