The Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance was a religious expression of desperation and hope.  The Lakota and other Native Peoples had seen their lands seized, their people killed, and they were looking out of their desperate straits for some glimmer of hope.  The teachings of Wovoka gave them that.  The idea that a new world waited for them on the other side where their old friends were waiting and the old ways were still valid must have been quite compelling.  I imagine it must have seemed like a cool sip of water for a parched man.

The Native Peoples and the Whites had very difficult times understanding one another on a wide variety of matters.  Most of these differences stemmed from the two completely differing and diverse worldviews each espoused.  The Native Peoples saw themselves a part of the world and the line between the spiritual and the material was hazy at best.  Their spirituality was represented by the harmony in the material world that surrounded them.  The whites did not seek so much to be one with the natural world as to control it.  This factor produced a tension between peoples and religious systems that could not easily be overcome.

The Native peoples seemed to be drawn to millenarian movements for much the same reason they were drawn to the Ghost Dance, the promise of a better world to come.  The Mormon Church and its “Mission to the Lamanites” was one of particular success.  Wherever the Latter Day saints went they endeavored to establish good relations with the Native Peoples whom the believed were descended from the lost tribes of Israel.  They promised their native converts that through their obedience to the dictates of God their faithfulness would be rewarded with ethnic transformation.  The LDS believe that the Native Peoples in the Americas were once a white people and through their disobedience and evil ways they were transformed to dark people and cursed.  Only through their obedience and submission could this change and they would be made into a “White and delightsome people”.  While this may not seem very compelling to us and perhaps we may be repulsed by such teachings, there was something in it that many Native Peoples found compelling.

Millenarian movements give hope to the hopeless.  It is comforting to some to “Know” that Jesus will “Soon” be coming and everything will be okay.  It reinforces the”us or them” attitude that many people of faith need to feel secure in their religion.  It is comforting for such people to feel “Chosen” but, if some are chosen then it stands to reason that some are not and this is can be dangerous.  This idea of choseness promotes the cultish hive mentality that so many of the millenarian sects have exhibited over the years.  I believe, and this is just me, that this sort of religious expression promotes social laziness,  allowing people not to have to worry about things like population control or the environment because, “It’s almost time for the Rapture” or “Jesus will be coming to reign soon and everything will be made right”.  This sort of rubbish allows people not to have to face the ugly problems in the world.  Millenarianism acts like rose colored glasses & team colors for its adherents.