What was the importance of the Ghost Dance?
In the
1880s a holy man of the Indians called Wovoka
showed that a dance could drive away the white man. Even though the Indians were
defeated and forced onto reservations, Indian adopted the Dance. They danced
themselves into a trance to commune with the Great Spirit. The Indians were
filled with a renewed energy and all this greatly alarmed the settlers. At
Wounded Knee in 1890 the
army attacked and massacred the Indian reservation called Pine Creek.
The ‘Battle’ of Wounded Knee is important as it was the very last time Indian and Whites fought, there would be no more Indian resistance to the White man. The army provoked the Sioux and then Big Foot and 153 men, women and children were murdered.
Photographs were taken of the dead Indians as they lay in the snow. These images revealed the truth of the struggle between the Indians and the white settlers.
Key dates | 1890 Wounded Knee| |