The Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance movement that swept through the Native Peoples of North America in the latter half of the nineteenth century was a powerful religious force that transcended tribe and clan.  Sweeping across the west it claimed adherents far and wide.  Its very nature is complex and mysterious and oftentimes misinterpreted and misrepresented.  I hope to shine some light upon its broader components in hopes of showing its true nature and perhaps also illuminating some of the mischaracterizations that have been applied to it over the centuries.

The Ghost Dance movement itself can be seen through a number of lenses.  It has been called a revitalization movement, since it sought to breathe new life into the fading religion of the native peoples.  When we view the movement through this lens we must keep in mind that the religion of the Pre-Columbian inhabitants was not one homogeneous whole.  Rather, it was a complex tapestry of many threads that, combined together, could be seen as a single construct.  But each thread had its own texture, color, origin, etc.

It was also a syncotistic religion, drawing its formative components from a number of these native threads and fusing them with material drawn from a number of Christian denominations.  It was, perhaps in its most powerful sense, a millenarian movement.  The followers of the Ghost Dance movement saw the world they knew dying.  It was corrupt in many ways and they could see their own way of life’s demise with prophetic eyes.  The old people among them longed for the world of their youth.  The younger tribes people hungered for a way of life they had never known.  The Ghost Dance movement promised to bring a new dawn to the native peoples who would assume their rightful place once again.

Before we go further I would like to make note of the fact that there are two distinct forms of Ghost Dance.  There are true movements and there are false movements.  A true movement can be identified as one where the movement’s leaders believe that the message they bring has a truly divine origin.  The prophet and the followers both know with a certainty that the movement stems from God.  A false movement was one that may be blanketed in the garment of Ghost Movement terminology and language but whose primary goal is the attainment of some political or otherwise secular purpose.  For our purposes today we will be examining the Ghost Dance movement started by Wovoka, also known as Jack Wilson, which was in every sense a true movement.

The origin of Wovoka’s movement can be traced back to a similar movement started by a fellow Paiute named Wodziwob. Wodziwob, who in the late 1860’s entered a trance and received a vision from the divine which declared that a new age would be brought into the world if the Native Peoples performed a series of common rituals.  One of Wodziwob's followers was the father of Wovoka, a Paiute Shaman named Tavibo/Numaraivoo.  When Wovoka was very young he was separated from his father, who had been involved with the Bannock uprising some years earlier.  Wovoka was adopted by a white family from the Walker River valley who named him Jack.  On January 1st 1889, while chopping wood near a mine owned by the Wilson family he had a powerful vision.  As he was chopping a solar eclipse occurred and Wovoka reports he died a physical death and was brought to heaven.  There he had a revelation from God.  God showed him that all the natives who had lived before were still alive in a sacred land somewhere in the distant west.  There, buffalo wandered in rich and bountiful land and the old ways were still practiced.  Jesus was there amongst them teaching, healing and working miracles.  He was told that if he followed the instructions he would be given that a new age would dawn and that all the native peoples who had ever lived, all the buffalo which had died, would be returned to live in a glorious age, and the white man would be swept away.

Wovoka told his followers that they were to lay aside violence, live in peace with and work for the white man, always tell the truth and refrain from any alcoholic beverages.  They were to dance the traditional round dance, holding hands and dancing in a circle.  Wovoka said "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. You must all do this in the same way. ...I want you to dance every six weeks. Make a feast at the dance and have food that everybody may eat."  And, while they abided by these sacred precepts they were not to explain to the white people the meaning of their dance.

The message was compelling and reached deep into the minds, hearts, and souls of many native peoples.  It spread out from the Paiute homeland and touched tribes far and wide. Although Wovoka never left his native region tribes-people from all across the west came to see and speak with him.  The teachings of Wovoka were not bound together into a neat series of doctrinal beliefs.  He would tell them of his experience, offer his testimony, and share with them his vision.  Each person who went away from their encounter with Wovoka carried a unique personal interpretation of the Ghost Dance phenomena.  Their interpretations were colored by their own personal, cultural, societal, and tribal experiences.  This was a great strength for the movement in many ways and proved to be a catalyst for its rapid growth.  However, such a mode of religious transmission was also prone to morphing into something beyond Wovoka’s initial vision through the influence of its adherent’s innate predilections.

