GHOST DANCE DRUM AND BEATER
The Ghost Dance was perhaps the most rigorous of all Plains Indian dances. It is based upon an old vision which revealed that at some point the earth would flood. During the flood all white people and Indians who were not respected would be washed away. Birds, aided by the upward draw of the moon and stars, would lift Indians who traveled the Red Road, or correct road in life, into the sky to be united with relatives who had died previously. When the water went away, the Indians on the Red Road would be returned to the purged earth. The grass and the buffalo would be returned and things would be as they were in the old days, when times were good, before the white man. It was believed that the harder one danced, the sooner the flood would occur.
The Ghost Dance Drum honors the Ghost Dance legend. Painted on both sides, the drum is approximately 13" in diameter and 4" deep. The drum beater has a blue trade cloth covered handle and is 14" long.
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