Ghost Dancers, Forever?
By David Yeagley
6-12-2002
December 28, 1890, about 350 Hunkpapa Sioux people believed all Indians would be resurrected, the buffalo would return, and the world would be forever rid of white people, fences, and railroads. Those Sioux, mostly women and children, were all martyred that day, at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.
But they had danced before they were gunned down by five hundred Seventh Calvary troopers and rapid fire Hotchkiss cannons. That dance expressed Indian hope, and it was terrifying to white people. White people called it the Ghost Dance.
Many Indians today still dance the Ghost Dance. And it’s still frightening and guilt-wrenching to white people. Many Indian activists have made careers off that dance, like Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, Russell Means, Charlene Teters, and Suzan Harjo. Many white women, of the Leftist tribe, also make careers by it, like Lucy Ganje, or Christine Rose.
But these modern Ghost Dancers aren’t thinking of the future. They merely decry what they see as mistreatment of Indians then demand justice from society. These hired mourners focus on some offense then make a career out of crying. Protesting Indian sports mascots, for example, makes a powerful beat for a modern, nation-wide Ghost Dance.
There are other beats. Land preservation and sacred sites make a loud drum. Recently, Winona La Duke did a fine Ghost Dance in the Duluth News Tribune (June 7). La Duke called for preservation of Spirit Mountain, the beautiful area by Lake Superior, some 150 miles north of Minneapolis, overlooking Duluth.
With academic accuracy, LaDuke (Harvard ’82) details an unwritten history of why Spirit Mountain is “sacred” to her Mississippi Band Chippewa people. (She’s so accurate she won’t call her Chippewa people Ojibwa, but “Anishinaabe.”) Los Angeles-born LaDuke gleaned a wonderful tale of Chippewa migrations, after she moved to the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota. Legend has it that Spirit Mountain is “the sixth resting place of the Anishinaabeg on our migration from the Great Salt Water,” she says.
She compares Spirit Mountain to Mt.Sinai. LaDuke’s Jewish mother, artist and professor emeritus at Southern Oregon University, bequeathed her professional savvy. Instead of attributing typical Indian migrations to either natural instincts, or, to being kicked out by stronger tribes, LaDuke says “our prophets told us to move west.”
But LaDuke’s analogy for the “sacred” is crippled by historical fact. The Jews never held Sinai sacred. The Lord only is holy (kadosh), and the Sabbath, which is time, not place. Indian activists throw the word “sacred” around like an ultimate claims weapon, as if Indians own whatever we decide to call “sacred.”
LaDuke protests the golf course plans for Spirit Mountain. Spirit Mountain is already a famous, elaborate ski resort, with all kinds of forest recreation facilities, including the longest paved trail in the United States, the Munger State Trail. Well, maybe LaDuke just hates golf.
But she loves authenticity. In her articles she prints words from her Ojibwe (spoken) language for scholarly effect. I’m not sure how “sacred” that custom is. Most Indian languages are spoken, not written, mostly because Indians have never trusted writing. Treaties taught us not to.
And speaking of treaties, the 1867 writ that made White Earth Reservation the legal home of all the Ojibwe in Minnesota, is being revisited by LaDuke. White Earth was never the historic homeland of any Ojibwe group, but LaDuke has recently reclaimed a piece of it. Most of its original 837,000 acres are owned by non-Indians. LaDuke’s White Earth Land Recovery Project has bought back 1,000 acres, and plans to acquire 30,000 in the next 15 years.
They’ll need casino money for that, but White Earth’s Shooting Star Casino, Hotel, and Manitok Mall business hasn’t brought it in yet. It has provided the most jobs for Indians, and has funded numerous infrastructure projects, like water and waste treatment facilities, telephone systems, and even highway development. (Any sacrilege here?)
But Ghost Dancers like LaDuke would rather lament the past, and interfere with the present. And LaDuke mustn’t limit herself to her “Anishinaabeg” people. In January she protested the Univsersity of Minnesota astronomy department’s involvement in Arizona’s Mount Graham International Observatory, because the Apache people consider Mount Graham sacred. (LaDuke throws in her transliterated Apache word for the mountain, “Dzil nchaa si an”, for authenticity.)
Dance on, LaDuke. But, don’t insult my intelligence with romanticized, slosh-bucket notions of the sacred. Don’t read Judeo-Christian concepts into the heathenisms of earth-worshipping Indians. Indians can stand on our own, if we can stand at all.
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