Gregory Smoak

There's one that begins around 1869, 1870.

And then this is a forerunner of the 1890 movement.

Both of these begin in Western Nevada among Paiute people.

Okay.

What does it mean?

What does ghost dance mean?

Well, first of all, no Native people called it the ghost dance.

The names were specific to tribes.

Some people said translated as spirit dance.

Among some Shoshones, it was called Everybody Dragging.

And that was a reference to the slow counterclockwise shuffle of a round dance, the ceremonial base of that.

So ghost dance is not something any Native person called it.

And it actually is not that often used by white Americans at the time.

The people who are shocked by it and responding to it call it the Messiah craze.

You see that in newspapers.

It's the anthropologist James Mooney who calls it the ghost dance religion in his initial study in 1896.

And since that time, it's largely known as the ghost dance.

You hear that phrase here and there back then, but it's not often used at that point.

But I mean, the gist of this...

is in 1870 and in 1890, if these ceremonies are followed, you have the ability to reunite with your lost loved ones on a renewed earth.