[Figure] The Ghost Dance was the vision of a Paiute prophet, Wovoka. As a nonviolent religious movement that was spread among the Plains peoples during the 1880s, its focus was the preservation of Native American culture against the encroachment of the white man. Believers participated in ecstatic dances and communal ceremonies so that a new age of peace and prosperity would dawn for Native Americans. In 1890 the movement ended when U.S. soldiers attacked a group of worshipers at Wounded Knee, killing about 250 people.

The religious symbols on this dress include the turtle that brought soil for the world's creation, and birds, messengers to the spirit world.

Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian
Ghost Dance Dress, Arapaho peoples, central plains states, about A.D. 1890

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