Friday, September 16, 2016

Oldest Existing Footage of Native American Drumming and “The Ghost Dance”

The "Ghost Dance" was a phenomenon that caught on among Native American tribes in the Great Plains during the latter half of the 19th century, as the continent that they had so long dwelt and lived their traditional lifestyles was being taken away from them.

The following link provides a decent history of this phenomenon, as well as a short video clip that is the oldest known video documentary showing this ritual, as well as of showing Natives dancing to drums, as opposed to the popular cultural interpretations of these phenomenon that came to influence our own society with Westerns that, for the most part, unfairly reinforced the notion of Natives as "savages."

This seemed like a good companion piece to the GLV article that I wrote, as well as the quotes from Chief Luther Standing Bear that I published a little earlier today, so here is the link:



Taken in 1894, this is the oldest known footage of Native American drumming and “The Ghost Dance”

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