Cheyenne and Kiowa artists, Ghost Dance Moccasins, late 1800s. Leather, paint, and glass beads; 3 x 7¼ x 3 in. Denver Art Museum: Native Arts acquisition fund, 1941.181A-B

height: 3 in, 7.62 cm; length: 7 1/4 in, 18.415 cm; width: 3 in, 7.62 cm

Native Arts

Indigenous Arts of North America

These Ghost Dance moccasins are the creation of two artists from two tribes at two different times.  The Ghost Dance was an American Indian religious movement that spread among many tribes across the Plateau and Plains regions and was founded by a Paiute prophet named, Wovoka.  This painted pair of moccasins was originally created by a Southern Cheyenne artist for use in the Cheyenne Ghost Dance, which only lasted from 1889-1890.  Sometime after its creation by a Cheyenne artist, the moccasins were embellished by a Kiowa artist who added beads.  The Kiowa also danced the Ghost Dance during the same two-year span, but later brought it back in a different form and danced a revised version from 1894 to 1916.

J. C. Tingley, of Anadarko, OK, before 1941; Denver Art Museum, 1941.