Arnold Short Bull

He preached a militant and apocalyptic vision of the Ghost Dance, in which the spirits of Native American ancestors would return to restore the old way of life, while the whites would be erased from the land, believing that performing the ghost dance would hasten the arrival of this promise land.

Incidents of Native Americans slaughtering livestock also scared the authorities as well as settlers in the area.

[1] While delivering a sermon to a large crowd of Brulé, Short Bull said that they must perform the dance at Pass Creek in November during the full moon, in order to bring about the promised land earlier than expected.

Stressing the importance of this dance, Short Bull instructed them to stop for no reason, and that supernatural forces would protect them even if soldiers tried to stop the ritual, saying: "There may be soldiers surround you, but pay no attention to them, continue the dance.

If the soldiers surround you four deep, three of you on whom I have put holy shirts will sing a song, which I have taught you, around them, when some of them will drop dead, then the rest will start to run, but their horses will sink into the earth; the riders will jump from their horses, but they will sink into the earth also; then you can do as you desire with them.