The Ghost Dance (Native American religion)

Wovoka (Jack Wilson)

The Ghost Dance (Caddo Nanissáanah [1]) of 1890 is a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems.

According to the millenarian teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilson), proper practice of the dance will reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to guard on their behalf, end European westward expansion, and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Native American peoples throughout the region [2].

I intend to dance again to see the ancestors.

The basis for it is the circle dance, a traditional Native American dance [3, 4]. It was first practiced by the Nevada Northern Paiute in 1889. The practice swept throughout much of the Western United States, quickly reaching areas of California and Oklahoma. As it spread from its original source, different tribes synthesized selective aspects of the ritual with their own unique beliefs.

Paiute Native American Shaman Wovoka and the Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance has been associated with Wovoka's prophecy of an end to colonial expansion while preaching goals of clean living, an honest life, and cross-cultural cooperation by Native Americans.

Prof. Dr. Louis Warren on "The Ghost Dance Movement"

Practice of the movement was believed to have contributed to Lakota resistance to assimilation under the Dawes Act. The Lakota variation on the Ghost Dance tended towards millenarianism [5], an innovation that distinguished the Lakota interpretation from Jack Wilson's original teachings. The Caddo still practice the Ghost Dance today [6]. More

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