> I could be wrong, but I don't think there are any ghost dancers
> left ...
The Caddo and Wichita in Oklahoma still do the ghost dance, but it has
lost its original purpose. I was one of the first non-natives invited to
observe it, in the mid-1960s. Some dancers, not all, fell into a trance
during which they supposedly conversed with dead relatives. Since their
end of the conversation was in the native languages, I don't know what
was said. The medicine man who directed the dance instructed all the
participants to hold on tight to the hand of any dancer who was in a
trance, especially if they tried to break free. They might not recover
from the trance if they had no physical contact with someone not in a
trance. Several dancers confirmed what the medicine man said the
purpose of the dance is now: to provide a tie to traditional elders
now deceased, and so give guidance to tribal members who are anxious
over pressures toward assimilation.
The belief in supernatural power, acquired through repetitive dreams
rather than a vision, which made a man invulnerable to arrows or
bullets was fairly general among the Shoshonean peoples of the Great
Basin. Beatrice Whiting made a study of the concept of power and its
uses among the Northern Paiute of the Burns Reservation in eastern
Oregon (see her _Paiute Sorcery_, Viking Fund Publications in
Anthropology, No. 15, New York, 1950). She found that the majority
of medicine men claimed to have power that made them arrow- and/or
bulletproof. They didn't need a special shirt to make this power
effective.
Wovoka was a Northern Paiute from the vicinity of the Pyramid Lake rez
in western Nevada. He apparently instructed followers who had not acquired
bulletproof power directly through dreams or visions to wear shirts
decorated with symbols which would confer this power. If readers who are
interested can find _History of Nevada_ edited by Myron Angel, Oakland,
CA, 1881, there is an account of the assassination of Wahe, half-brother
of the Paiute war chief Winnemucca, in May, 1862 by two headmen who doubted
his claim to be bulletproof on page 165. A two-year war hostile Northern
Paiute and Bannocks against white settlers ended a few weeks later.
Grosvenor Pollard
via Elizabeth B. Pollard
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Elizabeth Pollard
Systems LibrarianInternet: pollarde@email.uah.edu
University of Alabama in HuntsvilleCompuserve: 72457,1560
Huntsville, AL 35899Phone: (205)895-6313
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-