Ghost Dance Thesis

The Ghost Dance, a ritual dance, had to be performed for five days and five nights, as heard from God according to the Paiute Indian, Wovoka. The purpose of the dance was to "...reunite people on Earth with friends and relatives in the other world (Robbins 331)." There were multiple ways in which the Ghost Dance was expressed; whites and Native Americans would live in harmony. and the other way was that other people in the world would be destroyed and only the natives were brought back to life. The message that was spread along those who had followed Wovoka was to seek a new, spiritual, life that had been corrupted by capitalist expansion. One specific group, the Lakota, became very fond of the Ghost Dance as they were sought after for control

The movement began when a prophet told others of the significance of a future devastation. When this catastrophic event would take place, it was reported that ancestors, God, or some other high power would come down and deliver the cargo. The cargo was considered to be products of the Europeans and would "...bring a reign of eternal bliss (Rothwell 332)." In response to capitalist expansion, cargo cults were considered contradictory. Cargo cults were considered a form of resistance to globalization as the participants would reject the abundant resources from the Westerners who actually brought the cargo, and believe that the superior culture held all the resources. This movement was in response to colonial exploitation. A major effect of the cargo cults were missionary activity. "The missionaries divided up territories among themselves, often leading natives to question why rivalries existed between the different denominations (Rothwell 333)." Natives were never opposed to those of religious authority. Religion was considered to act as "...the secret magical power (Rothwell 333)" that developed the goods. Once people gained access to the European goods, the more the cargo was delivered to the