ghost-shirt

a white shirt worn by the Sioux Indians during the ghost-dance, a ritual central to the messianic religion instituted circa 1870 among the Paige Indians by their prophet Wovoka (1856-1932). The religion, which prophesied the end of white expansion westward and the return of land to the Indians, spread to most of the western Indians. The ritual was danced for five successive days and was accompanied by hypnotic trances. The Sioux performed the ritual prior to their massacre at Wounded Knee (the last of the major Indian wars in 1890)-wearing ghost shirts that they thought would protect them from bullets.