FFW: Newsletter: NA Ghost Dance

Flair For Writing Newsletter
Native American Ghost Dance
Editor: Princess Megan Rose Princess Megan Rose 10 Years
Assistant Editor: Angel Angel


Hello Everyone: How was your summer? The kids are back in school and it is still hot here in Indiana. As usual, summer goes by so fast. I still work at my mental health job and Angel is busy making her beautiful graphics for her on line Graphics Shop. We haven't done a newsletter in awhile. We decided to do a Native American Newsletter. We found The Ghost Dance interesting. We hope you will like it as well.

The Ghost Dance is a ceremony for regenerating the earth and restoring the earth's caretakers to their former life of bliss. In the nineteenth century when devastation to the buffalo, land and Native American guardians was at it's peak, the Ghost dance became popular. Wovoka was a man who claimed to be a visionary and was hailed as a Messiah by many Indian nations. Wovoka says that Spirits had showed him certain movements and songs after he died and came back to life. Interesting concept. Like Christ, Wovoka preached non-violence and most tribes abandoned their war-like ways in hopes for future peace and happiness.

The dance became popular among various Indian nations. When performing the dance, it was believed that you could visit relatives whose souls had left their bodies. So many Native Americans had lost friends and relatives and the dance was a healing process. The Cheyennes, Lakotas and Arapanos after being told in dreams that further meaning can be expanded if certain designs were on clothing, it would protect them in battle. These beliefs seved to ward off fears of imminent danger from hostile onlookers.

The ritual dance unified Indian people, even tribes with a tradition of conflict. The dance frightened government officials. Many Native American dancers were gunned down at Wounded Knee including women and children who were shot in the back for trying to escape. The seventh calvary was again involved. Personally, I am not a big fan of the cavalary when it comes to Native Americans.

The government was frightened by the dance's power. There would be 125 dancers at the beginning of the dance and the there would be the double amount of dancers when the dance ended.

Gabriel Horn, author of NATIVE AMERICAN: AN AMERICAN INDIAN ODYSSEY, says the dance is magical. The Minnesota Institute Of Art put on the first and only exhibit of ghost dance shirts and dresses worn by men, women and children. The room was black and the clothes were suspended in two circles. You could see bullet holes and blood stains on the shirts from the massacre of ghost dancers at Wounded Knee.

Several Native Americans came to the exhibit and sat in a circle and passed around a peace pipe. They wanted to reconnect with their people and ghosts of the past. There were only 14 when they sit down and an hour later, the number had doubled. Native American ghosts? Yes, it was believed to be so.

A young girl was crying by a ghost dance shirt. The shirt wearer's last name wasn't there and it turned out to be the shirt of her grandfather. There was no way she could have known that when she went in.

The ghost dance is practiced today privately. It is still performed for the same reasons. The earth is always in need of healing.

I am part Cherokee and always feel emotional for the Native American people. Angel and I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. I found this article on Google.

We will be back in October with the Halloween Newsletter. We hope you will join us. Love: Megan and Angel

All beautiful sigs and images by Angel!


** #930866 Not An Image **