Each Ghost Dance movement lasted only a few years, but this does not mean that each did not have lasting effect on American Indian peoples. As mentioned in Chapter 1, each movement actually became institutionalized as a religion or religious cult in some tribes, and three cults developed from the 1870 Ghost Dance: the Earth Lodge Cult, the Bole-Maru, and the Big Head Cult. These cults persisted well beyond the movement, into the present century. The 1890 Ghost Dance continues as religion and ceremony today.

In Chapter 4 I gave a nadir figure for the total U.S. American Indian population: about 228,000 circa 1890. After that time the American Indian population began to increase gradually, then more sharply, until by 1980 it approached 1.4 million. Considerable tribal variations in recovery are present: Populations of some tribes increased while others decreased, even to extinction. (See Thornton, 1984b, in press b.) Conceivably, tribal involvement in either Ghost Dance might have influenced subsequent population change.

Various speculations here are possible: Were participants more successful in reversing population trends and achieving demographical revitalization? Were they less successful? Were both participants and nonparticipants equally successful or unsuccessful?

One might expect the latter to be the true situation: that Ghost Dance participation had absolutely no impact on the subsequent population histories of American Indian peoples in question.