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The Prophet Dance of the Northwest and Its Derivatives: The Source of the Ghost Dance
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Historical SummaryWhile the ghost dance of the Plains was derived directly from the Paviotso of Nevada, as will be shown below, practically all its elements were embodied between 1850 and 1883 in the Smohalla cult, located in Washington on the Columbia River. Smohalla was a dreamer prophet who had died and returned. He had frequented the Catholic mission of Atahnam among the Yakima in his youth and the ritual of his cult was patterned rather closely at points on the Catholic ceremonial, including a form of communion, vestments, bells, and instruction to neophytes. Some of its features were also derived from the trappings of the white military posts which he had visited,1
Doctrinally [says Spier] the Smohalla cult was good Prophet Dance. It was held that a terrible convulsion of nature would destroy the world, when the Creator would restore the halcyon days of long ago and bring the dead to earth. A strict adherence to Indian dress and modes of life, and an upright life was enjoined on all true believers, for only such would participate in the final resurrection. In this rendering of the ancient doctrine, however, emphasis was laid on active animus toward the whites and their ways. It is not merely that pristine conditions would be restored on Doomsday but the whole point of the event was the destruction of the whites. Even the Earth-woman doctrine Was taken so literally that no interference with her was permitted: there should be no parceling of the land and above all no tilling of the soil. In the formulation reported by the commissioners sent to treat with the Nez Percé before the outbreak of warfare (November, 1876): "The dreamers, among other pernicious doctrines, teach that the earth being created by God complete, should not be disturbed by man, and that any cultivation of the soil or other improvements to interfere with its natural productions, any voluntary submission to the control of the government, any improvement in the way of schools, churches, etc., are crimes from which they shrink. This fanaticism is kept alive by the superstitions of these’dreamers,’ who industriously teach that if they continue steadfast in their present belief, a leader will be raised up in the East who will restore all the dead Indians to life, who will unite with them in expelling the whites from their country, when they will again enter upon and possess the lands of their ancestors." This animus is, as Mooney has pointed out, wholly intelligible as the result of the drastic interference with native life during the decades following 1850.2
1Cf.Spier, L.n/an/an/an/an/a, , 41–45.
2Ibid., 41 (George Banta Publishing Company. By permission).
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Chicago: "The Prophet Dance of the Northwest and Its Derivatives: The Source of the Ghost Dance," The Prophet Dance of the Northwest and Its Derivatives: The Source of the Ghost Dance in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed May 9, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=B2962XAQIZNSZ55.
MLA: . "The Prophet Dance of the Northwest and Its Derivatives: The Source of the Ghost Dance." The Prophet Dance of the Northwest and Its Derivatives: The Source of the Ghost Dance, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 9 May. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=B2962XAQIZNSZ55.
Harvard: , 'The Prophet Dance of the Northwest and Its Derivatives: The Source of the Ghost Dance' in The Prophet Dance of the Northwest and Its Derivatives: The Source of the Ghost Dance. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 9 May 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=B2962XAQIZNSZ55.
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