Wounding More than just the Knee: The Development of the Ghost Dance in America

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Religion has always been an easy respite from the toils of daily life. Moreover, it has an intrinsic ability to help its followers make sense of matters during times of despair. For Native Americans, religion has long been an integral part of their culture. The Longhouse Religion, the Drummer-Dreamer Faith (which strongly foreshadowed the development of the Ghost Dance movement), and the Indian Shaker Church are all religions that originated deep within Native American culture. The white man, since his arrival in America, has always had extreme amounts of tension with Native Americans, often enacting laws in order to do what would make white society happy. As the United States government took away more and more of what Native Americans stood for, vast amounts of them turned to religion for reprieve from the pain and suffering instigated, in part, by the white man. The United States government, since its very foundation, has been hostile towards Native Americans, forcing them to comply with their needs. An early instance of Indian manipulation on the part of the United States government was the Indian Removal Act of 1830. During Andrew Jackson’s presidency, thousands of Native Americans were forced off of their land west of the Mississippi River. These Native Americans walked on what would later be known as the Trail of Tears. It was named this because of the acute anguish that countless numbers of them endured while on it. As they were forced further and further west, they were cramped onto smaller and less fertile lands. The Sioux Treaty of 1868 (also known as the Treaty of Fort Laramie) established the Great Sioux Reservation. This treaty drew boundaries as to where Native Americans could and could not settle, and attempt... ... middle of paper ... ...ess, 2009. Meddaugh, J. E. American Indian Ghost Dance. Photograph. 1885. Photo Lot 90-1, number 391. National Anthropological Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Members of the Potomac Corral of the Westerners. Great Western Indian Fights. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1960. Mooney, James. The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. Washington DC: US Bureau of American Ethnology, 1896. Sandefur, Gary D. "American Indian Reservations: The First Underclass Areas?" Focus 12, no. 1 (1989): 37-41. Streissguth, Tom. Wounded Knee 1890: The End of the Plains Indian Wars. New York, NY: Facts on File, 1998. Thurman, Melbum D. "Wovoka." American National Biography Online. Last modified February 2000. Accessed October 15, 2013. http://www.anb.org/articles/20/20-01149.html. Wovoka. "The Messiah Letter." Speech transcript.

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