The Religious Movement Of Nanissaanah And Ghost Dance

A religious leader claimed he received a vision that told him to perform this dance and that it would bring the destruction and rebirth of the world. It also promised that all dead ancestors would rise up to rejoin the living. White Americans feared these dances and the United States government viewed it as an ongoing resistance movement so they had it terminated. The dance came to a catastrophic end on December 29, 1890, at the Battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. American troops killed many Lakota people, including women and children who had gathered to celebrate the dance. The United States government also intervened in 1904 when the sacred Sun Dance was officially banned because it was considered corrupt and dangerous. Despite these setbacks, it is important to note that there are still about 700 recognized tribes in the United States today. To discuss further on the rites of passage for Native Americans, we see that the Kinaalda and the Vision Quest are very important to their culture. The Kinaalda is a puberty rite for young Native American girls. “Girls are believed to take on the identity and spiritual qualities of the Changing Woman during the ritual. The Changing Woman was the first girl to ever experience Kinaalda and she is seen as the model ritual for all girls. Because a girl takes on the identity of

Native American art forms have been dwindling in the past few years. Even though they have been decreasing, some tribes gather still to continue traditions. Art forms such as dance, pottery, and weaving have been passed down from generation to generation. There are many different types of dances including war dances, grass dances, and rain dances. Each dance has its own meaning and represents something unique. Native American dance is a creative way to tell a story, share values, pass down traditions, and communicate traditions of their ancestors in the 21st century.

All Indians must dance, everywhere, keep on dancing. Pretty soon in next spring Great Spirit come. He bring back all game of every kind…all dead Indians come back and live again. They all be strong just like young men, be young again. Old blind Indian see again and get young and have fine time. When Great Spirit comes this way, than all the Indians go to mountains, high up away from whites. Whites can't hurt Indians then. Then while Indians way up high, big flood like water and all white people die, get drowned! After that, water go way and then nobody but Indians everywhere and game all kinds thick… (Wovoka, The Paiute Messiah qtd. In Brown 416).

In 1973, Christopher Bruce heard about the murders going on in the small villages and towns of Chile on the orders of the government; just to show off their power, and how they were not afraid to use it. Bruce found out as a result of a letter received from a widow of a Chilean folk singer who had been murdered. He was asked to do work for the Chilean Human Rights Committee. The dance first premiered in 1988, the costume designer being Belinda Scarlett and the music being by Incantation, playing the song ‘Ojos Azules’ which is Spanish for ‘Blue Eyes’.

Most of the women and children in Big Foot's tribe were family members of the warriors who had died in the Plains wars. The Indians had agreed to live on small reservations after the US government took away their land. At the Wounded Knee camp, there were 120 men and 230 women and children. At the camp, they were guarded by the US Seventh Cavalry lead by Major Samuel Whitside. During the year 1890 a new dance called the Ghost Dance started among the Sioux and other tribes. The Sioux's Christ figure, Wovoka, was said to have flown over Sitting Bull and Short Bull and taught them the dance and the songs. The Ghost Dance legend was that the next spring, when the grass was high, the Earth would be covered with a new layer of soil, covering all white men. Wild buffalo and horses would return and there would be swift running water, sweet grass, and new trees. All Indians who danced the Ghost dance would be floating in the air when the new soil was being laid down and would be saved. The Ghost Dance was made illegal after the Wounded Knee massacre though. On December 28, 1890 the Seventh Cavalry saw Big Foot moving his tribe and Big

For many tribes of Plains Indians whose bison-hunting culture flourished during the 18th and 19th centuries, the sun dance was the major communal religious ceremony . . . the rite celebrates renewal - the spiritual rebirth of participants and their relatives as well as the regeneration of the living earth with all its components . . . The ritual, involving sacrifice and supplication to insure harmony between all living beings, continues to be practiced by many contemporary native Americans. -Elizabeth Atwood LawrenceAs the most important ritual of the nomadic Plains Indians, the Sun Dance in itself presents many ideas, beliefs, and values of these cultures. Through its rich symbolism and complicated rituals we are able to catch a glimpse

