Ghost Dance History

After finding themselves devastated from being confined to reservations and dwindling numbers of buffalo, the Sioux tribe was left with little hope of as better future. They were desperate for any means to return them to their once great life of living free on their lands, undisturbed by the white race. By the 1890s, many took comfort in the preachings of a Paiute shaman called Wovoka. Claiming himself as a Messiah, he encouraged performing what was known as the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance was meant to be a way of combating the white race by ensuring that they would perish from natural disasters. It also would protect the Indians that performed it, ensuring their survival by gaining the strength of their ancestors and the return of the wild game that once filled their land (Nash, 504). Many Indians of the Sioux latched onto these preachings and took part in Ghost Dances. They believed it truly would bring them a better future.
Indians performing would dawn themselves in “Ghost shirts” detailed with images of eagles and buffalo (EWH, Massacre At Wounded Knee,1890). On June 20, 1890, Mrs. Z. A. Parker accounted the events that took place at a Ghost Dance at the Pine Ridge reservation, describing the environment to have “…a large pine tree in the center, which was covered with strips of cloth of various colors, eagle feathers, stuffed birds, claws, and horns-all offerings to the Great Spirit” (PBS,The Ghost Dance Among the Lakota). These spiritual ceremonies never directed any violence towards the white race. They focused on hypnosis, meditation, and dancing ceremonies. This, however, did not stop the Americans from becoming