"When the sun died, I went up to Heaven and saw God and all the people who had died a long time ago. God told me to come back and tell my people they must be good and love each other, and not fight, or steal or lie. He gave me this dance to give to my people.
Do not tell the white people about this. Jesus is now upon the earth. He appears like a cloud. The dead are still alive again. I do not know when they will be here; maybe this fall or in the spring. When the time comes there will be no more sickness and everyone will be young again." (출처는 The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 by James Mooney)
Wovoka의 메시지는 간단했습니다.
개벽이 와서 백인들이 모두 물에 빠져 없어지고 인디언들의 세상이 다시 열리는데, 그러기 위해서는 하느님의 말을 믿고 원시반본의 길인 '고스트 댄스'를 추어야 한다는 것입니다.
"If you faithfully obey your instructions from on high, you will at last be reunited with your friends in a renewed world where there would be no more death or sickness or old age. First, though, the Earth must die. Indians should not be afraid, however.
For it will come live again. In the hour of tribulation, a tremendous earthquake will follow. The water and the mud will sweep the white race and all Indian skeptics away to their deaths. Then the dead ancestors will return, as will the vanished buffalo and other game, and everything on Earth will once again be an Indian paradise."
Wovoka가 '고스트 댄스'의 창시자라면, Black Elk는 '고스트 댄스'를 통해서 인디언 혁명을 일으키고자 했던 사람입니다. 이 자서전에서 그는 말하기를, 9살때 조상신들로부터 비전vision을 받았다고 합니다.
동서남북과 중앙의 영들로부터 메시지를 받았는데, 특히 동방의 영이 동방에서 날아오는 두 사람을 보여주었다고 했습니다.
그 두 사람이 온 세상에 도통을 열고, 또한 온 세상을 신유할 수 있는 힘을 가진 '평화의 파이프'(peace pipe)를 Black Elk에게 전달하였다는 것입니다.
또한 그 두 사람 중 한 사람은 온몸이 붉은색으로 빛났으며 땅에서 한번 뒹굴자 들소로 변하여 동쪽에 있는 밤색 말들에게로 뛰어가자 그 말들도 모두 우람한 들소가 되었다는 것입니다.
"Take courage, younger brother," he said, "for across the earth they shall take you!" Then he pointed far where the daybreak star was shining, and beneath the star two men were flying. "From them you shall have power," he said, "from them who have awakened all the beings of the earth with roots and legs and wings." And as he said this, he held in his hand a peace pipe which had a spotted eagle out stretched upon the stem; and this eagle seemed alive, for it was poised there, fluttering, and its eyes were looking at me.
"With this pipe," the Grandfather said, "you shall walk upon the earth, and whatever sickens there you shall make well." Then he pointed to a man who was bright red all over, the color of good and of plenty, and as he pointed, the red man lay down and rolled and changed into a bison that got up and galloped toward the sorrel horses of the east, and they too turned to bison, fat and many. (21~22쪽)
Black Elk는 이 비전을 그가 장성한 후에 사람들에게 전하였는데
이 비전을 '신성한 말춤'(Sacred Horse Dance)라고 부릅니다. 그 이유는 그가 비전의 결론을 말[馬]에 두고 있기 때문입니다.
Then the daybreak star was rising, and a Voice said: "It shall be a relative to them; and who shall see it, shall see much more, for thence comes wisdom; and those who do not see it shall be dark." And all the people raised their faces to the east, and the star's light fell upon them, and all the dogs barked loudly and the horse whinnied. (27쪽)
즉 동방의 진리가 모든 사람에게 비추자, 개가 짖고 말이 울었다는 것입니다.
그러나 '운디드 니'에서의 참살로 인해 '고스트 댄스'의 꿈은 깨지고, 언제 있었냐는 듯이 이 운동은 없어져 버리고 말았다고 합니다 . 하지만 Black Elk의 비전은 오늘날에도 더없이 필요하고 소중하다고 할 것입니다