In Native American religions a dance called the Sun Dance is used as the rite of passage for young men. You men would stick a rod though their peck and dance around a pole of three days as a way to become connected with the Spirit World. The pole is used to show strength and the boys would quickly have to get the rod out by dancing. Another rite of passage in Native Americans religions is the Vision Quest. Young boys and girls partake in this to find their spirit animals. They go into the woods mostly naked and sometimes covered in body paint and fast in the woods for days. Eventually a spirit comes to them, most of the time as an animal but it can be in human form, and is said to be their guardian

It is important to note that the majority of the academic sources concerning Sun Dance are written by anthropologists, primarily those who participated in cultural genocide in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are very few recorded accounts in existence of the intimate details of Sun Dance that are authored by the Indigenous people who actually practice and participate in it. There are no videotaped records available online. Before the criminalization of Native spiritual practices, rituals like the Sun Dance were mutually respected and therefore shared between Indigenous peoples. Settler violence forced these practices underground, and therefore they are still hidden and heavily protected from outsiders. In 2003, there was a gathering of Bundle Keepers and spiritual leaders of the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Nakota, Dakota, and Lakota Nations to discuss the exploitation of sacred ceremonies. Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota Nation, 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, released a statement

The Paiute's had a special dance that they would do to honor someone. The dance was called the ghost dance. The dancers would wear a ghost shirt and they would make them selfs look like a

As we all may know slaves underwent a time when their humanity was taken from them when they came to the Americas. But even though their humanity was taken from them they still managed to carry on a tradition that still lives on. This tradition is dance. Over the years dance has developed and become more modern but it is still has the influence from African dance.

them. Part of the religion was a ceremony known as the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance was to “invoke

One event brought death to over 225 Sioux Indians on December 29, 1890. The Sioux Indians were fighting against themselves until Wovoka created the Ghost Dance Ritual, which is for the peace of the Indians. Due to the frequent use of the rituals the Americans thought of it as a sign of hostility causing the Ghost Dance Wars. The Ghost Dance Wars caused the death of Sitting Bull which did lead to the start and finish of Wounded Knee Battle. The Battle of Wounded Knee lead to the end of the war, starting violence against the Indians, but lead to the Indians rights to return. The Battle of Wounded Knee, a horrific battle, ended The Ghost Dance Wars, and brought up A.I.M which helped the Sioux tribes gain their rights.

Throughout the settlement of Western America, Native Americans were culturally assimilated. This was an attempt by the Americans to transform the Natives’ culture and civilize them through white education and living on reservations. However, the Natives preserved their cultures, tribal identities, and even developed self-sustaining economic practices. First, The Ghost Dance Movement was a revival of Native beliefs that further helped them regain hope through religion. Specifically, it was a religion of the late 1880s and early 1890s that combined elements of Christianity and traditional Native American religion. It fostered the Plains Indians’ hope that they could resurrect the great bison herds and call up a storm to drive whites back across

Crazy Horse was brutally murdered and the Sioux surrendered (“Battle”). In 1890 the government learned that the Native Americans were doing the Ghost Dance (Cayton 265). The Ghost Dance was a ritual in which people join hands and twirled in a circle (Cayton 265). When the government saw the Ghost Dance, they thought the Native Americans were crazy and trying to rebel, so they tried to arrest Sitting Bull (Cayton 265). In this conflict that came to be known as the Battle of Wounded Knee, soldiers killed Sitting Bull, 120 men, and 230 women and children (Cayton 265). These battles pushed Native Americans onto reservations and took away their basic human rights.

Unfortunately, the Sioux population misconstrued Wovoka’s teachings and adapted them to their own personal needs. When the Sioux adopted the Ghost Dance, they turned it from a religious ceremony into a violent act. When Wovoka had preached to be passive and patient for God’s intervention, the Sioux thought this meant to rid their land of the white population (Malinowski 467). For example, the militant leaders Short Bull and Kicking Bear attended the Ghost Dance and went home with the interpretation they should proactively rid the continent of whites through any means necessary (Malinowski 467). The Sioux had always been recognized as warlike, but now with the Ghost Dance, they were viewed as “half-crazed ‘savages’” who set out to be “demonic killers” (Moses 342). With this misunderstanding, the Ghost Dance received a bad reputation. If the Sioux did any killing in the name of the Ghost Dance, all tribes associated with the religion were also seen in a negative way.