A Story of the Ghost Dance Wanâgi Mónâtc Wâchipi They say that it has been over one hundred years since the great Ghost Dance was held in 1889. Wavoka, a Paiute medicine man led that Original Ghost Dance in the deserts of Nevada. Afterwards, there were apostles, Porcupine, of the Cheyenne along with Sitting Bull of the Arapaho people, who brought the word of the teachings of the Pale Prophet, Kanichi ta Kanichi wa. They told of a Pale Prophet that had appeared to the people present at the Ghost Dance. They brought his teachings to the other tribes that lived upon the Great Plains. The last memory associated with the Ghost Dance that contemporary history leaves us with is the tragic occurrence of Wounded Knee; when a few days before Christmas, hundreds of Chief Big Foot, and some 350 people, mostly women old men and children, were on a pilgrimage. A peaceful journey to participate in a sacred ceremony they called the Ghost Dance. There they hoped to bring about peaceful change to a way of life that seemed to be vanishing before their eyes; were slaughtered. Among the dead was their leade, Big Foot. Needless to say, they never made it to the ceremony. Those that did survive the slaughter wounded and bleeding were left to the mercy of the Coyotes, vultures and freezing Dakota snows that fell that winter. It is a memory of tears that the people of this land will have scared upon their hearts forever. Later by Historical accountings, there came a Minneconjou Medicine man who went by the name of Kicking Bird. His heart was heavy for he had seen many injustices befall his people. He would change the nature of the Ceremony into one that was designed to wipe out the white man, and the Ghost Dance became a ceremony based upon hate, drifting far from its original purpose. The Sioux were going to dance and the cities would roll up like carpets, and the buffalo would return, and the white men would be no more. This was not the Ghost Dance that was brought to Wavoca, and the strange men from the South. Wovoca, was also known as Jack Wilson, by reason of the fact that he had grown up in the sponsorship of the family of Mr. David Wilson near Pyramid Lake, Nevada, which was common with Natives in those days. It is told that Wavoca was descended of a family of Paiute Prophets and a medicine men, it was also said that an eclipse of the sun occurred, (July-29-1878) and suffering from high fevers, he had a vision which inspired the development of the movement known as the Ghost Dance. or as it was called by the white settlers, the Indian Messiah Movement. The vision embodied the beliefs that inspired the followers of the movement including that the white man would disappear from the Earth after a series of natural catastrophes and that their ancestors would return bringing with them the old way of life that would then last forever. (from the Boston Globe: Eclipse 7-19-1878 -its not a photo its a drawing) Wavoca who was the Prophet of the Ghost Dance sadly gave into the pressures of the dominant society that ruled with an iron fist, and was reduced in his later years to little more a curiosity item for settlers. He was imprisoned for a time and then kept confined on the Wilsons ranch. And was said to have taken the Christian faith, of the Wilson, who was himself a minister, convincing Wavoca that it was in the way of the Prophet that he claimed had delivered the message through his visions... So what was the Ghost Dance that took place in 1889 really about? What was the coined term Indian Messiah Movement about? Why is it that a gathering of people to try an achieve a peaceful solution to a terrible holocaust still over 100 years later, shakes fear in Peoples hearts? Do the Ghosts of the Ghost Dancers haunt those who who so savagely cut them down? and why is it that so much effort was taken to blot out any trace of the historical accountings that might shed light on the truth of things? Who was this mysterious prophet/being who appeared that moved so many? Was it Wavoca, or as the Elders remember, was Wavoca the messenger for the Pale Prophet? Why was there so much fear surrounding this peaceful ceremony that would spawn such drastic actions to prevent its happening? Today, there are very few who know, who can speak of it. The story and the teachings have continued, but only in cloistered circles. It is an ancient knowledge that is passing from our vision. It is passing with the way of life that once flourished here in this once abundant and mysterious land that some call the Americas, and yet others call the Turtle Island. This is a story about the Ghost Dance. It is not intended to be an accounting of historical events. The only historical events that were documented, were the one written by white journalists they narrated what they thought was going on, they were not part of the ceremony, they could not know what occurred. Written records still exist of what transpired. Those records are in the archives of the Boston Globe, (or were up until 1992) and can be found through research in our libraries. The accounting for the Eclipse which did occur in 1878 came from the Boston Globe, archives. There were