Ghost Dance Rock Art and Theology - Ep 36

The ghost dance was a revitalistic movement that was most popular in the 1870s and 1890s. The religious leaders of the ghost dance movement were religious specialists who dreamed a prophetic vision. That vision included that the world was to be remade over and that the dead would come back to life and the world would return to the way it was before your Americans entered their lands. To usher in that New World native people were to dance around dance for several days day and night and that by praying and dancing and singing this would bring in a new world of peace and prosperity.

Anthropologists and archaeologists have identified about two dozen rock art sites that appear to commemorate or document this time of the religious movement of the ghost dance. These historic paintings are in many colors and depict dancers and the return of animals and plants and the return of the dead. The paintings also document and portray the principal religious beliefs of the participants in the movement which include a layered cosmos a depiction of the Thunderbird BighornSheep and other animals and a central white horse image.

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