Hostiles? : The Lakota Ghost Dance and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West

In Hostiles? Sam A. Maddra relates an ironic tale of Indian accommodation - and preservation of the Ghost Dance, which the Lakotas believed was a principled, restorative religion. To the U.S. Army, their religion was a rebellion to be suppressed. To the Indians, it offered hope in a time of great transition. To Cody, it became a means to attract British audiences. With these Lakotas, the showman could offer dramatic reenactments of the army''s conquest, starring none other than the very ""hostile Indians"" who had staged the recent ""uprising"" in South Dakota.

Cody''s narrative of conquest is generally rejected, but few people even today question whether the Lakotas had twisted the original Ghost Dance into a violent resistance movement. Drawing on sources previous historians have overlooked, Maddra shows the fallacy of this view. Appended to this volume are five of Short Bull''s narratives, including a new translation by Raymond J. DeMallie of a 1915 interview.