The Ghost Dance "Movement" has been interpreted by the White Man with fear and confusion. In many ways, the Ghost Dance was similar to the European's Christian beliefs. In Nevada, Wovoka emerged, a Paiute they many believed was sent to earth as a Peace Messiah or Savior. Like the Jewish Jesus, he spoke of love, compassion, and strength through peace and non-violent actions.

He also spoke of rebirth. For in 1890, he felt the Return of the Spirits in the Native countries. During the next spring, he predicted, the earth would fill and cover the White Man who had violated the Sacred Lands past the Missouri. The Native Peoples, those faithful to the Great Spirit, would survive, and the Spirits of the dead would rise up to dwell with them as the buffalo returned to its Native land.

Sitting Bull and Red Cloud heard the message of Wovoka. They allowed their Lakota Nations to follow the prophesies of Wovoka, as did many other Nations across the West. Some rituals are hidden. The Whites saw only the Ghost Dance, the musical prayer of the hopeful, performed in beautifully designed outfits that became known as Ghost Shirts. Some said that the Ghost Shirts deflected many of the White Man's bullets in small skirmishes.

The Great Father Benjamin Harrison was most scared of all. He demanded that all Ghost Dancers be sent onto Reservations, especially the Pine Ridge Reservation where many US troops were stationed. During this time, in Dec. 1890, Sitting Bull was killed as they tried to forcibly remove him from Canada and the Northern Dakota lands.

Chief Big Foot (Spotted Elk) and his Standing Rock band fled the troops that killed Sitting Bull, to join his brothers who had been herded, like cattle, at Wounded Knee Creek. There, the gathered Sioux performed their Ghost Dances, and peacefully waited until the spring would bring the Return of the Spirits.

In Big Foot's band was a woman. Know one knows her name for certain. Perhaps her husband was a Ghost Dancers, or maybe even Sitting Bull himself. When they fled to Wounded Knee, she brought a small baby girl. We don't know exactly when the infant was born, but probably in mid-1890, for she was only a few months old.

How she ended up in the world of the White Men is a fascinating and tragic story. For this baby became known as Zintkala Nuni, or Lost Bird. Some called her the Waif of Wounded Knee.