some strange accountings in those stories. of ...strange orange swirling clouds that appeared, and hid the Indians from our view.... General Miles reported that at one point they must have constructed a scaffolding as it appeared that there were people coming from out of the cloud itself! This is a story of the Spirit of the Ghost Dance. A story that attempts to bring about the higher truths to light that surrounded the events leading up to the calling of the Ghost Dance; and of what actually occurred in our mysterious past. A past where many of the truths have been altered to suite the convenience of the times and protect those who inflicted the grievous hurt that occurred. A past that has been sanitized out of fear, where the true spirituality of this land and its magnificent peoples has been hidden. It is a story for all peoples, for now we can truly see that it has become a land of many cultures, comprising all beliefs, all races. Yes, perhaps it is rumored, even a galactic land where all beings from throughout the cosmos are making their presence known in preparation for the Awakening of a new world, a new dream where we might learn to transverse the past and enter a new dimensional expression of Humanity. One where Truth is is stronger then might. The story of the Ghost Dance transcends time and space. It is a story of a peoples journey through the spell of Mortality where we have become prisoners of our limited thoughts. As they witness the collapsing of their dream. Not much unlike what is occurring today. In this time of change, we are being forced to open our minds and expand our consciousness with the passing of each moment. Our lives seem to be moving through accelerated experience, as a moments experience becomes a weeks and our relationships can move through a life time of experience in a matter of a few months. It is a story of the Quickening which has led to the Awakening, and the birthing process has been a painful one. We are living in a time where myth and legend merge with reality, and spirit takes on form; as our dreams begin to emerge into a new reality, it is all a matter of faith and choices. And what is faith in action, but the dreamer weaving the dream. The story of the Ghost Dance begins many generations ago. It begins with the telling of the legend of the Healer - He who has been known by many names and experienced by many peoples. Mahnt-Azoma, Tah-co-mah, Kate-Zahl, Wa co-ma-tete, Tah-co-pah, Ee-see-co-tl, Eeasu, Wai-co-mah, Hu-ru-kan, Quetzal-Cotal, Itza-matul, Kul-kul, Deganaweda. There are so many names by which this mysterious entity, including Knichi ta-Kanichi wa, was called by the many people he met as he traveled the Turtle. Translated into English, we are faced with varying interpretations... Lord of the Wind, the Pale Prophet, the Healer, the Lord of Water and Wind, the silver light that falls from heaven. They go on ... It is said that this being traveled this land and taught the people the ways of love and peaceful co-existence. He taught them to love their enemies. They were taught to transcend the ways of the serpent, to end sacrifice and blood ritual. He guided them to pathways that lead to the development of incredible civilizations not only those from the woodlands of the North, but far to the South he appeared to the Toltec to the Mayan, as well as to the Hopi and to the Iroquois, the People of the Long House. He spoke of his father in heaven, and of the wonderment of the gift of life that the Sacred Mother gave us with our bodies, through which we might experience the gift of beingness upon this plane. Throughout every corner of North and South America his presence was known. Who he was is for our individual interpretations. Our hearts will know the truth, even when our heads do not allow us to see what is before our eyes. But the story continues after his passing from this plane to continue his work in the Kingdom of the Stars, and his promise to always be the silver light falling from heaven. That we would persevere through the times of great struggle ahead of us, so we would walk through a great golden age, where hu-man-kind would walk upright in his spirit once again. Where we would claim our heritage that was given us so long ago; longer ago than memory can hold. As The Pale Prophet walked this land in his white robes, and everywhere he taught the ways of a Great Peace that held with it a promise that if the ways of the serpent could be transcended, if we could stop war and killing, we would see his return and the fulfillment of a glorious age of inexplicable achievement for human kind. This is ancient knowledge. A knowledge that was already legend, already lost in antiquity when the first conquistadors stepped foot upon this virgin land. But the knowledge lived on, and still lives today. As my friends amongst the Inca in Peru have told me... This is the time when the people of the Condor and the People of the Eagle shall reunite. When this happens, the ancient truths of our beginnings and our destiny will be revealed to us. We shall see the Golden age spoken about in our legends. Our legends are our history