6.2: The Ghost Dance

The Lakota chiefs gathered at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and each spoke their piece about whether or not to send a delegation West to Nevada to meet the messiah. They decided a delegation would go out in late summer or fall 1889 under the leadership of Good Thunder. In 1890, the official delegation return with the opinion that the messiah had, in fact, arrived. Short Bull, who had fought with Sitting Bull in the War of 1876, and Kicking Bear were among this delegation and would go on to lead the Ghost Dance Religion among the Lakota. They both opposed the reforms visited on the Lakota by the US government after Sitting Bull's defeat.