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Ghost Dance

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Religious movements,
traditions and organizations

   The Ghost Dance by the Ogalala Lakota at Pine Ridge. Illustration by
   Frederic Remington
   Enlarge
   The Ghost Dance by the Ogalala Lakota at Pine Ridge. Illustration by
   Frederic Remington

   Noted in historical accounts as the Ghost Dance of 1890, the Ghost
   Dance was a religious movement incorporated into numerous Native
   American belief systems. The traditional ritual used in the Ghost
   Dance, the circle dance, has been used by many Native Americans since
   pre-historic times, but was first performed in accordance with Jack
   Wilson's teachings among the Nevada Paiute in 1889. The practice swept
   throughout much of the American West, quickly reaching areas of
   California and Oklahoma, USA. As the Ghost Dance spread from its
   original source, Native American tribes synthesized selective aspects
   of the ritual with their own beliefs often creating change in both the
   society that integrated it and the ritual itself. At the core of the
   movement was the prophet of peace Jack Wilson, known as Wovoka among
   the Paiute, who prophesized a nonviolent end to Euro-American expansion
   while preaching messages of clean living, an honest life, and
   cross-cultural cooperation. Perhaps the best known facet of the Ghost
   Dance movement is the role it reportedly played in instigating the
   Wounded Knee massacre in 1890, which resulted in the deaths of 391
   Lakota Sioux. The Sioux variation on the Ghost Dance tended towards
   millenarianism, an innovation which distinguished the Sioux
   interpretation from Jack Wilson's original teachings.

Historical foundations

Paiute background

   The Northern Paiutes living in Mason Valley, in what is now the U.S.
   state of Nevada, at the time of settlement by Euro-American
   homesteaders were known collectively as the Tövusi-dökadö, (Tövusi- :
   Cyperus-bulb and dökadö : eaters). The Northern Paiute community
   thrived upon a subsistence pattern of foraging through this locally
   plentiful food source for a portion of the year, also augmenting their
   diets with fish, pine nuts, and the occasional clubbing of wild game.

   The Tövusi-dökadö lacked any permanent political organization or
   officials, instead operating within a less stratified social system of
   self-proclaimed spiritually blessed individuals organizing events or
   activities for the betterment of the group as a whole. Usually, a
   community event organized was centered on the observance of a ritual at
   a prescribed time of year or was intended to organize activities like
   harvests or hunting parties. One such extraordinary instance occurred
   in 1869; Hawthorne Wodziwob, a Paiute man, organized a series of
   community dances to announce a vision he claimed to have had. He spoke
   of a journey to the land of the dead, and of promises made to him by
   the souls of the recently deceased. They promised to return to their
   loved ones within a period of 3-4 years. Wodziwob’s peers accepted this
   vision, probably due to his already reputable status as a healer, as he
   urged the populace to dance the common circle dance as was customary
   during a time of festival. He continued preaching this message for 3
   years with the help of a local "weather doctor" named Tavibo, the
   father of Jack Wilson.

   Previous to Wodziwob’s religious movement, a devastating typhoid
   epidemic struck in 1867. This and other European diseases killed
   approximately one tenth of the total population, resulting in
   widespread psychological and emotional trauma and bringing grave
   disorder to the economic system. Many families were prevented from
   continuing their nomadic lifestyle, following pine nut harvests and
   wild game herds; without any other options, most of these partial
   families ended up in Virginia City seeking wage work.

Round dance precursors

   The physical form of the ritual associated with Ghost Dance did not
   originate with Jack Wilson, nor did it die with him. Referred to as the
   "round dance," it characteristically includes a circular community
   dance held around an individual who leads the ceremony. Often
   accompanying the ritual are intermissions of trance, exhortations, and
   prophesying.

   The term “ prophet dances” was applied during an investigation of
   Native American rituals carried out by anthropologist Leslie Spier, a
   student of Franz Boas. He noted that versions of the round dance were
   present throughout much of the Pacific Northwest including the Columbia
   plateau (a region including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of
   western Montana). However Spier’s study was conducted at a time when
   most of these rituals had already incorporated Christian elements,
   further complicating the investigation of the round dance’s origin.