Native people were drawn to the religion for a number of reasons.  They found themselves, “desperate and facing a dire existence of poverty, hunger and disease,” and “sought a means of salvation to revitalize their traditional culture.”  As word spread from band to band and tribe to tribe they began to think of Wovoka as an Indian Messiah who would come and save them from their fallen state.  An apocalyptic event was on the horizon which would sweep the earth of the white man.  Beloved friends and honored ancestors would return from the afterlife to walk amongst them again.  The buffalo and the antelope would rise up and walk the earth.  This new earth would be free of violence, disease, and wont of all sorts.  In essence it would be paradise.

The Native people were particularly receptive in this period of their history.  Their world was collapsing all around them.  Their tribes were pushed further and further from their traditional lands.  They were confined to reservations rife with disease and hunger.  The food and supplies promised by the U.S. government were in short supply, if they were even ever sent.  The superior military technology and the vast numbers of the whites left little hope for the Pre-Columbians as they found themselves dwindling away on isolated reservations filled with land was generally so poor that the whites could conceive of no other use for it.  They were hungry, desperate, and eager for a solution, for some otherworldly salvation.  The Ghost Dance Movement of Wovoka met all their needs, hopes and desires.

Many powerful men from amongst the native peoples came to visit Wovoka.  Two of the most important were Kicking Bear and Short Bull, Lakota warriors from the Pine Ridge reservation.  Kicking Bear upon his return sought out the great chief Sitting Bull.  He related to him the vision of Wovoka, and although Sitting Bull himself did not seem convinced by the Ghost Dance he allowed his people to dance the dance.  It soon became apparent that they did not accept all of Wovoka’s claims.  They rejected his Messiah-ship and his pacifism.  They hoped to speed along the transformed world through action.  Kicking Bear went on to teach the dancers that if they worse sacred garments called Ghost Dance shirts, special coverings covered with magical symbols and writings, they would not be harmed by bullets.  This belief stems from a messianic test that Wovoka underwent in Nevada.  He had an accomplice fire a shotgun at him filled with blanks.  Wovoka bent over and clutched at his chest, while doing so he released some buckshot balls he had hidden away in his hands.  The people were amazed and Wovoka showed them that it was the power of his shirt by having the same shotgun filled with blanks fired at his shirt as it hung.  Of course the shirt was untouched by any sort of damage.  This apparently led believers amongst the Sioux to believe that if they wore their own shirts which were blessed and ritually prepared they would be invulnerable to bullets as well.

As the Sioux began to flock to the movement and performed the dance in larger and larger numbers the Indian Agents and other U.S. authorities showed increasing apprehension and concern.  The U.S. government had for many years sought to outlaw any and all outward forms of religious expression by Native Peoples.  It was hoped that by systematically eliminating rituals and ceremonies they would decrease cohesiveness amongst the natives and thereby decrease the likelihood of cooperative resistance. There were some voices of reason in the government.  One former Indian Agent made note that, “"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.”  Voices such as this were few and far between and in the end went unheeded.

Since Sitting Bull was the most prominent and respected of the Sioux the blame for the Ghost Dance began to cast towards him.  Even though he was far from a convinced member of the movement the U.S. officials were persuaded to call for his arrest.  A group of Indian Police in the employ of the Government went to Sitting Bulls cabin in the dead of night and woke him up.  They informed him he was going to be placed under arrest.  Sitting Bull agreed to go with them and after dressing they proceeded to exit the cabin.  Outside Ghost Dancers? appeared seemingly from nowhere and began to behave threateningly towards the policemen.  Things escalated and soon were out of control.  One of the Ghost Dancers, in violation of the non-violent precepts of the movement, pulled out a weapon and shot at one of the officers, wounding him.  The wounded officer, while attempting to fire back at his assailant, inadvertently hit Sitting Bull.  Full Chaos erupted and one of the other officers walked over to Sitting Bull and shot him in the head.  The situation was completely out of control and the deaths began to mount. A group of U.S. Calvary which had been waiting nearby in support of the Indian Police rode in and re-established government control.

