The Ghost Dance was a late‑19th‑century Native American religious movement promising the return of the dead, the disappearance of whites, and the restoration of Indigenous land, buffalo, and traditional life.okhistory+3

It drew on older Paiute prophetic traditions and used a circle dance as a central ritual to hasten this envisioned transformation of the world.britannica+2

Core belief: if Native people performed the dance correctly and faithfully, a new world would soon arrive in which injustice and suffering would end.ebsco+3

Expectation that deceased relatives and ancestors would be resurrected and reunited with the living in this renewed world.wikipedia+3

Vision that white domination and American westward expansion would cease, often framed as the disappearance or removal of whites from Native lands.okhistory+3

Hope for the return of the buffalo and other game animals, symbolizing both material survival and cultural renewal.kaf+1

Emphasis on moral reform: advocates taught clean living, avoidance of alcohol, peaceful behavior, and following the movement’s chosen spiritual leaders.plainshumanities.unl+3

Stress on pan‑Indian unity, inviting many different tribes to join in a shared ritual and identity while adapting it to their own traditions.pbs+3

For many followers, the dance served as a spiritual response to dispossession, forced assimilation, and reservation life, offering psychological hope and communal solidarity.ebsco+3

Ritual form: a large circle dance (often called a round dance) in which participants joined hands and shuffled or swayed in a rhythmic motion, singing special Ghost Dance songs.blogs.loc+2

Ceremonies could last several days, with fasting beforehand and repeated dancing meant to induce visions or trance states.wikipedia+1

Dancers sometimes collapsed from exhaustion into trances, then described journeys to the spirit world or encounters with ancestors and sacred beings.blogs.loc+1

The movement adopted a characteristic song style (short lines, repeated patterns) that spread beyond its original Paiute musical setting as other tribes created their own songs.blogs.loc​

Among some Plains groups, especially the Lakota, participants wore “ghost shirts” decorated with sacred symbols and believed these garments would protect them from bullets.kaf+2

Although often portrayed as militant, Wovoka’s own teachings generally discouraged violence and instructed followers to live peacefully and morally while awaiting divine intervention.khanacademy+3

The Ghost Dance has roots in an earlier Paiute prophetic movement of the 1860s–1870s associated with the dreamer Wodziwob, which promised the return of the dead and cultural restoration.britannica+1

The later, more famous movement began after Northern Paiute prophet Wovoka (Jack Wilson) experienced a powerful vision during the solar eclipse of January 1, 1889.khanacademy+4

In this vision, he saw a renewed earth of abundance and was told that if Native people performed a special dance and lived righteously, a great transformation would come.okhistory+3

Wovoka’s message spread rapidly via Native networks—visitors carried his teachings from Nevada to tribes across the American West, including the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and others.plainshumanities.unl+3

The movement flourished in a context of crisis: broken treaties, reservation confinement, military defeat, starvation, and aggressive assimilation policies in the 1880s.ebsco+3

For many communities, adopting the Ghost Dance was both a religious revival and a form of cultural resistance to U.S. Indian policy.pbs+3

After 1889–1890, the Ghost Dance spread particularly strongly among the Lakota Sioux on the northern Plains, who adapted it to their own sacred traditions and political hopes.kaf+3

U.S. officials on the reservations viewed large, ecstatic dances and prophecies of the end of white rule as signs of impending rebellion.plainshumanities.unl+2

Growing fear among Indian agents and the Army led to surveillance, attempts to arrest leaders, and pressure to suppress the dances.khanacademy+2

In late 1890 the Army moved against Lakota Ghost Dancers, contributing directly to tensions surrounding the killing of Sitting Bull during an arrest attempt.wikipedia+2

On December 29, 1890, U.S. troops killed hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota; many victims were Ghost Dance followers.pbs+2

The massacre at Wounded Knee shattered the movement’s momentum on the Plains, and combined with government bans and repression, effectively ended the Ghost Dance as a mass, pan‑tribal revival, though some elements persisted in more localized spiritual practices.wikipedia+3