|
GHOST DANCE KNIFE AND SHEATH
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 blue on the knife sheath represents rain and the water in a flood and the fringe represents the winds. The hand-forged blade of the knife is typical of that obtained in trade with the white man. The sheath is made of rawhide. Together, approximately 12” by 2.5”
Made by Native and Non-Native American Artists.
|
