USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Lakota Sioux reservations were occupied by the US Army, causing fear, confusion, and resistance among the Lakota. It resulted in the Wounded Knee Massacre wherein the 7th Cavalry killed over 250 Lakota, primarily unarmed women, children, and elders, at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890.

Detailed explanation-2: -The religious frenzy engendered by Ghost Dancing frightened American and immigrant settlers, particularly in the Dakotas, the traditional home of most of the Sioux tribes; concurrently, the U.S. military was concerned that Sitting Bull would try to exploit the movement to engineer an uprising.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Lakotas’ white neighbors and reservation officials viewed the movement as a threat to U.S. Indian policy and believed the Ghost Dance ceremonies and ghost shirts indicated that the Lakotas intended to start a war. Reservation officials called on the U.S. government to stop the dancing.

Detailed explanation-4: -As the 1890s began, the emergence of the ghost dance movement was viewed by white Americans as a credible threat. The American public was, by that time, used to the idea that Native Americans had been pacified, moved onto reservations, and essentially converted to living in the style of white farmers or settlers.