Ghost Dance - (A Single Blade of Grass)

Ghost Dance - (A Single Blade of Grass)

During a scene from the Millennium episode A Single Blade Of Grass written by writing-partners Erin Maher and Kay Reindl, Floyd "Redcrow" Westerman reads a direct extract from the Messiah Letter, during a re-enactment of 'The Ghost Dance.'

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GHOST DANCE

(EXTRACT NARRATED BY ACTOR FLOYD "REDCROW" WESTERMAN)

"Do not tell the white people about this.
Jesus is now upon the earth.
He appears like a cloud.
The dead are still alive again.
I do not know when they will be here; maybe this fall or in the spring.
When the time comes there will be no more sickness and everyone will be young again."

From 'THE MESSIAH LETTER', Wovoka (aka Jack Wilson)

This second season episode of Millennium dealt with the 'millenniumistic' prophecy of the birth of the Fifth World and elimination of the White Man.

The real-life background and inspiration for this episode was James Mooney, a 19th century ethnologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology, was sent to investigate the 'Ghost Dance' movement in 1891. The Ghost Dance (Nanissáanah in Native American Caddo, the traditional language of the Caddo Nation), also known as the Ghost Dance of 1890, was a new religious movement being incorporated into numerous American Indian belief systems. 

According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka, proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits of the dead to fight on their behalf, make the white colonists leave, and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Indian peoples throughout the region.

Ethnologist James Mooney obtained a copy of Wovoka's message from a Cheyenne named Black Short Nose, who had been part of a joint Cheyenne-Arapaho delegation that visited Wovoka in Nevada, in August 1891. Wovoka (also known as Jack Wilson) delivered his message orally, and it was transcribed by a member of the group who had attended Carlisle Indian School. Mooney renders the "Carlisle English" of this transcription in a more grammatical form.

Learn more:

Wikipedia entry on the Ghost Dance

Full version of Wovoka's Message: The Promise of the Ghost Dance

Ghost Dance

The ghost-dance religion and the Sioux outbreak of 1890 : Mooney, James, 1861-1921 : Free Download

The Indian Ghost Dance and War