Ghost Dance (1890s)

Ghost Dance (1890s)
Name	Ghost Dance (1890s)
Caption	Lakota at Wounded Knee, 1890
Founder	Wovoka (Jack Wilson)
Founded	1889–1890
Regions	North America: Great Plains, Pacific Northwest, American Southwest
Related	Sun Dance, Paiute religion, Native American Church

Ghost Dance (1890s) The Ghost Dance of 1890 was a millenarian movement among Indigenous peoples of the United States that combined prophetic leadership, ritual dance, and visions promising renewal for Lakota, Paiute, Ute, Shoshone, and other Plains and Western nations. Emerging from the teachings of the Paiute prophet Wovoka (Jack Wilson), the movement intersected with colonial expansion, treaty disputes, and colorful encounters with agents of the United States Indian Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the United States Army during the late 19th century. It culminated in confrontations such as the Wounded Knee Massacre, reshaping policy and public perceptions of Indigenous resistance.

Background and Origins

The Ghost Dance drew on a lineage of Indigenous prophetic movements including the Shawnee prophet, the Handsome Lake revival among the Iroquois Confederacy, and the Shawnee Prophet-era responses to settler encroachment. Wovoka, born near Smith Valley, Nevada and associated with the Northern Paiute, experienced a vision during the winter of 1889–1890 that synthesized elements of Christianity encountered through Mormon and Methodist missions with Indigenous cosmologies. His teachings resonated amid the aftermath of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Dawes Act (1887), railroad expansion by companies like the Union Pacific Railroad, and violent episodes including the Sand Creek Massacre and the Battle of Little Bighorn. Communities facing displacement, starvation, and cultural disruption found in the Ghost Dance a framework for social cohesion and hope.

Beliefs and Practices

Central beliefs promised the return of ancestors, the restoration of bison, and the removal of Euro-American settlers through ritual efficacy if participants adhered to moral injunctions taught by Wovoka. Practices featured circular dances, community gatherings, and songs, often led by spiritual leaders such as messiahs and medicine men within nations including the Lakota Sioux, Northern Paiute, Arapaho, Shoshone, Hopi, and Pueblo peoples. The Ghost Shirts—ceremonial garments reputed to repel bullets—became emblematic among groups like the Miniconjou and Hunkpapa bands associated with leaders such as Sitting Bull and Spotted Elk (Big Foot). Syncretic ritual elements paralleled the Sun Dance’s communal focus and the moral prescriptions of converts within the Native American Church.

Spread and Key Figures

Wovoka’s teachings spread rapidly through itinerant messengers, intertribal councils, and through contact at agencies and reservations such as Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Rosebud Indian Reservation, and Wind River Reservation. Prominent figures who interpreted or mobilized Ghost Dance doctrine included Wovoka (Jack Wilson), Lakota leaders Sitting Bull, Kicking Bear, Short Bull, and Spotted Elk (Big Foot), as well as Northern Paiute elders like Numaga and Woapa. Agents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and cultural brokers such as James Mooney documented and sometimes misunderstood the movement; journalists from outlets like the Saint Paul Globe and the New York Tribune sensationalized aspects, accelerating its diffusion and triggering alarm among settlers in states like South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska.

Government and Military Response

Authorities responded with surveillance, arrest warrants, and military deployments. The United States Army stationed units including the 7th Cavalry Regiment and officers such as Colonel James W. Forsyth confronted Ghost Dance adherents amid fears stoked by politicians, Indian agents, and newspapers. Policies under presidential administrations including Benjamin Harrison’s and officials within the Department of the Interior led to increased policing on reservations, forced disarmament efforts, and attempts to suppress ceremonial activity. Court rulings, enforcement of the Indian Appropriations Act, and local militias intersected with federal troops at sites like Standing Rock Reservation and Wounded Knee Creek.

Wounded Knee Massacre and Aftermath

Tensions culminated at Wounded Knee on 29 December 1890 when the 7th Cavalry attempted to disarm a band of Lakota led by Spotted Elk (Big Foot). A scuffle and the misfiring of a weapon precipitated a massacre in which hundreds of Lakota, including women and children, died; soldiers also suffered casualties. The event prompted courts of inquiry, public outcry, and changes in Army conduct. Survivors faced confinement, forced assimilation policies enforced at boarding schools such as Carlisle Indian Industrial School and relocation to reservations under the supervision of agents like Samuel Whaler. Congressional debates in the United States Congress and reports by commissioners influenced subsequent enforcement of the Dawes Act (1887) and revisions in Indian policy.

Cultural Legacy and Historical Interpretations

Scholars including Francis Paul Prucha, Pekka Hämäläinen, and Richard Drinnon have analyzed the Ghost Dance within frameworks of indigenous resistance, millenarian revival, and settler colonialism, while anthropologists such as James Mooney and historians like Theodore Roosevelt’s contemporaries offered divergent readings. The movement influenced literature, visual arts, and film portrayals—echoes appear in works about Sitting Bull, cinematic retellings of Wounded Knee, and museum collections at institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of the American Indian. Contemporary Native scholars and activists reference Ghost Dance themes in discussions involving tribal sovereignty cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, cultural revitalization projects on reservations, and commemorations at memorials such as the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark. The episode continues to inform debates over reconciliation, historical memory, and the rights of Indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada.

Category:Native American history Category:Religious movements