It was a great time of despair for the Native American people as the defeat of their nations by the ever westward expanding United States and subsequent placement onto reservations disrupted their culture and way of life as it had existed for hundreds of years. The decade leading up to 1890, which was a main focal point in the history of Native Americans, saw the passing of the 1887 Dawes Severalty Act which called for the breaking up of reservations and offering the Indians an opportunity to become citizens and giving them an allotment of land to farm or graze livestock on (Murrin 628). This breaking up of the different tribes’ social structure was just one of the many causes which led to the spiritual movement known as the Ghost Dance (or Lakota Ghost Dance) that swept across what remained of the Native American people in their various reservations. Other reasons for the Indian’s dysphoria at this time in their history included: lack of hunting, decease of the buffalo, forced abandonment of their religion, nearly forced conversion to Christianity, westernization, and having to farm for the very first time.
In January 1889, a Paiute Indian from Nevada named Wovoka, who was a shepherd, became terribly sick during a solar eclipse on New Year's Day and had divine visions of the Indian’s lands returned to them and all the American settlers disappearing. Soon, his teachings of prayers and special dances spread to all the plains tribes. In the article Ghost Dance found on Elibrary, an online educational database, the unlisted author writes that, “Wovoka had a vision that the old ways would be restored, the buffalo herds would return, white people would disappear, and the Indians would be reunited with friends and relatives in the ghos...
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...eLibrary. Web. 23 Dec. 2013.
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Phillips, Charles. "A DAY TO REMEMBER: December 29, 1890." American History. 01 Dec. 2005: 16. eLibrary. Web. 23 Dec. 2013.
O'Neill, Laurie A.. Chapter 7: New Ghost Dance Religion Offers Last Hope. The Millbrook Press, 1993. eLibrary. Web. 23 Dec. 2013.
O'Neill, Laurie A.. Chapter 8: The Massacre. The Millbrook Press, 1993. eLibrary. Web. 23 Dec. 2013.
O'Neill, Laurie A.. Chapter 9: Final Defeat of the Plains Indians. The Millbrook Press, 1993. eLibrary.
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Native Americans were not afforded full citizenship in the United States until 1924, therefore they were not afforded the rights of American citizens i.e. religious freedom until then. It wasn’t until 1945, that the Supreme Court held that “Freedom of speech and of press is accorded aliens residing in this country” (Bridges v. Wixon, 326 U.S. 135, 148). In 1890 the Ghost Dance movement gain momentum within the Lakota. This created concern and fear among many whites in the area. A massacre at Wounded Knee on the Lakota Reservation in South Dakota was a direct result of the Euro- American fears of non-Christian people. Tisa Wegner tells us, “in 1906, Congress supported a view, amending the Dawes Act to postpone citizenship for newly allotted Indians for twenty-five-year period or until they had “adopted the habits of civilized life” (Hoxie 1995:211-238). The Native people then developed secular dance ceremonies which allowed them to continue the practice of dancing and not be perceived as a threat, they did this by having these ceremonies coincide with Euro-American
Banks, D., Erodes, R. (2004). Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. Ojibwa Warrior. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://www.oupress.com/bookdetail.asp?isbn=0-8061-3580-8
This Act fractured the tribal communities and, in effect, tore apart the practice of common stewardship of the land, a tenant of Native American tradition and culture. Furthermore, as mentioned above, the act drastically depleted the tribal lands. The Native American people lost approximately 72 million acres, which accounted for almost half of the land that they held at the time. While the Dawes Act of 1887 may have had the biggest impact of the two policies at the time, the implementation of boarding schools had the most significant lasting legacy. This program separated young Native Americans from their tribes and families at a crucial time in their lives. When Native youths should have been learning about their culture, heritage, and traditions, they were instead immersed in western culture and indoctrinated with the ideals of “civilized” society. This created a generational rift among the Native peoples. When the youth returned, they could barely speak their native languages and knew next to nothing of the ways of their own people. This disconnected parents from their children and changed the dynamic of tribal communities going forwards into the
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Many Indians saw hope in the Ghost Dance religion. The Ghost Dance movement was supposed “to invoke the spirits of the dead and facilitate their resurrection” (Phillips 1). It was created by the son of Paiute shaman Wovoka who was, “known as the messiah to his followers” (Wovoka 1). Wovoka believed that the Ghost Dance would revive their loved ones, make the whites disappear, and the buffaloes would roam the Wild West once again (The Wounded Knee Massacre 1). Leaders such as Sitting Bull, Kicking Bear, and Short Bull preached Wovoka’s religion which helped it gain immense popularity. This belief gave hope to the Indians and more than 3,000 Indians gathered in the badlands of the Pine...
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Spiritualism has been documented in existence from ancient Egyptian and Indian cultures, but its modern form began in 1848. Margaret Fox and her younger sister Catie grew up in Hydesville, a small town in western New York, a section of America well known for its deviant behavior in this time period (Moore, p.5). These girls heard thumping noises in their farmhouse, and developed a system of communication with the spirit by clapping. They learned the ghost was Charles Rosa, who claimed his throat was slit by the home's former owner, John Bell, and he had been buried in the cellar (Guiley). When they dug up the cellar floor, it contained teeth, hair, and bones.