Ghost Dance Shirt

Southern Paiute 1890 to 1920

 

• This fine GHOST DANCE Shirt is made of muslin as most are.
• The fringe at the bottom is colored with red ochre.
• There are 8 crosses in blue on the breast with the image of a crow outlined in blue with a blue eye.
• The neck and cuffs are trimmed with red wool flannel.
• There is a red beaded 2 inch cross on the triangular piece of soft rawhide below the front of the collar which also has 3 pieces of what may be human hair hanging from it. This hair seems to be too fine to be horse hair.  
• There are epaulets of turquoise colored beads on each shoulder each with 4 red beaded crosses. Each of these epaulets has rawhide fringe hanging from it.
• The entire shirt is hand sewn.
• The shirt has some yellowing from age and there are light perspiration stains under the arms and a light water stain on the left shoulder and upper arm. These stains are not severe and do not affect or detract from the way the shirt displays.
• I was told this shirt was Southern Paiute from Northwestern Arizona which is the area where I bought it.

The Ghost Dance came to Plains tribes in 1889-90 under the leadership of the Paiute visionary, Wovoka. By this time, the great herds of buffalo had been slaughtered by commercial hide hunters and the people had been confined to the reservation life of disease, starvation, and loss of freedom. Wovoka taught that the tribes could bring back their old ways of life by performing the Ghost Dance, living peacefully, and working hard. The buffalo and other game would once again be plentiful, dead relatives and friends would return, and white men would disappear.

Wovoka was descended of a family of prophets and Shamans. Known as a medicine man, it was said that during an eclipse of the sun and while suffering from a high fever, he had a vision which inspired the development of the movement known as the Ghost Dance. The vision embodied the beliefs that inspired the followers of the movement including that the white man would disappear from the Earth after a natural catastrophe and that the Indian dead would return bringing with them the old way of life that would then last forever.

To bring these and the other beliefs into effect, the Indians had to practice the customs of the Ghost Dance movement and to renounce alcohol and farming and end mourning, since the resurrection would be coming soon. The most important practice to ensure the effectiveness of the movement was the dance itself.

The dance was unlike other Indian dances with fast steps and loud drumming. The Ghost Dance consisted of slow shuffling movements following the course of the sun. It would be performed for four or five days and was accompanied by singing and chanting, but no drumming or other musical instruments.

In addition, both men and women participated in the dance, unlike others in which men were the main dancers, singers and musicians.

The first dance was held by Wovoka around 1889. Word spread quickly and the Ghost Dance was accepted by the Ute, Bannock and Shoshone tribes. Eventually, the Plains tribes also adopted the Ghost Dance movement and the peaceful message of hope was spreading and uplifting many Indians. While adapting the movement, many tribes added specific customs and rituals to the Dance that reflected the individuality of their tribe. The Sioux added two specific elements including the use of hypnosis to bring about trances and aid in the communication with the dead, and a ghost shirt. Made of buckskin or muslin cloth, the shirt was said to make the wearer immune to bullets, a weapon of death known initially only to the white man.

A famous Sioux warrior, Sitting Bull, adopted the Ghost Dance into his way of life. He was a respected leader, medicine man and warrior. His following of this movement alarmed the military and Indian Agencies. In 1890, just a few months after presiding at his first Ghost Dance, Sitting Bull was killed. His followers fled and joined the band of Kicking Bear, one of the first to practice with Wovoka. Donning their ghost shirts and with their beliefs firm in their hearts, the followers of the Ghost Dance were rounded up at Wounded Knee creek and killed while resisting arrest. Among those killed were women and children wearing their ghost shirts, which did not stop the bullets of the Military.

Ghost Dance clothing included elements of the earth and the sky, including animals with importance to the spirit world: eagles, magpies, and crows, which serve as spiritual messengers to the heavens, and turtles, which symbolized longevity and the earth itself.

 Southern Arapaho Ghost Dance Song

“I hear everything, I hear everything, I am the crow, I am the crow.”