The Kiowa Ghost Dance, 1894-1916: An Unheralded Revitalization Movement

Abstract

The Kiowa Ghost Dance movement of 1894-1916 is relatively unknown. Kiowa involvement in the 1894 Ghost Dance movement involved different motives than the theories of deprivation and acculturation used to describe participation in the Ghost Dance of 1889-91. An ethnohistorical analysis of the ritual symbols in the Kiowa Ghost Dance illustrates how the Kiowa - and the others - perceived themselves as participants in the movement.