The Ghost Dance War was an armed conflict in the United States which occurred between Native Americans and the United States government from 1890 until 1891. It involved the Wounded Knee Massacre wherein the 7th Cavalry massacred 153 Lakota Sioux, including women, children, and other noncombatants, at Wounded Knee on 29 December 1890. It ended when Sioux leader Kicking Bear surrendered on 15 January 1891.
In an effort to remind the nation of this incident, and the historic government program against Native Americans, the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the Pine Ridge Reservation near Wounded Knee in protest against the federal government on 27 February 1973. A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the AIM ensued. The militants surrendered on 8 May.
Read more about Ghost Dance War: Ghost Dance, War, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the words ghost, dance and/or war:
“The ghost of the heart of manred Cain
And the more murderous brain
Of Man, still redder Nero that conceived the death
Of his mother Earth, and tore
Her womb, to know the place where he was conceived.”
—Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)
“Shall we go dance the hay, the hay?
Never pipe could ever play
Better shepherd’s roundelay.”
—Nicholas Breton (1542–1626)
“Come Vitus, are we men, or are we children? Of what use are all these melodramatic gestures? You say your soul was killed, and that you have been dead all these years. And what of me? Did we not both die here in Marmaros fifteen years ago? Are we any the less victims of the war than those whose bodies were torn asunder? Are we not both the living dead?”
—Peter Ruric, and Edgar G. Ulmer. Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff)