Gregory Smoak

And he published his book in 1896.

What he says in that book is that the ghost dance is still being practiced and is taking on new forms at every performance.

And a lot of people don't see that at the time.

They don't read that part of it.

It doesn't register with them.

And so this idea that Wounded Knee marks the death of the ghost dance, and that after that, it proves that the prophecy was not right, is not true at all.

Some people continue to practice it, and then it takes these other forms into the 20th century, and then it's resurrected at various times, like at Wounded Knee, in the occupation of Wounded Knee,

in 1973 in various forms.

Yeah, it is.

And any approach to Native history has to incorporate diversity and the fact that there never was a typical culture.

native person, people from hundreds of tribes, hundreds of religions and traditions.

The ghost dance is a modern religion and forward-looking in the sense that it speaks to all native people, to the shared American Indian identity.

It is not simply a tribal religion, but it's also redemptive and interpreted to teach people how to survive and prosper and survive in this new world that they faced.