The Pawnee ghost dance hand game
Subtitle: ghost dance revival and ethnic identity
By: Alexander Lesser ; introduction to the Bison Books edition by Alice Beck Kehoe.
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Lincoln
Language: eng
Number of pages: 340
Subjects: Pawnee dance; Ghost dance; Pawnee Indians -- Games; Pawnee Indians -- Ethnic identity
Description: "The Ghost Dance religion that swept through the Plains Indian tribes in the early 1890s was embraced wholeheartedly by the Pawnees. It was a message of hope to a people devastated by the attacks of enemy tribes, the encroachment of white settlers, and the outbreak of epidemics. For the Pawnees, who were looking to the U.S. government and trying unsuccessfully to farm their land, the Ghost Dance movement promised salvation: a restoration of the Indian dead, the buffalo, and the old times. The author shows how the Ghost Dance brought about a partial revival of traditional Pawnee culture and its dances and songs. The ancient guessing hand game, remembered best by a tribe starved for the joy of play, became an important part of the Ghost Dance ritual. What had been a gambling game, a representation of warfare played by men, was transformed into a sacred game played by both sexes as an expression of faith or good fortune"--Publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 339).
Originally published: New York : Columbia University Press, 1933.