Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance was a Native American religious movement that occurred in the late 1800s, often practiced by the Sioux Indians. It often consisted of a circle dance, invented by the Indian leader Wovoka, or better known by his white name Jack Wilson. Wilson was convinced that God talked to him and told him that by practicing the Ghost Dance, they would wash the evil out of their lives and they would be impervious to disease, famine, and old age. This religion quickly spread throughout the entire west and Native American tribes. This dance was given this name by white settlers who were frightened by this spiritual dance, saying that it had a ghostly aura around it, hence the name. This started the push to bring US troops into the Dakotas where the Sioux were most prominent and where the Ghost Dance was being practiced the most.
Read more about this topic: Ghost Dance War
Famous quotes containing the words ghost and/or dance:
“An old, mad man still climbing in his ghost,
My fathers’ ghost is climbing in the rain.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“There comes a pause, for human strength
Will not endure to dance without cessation;
And everyone must reach the point at length
Of absolute prostration.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)