History

Is it a fair statement to say that the Ghost Dance represented the human instinct of survival?

I think it is more appropriate to say that the Ghost Dance was a means of revolt. You could almost say that it is to the Native American, especially the Plains Indians, what the Passover is to Jews. In the late 1860s, most Native Americans had been forced onto reservations, where living conditions were horrible and many people starved. The people were ready for a savior to come and take them out of these conditions. A Paiute named Wovoka promised just that. He announced that he was the Indian messiah and that the Ghost Dance would be their way to salvation. According to Karen M. Stone, "All Indians who danced the Ghost Dance would be taken up into the air and suspended there while the new earth was being laid down. Then they would be replaced there, with the ghosts of their ancestors, on the new earth. Only Indians would live there then." By dancing the Ghost Dance in full view of the whites, Native Americans were expressing their longing for freedom and at the same time announcing that they may be oppressed now, but a new day is coming for them.

Visit this link for more information:

http://www.hanks ville.org/daniel/lakota/Ghost_Dance.html

In reply to #2: I agree with you...it was definitely a 'revolt'. Do you think that a revolt can be a tactic used by a group of people seeking their survival?