During the apex of a solar eclipse in 1889, a powerful vision flashed through Jack Wilson’s mind. Jack Wilson, known as Wovoka to his Native American brethren, was the religious leader of the Northern Paiute Indians at the time. In his vision Wilson saw the years of poverty and oppression at the white man’s hand draw to a swift and peaceful end. He observed Indian and white men living side by side, working with one another without care for color or race. Believing the great gods to have sent him this message, Wilson quickly sorted out what he saw and took action. From his vision he derived the religious ceremony that would come to be known as the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance quickly spread throughout most of the tribes of Northern American Indians and integrated itself into their society. The Ghost Dance served many purposes to the Indians; chiefly the means to a peaceful end to their conflicts, to close the gap between the living and the dead, and to strengthen their spiritual identities.

The lives of American Indians circa 1890 were more often than not sorrow filled affairs. The tribes that remained intact after years of clashing with the white men were herded onto squalid, cramped reserves and forgotten about. The lands that comprised the reserves were often unfertile and unsuitable to grow crops in and they were provided with very little food and resources from the American government. As the Indians plodded on in their reserves tempers began to flare, and they began to grow increasingly restless. Just as it looked like their frustrations would boil over into another American-Indian war the prophet Jack Wilson arrived with the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance stressed peace, not conflict. The Ghost Dance was a modified version of another Native American practice, the circle dance. Wilson told his people that if they gathered by the fire every night and danced to the spirits it would bring about a peaceful resolution to their struggles. Jack Wilson is almost single handedly responsible for bringing faith and hope back to the North American tribes.

The Ghost Dance also brought the Native Americans closer to their dead ancestors- at least in their minds. They preformed the ceremony to honor the spirits of the deceased, to pay respects to those that came before. The concept of ancestry was very important to most of the North American Tribes, and almost all danced in remembrance; however not all tribes embraced the Ghost Dance. The Navajo tribe in particular dismissed the Ghost Dance ceremony as foolish; however this was most likely due to their innate fear of spirits and apparitions.

Another critical role the Ghost Dance filled was to bolster the spirits of Native Americans and keep them faithful. Due to the extremely poor conditions they lived with, many Native Americans had begun to lose hope. Some abandoned the old ways and took poor paying jobs for the White Men. The Ghost Dance served as a reminder to the tribes of whom they were and where they came from. There were instances, however, in which certain factions of Indians took the ceremony to the next level with disastrous results. The Lakota Sioux brandished garments known as Ghost Shirts; cloth vests they believed would stop bullets. The Lakota Sioux had such faith in the Ghost Shirts that they attempted a violent overthrow of the White’s in their territory. Needless to say the Ghost Shirts didn’t work as planned, and many of them died bewildered and faithless.

Jack Wilson’s Ghost Dance movement helped the Native Americans cope with a very dark chapter of their history. Wilson’s message spread through the North American tribes like wildfire and restored hope to a downtrodden people. Although, in the end, the Ghost Dance didn’t bring them the peace with the White man so many of them desired; it helped them keep true to themselves and preserve through incredible odds. To this day the Ghost Dance remains active amongst Native Americans tribes, a testament to how deeply it touched them.