American Studies Blog Post 9

Post and analyse the website of any American faith group or religious denomination. How does your choice define itself as particularly “American” in character?

Ghost Dance

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3775.html (not an official website)

(Source from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Dance)

The Ghost Dance by the Oglala Lakota at Pine Ridge

The Ghost Dance was a new religious movement incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. The first report of the religion dates back as early as 1860 by Northern Paiute spiritual leader, Wovoka, later renamed Jack Wilson. The Ghost Dance provided a hopeful message to all Indians as performing the ceremonies and songs supposedly brought back dead Indians, returned buffalo herds and would stimulate a natural disaster, which would wipe away white settlers and restore the Indian way of life that existed prior to European settlement.

The movement spread through Nevada and parts of California and Oregon, however after the prophecies failed to materialize the religion subsided. Later, in 1889, Wovoka experienced a vision of a ‘Supreme Being’, which ‘he preached peaceful coexistence and a strong work ethic and taught ceremonial songs and dances to resurrect dead Indians’. The belief continued that if Indians practiced the Ghost Dance, they would become reunited with the dead Indians and the whites would begin to disappear. Despite the first movement of the Ghost Dance being rejected, the second movement gained support and acceptance from tribes in Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas.

“When the Sun died, I went up to Heaven and saw God and all the people who had died a long time ago. God told me to come back and tell my people they must be good and love one another, and not fight, or steal or lie. He gave me this dance to give to my people.”

Wovoka

(Source from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Dance)

Wovoka, creator of the Ghost Dance

The success of the religion was even more remarkable due to the geographical and language barriers among the various tribes, a lack of access to media or other technology and that Wovoka never left the Paiute land. The religion of the Native Americans would have been one of the first within America and this signifies how the religion represents America. The white settlers reacted differently to the new religion, where some travelled to observe their dancing, others feared the possibility of an Indian uprising. Eventually the Bureau of Indian Affairs banned the Ghost Dance due to beliefs of it starting a violent rebellion. The BIA did no recognize that in fact the Ghost Dance had many parallels with Christianity, with many Indians believing in one God, ironic as the agency wanted to convert the Native Indians.

(Source from: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3775.html)

The most enthusiastic supporters of the Ghost Dance were from the Lakota due to the intense suffering there. In 1980, President Benjamin Harrison ordered the military to take control over Lakota Sioux, and on December 29^th 1980; 300 Lakota men, women and children were killed in an event, which became known as the Massacre of Wounded Knee. The government destroyed what initially began as a peaceful, religious movement. After this the phenomenon disappeared, only continuing in several isolated places with the last known Ghost Dance being held in the 1950’s among the Shoshone.

The Ghost Dance presents itself as “American” as it is one of the first religions practiced amongst the original settlers. It furthermore portrays how the white settlers did not accept other unknown religions, when in fact there were many similarities between the Ghost Dance and Christianity. This religion questions the First Amendment of the United States, adopted in 1791, which states freedom within religion.