   European impact on native populations (oftentimes prior to actual
   physical exploration of the more remote regions of the continent) has
   traditionally made it difficult to acquire "pristine" data on North
   American societies during their supposedly "pre-historic" or
   "proto-historic" eras. Changes in Native American societies before
   physical contact with Europeans can be attributed to severe disease
   epidemics, an increased frequency and volume in trade caused by the
   introduction of European goods or from Europeans purchasing local
   resources, and the introduction of the horse (which revolutionized the
   foraging lifestyle for some aboriginal societies).

   Enculturation and diffusion are not the only explanations for the
   common circle dance rituals. Anthropologist James Mooney was one of the
   first to study circle dances and observed striking similarities in
   rituals between tribes. However he also claimed that “a hope and
   longing common to all humanity, manifests through behavior rooted in
   human physiology and common experience,” alluding to either the notion
   of universal imprints on the human mind, or a ubiquitous behaviour
   drawn from universal life course events.

Jack Wilson's vision

   Wovoka – Paiute spiritual leader and creator of the Ghost Dance
   Enlarge
   Wovoka – Paiute spiritual leader and creator of the Ghost Dance

   Jack Wilson, the prophet formerly known as Wovoka until his adoption of
   a Euro-American name, was believed to have experienced a vision during
   a solar eclipse on January 1, 1889. It was reportedly not his first
   time experiencing a vision directly from God; but as a young adult, he
   claimed that he was better spiritually equipped to handle this message.
   Jack had received training from an experienced shaman in his community
   under his parent’s guidance after realizing that he was having
   difficulty interpreting his first vision. Jack was also training to be
   a "weather doctor," following in his father’s footsteps, and was known
   throughout Mason Valley as a gifted and blessed young leader. He often
   presided over circle dances, symbolizing the sun’s heavenly path across
   the sky, while preaching a message of universal love.

   Anthropologist James Mooney conducted an interview with the charismatic
   preacher in 1892, describing many of the same preachings he had given
   to his fellow Native Americans. This was documented in letters between
   tribes and in notes that Jack asked his pilgrims to take upon their
   arrival at Mason Valley. Jack told Mooney that he had stood before God
   in Heaven, and had seen many of his ancestors engaged in their favorite
   pastimes. The land there was filled with wild game and God showed it to
   him before instructing him to return home to tell his people that they
   must love each other, not fight, and live in peace with the whites. God
   also stated that Jack’s people must work, not steal or lie, and that
   they must not engage in the old practices of war. God said that if his
   people abided by these rules, they would be united with their friends
   and family in the other world. In God's presence, Jack proclaimed,
   there would be no sickness, disease, or old age. According to Jack, he
   was then given a dance and commanded to bring it back to his people. If
   his people performed this dance, which lasted for five days, in the
   proper intervals, the performers would secure their happiness and
   hasten the reunion of the living and deceased. God purportedly gave
   Jack powers over weather and told him that he would be the deputy in
   charge of affairs in the Western United States, leaving current
   President Harrison as God’s deputy in the East; Jack was then told to
   return home and preach God’s message.

   Jack Wilson claimed to have left the presence of God convinced that if
   every Indian in the West danced the new dance to “hasten the event,”
   all evil in the world would be swept away leaving a renewed Earth
   filled with food, love, and faith. Quickly accepted by his Paiute
   brethren, the new religion was termed “Dance In A Circle." Because the
   first white American contact with the practice came by way of the
   Sioux, their expression “Spirit Dance” was adopted as a descriptive
   title for all such practices and was subsequently translated as "Ghost
   Dance."

Role in Wounded Knee Massacre

   Through Native Americans and some Euro-Americans, Jack Wilson’s message
   spread across much of the western portion of the United States. Early
   in the religious movement many tribes sent members to investigate the
   self-proclaimed prophet, while other communities sent delegates only to
   be cordial. Regardless of their motivations, many left believers and
   returned to their homeland preaching his message. The Ghost Dance was
   also investigated by many Mormons from Utah, for whom the concept of a
   Native American prophet was familiar and accepted; some traveled to see
   Jack and evaluate whether or not he was actually a holy man who had
   been called of God.
   Miniconjou Chief Big Foot lies dead in the snow
   Enlarge
   Miniconjou Chief Big Foot lies dead in the snow

   While most followers of the Ghost Dance understood Wovoka's role as
   being that of a teacher of pacifism and peace, others did not.

