By 1890, conditions on reservations were so bad that the situation was ripe for a major movement.  It was called the Ghost Dance because of its association with the dead coming back to life.     
The origin of this movement was found in a Pauite Indian named Wovoka, who said he was a messiah come to earth to ;prepare the Indians for salvation .  It was suppose to last about five days and repeated every six weeks.  Indians came from all over the nation to meet Wovoka and to learn Ghost Dance songs and dances after hearing of a performance where bullets stopped in front of Wovoka when he was wearing his ghost shirt.
Wovoka received a revelation that the dead would rise, the Indians would live forever, the buffalo would return, and the whites would disappear.  All the Indians who ghost danced believed that they would be suspended in the air while a new earth was being made.  They thought that the next spring the new soil would bury the white man.  They then would be the only ones who lived there.  Wovoka was for innocent behavior: no fighting, no war, nothing to do with war, no stealing, no lying , and no cruelty .  The ghost shirts were supposed to protect them from the soldiers bullets.  On the Lakota tribe the women's ghost shirts were made of white cotton cloth.  They were like a loose robe with wide, flowing sleeves, a painted blue neck with moons, stars, birds, etc. emblazoned upon them.  The Lakota's men's ghost shirts were made of the same material with leggings painted in red stripes.  The neck was painted blue with figures of everything they saw in nature.  They also had rows of feathers down their sleeves.  The Plains Indians wore two feathers in their hair so they would be lifted into the new world.  Yellow Bird had said:

" The bullets will not go toward you.  The prairie is Large... the bullets will not go toward you."

 
By the autumn of 1890, trading ,schooling, and almost all activities came to a stop as the people took up this ritual.  At first when Wovako danced, he experienced no revelation and told Kicking Bear, " It is impossible for a dead man to return and live again."  Before the Lakota danced, a crowd gathered around the high priest who was giving directions to chant and other things.  About fifteen minutes after he had spoken they stood directly beside each other with their hands on their neighbors shoulders.  They shreiked out their grief and naming departed friends and relatives for about fifteen minutes.  After chanting "Father I come" a few times, they stopped but stayed in their position and gave off the most god-awful, heart-piercing wails.  One Kiowa ghost dance was called "And  I Wait With the Wind and My Faith" and it went like this:

The wind, the wind, Shakes my tipi, shakes my tipi, And sings a song for me, And sings a song for me.

Next, the excitement began.  They would move their hands and bodies as fast they could with their hands gipping tightlly to their neighbors.  If one came near falling he'd be jerked up.  They kept dancing until at least one-hundred people were unconscious on the ground.  Then they stopped, sat on the ground and listened to each other as they related their experiences.  Ioways and members of other tribes were sick with disease and malnutrition.  The dance, with its trances, helped with the grief .  Big Foots Band would dance until they collapsed, hoping dead warriors would come back to life, but had no objections to the dance.

 
Sitting Bull had heard agents getting nervous and calling in soldiers on reservations.  He didn't want any more Indians getting killed but Kicking Bear assured him that the ghost shirts would protect them.  Agents asked if the ritual was so peaceful why did they need " bulletproof" garments?  The only white man on the Indians side was Valentine McGillycuddy,  who said he should let the dance continue.  Sitting Bull had said:

"Let the soldiers come and take me away and kill me, wherever they like.  I am not afraid.  I was born a warrior.  I have followed the warpath ever since I was able to draw a bow."

Troops were told to maintain peace and by the end of 1890, some 3,000 soldiers were in Sioux country.  The ghost dance was banned among the Sioux, but it was still went on in the Badlands that were far from the agents.  The Lakota's had no use of the ghost dance because they couldn't  get the ghost shirts or ghost dances to work but agents banned the ghost dance on the Lakota reservations because the Ghost Dance promised some sort of violence to the wasicus anyways.  Sitting Bull told Kicking Bear to stay at Standing Rock and teach the Ghost Dance but in telling him that Agent McLaughlin came and removed Kicking Bear.  McLaughlin telegraphed Washington, asking for troops and blaming Sitting Bull for this " pernicious system of religion."

 

On December 15, forty-four Indian police surrounded Sitting Bull's cabin before dawn to arrest him.  When Lt. Bull Head entered the cabin Sitting Bull was asleep.  Upon awakening, he peacefully agreed to come with the police.  A large group of Ghost Dancers had assembled and challenged the police.  One dancer, Catch-the-Bear, pulled a rifle out and shot Lt. Bull Head in the side.  Bull Head tried to shoot back but shot Sitting Bull instead.  Another policeman, Red Tomahawk, shot Sitting Bull in the head.  many policemen died that day.  This event precipitated to the events at Wounded Knee.  
The Indians used to live in a whole different world than the white man.  Their beliefs seemed reasonable to them but crazy to us.  We should all just respect each others beliefs instead of making fun of them. 

 

 
Brandi Gannon

8th American History

Plains History Project

2004

 

Bibliography