The majority of the Sioux elected to refrain from vengeance and proceeded towards Wounded Knee with an escort of Calvary.  They were given food and some tents and blankets as they made camp for the night.  On the next day they awoke to see that the Army had received reinforcements and that a number of Hotchkiss machine guns had been positioned around their encampment.  They were told that they would be disarmed so they proceeded to stack their weapons in an orderly fashion.  The military for reasons of their own did not trust that all the weapons had been turned over and began a search of the tents and the Lakota themselves.  When they approached an elderly Sioux named Black Coyote some sort of misunderstanding ensued that turned into a struggle.  Black Coyote was known to be deaf and perhaps he did not understand what the soldiers required of him.  Regardless of the reasons, a weapon was discharged and the sound rang through the camp.  The soldiers later claimed they were fearful of a native attack.  They let loose with all their firepower.  The Hotchkiss guns traced lines of death through the Lakota who were mostly women and children.  Even the troops who were amongst the Lakota found no safety as they were gunned down by friendly fire.  When the smoke cleared most of the Natives lay dead along with some 25 troopers.  The survivors fled into the wilderness where most of them succumbed to the harsh winter elements.  

The majority of the Lakota who were slaughtered that day were adherents of the Ghost Dance movement.  Most were wearing their sacred Ghost Dancer shirts.  None of their blood stained garments showed any signs of repelling the hot lead of the U.S. troops on that cold winters day.  The movement of Wovoka began to die that day.  It died with the huddled masses of the Lakota Sioux as they died in the snow.  It died with the dreams of the native people and their hopes for a world restored to their stewardship.

There are those today who will still say that the Ghost Dance movement was a movement of hate, fear, racism and violence.  It may have had some of those components in some of its incarnations but, that is not what it was.  It was the last hope of a people who were watching in horror as the world they knew was transformed into something alien and hostile.  The Messiah Letter, a document that Wovoka sent back to the Cheyenne people through Black Short Nose has been transcribed by the American Bureau of Ethnology.  In its words we can see the hopes and dreams of the Ghost Dancers.  This is how it should be remembered; this is the true spirit of the dance.

THE MESSIAH LETTER
When you get home you must make a dance to continue five days. Dance four successive nights, and the last night keep up the dance until the morning of the fifth day, when all must bathe in the river and then disperse to their homes. You must all do this? in the same way.
I, Jack Wilson, love you all, and my heart is full of gladness for the gifts you have brought me. When you get home I shall give you a good cloud [rain?] which will make you feel good. I give you a good spirit and give you all good paint. I want you to come again in three months, some from each tribe there [the Indian Territory].
There will be a good deal of snow this year and some rain. In the fall there will be such a rain as I have never given you before.
Grandfather [a universal title of reverence among Indians and here meaning the messiah] says, when your friends die you must not cry. You must not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must not fight. Do right always. It will give you satisfaction in life. This young man has a good father and mother. [Possibly this refers to Casper Edson, the young Arapaho who wrote down this message of Wovoka for the delegation].
Do not tell the white people about this. Jesus is now upon the earth. He appears like a cloud. The dead are still alive again. I do not know when they will be here; maybe this fall or in the spring. When the time comes there will be no more sickness and everyone will be young again.
Do not refuse to work for the whites and do not make any trouble with them until you leave them. When the earth shakes [at the coming of the new world] do not be afraid. It will not hurt you.
I want you to dance every six weeks. Make a feast at the dance and have food that everybody may eat. Then bathe in the water. That is all. You will receive good words again from me some time. Do not tell lies.