Lakota Ghost Dance Analysis

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In The Lakota Ghost Dance: An Ethnohistorical Account, Raymond DeMallie discusses the importance of the ghost dance to the Lakota people. DeMallie, acknowledging the opposing views of the Lakota using dances as a sign of war, believes that the ghost dance was a non-violent, religious ritual simply misunderstood by the whites. He explains both the cause and the hopes brought out of the Lakota through the ghost dance, using a more accurate, ethnohistorical approach. Although whites saw the ghost dance as an isolated action of the Lakota, the ghost dance was a significant part of the Lakota culture. The Lakota believed that life was born and died in the earth. They assumed that after the near eradication of the bison, the animals returned back