The Ghost Dance

“The great underlying principle of the Ghost Dance doctrine is that the time will come when the whole Indian race, living and dead, will be reunited upon a regenerated earth, to live a life of aboriginal happiness, forever free from death, disease and misery.”
Wovoka, a Paiute Indian from Nevada, was the so-called Messiah of the Ghost Dance Religious Movement of 1888 to 1890. Wovoka spent his younger years as a ranch hand. While working on the ranch, Wovoka learned some English and was exposed to bits and pieces of the white man’s theology. It seems that this exposure to our theology played a large part in his teachings of the Ghost Dance.
Wovoka claimed to have received a revelation from God himself. He said, “When the sun died, I went up to heaven and saw God and all the people who had died a long time ago. God told me to come back and tell my people they must be good and love one another, and not fight, or steal, or lie. He gave me this dance to give to my...