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Timeline / Defining Rights and Responsibilities / 1870: First Ghost Dance movement seeks revival of cultures

1870: First Ghost Dance movement seeks revival of cultures

The Ghost Dance is a Native spiritual movement of hope and renewal that originates with Wodziwob, a Paiute man in Nevada. It seeks to bring about the departure of whites, and the return of lands, natural resources, and dead ancestors, which will revive traditional ways that have been lost since European colonization. The dance gains popularity among western tribes in California and Oregon.

Theme
Land and Water, Native Rights
Region
California, Great Basin, Great Plains, Northwest Coast

Ghost Dance Circle, Oklahoma Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation, painting by Mary I. Wright, 1893

Courtesy National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution