Ghost Dance Movement

Date: Established 1890

Tribes affected: Pantribal

Significance: The Ghost Dance was one of many religious rituals and movements that arose in the wake of European contact in response to permanent changes in traditional lifeways for native peoples

The Ghost Dance began in 1890 as a result of the visions of a Paiute Indian from Nevada called Wovoka. As a result of his visions, Wovoka began delivering a series of prophetic messages that described a future which would restore Native Americans to their life as it had been before contact with the European American settlers and would drive away or destroy the settlers on Native American traditional lands.

Crisis Movements

The Ghost Dance movement is usually described by scholars as an “apocalyptic” or “prophetic”-type movement (borrowing descriptive terms from the study of biblical history). Such movements usually involve someone describing bizarre or frightening visions of a catastrophic change in world events, and these movements are often found among populations who are experiencing severe crisis. These crises can be natural (earthquakes, massive fires, volcanoes) but are more typically associated with political/military conquest by a foreign people who seem strange and overwhelmingly powerful. Such a description clearly fits the experience of Native American tribes who found their lifestyle severely disrupted by the newly arrived settlers. The old way of life, with its familiar routines, was disrupted forever, and the old ways were seen as a “golden age” to which many people wished to return.

Ghost Dance as a Crisis Movement

In the case of the Ghost Dance of 1890, the movement and its widespread popularity are usually attributed to the disastrous disruption of the traditional life of the indigenous populations of North America that came in the wake of European settlement beginning in the sixteenth century. White encroachment had disastrous effects on the native peoples in the West in the nineteenth century. Although the Ghost Dance movement became widespread in 1889-1890, Wovoka had begun having his revelatory visions and experiences in 1887. Also known as John (Jack) Wilson, Wovoka’s most influential and serious supernatural experience was, as he himself described it, a visit to the spirit world on the occasion of the total eclipse of the sun on January 1, 1889.

The precise content of the visions of Wovoka and the teachings and implications which he derived from these visions are difficult to describe with confidence, since virtually all existing reports are second- and third-person contacts. The classic source is James Mooney’s government-supported study, “The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890,” published in 1896. This study was conducted within memory of the events described. James Mooney, as a white government official, had to interview sources and interpret his reports as best he could. The major difficulty with this procedure is that the Ghost Dance movement was typically hostile toward white settlers’ presence, and one must suspect that reports collected by Mooney would have been delivered in a more conciliatory tone than discussions among Native Americans themselves.

The United States government’s interest in the Ghost Dance movement was a direct result of the fact that the message of Wovoka had a very rapid impact that quickly crossed tribal lines. The movement was deeply implicated in the historic massacre at Wounded Knee of Chief Big Foot’s band in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The Ghost Dance was interpreted in different ways in different tribal contexts; it took a relatively militant turn among the Lakota (Sioux) who were active in the movement.

Representatives from many other tribes were sent to hear of Wovoka’s revelations, and through these messengers the movement spread widely among the Sioux, the Northern Cheyenne, and the Northern Arapaho. It was also influential on related movements, such as that based on the visionary experiences of John Slocum, a member of the Coast Salish tribe whose own prophetic experiences led to the founding of the Indian Shaker Church.

Wovoka’s Visions

Included among the visions of Wovoka, and related by him to his followers and representatives of other tribes, were such basic ideas as the resurrection of tribal members who had died, the restoration of game animals, a flood which would destroy only the white settlers, the necessity and importance of the performance of a dance ritual (the Ghost Dance itself), and a time that is coming which would be free of suffering and disease. Of these major ideas, the primary focus seemed to be on the ideas of resurrection and the restoration of important elements of the old ways, as well as the performance of the dance itself. Related developments of the Ghost Dance movement were certain ethical precepts and, at least among the Sioux, the creation and wearing of distinctive “ghost shirts,” which identified adherents to the movement and were used in the performance of the ritual dancing itself.

In Indian descriptions of the Ghost Dance precepts to white researchers such as Mooney, the motif of the destruction of whites was muted, and many interviewees stressed that the visions of Wovoka actually taught a peaceful coexistence with the white settlers. It is certainly possible that ideas varied, depending on the views and experiences of the tribes appropriating the basic message of Wovoka.

Roots of the Ghost Dance

An interesting summary of the Ghost Dance movement that emphasizes the important role of Wovoka himself is provided by Thomas Overholt, who compares Wovoka with certain prophets of the Bible such as Jeremiah. Overholt also suggests that the Ghost Dance of 1890 was preceded by, and possibly influenced by, similar visionary/ apocalyptic movements, such as the Ghost Dance of 1870 (which also occurred among the Paiutes, initiated by a visionary named Wodziwob) and the Southern Okanagan Prophet Dance around 1800.

Attempts to trace a prehistory of the Ghost Dance of 1890, however, must also reckon with the very high probability of some influence from the Old Testament biblical prophets through early contact with European missionary teachers. Wovoka himself, for example, did have some contact with missionaries, as reported by Mooney. Yet it is also true that such visionary movements were not uncommon among western American tribes from the beginning of the nineteenth century.

As predicted dates for the cosmic events described by Wovoka came and passed, the initial fervor of the Ghost Dance and Wovoka’s teachings in general began to dissipate. Among some tribes, however, the focus shifted from apocalyptic expectations of events to a longer-term stress on daily ethics. In short, the movement became partially institutionalized, which is not uncommon for religious groups whose roots lie in visionary experiences.

Bibliography

Bailey, Paul. Wovoka: The Indian Messiah. Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1957.

Mooney, James. “The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890.” In Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Vol 14. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1896. Reprint. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965.

Overholt, Thomas. Channels of Prophecy: The Social Dynamics of Prophetic Activity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989.

Wilson, Bryan R. Magic and the Millennium. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.