   One alternate interpretation of the Ghost Dance may be seen in the
   so-called "Ghost Shirts," special garments rumored to repel bullets
   through spiritual power. It is uncertain where the belief originated,
   although some observers such as James Mooney have argued that the most
   likely source is the Mormon endowment "garment" (which some Mormons
   believed would protect the pious wearer from danger). Despite the
   uncertainty of its origins, it is generally accepted that chief Kicking
   Bear brought the concept to his own people, the Lakota Sioux in 1890.

   Another Lakota interpretation of Jack’s religion is drawn from the idea
   of a “renewed Earth” in which “all evil is washed away”; the Lakota
   interpretation included the removal of all Euro-Americans from their
   lands, unlike Jack's version of the Ghost Dance which encouraged
   harmonious co-existence with white Americans.

   In February of 1890, the United States government broke a Lakota treaty
   by adjusting the Great Sioux Reservation of South Dakota (an area that
   formerly encompassed the majority of the state) into five smaller
   reservations. This was done to accommodate homesteaders from the east
   and was in accordance with the government’s clearly stated “policy of
   breaking up tribal relationships” and “conforming Indians to the white
   man’s ways, peaceably if they will, or forcibly if they must.” Once on
   the reduced reservations, tribes were separated into family units on
   320 acre plots, forced to farm, raise livestock, and send their
   children to boarding schools that forbid any inclusion of Native
   American traditional culture and language.

   To help support the Sioux during the period of transition, the Bureau
   of Indian Affairs (BIA), was delegated the responsibility of
   supplementing the Sioux with food and hiring Euro-American farmers as
   teachers for the people. By the end of the 1890 growing season, the
   Sioux farmer’s hard work trying to cultivate crops in the semi-arid
   region of South Dakota failed due to the inability of the land to
   produce agricultural yields during a time of intense heat and low
   rainfall. Unfortunately this was also the time when the government’s
   patience with supporting the so-called “lazy Indians" ran out,
   resulting in rations to the Sioux being cut in half. With the bison
   virtually eradicated from the plains a few years earlier, the Sioux had
   no options available to escape starvation. Increased performances of
   the Ghost Dance ritual ensued, frightening the supervising agents of
   the BIA, who successfully requested thousands of additional troops be
   deployed to the reservation.

   By December 15, 1890, a leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux named Sitting Bull
   was arrested on the reservation for failing to stop his people from
   practicing the Ghost Dance. During the incident, a Sioux witnessing the
   arrest fired at one of the soldiers prompting an immediate retaliation;
   this conflict resulted in deaths on both sides, including the loss of
   Sitting Bull himself.

   Big Foot, a Sioux leader on the U.S. Army’s list of troublemaking
   Indians, was stopped while en route to convene with the remaining Sioux
   chiefs. U.S. Army officers forced him and his people to relocate to a
   small camp close to the Pine Ridge Agency so that the soldiers could
   more closely watch the old chief. That evening, December 28th, the
   small band of Sioux erected their tipis on the banks of Wounded Knee
   Creek. The following day during an attempt by the officers to collect
   any remaining weapons from the band, one young Sioux warrior refused to
   relinquish his arms. A struggle followed in which his weapon discharged
   into the air. Other young Sioux warriors, dressed in their Ghost
   Shirts, responded by brandishing previously concealed weapons; the U.S.
   forces responded with carbine firearms. Two bands of Native American
   reinforcements, the Oglalas and Brules, arrived at the creek after
   hearing the gunshots. When the fighting had concluded, 39 U.S. soldiers
   lay dead amongst the 153 dead Sioux, 62 of which were women and
   children.

   Following the massacre, chief Kicking Bear officially surrendered his
   weapon to General Nelson A. Miles. Outrage in the Eastern United States
   emerged as the general population learned about the events that had
   transpired. The U.S. government had insisted on numerous occasions that
   the Native American had already been successfully pacified, and many
   Americans felt the U.S. Army actions were harsh; some related the
   massacre at Wounded Knee Creek to the "ungentlemanly act of kicking a
   man when he is already down." Public uproar played a role in the
   reinstatement of the previous treaty’s terms including full rations and
   more monetary compensation for lands taken away.

