The dance was simple in design. The worshippers, who were painted in red, shuffled counter-clock wise in a circle. They started out slow and would gradually pick up the tempo while singing songs. At the time of the emergence of the ghost dance movement, the Indians had suffered the loss of the buffalo, drought, influenza, and they were forbidden to hunt game and rely on rations that were inadequate. The Ghost dance offered them

The Indians went into their teepees and brought out only two weapons. Forsyth concluded that the Indians would not surrender their guns and decided to take them by force. Troops moved to within 10 yards of the Indians and other troops went into the teepees to do a search. The tension on the outside caused everyone to be uneasy and when the soldiers began to search the Indians the situation exploded. A young Indian pulled out his gun a started to fire wildly. Instantly, the Hotchkiss guns opened fire and cut through anyone in its path. When the battle was over there were 153 Indians killed and only 24 soldiers dead. (Brown, 444) When the soldiers went out to bury the Indians, they found that many of them were wearing the ghost shirts that were supposed to be able to with stand a bullet.

“Day after day the peopled danced, wearing circles on the earth. They had plaited eagle feathers in their hair, painted their faces, and donned sacred garments, white muslin with painted symbols of the natural world. As the pace quickened from slow, steady shuffles to a free form frenzy, many fell to the ground and had visions of the world restored”(Marks, 215)

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