Ghost Dance and Religious
Resistance
Ghost Dance
• New religious
movement
• Spiritual dance to
regain life
• Became part of
many Native
American belief
systems
• Basis: circle\round dance since prehistoric
times
• Trance, prophesying
• Last 5 days and 4 nights
• Occur every 6 weeks
• Moved from right to left → course of Sun
• No instruments
The Original Movement
• Began in 1870, Walker Lake Reservation,
Nevada
• Hawthorne Wodziwob – Gray Hair (Paiute)
• Preached God’s messages
• Spread to westward
(Klamath, Miwok,
Modoc, Yurok)
Second Movement
• 1890 – Jack Wilson – Wovoka
• Prophet of peace
• New religion was termed as:
” Dance in a circle” → ”Spirit
Dance” → ”Ghost Dance”
• Religion spread across much
of western part
(Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota
(Sioux), Kiowa)
• New form practiced among Nevada Paiute
(1889)
• Quickly reached
California and
Oklahoma
• Change in society
and in ritual
• Contributed in
Lakota resistance
Political influence
• 1890 – Smaller reservations
• Individual lands – unable to farm
↓
• Starvation
• People turned into Ghost Dance
•
•
•
•
US government banned Ghost Dance
Rituals continued
Troops in South Dakota
Arrest and death of Sitting Bull
↓
• More violent resistance
Wounded Knee Massacre
• At least 153 dead Sioux
•
•
•
•
Ghost Dance disappeared
Led to Bourke Act (1906)
Competent \ Incompetent
Native Americans lost about 90 million acres
of land
• About 90000 landless
• 1930s: land returned to tribal ownership
• Still low standard of living
Thank You For
Your Attention!