Ghost Dance Shirt

Return to: Fr Stan's Notes

On August 2,1999, the Dakota/Lakota Nation had a repatriation ceremony, formally bringing back to Dakota Territory the Ghost Dance Shirt from the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, Scotland. The repatriation was the work of the Wounded Knee Survivors Association.

The Shirt was acquired by George C. Crager in 1892 and given to the Glasgow museum, when Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show wintered in Scotland.

The Shirt will be temporarily housed at the South Dakota Heritage Center, Pierre, SD, until the Survivors Association has a permanent museum in which to display it.

More and more authentic artifacts are being returned to the Dakota/Lakota Nation from museums and private collectors all over the U.S. and abroad.

For reading: THE AMERICAN INDIAN GHOST DANCE 1870 - 1890, by Shelly Osterreich. THE GHOST DANCE RELIGION AND WOUNDED KNEE, by James Mooney.