that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Our history is so old that we only know that when the conquistadors came, they could not believe that these cities were built thousands of years before by a people who lived such a simple way of life. The Prophet also foretold of the future, of the coming of those from across the great waters of the morning Sun, the one they called the younger brother. This Prophet was fair of skin and had eyes that were the gray-green of the sea. His hair was golden-red like the rising Sun and his beard was of the same coloring. Everywhere he went whatever he touched took on the properties of his healing powers. Even to this day, to simply think of him heals the pain within our hearts. The Prophet was not here without those who were of his kind. They formed a people who lived in Central America, known as the Chigargwins. It is there that the present day Kanichi ta Kanichi wa holds the position of Caretaker of the Ways. It is what those who came from across the sea we might call ~ Ascended Masters, or the Holy Ones. With the coming of the younger brother from across the Sunrise waters, the prophecies of the Prophet began to unfold as they had been told and are recorded upon the living stone, and in the libraries of the Inca, and the Mayan. As prophesized they brought with them much devastation, and almost an entire way of life has vanished from this Earth. By the latter part of the nineteenth century it seemed to many of the elder brothers, or the First Nations people, that they might vanish entirely from even the memory of hu-man-kind itself. It was in this time that a simple man named Wavoka, while suffering from fever, sick with a disease civilization brought to the land and the people had his visions of the Prophet. So strong were his visions that he started, as it seemed to him, to be able to communicate with the Prophet Himself. And then came the people from the South, who instructed Wavoka in the ancient knowledge and understandings of the powers of the mind, and the miracles of the heart. He was instructed in the ancient mysteries, similar to what in common vernacular we call today, nano technology. If we could focus our intent we could collapse time, and actually recreate the nature of our reality. The effects of the destruction that were upon the land and its people could actually be reversed. That time itself could collapse. In essence, we could roll it up like a carpet and what was left would be as it was before the impaired creation process had manifested its effects. In other words Wavoka came to believe that we could renew the Earth energies and it would be as if the younger brother had never been. But the key! The key that we nearly lost, the key was the energy of Love, which is the highest vibration in the universe. It, Love, is the force behind all creation. The very thing that we are being asked to believe in today. Having been given this knowledge, Wavoka was then instructed to create the environment where the first Ghost Dance would be held. He was to instruct the people that they had to surrender their anger, and prejudice, and self indulgences; for only if they became as pure as children could they hope to restore the beauty that was before the holocaust. If they would be willing to sacrifice and to do this Wavoca was told that the Prophet himself would then come This ceremony that he spoke of to the many who heard him speak, came to be known as the Ghost Dance, originally it was the Buffalo Dance, honoring the practice of the give away, the renewal of life itself, flowing like a river of abundance. It was also called, by the many who did not understand the fullness of his teachings due to cultural boundaries, as the Indian Messiah Movement, because he spoke of the Prophet by another name other than Jesus. And we all know that Jesus~Sananda could never have been here, non the less appearing to native people. The church told us so. However, the commonality of the knowledge of the story of the Prophet among the different, indigenous peoples here on the Turtle Island, each having had their own experience with the Prophet, was well established, and the teachings of Wavoka were quite clear. Enhanced by the desperation of the times, these teachings spread across the land in a very short time, like a prairie fire. Suddenly, the people were partaking of the Ghost Dance everywhere, it was a true phenomenon. Many stories of Miracles that occurred at the Ghost Dances became common place. Many of the tribes sent representatives to find out what truth there might be to these teachings and ceremonies that were transpiring in Paiute country surrounding Wavoka and his Ghost Dancers. A resurgence of spiritual strength began to be felt by a disheartened people, who were suffering from the almost total desecration of their way of life and their peoples which was experienced in little more then one generation. It was spoken of in the teachings that Kanichi ta Kanichi wa would appear. People hearing this came from all over including many from what is now South America. The movement was growing. There was a light, a glimmer of hope that the spiritual powers of the