Native American Revitalist Visions Index Introduction to Revitalist Visions How Columbus Discovered America Arapaho Ghost Dance Songs Sioux Ghost Dance Song Paiute Ghost Dance Songs Kiowa Ghost Dance Songs

Introduction to Native American Ghost Dance Songs

by K. L. Nichols

In the late 1880s, the new religion of the Ghost Dance spread rapidly among Native Americans throughout the American West in response to the dire conditions they faced.   Forcibly moved onto reservations by the U.S. military but inspired by the revitalist vision of a Paiute shaman named Wovoka, the desperate tribes suffering from poverty, hunger, and disease embraced this last hope--the ghost-dancing rituals intended to hasten the arrival of an Indian messiah who would liberate them and usher in an all-Native future world.  Exactly what would happen to the white conquerors was not clear; evidently, they would simply disappear.

Tragically, the ghost dances were misinterpreted by nervous white settlers, government officials, and the U.S. military, all of whom feared that the dances would lead to a resumption of the dreaded Indian Wars, as they were called.  The result was the Massacre at Wounded Knee Creek  in 1890.  Near the South Dakota river by that name, the U. S. military surrounded a straggling band of 350 Indians and slaughtered nearly half of them, most of the victims being women and children.  This bloody event marked the end of a traditional way of life for Native Americans.

Like most Native American poetry, the Ghost Dance songs that were sung or chanted at the ritual dances focus less on their present conditions (hunger and misery, in this case), but more on images of their wished-for future--the coming of a new, re-vitalized world, as promised by their spiritual "father" through his messenger, the crow.  Whirlwinds, lightning, earth tremors, and the sounds of falling rocks will mark the transition from the old to the new world.  Spirit armies (the returning loved ones), the buffalo herds, and images of spring renewal (rutting antelope, growing cottonwood trees) will characterize the arrival of the utopian future.

As with other kinds of Native American songs/poems performed as part of a tribal ceremony, the frequent repetitions of whole lines within the Ghost Dance songs give a kind of hypnotic quality and added intensity to the pleas of the ghost-dancers for a better world.
 

How Columbus Discovered American

by Handsome Lake (as told by Chief Cornplanter's descendents)

                            Ghost Dance Songs of the Arapaho:

                    My children, when at first I liked the Whites,
            My children, when at first I liked the Whites,
            I gave them fruits,
            I gave them fruits.

            Father, have pity on me,
            Father, have pity on me;
            I am crying for thirst,
            I am crying for thirst;
            All is gone—I have nothing to eat,
            All is gone—I have nothing to eat.
 

                    The whole world is coming,
            A nation is coming, a nation is coming,
            The Eagle has brought the message to the tribe.
            The father says so, the father says so.
            Over the whole earth they are coming.
            The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming,
            The Crow has brought the message to the tribe,
            The father says so, the father says so.
 

                    A slender antelope, a slender antelope,
            A slender antelope, a slender antelope,
            He is wallowing upon the ground,
            He is wallowing upon the ground,
            He is wallowing upon the ground,
            He is wallowing upon the ground.

            The black rock, the black rock,
            The black rock, the black rock,
            The rock is broken, the rock is broken,
            The rock is broken, the rock is broken.

            The wind stirs the willows,
            The wind stirs the willows,
            The wind stirs the willows,
            The wind stirs the grasses,
            The wind stirs the grasses,
            The wind stirs the grasses.

            Fog!  Fog!
            Lightning!  Lightning!
            Whirlwind!  Whirlwind!

            The whirlwind!  The whirlwind!
            The whirlwind!  The whirlwind!
            The snowy earth comes gliding, the snowy earth comes gliding;
            The snowy earth comes gliding, the snowy earth comes gliding.

            There is dust from the whirlwind,
            There is dust from the whirlwind,
            There is dust from the whirlwind.
            The whirlwind on the mountain,
            The whirlwind on the mountain,
            The whirlwind on the mountain.

            The rocks are ringing,
            The rocks are ringing,
            The rocks are ringing.
            They are ringing in the mountains,
            They are ringing in the mountains,
            They are ringing in the mountains.

            The cottonwoods are growing tall,
            The cottonwoods are growing tall,
            The cottonwoods are growing tall.
            They are growing tall and verdant.
            They are growing tall and verdant,
            They are growing tall and verdant.
 

        Ghost Dance Songs of the Kiowa:

                    The Father will descend,
            The Father will descend.
            The earth will tremble.
            The earth will tremble.
            Everybody will arise,
            Everybody will arise.
            Stretch out your hands,
            Stretch out your hands.

            The spirit host is advancing, they say,
            The spirit host is advancing, they say.
            They are coming with the buffalo, they say,
            They are coming with the buffalo, they say.
            They are coming with the (new) earth, they say,
            They are coming with the (new) earth, they say.

            That wind, that wind
            Shakes my tipi, shakes my tipi,
            And sings a song for me,
            And sings a song for me,

 

Source: James Mooney, "The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890,"
Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1892-93,
Part 2. Washington: GPO, 1896. Pages 961-77; 1072; 1053-55; 1082-87.
 

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NOTE:  These pages are for educational use only.  The introductions were written by
K. L. Nichols and are not to be used by anyone else without the author's permission.

Comments/suggestions: knichols@pittstate.edu
Updated: 6-15-09
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