Paper #1, The Ghost Dance PDF

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This paper will highlight on the Ghost Dance as an element of Native American history, contextualized with an understanding of the work of Emile Burkheim and Karl Marx; in addition, peer-reviewed articles by Karen A. Bearor and Matthew A. Taylor will be employed. ...

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Timber Lockhart LBRL 231

An Analysis of the Ghost Dance “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,” (Toledo). The above quote, attributed to a Northern Paiute man named Wovoka, introduces the concept of a ritual dance that, according to his vision, “would bring about renewal of the native society and the decline in the influence of Whites,” (Weiser). Not to be misconstrued as a version of the Sun Dance, the practice of which was banned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Ghost Dance originated with the intent to prepare Native Americans for the coming of their messiah, the death of all “Whites”, and the renewal of the planet’s health (Weiser). This paper will highlight on the Ghost Dance as an element of Native American history, contextualized with an understanding of the work of Emile Burkheim and Karl Marx; in addition, peer-reviewed articles by Karen A. Bearor and Matthew A. Taylor will be employed. The ritualistic Ghost Dance brought hope for a better future to a cult following of Native peoples across the plains, uniting them to practice the ritual until exhaustion; within the context of a land brutalized by colonization, the claims of coming peace and “a return to older traditions and values,” from the mouth of Wovoka spread like wildfire throughout numerous tribes. The exact prophecy varies slightly from author to author; however according to Toledo, “The white settlers would vanish en masse and the Native dead would be resurrected and reunited with their living ancestors. Suffering, starvation, pain and disease would be wiped away forever.” In addition it must be noted, especially within the context of a religious studies paper that “from a

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theological viewpoint and the safety of hindsight, however, one can detect prophecies which were not tribal in origin,” (Toledo). According to Wovoka, who was referred to as “the Christ” by his cult following, the dance in his dream, as communicated to him by the Great Creator, was practiced as such, “When you get home you must begin a dance and continue for five days. Dance for four successive nights, and on the last night continue dancing until the morning of the fifth day, when all must bathe in the river and then return to their homes. You must all do this in the same way… I want you to dance every six weeks. Make a feast at the dance and have food that everybody may eat,” (Weiser). In wake of being forcibly removed from their ancestral land and taken advantage of the government, the Ghost Dance appealed to various tribes as a unifying method. In the words of Daniel L. Paul regarding the research of Emile Durkheim, “From the beginning of life, they [humans] are bound to communities; to a family or clan, a town, a church, or a political party”. Also according to Durkheim, “A rite can have this character; in fact, the rite does not exist which does not have it to a certain degree,” (Pals). A rite can be anything that is meant to be made holy through worship. All aspects of the Ghost Dance, from the chant to the costume are meant to connect the dancers to The Great Spirit, to disregard the “profane” and focus on the “sacred” in order to summon the rebirth and health of Native American peoples (Pals). Dancers donned “ghost shirts”, usually made of white cloth and decorated with “everything they saw in nature”; the shirts were believed to protect them from harm and be bulletproof (Weiser). Furthermore, those who participated in the dance wore a myriad of other ceremonial decorations,

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“I noticed that a number had stuffed birds, squirrel heads, etc., tied in their long hair. The faces of all were painted red with a black half-moon on the forehead or on one cheek,” (Weiser). Much like the amulet described by Durkheim as “[the amulet] has a sacred character, yet the respect which it inspires is nothing exceptional,” the dance costume was a religious rite and key component of the ritual. Additionally, the chant, “Father, I come; Mother, I come; Brother, I come; Father, give us back our arrows,” and the tribal concepts of all being related touches on the same note as Durkheim’s statement that, “This relationship does not come from the fact that they have definite blood connections with one another; they are relatives form the mere fact that they have the same [tribe] name.” Akin to the negative rituals described by Durkheim, the dance was brutal on the bodies of its participants, as it entailed frenzied passion and nonstop, nearly violent movements; in the words of Matthew A. Taylor, “the Dance’s adherents exhibited a ‘fevered mental condition’”. Later in his paper, Taylor writes that, “The Ghost Dance… is literally symptomatic, the manifestation of a body and mind ‘stricken’ with diseases both contagious (‘a severe fever’) and congenital (catalepsy).” Weiser’s description of the ritual detailed, “the most fearful, heart-piercing wails I ever heard- crying, moaning, groaning, and shrieking out… grief.” While the dancers appeared deranged to an extent, the dance was additionally a physical manifestation of the desperate desire for sovereignty and protection from the settlers. Although the dance was nonviolent, rumors spread of a possible Sioux uprising; Agent McLaughlin’s fingers pointed to Sitting Bull and his affiliated camp; “McLaughlin considered Sitting Bull a malcontent who refused to accept government policy… So [he] seized on local fear of the Ghost Dance to order the arrest and removal of Sitting Bull from Standing Rock,” (North Dakota

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Studies Project). Although the soldiers led by McLaughlin arrived with the intention of arresting Sitting Bull, a skirmish arose and the tribe leader was killed; two weeks later “members of the Seventh Cavalry killed… at least 145 of his [Sitting Bull] followers (casualty estimates range higher than 300) in the Wounded Knee Massacre, thus eliminating key leaders most opposed to the United States and its Indian Policy,” (Kerstetter). One could say, in the words of Karl Marx, that the US government was practicing class (and racial) warfare to an extent. In addition to the Wounded Knee Massacre and the murder of Sitting Bull, “the Lakota and Dakota at Standing Rock, and on all the newly defined Sioux reservations, were in poor health, starving, and were witnessing relentless assaults on their tribal way of life,” (North Dakota Studies Project). As the settlers continued to encroach on native land, the displaced Native Americans grew impoverished as they were confined to reservations and no longer able to sustain themselves with buffalo; the wealth divide in regards to natural resources between indigenous peoples and the outsiders widened. While the US government was not taking away “modes of production” nor the ability to be the “means of production” the dystopian control of resources placed the settlers, government institutions, and just about all else above the Native Americans in the pecking order. In Marx’s eyes, the Ghost Dance, and Native American religion in its entirety is a gross distraction from their oppression; “To abolish religion as the illusory happiness of the people is to demand their real happiness. The demand to give up illusions about the existing state of affairs is the demand to give up a state of affairs which needs illusions,” (Pals). Marx would also

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immediately apply his own words, “Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and also the protest against real distress.” (Pals). Not simply the opium of the people anymore, the Ghost Dance was a last, desperate, and fanatical attempt by Native people to save their culture, land, and traditions. Marx would roll in his grave if the quote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless would, just as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions” were not applied here and to this case study. While the Ghost Dance itself did nothing in the sake of benefit for the tribes, its practice lead to the assembly of dozens of tribes together (at the camp of Sitting Bull); the gathering of dancers and unkind timing of the Seventh Calvary made the Massacre (Wounded Knee) like shooting fish in a barrel. In summary, the Ghost Dance was a religious frenzy and physical manifestation of the stress put on Native communities by the US government; intended to bring hope to an oppressed and restore health to their land, the dance lost its momentum after the Wounded Knee Massacre and the feverish religious zealots dispersed only to be confined to impovershed reservations. Concepts from the great thinkers Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim were used in order to contextualize this case study within the setting of an introduction to the study of religion course.

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Works Cited Pals, Daniel L. Introducing Religion. Oxford University Press, 2009. North Dakota Studies Project. “The History and Culture of the.” Tribal Historical Overview The Ghost Dance, North Dakota State Government, www.ndstudies.org/resources/IndianStudies/standingrock/historical_ghostdance.html. Taylor, Matthew A. ““Contagious Emotions” and the Ghost Dance Religion: Mooney’s Science, Black Elk’s Fever.” Project Muse, vol. 81, pp. 1055–1082. Toledo, Robert A. “Wovoka: The Paiute Messiah.” View Zone, www.viewzone.com/wovokax.html. Weiser, Kathy. “The Ghost Dance – A Promise of Fulfillment.” Legends of America, Legends of America, www.legendsofamerica.com/na-ghostdance/.

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Bibliography

Bearor, Karen A. “The Illustrated American and the Lakota Ghost Dance.” American Periodicals, vol. 21, no. 2, 2011, pp. 143–163. Kerstetter, Todd M. “Ghost Dance.” Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 2011, plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.rel.023. “Ghost Dance: North American Indian Cult.” Encyclopedia Britannica. “The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee.” Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-us-history/period-6/apush-american-west/a/ghostdance-and-wounded-knee. North Dakota Studies Project. “The History and Culture of the.” Tribal Historical Overview The Ghost Dance, North Dakota State Government, www.ndstudies.org/resources/IndianStudies/standingrock/historical_ghostdance.html. Pals, Daniel L. Introducing Religion. Oxford University Press, 2009. Taylor, Matthew A. ““Contagious Emotions” and the Ghost Dance Religion: Mooney’s Science, Black Elk’s Fever.” Project Muse, vol. 81, pp. 1055–1082. Toledo, Robert A. “Wovoka: The Paiute Messiah.” View Zone, www.viewzone.com/wovokax.html. Weiser, Kathy. “The Ghost Dance – A Promise of Fulfillment.” Legends of America, Legends of America, www.legendsofamerica.com/na-ghostdance/.

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