people might once again be lit with this new, yet in actuality, very ancient way. The teachings taught that the more might that was used against the younger brother, the more destruction would be met. Even the mighty Sioux, who could boast at one time having ten thousand warriors on horseback had fallen in the wake of the flood. The Cherokee, and the mighty Iroquois has fallen, their way of life was only a memory now. It was for the Native American at that time a bleak moment, to say the least. It seemed that nothing could stop the onslaught of the younger brother and his greed. The US Army was stationed around the Nevada hills, they were watching with absolute awe the amassing of people from the four corners of this land. All with the same message. How could so many have heard without telegraph? Below in the valley over the month prior, hundreds of pilgrims had made their trek from as far away as Alaska. Some even made the journey from as far south as Peru. They came by foot and travois; small groups, a family, a couple, two friends, a single traveler There were people who held the stories of the Prophet, and those that could only wonder of what they had heard their Grandparents tell. Those that the observers saw before them were amassing into a small village. It was peaceful, but it also had an energy about it that the pony soldiers were not accustomed to feeling in their own personage. Faith, and an inner knowing that what they had come for would occur. The prophet would appear as he had promised. The Chigargwins, the people from the South, brought a large contingency of people with their entourage. They were perceived as a strange lot. Bearded, some having red hair with green eyes or blue eyes, they were often taller than the other Native people whom had assembled, and yet they lived as the People lived. These were the guardians of the sacred knowledge that had been left behind by the Prophet when he continued to the otherworldly. One could easily mistake them for Europeans except for their mannerisms and language, which was said to be an ancient tongue no longer spoken except by the Chigargwins and a few Maya, and Inca Priests. They camped at the selected sight for over a week. There were many prayers and they performed the Ghost Dance for days. Purification ceremonies were being performed in the manner of each specific people attending. It was a sight to behold. The newspapers of that day told of an accounting of strange lights in the skies. A glowing mist that surrounded the dancers. This may have been only the dust illuminated by the camp fires that were never allowed to go out during the duration of the ceremonies, but the strangeness of these ways allowed unfamiliar imaginations to run rampant. Amongst the people, the accounting has been told like this: Kanichi ta Kanichi wa appeared to the people, stepping forth from a glowing sphere. He told them that he himself was not the Prophet, but one who prepared the path before his arrival. He connected their stories of this Prophet, as told by the different peoples and their retelling of their experiences of The Prophet. They were told that the purification ceremonies must continue for four more days. They were told not to fear the soldiers in the hills -- they knew were watching but they would not be allowed to interfere, and that they would not see with their eyes what was occurring. After what amounted to nearly two weeks of ceremony and Ghost Dancing, and the four more days of ceremony under the guidance of Kanichi ta Kanichi wa, there appeared a very large glowing sphere in the sky. As if from within the glowing light the Prophet appeared to the people assembled. He walked downward form the great sphere and gave his greetings to the people. He told them that for the most part, they had forgotten the teachings he had originally given them. He told them that their tendency was to participate in war, and that many had returned to the ways of the Serpent Power. Blood Sacrifice was once again common place amongst many peoples, and that there was much separation between people. That there was even more separation between the tribes as a whole and their women were not being honored. His teachings were harsh, but not without compassion. He told them that their plight was truly one of sorrow, and that they had indeed become lost in the valley of shadows. But, they were always told that they had a choice -- always they were told that they held within their power a choice as to the outcome of the final experience. What they were experiencing was the effects of their abandoning the Sacred Teachings of Love and not maintaining peaceful relationships between each other. They had once again become addicted to the Serpent Power, and had grown fond of killing and war games. They had the taste of blood in their veins, they had dreamed the dream of violence -- so this is what they had sewn, and thus this was what they reaped. If the seed is bad, surely the fruit will be poor. The Prophet choose a counsel of twelve men and twelve women. Eleven of the men were Chigargwins, the twelfth was an unlikely choice from the warrior tribes of the great