Ghost Dance In Native American History

694 Words3 Pages
Many people may ask what led the Indians to the Messiah Craze, also known as the Ghost Dance. It’s extremely overwhelming to realize what these people had to go through, just to live. Many drastic events lead the Native Americans to believe in the Ghost Dance such as the Battle of Little Bighorn Valley of 1876 and the General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) of 1887. Lastly, I will explain what the Ghost Dance is and what the Native American believed while they danced. First, I will like to talk about the Battle of Little Bighorn Valley. An Indian chief by the name of Red Cloud made peace with the government and settled his people in the Great Sioux reservation. Two other Indian chiefs by the name of Sitting Bull and Crazy horse resisted to the orders…show more content…
Senator Henry Dawes put this act into place to ensure the Indians weren’t treated as a part of a tribe but as an individual. This act was also supposed to ensure that the allocations of the lands were given to, “each head of a family, one-quarter of a section; To each single person over eighteen years if age, one-eighth of a section; To each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section;”(Hollitz, 56). The government tried to persuade the Indians to agree to sell the Black Hills by offering $0.50 cents an acre with a possible profit 5 ½ million dollars in their pockets. They denied that offer and then came back with $1.25 per acre with 12 million dollar profit. But, the government threatened them and told them that if they didn’t take the offers for the east land the government wanted that they could possibly take it from them for less or nothing at all. The government, “declare that the United States does and will hold the land thus allotted, for the period of twenty-five years, in trust for sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom such allotment shall have been made”(Hollitz, 57). But, why put that land in trust for so long? So by that time all the Indians had been killed off? All senator Dawes wanted was the “best” interest for the Native Americans but I don’t think he knew what was best for them. It was greed, all they wanted was the gold. The government wanted

More about Ghost Dance In Native American History

Open Document