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Ghost Dance
In the mid 1800's the United States government made treaties with the Lakota Indians, recognizing large amounts of land as belonging to the Lokota and not the United States government. The Black Hills, the most sacred land of the Lakota, was in the center of this area. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the United States government ignored these treaties and forced the Lakota into small reservations on the land.
The Native Americans wanted a way to get the white men off their lands. A Native American named Wovoka came up with a message he claimed would remove the white men from their land. He claimed that the Native Americans had to dance the Ghost Dance for five days in a row and repeat it every 6 weeks.
- Native Americans performing the Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance was preceded by many rituals, including painting their bodies and chanting. Countless Native Americans, all wearing "ghost shirts, which were supposed to protect them from bullets, assembled at Standing Rock Reservation to perform the dance. They brought no weapons and danced in circles, hands linked, in order to promote peace. Despite this, the whites feared that the ritual might work.
After the first Ghost Dance started Native American police, led by the white agent James McLaughlin, went to arrest Chief Sitting Bull. He agreed to go with them and started to leave. A crowd gathered to watch the arrest, and a member of the crowd, Bear that Catches, pulled a gun and shot an officer named Lt. Bullhead. Bullhead then shot Sitting Bull and another officer, Red Tomahawk, fired the shot that killed Sitting Bull.
-Sitting Bull