plains. Porcupine of the Northern Cheyenne was elected to the counsel. Of the women, eleven were Chigargwins, and the twelfth was a young Mayan girl of exceptional spirit and inner strength. The Prophet told them that their faith had been strong, however, even if it had been held only by the few, and that their intent had saved them from complete annihilation. And, that because of this they were to be shown great visions of the possible future. That if they who were there would return to their peoples and re-establish the ways of the great peace, the tables could be turned. They would then find their way out of the valley of twisted shadows. They had to return to the old ways. The ways that had sustained them, and had fed their peoples with the stories of the greatness that they had achieved. That the achievement was a matter of spirit, that greatness was a matter of deeds. Abundance could only be attracted from the highest vibration of a people, and that vibration was dictated by their behavior and thoughts. They must return to their peoples and re-establish the ways of the Great Peace. If they could reunite the male and female energies within their peoples, if they could move beyond their addiction to war, if they could put the killing energy asleep, if they could but move beyond their anger and depression and return to the feeling in their hearts of the love of the Divine Father and Mother that was showered upon them daily without tally, they would be able to change the energy. That was what was needed to bring back the once pristine abundance that was here and then would be once again. Then their lives upon this land would be restored to what it was before the coming of the younger brother from across the Sunrise Waters. He told them many things, and renewed their spirits for their missions were going to be hard and arduous indeed. He also told them that this was not yet the time for his returning, that there was still much to be tended to in the preparation of the coming Golden Age. Soon, the end times that were prophesized by your ancestors will be upon the land. You must return and make ready your camps for that moment. Remember that all is choice. You can not stop the Younger brother but you can rise above his ways of blood for blood. You can return to the Ways when you knew how to draw the energy from the Earth, and renew yourselves. Ask of the father in my name and it shall be given. They were told the prophecies of the end times that they might be renewed for their journeys. They were told of two other visitations that would transpire where the Prophet would return to work with the people before his final returning with a host from the stars. And he told them the signs they would know that would indicate the time of his return. Upon that day there would appear, after many more years of them dwelling in what would appear to be an endless darkness, a great light in their heavens that would block out even the light from the Sun at mid day. There would appear amongst them a great star and from this star would they see those who had promised to return, including the Prophet himself. There would be many signs in the heavens prior to this moment. They were given many accountings of things to be aware of by the Prophet and to give these warnings to the people upon their return to their own villages, that they might know what was coming. That they might see the light through the darkness of these days -- that the whole of the Earth was about to walk through. At the end of the walk they would again be side by side with the Buffalo as they followed the Eagle through the arches of the great bow that would appear in the heavens to lead them to the path of the Golden Age, and the Earth would once again be the garden of beauty it had been before.. There are many stories that followed this occurrence of the Great Ghost Dance. Porcupine, the Cheyenne Medicine Man, went on to spread the Gospel of the Prophet, along with his disciple Sitting Bull of the Arapaho who where what we could call the apostles of the Ghost Dance. In their telling of the experiences at the Ghost Dance they tried to instill hope; that the people might be renewed, and their spiritual fires lit once again. That they might return to the ways of the ancient ones, and return to the ways of the Great Peace. That they might be prepared for the coming of the Great Bow in the Heavens, and the Buffalo walk that would lead them to the New Dream. The Ceremony was awakened in 1997 in Montana, and again the elders came from all four corners of the Earth. This tale is from the knowing of one who has done the Sacred Ghost Dance Ceremony. One who has seen the Prophet walking amongst the people. I have no need to argue as to whether the things occurred or did not occur. I was there when the rainbows came into the night skies, and the Pale one strode amongst us in white buckskins. When the Buffalo cow had her calf on the very spot where the lodge had been built the year before. I was not alone. Owále piki’la, Wakan Tanka, ni’ci’ un Shunkmanitu Tanka Wanagi Wahi Wican
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 04:45:28 +0000