The Ghost Dance

My name is Dave Crampton, and I am a student in Michigan State University's Religious Studies 491 class.

This class, which looks at the end of the world from the viewpoints of many different religions, is in its first semester here at MSU. This project is also a first for our professor, and by the looks of everyone else's pages, it will be a success. Just hope mine can measure up. :)

The Ghost Dance is part of a religion practiced among a wide range of Native American Sioux peoples. The dance itself involved strenuous dancing for long periods of time, along with falling into trance and having vivid and prophetic visions. After a generation of being unknown, it began to spread like wildfire throughout the Sioux peoples.

The Ghost Dance religion had its first start when a man, who is rumored to be Wovoka's father, claimed to be a prophet among the Paiute people in Nevada. This man came to the Paiute people with three different visions. Each vision was a bit different from the last, but all preached peace and nonviolence. All also involved either the death and destruction of the whites, the disappearance of the whites, or the whites becoming Native people, much like the Paiute. Each of the prophet's prophesies granted him popularity and respect for a short while, but it never lasted.

His son, Wovoka, "The Cutter", had spent a lot of his life getting to know the white culture. He made friends with the family of David Wilson, whose farm he worked on. He learned English and was given a name by the Wilson family, Jack Wilson. He married, and continued to work on the farm until he was about 30 years old. At this time, he claimed to have had a revelation.

"On this occasion "the sun died" (was eclipsed) and he fell asleep in the daytime and was taken up to the other world. Here he saw God, with all the people who had died long ago engaged in their oldtime sports and occupations, all happy and forever young. It was a pleasant land and full of game. After showing him all, God told him he must go back and tell his people they must be good and love one another, have no quarreling, and live in peace with the whites; that they must work, and not lie or steal; that they must put away all the old practices that savored of war; that if they faithfully obeyed his instructions they would at last be reunited with their friends in this other world, where there would be no more death or sikness or old age. He was then given the dance which he was commanded to bring back to his people. By performing this dance at intervals, for five consecutive days each time, they would secure this happiness to themselves and hasten the event."

This dance began to spread throughout the Sioux peoples, bringing hope of peace, fertile land, and plenty of game. As Wovoka's prophecy spread by word of mouth, it was changed and altered. Its original message of peace and nonviolence was interpreted differently. The shirts that were worn in this new dance were said to make one invincible. It was said that guns and weapons would have no power because of the powers of the Ghost Dance.

Things turned tragic, however, when a large Ghost Dance was planned at Wounded Knee. The only Native American dance that the whites knew about on a general basis was the Sun Dance, and that had been outlawed for its violence and bloodiness. When it was rumored that a large dance was planned, the U.S. sent troops to make sure that it did not happen. The performers of the Ghost Dance beleived that because of the message of peace, and the powers inherent in the Dance, they would not be harmed by the military's bullets. This, combined with the ignorance of the U.S. troops, caused one of the greatest massacres in American history.

1. James Mooney, The Ghost-Dance Religion (Chicago, 1965)
2. See Links section above.