Hopi Indians
Dawes Act

The Ghost Dance

• Astonished and disturbed by the enthusiasms of the ritual, some American witnesses were moved to dire warnings. One agent reported that the Indians favored “disobedience to all orders, and war if necessary to carry out their dance craze.” “The Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy,” hyperventilated the agent at Pine Ridge. Another denounced the actual dance as “exceedingly prejudicial” to the “physical welfare” of the Indians, who became exhausted by it. “I think, “the agent went on, “steps should be taken to stop it.” Fearful that unconscious women might be molested, one white witness at Pine Ridge claimed that women “fall senseless to the ground, throwing their clothes over their heads, and laying bare the most prominent part of their bodies, viz., ‘their butts’ and ‘things.’” Concluded still another, “The dance is indecent, demoralizing, and disgusting.” - pbs

"In 1882 US Secretary of the Interior Henry M. Teller issued new orders to suppress “heathenish dances, such as the sun dance, scalp dance, &c.,” in order to bring Indians into line with conventional Christian practice."

1890: Battle of the Wounded Knee

• colonists were not respecting Lakota land agreements and disrupting the balance of the hunting grounds. the indigenous never had a scarcity of bison until the colonists came.
• colonists tried to bring chief Sitting Bull into custody over "messiah craze", the rising native belief that a savior would come and drive the colonists off their land, and restore those who were killed.

1973: Leonard Peltier