Gregory Smoak

There are removals of people like the Ponca that arouse a reform spirit.

So these people have cultural blinders on.

They call themselves, however, the friends of the Indian.

Yeah, right.

And they see this as the only path forward.

There are others who do not.

Others who believe the military should still be in charge.

And as a matter of fact, the Indian Bureau was originally situated in the Department of War when it was founded.

and it was transferred to the Interior Department.

In the late 1860s, with the Indian Wars going on, there's an argument that Indian affairs should be returned to the War Department.

But then there is a tragic and well-publicized massacre of Blackfeet people in northern Montana on the Marias River that really derails that plan.

And Indian affairs remains civilian at that point.

But I think this culture war is something that they see

as necessary, humane, and the best thing for Native peoples to turn them into indistinguishable American citizens.

First of all, the ghost dance of 1890 is not the first ghost dance.

And certainly it's not the first prophetic movement or millennial movement among Native peoples.

Documented movements like this go all the way back into the 18th century and

Even before Pontiac's war and the Delaware prophet Neolin, there's a Shawnee prophet, Tenskwatawa, in the early 19th century associated with his brother, Tecumseh.

So there's lots of these movies.

But in terms of ghost dances, there's one in 1870.