Ghost Dance Dress

Inscriptions

Signed, in graphite, lower right: Jaune Quick-to-See Smith; numbered and titled, in graphite, lower left: 17/35 GHOST DANCE DRESS; stamped, on reverse, lower right: University of Arizona / Foundations; stamped, on reverse, lower left: Copyright 2001 / Jaune Quick-To-See-Smith; embossed, on reverse, lower left: [printer's chop] jL [circled]

Label

In this print, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith reflects on histories of Native American resistance to cultural assimilation. The focal point of the work is a dress often worn by followers of Ghost Dance. This 19th-century spiritual movement emphasized traditional values in hopes that the Native ancestors would return and restore prosperity to their communities. In 1890, President Harrison attempted to suppress Ghost Dance by deploying the US military to kill hundreds of Lakota people during the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Despite the devastating attack, some followers continued to practice in private, safe spaces. Various aspects gesture toward this continued resistance, including the large thunderbird, representing power and resilience, and the lines from the “Queen of Hearts” nursery rhyme that warn of the consequences of theft.

From the 2026 exhibition Nurturing Nationhood: Artistic Constructions of America, 1790-1940, curated by Haely Chang (Jane and Raphael Bernstein Associate Curator of East Asian Art), Evonne Fuselier (Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow), Michael Hartman (former Jonathan Little Cohen Curator of American Art), Elizabeth Rice Mattison (Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art), and Ashley B. Offill (Curator of Collections)

Course History

NAS 30.18, Indians Who Rock the World: Native American Contemporary Music, Davina Two Bears, Spring 2019

Native American and Indigenous Studies 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2025

Native American and Indigenous Studies 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2025

Exhibition History

Nurturing Nationhood: Artistic Constructions of America, 1790-1940, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; February 7-August 29, 2026.

Provenance

University of Arizona School of Art, Tuscon, Arizon; sold to present collection, 2019.

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Subjects