The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890. By Rani-Henrik Andersson. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. xxiv, 437 pp. $50.00, ISBN 978-0-8032-1073-8.)

Abstract

On the morning of December 29, 1890, soldiers from the Seventh Cavalry opened fire on several hundred Mnikowoju Lakota Sioux men, women, and children. The troops had rounded up the tribe members the previous day and escorted them to a makeshift prison camp near Wounded Knee Creek in southwest South Dakota, where they would await transfer to Omaha, Nebraska. Confused pandemonium ensued when the soldiers began to disarm the Native Americans; shots rang out from both sides. Many of the Lakotas were gunned down before they could run. Others did run along the dried creek bottom in an attempt to find refuge, but they were pursued by mounted soldiers and shot. Several hours later, when the gunshots had finally ceased, over two-hundred Mnikowoju and their chief, Big Foot, had been killed. Most of the thirty American soldiers who died during the onslaught were the victims of friendly fire. The massacre at Wounded Knee marked the tragic climax of the history of the Ghost Dance of 1890, a revitalization movement that originated from a visionary experience of the Northern Paiute prophet Wovoka (Jack Wilson). In this vision, the spirits revealed to Wovoka a regenerated world, free of whites, where the Native Americans would rejoin their deceased ancestors to reclaim their lost homelands and practice their customary lifeways in peace. According to the prophet, this regeneration would result from a dance performed for four successive nights; it could not be created by the spilling of blood. However, as more and more western tribes—including the Lakotas—adopted and performed the dance, settlers and federal officials feared that the ceremony might be a prelude to an Indian war. Chief Big Foot and his band unfortunately crossed paths with the Seventh Cavalry at the height of white anxiety about the dancers' intentions.