The Ghost Dance and the Measuring Woman

The Ghost Dance originated in 1881 when a Paiute shaman named Wovoka told a group of tribal representatives who visited him at his home in Nevada that during a seizure he believed he had visited the Great Spirit in Heaven.  There he had been told that a time was coming when the buffalo would fill the plains and dead tribesmen would be restored to their families.  All would have a blissful life, free of the white man and his works.  Wovoka assured his followers that if they adhered to certain ideals and performed the proper ritual dance - called the Ghost Dance by whites because of its association with the resurrection of the dead, they would be given a glimpse of the beautiful world that would be theirs for eternity.  The dance became a symbol of hope in the 1880s.

Also during this period is the story of the "measuring woman",  Alice Cunningham Fletcher.  Alice was born of well-to-do parents and became interested in Indian welfare in the 1870s.  Determined to learn about the Plains Indians first hand, she went to Nebraska in 1881 and stayed in the camps of the tribes for months.  Alice went to Washington DC to plead for the Indians cause, then returned for another two years from 1883-1885 as a government agent who supervised the parceling out of 76,000 acres of land to the Indians.

The "Measuring Woman" directed the surveying and allotment of lands for the Omaha, Winnebago, and Nez Perce until 1891, working in blazing heat and bitter cold.  Following her work in the field, Alice held a fellowship at Harvard's Peabody Museum for 25 years, where her Indian work greatly influenced the work of American archaeologists until her death in 1923.

Next time...Finishing up the prelude to Wounded Knee
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On March 12, 1888, China approves a treaty forbidding Chinese laborers to enter the United States for 20 years after agreeing to cooperate with a policy unilaterally adopted by Congress six years earlier.