James Barnes

Ghostdancers Threnody For Wounded Knee

Ghostdancers' is a reflective tone poem based on the tragic story of the Piaute Medicine Man named Wovoka and his development of the 'Ghost Dance, ' which many Plains Indians adopted in the late 19th Century in a desperate effort to call their ancestors back from the dead to help them repel the massive immigration of white settlers to the Great Plains, whose rapid influx disrupted the Plains Indians food sources. The tragic history of the 'Ghost Dance' culminated during the Wounded Knee Massacre, which has become infamous as the last hostile act between Native Americans and the United States Government. 'Ghostdancers' was commissioned by David Fedele for the University of Kansas Flute Choir.