After a Piute shaman named Wovoka had an apocalyptic vision about the Second Coming of an Indian Jesus who would save them from the white man, he formed the Ghost Dance religion in 1889. Other tribal leaders sent representatives to learn about this trance inducing dancing that went on for five nights. The violent shaking described by one government agent as crazed and disgusting was enough for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to decide it could pose a threat to the white settlers, and outlawed it. The Sioux Indians of South Dakota had the last Ghost Dance. They took so seriously the precepts of the ritual that they wore "ghost shirts" into the battle of Wounded Knee, thinking the shirts and the dance would protect them from the soldiers' bullets. In one of the saddest tragedies of American history, more than 300 Indian men, women, and children were...