Ghost dance stop the world
The Sioux had been called idolaters and devils, deliberately chosen religious terms designed to brainwash the Christian population, many of whom considered it the work of God to kill Indians. It was sacrilege in the worst sense of the word-a war of aggression baptized under the rubric Manifest Destiny. Seen in these terms, the Plains Indians were the victims of a religious war deliberately meant to destroy their heart and soul. The buffalo, central to their religion and economy, was destroyed not because the whites needed the food, but because of an intentional, governmental policy that knew the destruction of the great herds meant the destruction of the Indian people. Forced to live on reservations, criticized because they either could not or would not learn to be farmers on worthless land white homesteaders didn't want, living off government subsidies that Congress reduced every year and that were often depleted by dishonest Indian agents, the proud people had, within a few short years, been defeated, slaughtered, ridiculed, and demeaned. The great chief Sitting Bull had surrendered, ending a way of life and culture that had existed, in the minds of his people, forever. Such parallels remind us that we all are brothers and sisters with common dreams and aspirations it is more difficult to dismiss one religion as superstition when one of the world's major religions has many of the same elements.Ĭonsider the Sioux people in the year 1881.
Messianic movements have happened many times in many different religions, and a look at the Paiute Ghost Dance movement of the late nineteenth century reveals parallels with the Christian celebration of Palm Sunday, establishing a common reference point with one-third of the world's population. Ghost Dance (religion, spiritualism, and occult)Įach year on Palm Sunday, Christians celebrate the day the people of Jerusalem welcomed and sang for the man they hoped would throw off the yoke of foreign oppression and restore the fortunes they had once known. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia™ Copyright © 2013, Columbia University Press. The Sioux, wearing shirts called ghost shirts, believed they would be protected from the soldiers' bullets. The ghost dance is chiefly significant because it was a central feature among the Sioux just prior to the massacre of hundreds of Sioux at Wounded Knee, S.Dak., in 1890. In a remarkably short time the religion spread to most of the Western Native Americans. The dance originated among the Paiute c.1870 later, other Native Americans sent delegates to Wovoka to learn his teachings and ritual. Hypnotic trances and shaking accompanied this ceremony, which was supposed to be repeated every six weeks. The ritual lasted five successive days, being danced each night and on the last night continued until morning. The religion prophesied the peaceful end of the westward expansion of whites and a return of the land to the Native Americans. Also known as Jack Wilson, he was influenced by his father (a mystic) as well as by the Christian family for whom he worked and the Shaker religion. , c.1858–1932, Paiute, prophet of a messianic religion sometimes called the Ghost Dance religion. Excludes: Burundi, Gabon Republic, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Swaziland, Gambia, Seychelles, Congo, Republic of the, Ghana, Mali, Angola, Cameroon, Mayotte, Guinea, South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Lesotho, Chad, Mauritius, Morocco, Togo, Equatorial Guinea, Somalia, Tunisia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Namibia, Egypt, Western Sahara, Comoros, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Benin, Cape Verde Islands, Rwanda, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Tanzania, Kenya, Senegal, Niger, Eritrea, Madagascar, Mauritania, Reunion, Djibouti, Saint Helena, Libya, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Botswana, Zambia, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Belize, El Salvador, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands, Saint Lucia, Honduras, Panama, Virgin Islands (U.S.Ghost Dance, central ritual of the messianic religion instituted in the late 19th cent.