Ghost Dance Religion

The Ghost Dance was a prophetic Native American religious movement that started around 1870 in response to the White European American conquest, and it rapidly spread throughout two thirds of the United States, with local variations. It sprang from the harsh conditions the Indians had been forced to accept. It promised to restore ancestral might, and it helped revitalize native cultures. It was strongly marked by Christian moral teachings, apocalypticism, and messianism. It had been prepared by several prophets who had seen in visions what the Indians must do to be [Page 446]freed from White oppression and bring back the good old times: Neolin or the Delaware Prophet (in the 1760s), Smohalla (Wanapam, ca. 1815–1895), Tenskwatawa (Shawnee, 1775–1836), Kenekuk (Kickapoo, ca. 1790–1852), and Tavibo (Paiute, ...