God's red son : the Ghost Dance religion and the making of modern America

Summary: "In 1890, on Indian reservations across the West, followers of a new religion danced in circles until they collapsed into trances. In an attempt to suppress this new faith, the US Army killed over two hundred Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee Creek. Louis Warren's God's Red Son offers a startling new view of the religion known as the Ghost Dance, from its origins in the visions of a Northern Paiute named Wovoka to the tragedy in South Dakota. To this day, the Ghost Dance remains widely mischaracterized as a primitive and failed effort by Indian militants to resist American conquest and return to traditional ways. In fact, followers of the Ghost Dance sought to thrive in modern America by working for wages, farming the land, and educating their children, tenets that helped the religion endure for decades after Wounded Knee. God's Red Son powerfully reveals how Ghost Dance teachings helped Indians retain their identity and reshape the modern world."--Publisher information.

Record details

ISBN: 9780465015023
ISBN: 0465015026
ISBN: 9780465098682
Physical Description: print
xiii, 480 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Publisher: New York : Basic Books, [2017]
Copyright: ©2017

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 407-463) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Introduction: A hole in the dream -- Part I. Genesis. 1890 : the messiah and the machine ; Great Basin apocalypse ; The birth of the prophet ; The Ghost Dance arrives ; Indian prophecy, American magic -- Part II. Dispersion. Seekers from a shattered land ; Plains passage ; Lakota ordeal ; Tin stars and holy power ; Spirit of the Ghost Dance ; Invasion and atrocity -- Part III. Persistence and renewal. The road from Wounded Knee ; Writing "The Ghost Dance religion and Sioux outbreak of 1890" ; Conclusions: The Ghost Dance as modern religion -- Epilogue: Beginnings.