ghost dance

noun

1. a ritual dance intended to establish communion with the dead, especially such a dance as performed by various messianic western American Indian cults in the late 19th century.

ghost dance

noun

1. a religious dance of certain North American Indians, connected with a political movement (from about 1888) that looked to reunion with the dead and a return to an idealized state of affairs before Europeans came

Word History and Origins

Origin of ghost dance¹

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90

Example Sentences

What little optimism there was among locals had, then, a slightly desperate quality, a whiff of the ghost dance.

From The Guardian

After all, Native American performers helped found the entire industry back in 1894 when Thomas Edison filmed a Sioux ghost dance.

From The Guardian

He returned to Pine Ridge in 1889, where he participated in the ghost dance movement that swept up many of his Oglala Lakota brethren.

From Washington Times

To this final pledge are attributable many ghost dances and outbreaks against the whites, notably that at Pine Ridge Agency, when the coming of the Messiah was expected with full confidence.

From Project Gutenberg

This performance may not be related to that of the Kiowa, since it appeared among the Sioux before the southern Plains tribes took up the ghost dance.

From Project Gutenberg