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Native Americans. The Ghost dance. Historical background Wovoka Paiute people Ghost Dance. Ghost Dance. HISTORY. The Ghost Dance, a messianic Native American religious movement, originated in Nevada around 1870, faded, reemerged in its best known from in the winter of 1888-89,
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NativeAmericans The Ghostdance
Historical background • Wovoka • Paiute people • Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance, a messianic Native American religious movement, • originated in Nevada around 1870, • faded, reemerged in its best known from in the winter of 1888-89, • then spread rapidly through much of the Great Plains
THE FIRST GHOST DANCER • In 1869 or 1870 Taivo, • a Northern Paiute and first Ghost Dance prophet • preached that white people would disappear from the earth and dead Indians would return to enjoy utopian life.
Wovoka • Paiute Indian • 1858 in Mason Valley, in Nevada • His father was the first prophet, Tavio • Shamans and medicine men • famous for his ability to hear voices and see visions • Wovoka went to work on a farm owned by a white man, David Wilson • learned about Christianity
His ability was to control the weather. He was said to have caused a block of ice to fall out of the sky on a summer day, to be able to end drought with rain or snow, to light his pipe with the sun, and to form icicles in his hands.
lived in the Mason Valley, in Nevada, California, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona and Utah • fish, pine nuts, wild game and roots such asCyperusesculentus
VISION • mid-1880s Wovoka started to hear voices from heaven and fall unconscious on the ground • was in the heaven • January 1, 1889 solar eclipse • met with God and people who had died a long time ago • dance and new instructions for life
THE DANCE • ritual form • includes a circular community dance held around an individual who leads the ceremony • Jack Wilson taught ceremonial songs and dances to resurrect dead Indians
bring back to life all the dead Indians and restore the old ways of life • spread widely among the Indians in the Great Basin area.
THE CEREMONY • vestments = ghost shirts • songs brought by the emissaries • white muslin shirts, decorated with a variety of symbols protected them from danger, including bullets
THE GHOST DANCE & THE GOVERNMENT • The government was frightened of the ghost dance’s spiritual power. The white neighbors and reservation officials viewed the movement as a threat to US Indian policy and believed the ceremonies and ghost shirts indicated that they intended to start a war. Reservation officials called on the US government to stop the dancing.
WOUNDED KNEE • The Ghost Dance died out among the Lakota people after the Wounded Knee, but it survived elsewhere in the Plains. In my point of view, I don’t have to speak about the Wounded Knee, because you know everything about that.
Importatnttoknow • Ghost Dance associated with Wovoka • Came from vision • Doctrines of Christianity • Ritual form • Circular community dance • Songs, ghost shirts • Government was frightened of the ghost dance’s spiritual power