The Ghost-Dance Religion and Wounded Knee

by James Mooney

Immediately following the massacre of Wounded Knee (December 29, 1890), the well-known anthropologist James Mooney, under the auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Smithsonian, investigated the incident. His interest was primarily in the Indian background to the uprising. Admitting that the Indians had been generally overpowered by the Whites, what led the Indians to think they stood a chance against White arms? His answer was the Ghost-Dance Religion.
Investigating every Indian uprising from Pontiac to the 1980s, every Indian resistance to aggression, every incident of importance, Mooney discovered a cultural a messianic religion that permeated leaders and warriors from Tecumseh and his brother The Prophet on up to the Plains tribes that revived the Ghost-Dance in the 1880s and 90s. The message abandon the ways of the Whites; go back to Indian ways; an Indian messiah is coming; the Indian dead are to be resurrected — indeed, some have already returned; and the Whites are to be killed by the Spirits.
Mooney made an exhaustive study of this cult, the rise of its latest version, diffusion to the Plains, and its relevance to the medicine man Sitting Bull and others. Citing many primary documents as well as anthropological data he gathered himself, Mooney gives an extremely detailed, thorough account of the cult; its songs and dances, ceremonies, and its social impact.
This work has always been considered one of the great classics of American anthropology, a book that not only offers an account of a very interesting cultural phenomenon, but also throws light on many events in Indian-White relations that are otherwise dark. Its data have never been superseded and the book remains a work of primary importance in Native American studies.

Genres: History, Religion, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Native American, American, Mythology

576 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2011

About the author

James Mooney (James^Mooney) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. He did major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as those on the Great Plains. His most notable works were his ethnographic studies of the Ghost Dance after Sitting Bull's death in 1890, a widespread 19th-century religious movement among various Native American culture groups, and the Cherokee: The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (1891), and Myths of the Cherokee (1900), all published by the US Bureau of American Ethnology. Artifacts from Mooney are in the collections of the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and the Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History. Papers and photographs from Mooney are in the collections of the National Anthropological Archives, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution

Reviews

[Jessie F · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a ethnography of the Ghost Dance religion in the American West. It is one of the very earliest pieces of ethnographic writing but never received the credit it deserved, largely because of the Irish heritage and lower-class economic background of its author. The Ghost-Dance Religion remains a powerful text today, easily the most fascinating, thorough and engaging ethnography I have ever read (and I majored in anthropology!). Although the book is non-fiction, if you are interested in religion, human nature, history, culture, community, globalization or change, you will find it an enjoyable and profoundly moving read.

[Bubba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wondefully reserached and written. Comprehensive. A real attempt to comparatively situate the Ghost Dance among other ecstatic and millenarian religious movements, particularly in protestant America. It also has amazing sections of ethnographic info on various plains' tribes. A very modern work, I can hardly believe it was written 120 years ago. The guy even went and interviewed Wovoka!

[Rhuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Dover reprint edition of an 1896 monograph, written under the Bureau of Ethnology for the Smithsonian Institute. Originally published by the US Government Printing Office, it is a straightforward and unpolemical analysis of not only indigenous culture - before its final disappearance - but of the Ghost Dance movement and its climax at Wounded Knee. This is remarkable in itself: imagine an objective account of Isis from the GPO that didn't include harebrained Congressional and State Department policy blather.

Ethnographer James "Indian Man" Mooney devoted his life to native American studies, beginning with this one by tracing the origins of the Ghost Movement to Tecumseh and the prophets of the 1812 insurrection. While exploring the ceremonies and leaders of the Ghost Movement, like the Prophet Wovoka, he also introduced a social and political context remarkable for candor in its time.

In reports from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Indian agents, Commanding U.S. Army General Nelson A. Miles, captains and clergymen, the evidence was overwhelming: poverty and desperation created the Ghost Dance. A movement of despair, it was provoked by a bad harvest year around Pine Ridge Reservation, but more so by the theft of goods and funds by Indian agents and contractors before they ever reached the reservations. While Congressional critics whined about too much expenditure into the bureaucratic rathole of Indian Affairs, no one was seriously investigating the Gilded Age graft starving the alleged beneficiaries trapped in dead-end ghettoes.

General Miles' own conclusion (p. 835) admits the "government has failed to fulfill its obligations," recommending that to keep the Indians "law-abiding" the government should faithfully carry out its treaties and promises. Of course, that would not happen: in our legal system, contracts are only binding on the weaker party without ready access to counsel. Hence the resort to extra-legal means (ie, "terrorism" in modern-speak) and the necessity of the Ninth Cavalry's counter-terrorism task force at Pine Ridge Reservation.

Mooney's prose is vivid and direct - those seeking an introduction to Western native folklore will find amazing source material. As importantly, anyone interested in modern wars on terror, fundamentalism, and occupation would do well to study this account.

[Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in the 1890s, Mooney wrote this about the formation of the Ghost Dance religion and the events that led to Wounded Knee.

The Ghost Dance religion, still practiced by some tribes today, was a religion started in the 1880s by a Paiute Indian named Wovoka in the Western US. He claimed to have become unconscious and had visions of the spirit that told him the return of the traditional Indian way of life, resurrection of their dead, peace with the Americans and a new, rejuvenated earth. This spread across various tribes in the Western US, with variations amongst them. The commonalities were a circle dance that would last hours, with members often falling unconscious and having visions of the spirit world where they would often meet dead loved ones and traditional aspects of daily life. The faithful carrying out of the dance was seen as necessary to bring about the new world and resurrection. After regaining consciousness, the person would sing a song about what they saw, usually 2-4 lines, with each line repeated twice.

Variations included how the whites would be treated. More hostile tribes believed they would all be killed, some that they would be returned to Europe, and others that they would live together in peace. The Sioux also adopted “ghost shirts”, thought to be influenced by local Mormons and their temple garments. They believed these decorated buckskin shirts were bulletproof and would make the wearer invincible.

The US authorities were concerned about the influence of the Ghost Dance and that it might spark a conflict. One inexperienced agent essentially escalated things, with a medicine man thought to be the last straw to incite the violence. The conflict, now called the Wounded Knee Massacre, resulted in hundreds of men, women and children being killed.

Mooney did an amazing job with this, traveling all over the US and interviewing Wovoka himself and the different tribes personally. He gives the history of Indian messianic movements and beliefs and shows the evolution of religion through the influence of Christianity and other factors, melded with traditional beliefs.

[Call Me Cordelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read and annotated! If you're at all interested in the Ghost Dance of 1890 and how it connected to the Wounded Knee Massacre of the same year, this is the book for you!