Reflections Of My Spirit Dance
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In August of 2004 in Redmond, OR. (located just outside of Bend), I participated in a awakening sacred Lakota ritual and tradition, the Spirit Dance, it was formally known as The Ghost Dance. The land was dry and we were surrounded by beautiful Junipers tress, desert sage, rainbows and eagles. The fours clans that started the dance three years ago had grown in size and now there were about 45 dancers this year and about 50+ supporters. People came from France, Austria, Mexico, Norway and the US. The energy was especially “good” that year with many of the dancer participating for the first time.
A Brief History of the Ghost Dance
There have been references to the Ghost dance as far back as the white man has been on Turtle Island. The Ghost dance as we know it today started about the Mid. 1800’s. Tavibo Translated (white man) a Native American of the Paiute people emerged among them around 1869 as a prophet and visionary. Tvibo had gone into the mountains and had a vision in which he was told that the Paiute situation would relieved by an earthquake. The earth would open up and consume the white people. By most accounts he died in 1870, he left a sin named Wovoka (the cutter) who was about 14 years of age. At this time Wovoka was sent to live with work for a scotch-English family of David Wilson, in the Walker River reign of Nevada near the town of Yerington. During this time he acquired the name Jack Wilson. At age twenty he married Tumm, also know as Mary Wilson. They raised two daughters.
The turning point in Wovoka’s life came in late December of 1888 when Wovoka was suffering from scarlet fever. He went into a coma for a period of two days. One observer said “his body was stiff as a board.” On Sunday January 1, 1889 he sat straight up in bed and announced he had a vision, this corresponded with a total eclipse of the sun. The Paiute people credited him with bringing back the sun. Wovoka was already respected for his command of the weather.
His vision of the Ghost Dance brought native people from far and wide to hear his message he spoke of honesty, the importance of hard work, nonviolence and of interracial harmony. The return of the old ways and the whites would vanish from the earth. Most of the plains Indians embraced the Ghost Dance, Paiute, Aarpaho, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Comanche and Apache to name a few.
Wovoka was also reported to visit the Northwest, Oregon and Washington and work with the Shaker and Dreamer religions. To say that the new Ghost Dance was a religion was wide spread and growing fast is an understatement.
The most dynamic evidence of Wovoka’s impact was with the Lakota people. Short Bull and Kicking Bear returned from Nevada with Ghost Dance shirts, which would make warriors invulnerable to injury. Sitting Bull was well as others accepted this assurance. The conditions were ideal for a message of deliverance in the badlands. The buffalo would return, the whites would vanish, and the old ways would return. All they had to do was Ghost Dance.
This set up the slaughter at Wounded Knee. Sitting Bull was killed on December 15, 1890, than on December 29, 470 soldiers confronted a seriously ill Big Foot and his people on their way to surrender. Over 290 Native Americans many of them women and children were killed. Many people said Wovoka and the Ghost dance faded away in the years after Wounded Knee. In fact Wovoka was highly revered until his death on September 29, 1932.
To this day Wovoka is honored as a prophet and the founder of the Ghost Dance as we known it today. Historian L.G. Moses describes Wovoka as “one of the most significant holy men to emerge among the Indians of North America.” Michael Hittman asserts that the key elements of “the great revelation” remain “honesty, the importance of hard work, the necessity of nonviolence, and the imperative of racial harmony.”
The Ghost Dance in the late 1800’s was the fastest growing religion on record. It is to this day, the glue, if you will that bounds the Native peoples together like no other event in known history.
The Sprit Dance
Know Kam Lau Nightcahse has been called to continue this tradition. Kam Lau Nightchase is a recognized teacher of the spiritual tradition of the Lakota as well as Sun Dance Chief who has been a Sun Dancer for over 25 years. He is a direct descendant of a long linage of renowned Lakota chiefs. Kam has traveled the world sharing his medicine and teachings
The Ghost Dance was “renamed” to disassociate with “negative” affects of the past and to bring a healing energy to this scared dance.
Preparation for the dance will take its form as those are choosing dance come together. There will be lodges, meditation, Vision Quest and prayer.
The dance itself is a 4-day dance that goes 24 hours during those four days. This does mean that the dancers will dance for four days straight with no rest, although all dancers are encouraged to dance as much as they are able to dance. All dancers will start and end the dance together. During the dance specific songs, chants and drumming took place and these did continue for 24 hours for the four days.
It was wondering to fall asleep to meditative sounds of the drums and songs…the dreams helped each dancer with their “purpose.” Often a dancer would collapse into vision during the dance and their Vision was unique to their place in life at that time.
Male dancers wore shirts of specific pattern and women dancers wore dresses of specific pattern. Each dancer decorated these garments with the design of their own vision. These designs represented the dancer, his/her heritage or ancestry as well as be symbols that represent the dancer’s Spirit Animals, guides, and/or teachers.
The focusing of energy, both physical and spiritual, was a key element of this preparation. In that way, dancers paid attention to their diets and make changes necessary to aid their preparation. Dancers abstained from drugs, alcohol and sex for one month prior to the dance, again as a way of focusing ones energy.
Given the energy that we wished to create at this dance, we worked in preparation to release ourselves of the “negative” and to arrive to the dance in a spirit of light. This preparation required a commitment to let go of sadness, anger, jealousy, judgment and the like. The preparation required a commitment to embrace joy and to become the child again in our lives. Dancers and Supporter alike were asked to prepare in this way as the energy that the Supports created ‘around’ the dance needed to match the energy that we created in the dance.
There were sweat lodges available during the dance for dancers needing to sweat and areas in the arbor surrounding the dance circle for dancers to rest. Dancers fasted during the entire dance ceremony. Dancers were allowed to drink water to sustain their energy during their breaks from dancing.
It was the vision of this dance that we were calling on the Ancestors to come and to help us. Help us through difficult times. Help us to usher in the transition from this time to the coming time. Help us to heal the planet and all our relations. The dance is intended to be an on-going ceremony.
The Sprit Dance was and still is truly a dance for our lives and times. It is a dance for our children and for the coming generations. The dance, as all ceremony, is a prayer and this prayer is for the healing of the hearts.
The entire ceremony was filled with joy, love and happiness. It was colorful and majestic and the air was thick with healing intentions and prayers. There was a formal entrance observance, with a pipe ceremony and a formal closing ceremony as well.
My experience with the Spirit Dance was life shifting and helped lead me to the path I am on now….helping others find their Vision, Mission and Purpose in life. When a person connects with their purpose they tap into their personal power and can then achieve great personal growth, which in turn assists them with their personal success…how ever they define “success.”
I would to think Mike Masterson the leader of the Beaver Clan (that I was proud to be member of) and Kam Lau Nightchase for accepting me into this scared hoop and experience one of the most amazing events in my life.
