Ghost Dance Analysis in Lakota Woman

The Ghost Dance is a Native American religious movement that started in the late 1800s, and that multiple tribes incorporated into their beliefs. According to Wovoka, a Paiute spiritual leader who received the Ghost Dance in a vision, the Ghost Dance would allow the living to communicate with the dead and would end colonization to usher in a time of peace and prosperity for Native Americans.

Ghost Dance Quotes in Lakota Woman

The Lakota Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Ghost Dance or refer to Ghost Dance. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Life was so hard for our people—starving, fenced in, without horses or weapons. The message brought them hope. And so they began to dance and sing, to bring back the buffalo, to bring back the old world of the Indians which wasičun had destroyed, the world they had loved so much and for whose return they were praying.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 149

Explanation and Analysis:

Leonard always thought that the dancers of 1890 had misunderstood Wovoka and his message. They should not have expected to bring the dead back to life, but to bring back their ancient beliefs by practicing Indian religion. For Leonard, dancing in a circle holding hands was bringing back the sacred hoop—to feel, holding on to the hand of your brother and sister, the rebirth of Indian unity, feel it with your flesh, through your skin. He also thought that reviving the Ghost Dance would be making a link to our past, to the grandfathers and grandmothers of long ago.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker), Leonard Crow Dog, Wovoka

Page Number and Citation: 153

Explanation and Analysis:

In May 1974, Old Henry and Leonard put on a Ghost Dance […] It was supposed to be a ritual for Sioux only, but somehow, through the “moccasin telegraph” which always spreads news among Indians in a mysterious way, everybody seemed to know about it, and many native people from as far away as Alaska, Canada, Mexico, and Arizona suddenly appeared in order to participate.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker), Leonard Crow Dog, Henry Crow Dog

Page Number and Citation: 212

Explanation and Analysis:

Ghost Dance Term Timeline in Lakota Woman

The timeline below shows where the term Ghost Dance appears in Lakota Woman. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Assimilation, Tradition, and Identity Theme Icon

...became famous after being a part of many historic incidents, from when he led the Ghost Dancers to when the Supreme Court freed him after deciding that the federal government had no... (full context)

Unity, Inclusion, and Equality Theme Icon

...offerings, sun-gazing, prayers, and whistles—felt “like a rebirth, like some of the prophesies of the Ghost Dancers coming true.” Although many of the participating men came from tribes that did not traditionally... (full context)

Just as the Ghost Dance religion was a central part of the Wounded Knee Massacre, so were several Native American... (full context)

...wounded person. But Mary believes that Leonard’s most memorable contribution is that he revived the Ghost Dance . (full context)

Mary interrupts the story’s narrative to tell the history behind the Ghost Dance , which begins with Leonard’s great-grandfather, the first Crow Dog. The elder Crow Dog received... (full context)

During the Ghost Dance ceremony, dancers wore upside-down American flags, “symbolic of the wasičuns’ world of fences, telegraph poles,... (full context)

Mary jumps back to Leonard’s role in reviving the Ghost Dance . He believed that the Lakota dancers of the late 1800s had misunderstood Wovoka’s message.... (full context)

The night before the first Ghost Dance at the siege of Wounded Knee, Leonard gave a speech to the activists. Having learned... (full context)

...and scattered.” When the activists joined together at the Wounded Knee siege to revive the Ghost Dance , they demonstrated that the dream is not dead—they “mended the nation’s hoop.” (full context)

In May 1974, Leonard and his father hosted another Ghost Dance , his second Ghost Dance after the siege of Wounded Knee. Although originally intended to... (full context)

Shortly after the Ghost Dance of 1974, the government seized their opportunity. On September 2, 1975, two drunk men named... (full context)

Ghost Dance Term Analysis

Ghost Dance Quotes in Lakota Woman

Ghost Dance Term Timeline in Lakota Woman