![]() ![]() Among the most assiduous practitioners of the Ghost Dance were the members of the Lakota or western Sioux. From its inception in 1886 or 1887 among the Paiutes of western Nevada, the Ghost Dance (it should be noted that the term refers both to a religious doctrine and its ritualistic practice, the dance itself) diffused widely, spreading like wildfire across the Great Plains, as far as the Missouri River, affecting most but not all of the tribes who learned of it. The importance of the Ghost Dance as a Native American religious, social and cultural movement, culminating a period of deep distress is manifest. The perception is, however, true in an emblematic sense, if viewed as "a psychological conquest."1 ![]() In fact, except for scattered occurrences, Indian physical resistance was broken by the late 1870s. The Wounded Knee massacre of 250 or more Sioux ghost dancers and the brief Sioux outbreak in 1890 are often referred to as marking the end of Indian resistance on the Great Plains of the United States. ![]() The Ghost Dance as a Millennial Revitalization Movement ![]()
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