ghost dance

American  

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.

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ghost dance British  

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

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Etymology

Origin of ghost dance

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 • Nov. 18, 2019

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

From The Guardian • Aug. 23, 2018

Some practitioners believed the dance would bring a savior to the Native American people, and some believed their ghost dance shirts would protect them from harm.

From Washington Times • Sep. 4, 2016

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 • Sep. 4, 2016

Of the ghost dance and its serious import, readers of the daily papers are familiar.

From My Native Land The United States: its Wonders, its Beauties, and its People; with Descriptive Notes, Character Sketches, Folk Lore, Traditions, Legends and History, for the Amusement of the Old and the Instruction of the Young by Cox, James