Relevant anthropological theory

Religious revitalization model

   Anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace’s model (1956) describes the
   process of religious revitalization. It is derived from studies of
   another Native American religious movement, The Code of Handsome Lake,
   which led to the formation of the Longhouse Religion.

   I. Period of generally satisfactory adaptation to a group’s social and
   natural environment.

   II. Period of increased individual stress. While the group as a whole
   is able to survive through its accustomed cultural behaviour, however
   changes in the social or natural environment frustrate efforts of many
   people to obtain normal satisfactions of their needs.

   III. Period of cultural distortion. Changes on the group’s social or
   natural environment drastically reduce the capacity of accustomed
   cultural behaviour to satisfy most persons’ physical and emotional
   needs.

   IV. Period of revitalization: (1) reformulation of the cultural
   pattern, (2) its communication, (3) organization of a reformulated
   cultural pattern, (4) adaptation of the reformulated pattern to better
   meet the needs and preferences of the group, (5) cultural
   transformation, (6) routinization- the adapted reformulated cultural
   pattern becomes the standard cultural behaviour for the group.

   V. New period of generally satisfactory adaptation to the group's
   changed social and/or natural environment.

Ghost Dance within revitalization model

   In Alice Beck Kehoe’s ethnohistory of the Ghost Dance, she presents the
   movement within the framework of Wallace’s model of religious
   revitalization. The Tövusi-dökadö’s age of traditional subsistence
   patterns constitutes a period of generally satisfactory cultural
   adaptation to their environment which lasted until around 1860.
   Corresponding with an influx of Euro-American settlers begins the
   second phase of Wallace’s model hallmarked by increased individual
   stress placed on some members of the community. Almost the entire 1880s
   are placed into the model’s third period, that of cultural distortion,
   due to the increased presence of Euro-American agribusiness and the
   United States’ government. With the introduction of Jack Wilson’s Ghost
   Dance, the fourth period of revitalization is ushered which
   characteristically occurs after sufficient changes accrue to
   significantly warp the society’s cultural pattern. Following the
   revitalization is yet another period of satisfactory adaptation which
   is dated to about 1900. By this time almost all sources of traditional
   food were eradicated from the Tövusi-dökadö’s long-established
   homeland, leading to the adoption of Euro-American subsistence methods
   while still maintaining a Paiute culture.

Reason for rejection

   “Worthless words” was the description given to the Ghost Dance in 1890
   by Navajo leaders. Three years later James Mooney arrived at the Navajo
   reservation in northern Arizona during his study of the Ghost Dance
   movement, only to discover that the ritual was never incorporated into
   Navajo society even during the brief period of its widespread
   acceptance in western portions of the United States. According to
   Kehoe, the movement did not gain fervor there in 1890 due to higher
   levels of social and economic satisfaction at that time. Another factor
   at play was the fear of ghosts and spirits among the Navajo, based in
   their own particular religious beliefs. Kehoe continues to elaborate on
   the circumstances of the Navajo’s later acceptance of the Peyote
   Religion during more desperate times

Movements with similarities

     * 1856-1857 Cattle-Killing in South Africa in which perhaps 60,000 of
       the Xhosa people died of self-induced starvation. They destroyed
       their food supplies based on a vision that came to Nongqawuse.
     * The Righteous Harmony Society was a Chinese movement which also
       believed in magical clothing, reacting against Western colonialism.
     * The Maji Maji Rebellion where an African spirit medium gave his
       followers war medicine that he said would turn German bullets into
       water.
     * The Melanesian Jon Frum cargo cult believed in a return of their
       ancestors brought by Western technology (see Vailala Madness).
     * The Spanish Carlist troops fought against secularism and believed
       in the detente bala — pieces of cloth with an image of the Holy
       Heart of Jesus — would protect them against bullets.
     * Burkhanism was an Altayan movement that reacted against
       Russification.
     * Child soldiers in the civil wars of Liberia wore wigs and wedding
       gowns to confuse enemy bullets by assuming a dual identity. See
       Joshua Blahyi.

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