What the facts are
The title suggests a long-standing Apache tradition of “Ghost Dances”. That is not accurate. The Ghost Dance that most people mean was a religious movement of 1889 to 1890 that began with the Paiute prophet Wovoka in Nevada and spread, in different forms, to many Native nations, especially on the Plains. It was not an Apache tradition, and most Apache nations did not adopt it. A small number of Apache people, notably some Plains Apache of what is now Oklahoma, are recorded as taking part in the wider movement, and there were separate Apache prophet movements, the best known being that of Nochaydelklinne among the Western Apache in 1881. Those are different events, and it helps to keep them apart.
The 1890 Ghost Dance in brief
The Ghost Dance movement spread among peoples who had suffered the loss of land, the destruction of the bison herds, confinement on reservations and disease. Wovoka’s teachings were taken up in a range of ways by different nations, and generally included hopes of renewal and a better future, with dancing as part of religious practice. Authorities viewed the movement with alarm. The best known tragedy associated with that time is the killing of many Lakota people at Wounded Knee in December 1890. That event involved the Lakota, not the Apache, though it is often mentioned in the same breath.
Because the Ghost Dance received a lot of attention from writers and filmmakers, it has been wrongly attached to many Native nations. Reading it back into Apache history makes for a more dramatic story but a less accurate one.
Plains Apache involvement
The Plains Apache, formerly known as the Kiowa Apache, live in southwestern Oklahoma, alongside the Kiowa and Comanche. They shared in the political and religious life of the southern Plains in ways that the Western Apache and Chiricahua of the Southwest did not. Reports from the period, including those collected by the ethnologist James Mooney, record that some people from the southern Plains peoples, including some Plains Apache, took part in the Ghost Dance in the 1890s. The details of how many took part and for how long are limited in the sources, and they should not be exaggerated. The accurate summary is limited and varied involvement, not a defining tradition.
This is also a good moment to separate the Ghost Dance from other Plains ceremonies. As with the Sun Dance, a largely Plains tradition in which Apache involvement was limited and varied, it is best not to assume that a Plains practice was general among all Apache peoples. Each nation has its own history.
Apache prophet movements
Apache history does include religious leaders who attracted followers during times of crisis. The best documented case is Nochaydelklinne, a Western Apache man from the Cibecue area who taught in 1881. His name is rendered in several spellings in sources. Accounts of what he taught come largely from non-Apache and military records, and from later Apache and scholarly interpretations, so there is room for disagreement. Commonly cited elements include the idea that the dead would return and that outsiders would leave. Anglo observers and some Apache people differed in their interpretations of his intentions.
In August 1881, army troops went to arrest Nochaydelklinne near Cibecue Creek. The encounter ended in violence. He was killed, as were soldiers, and some Apache scouts in the army turned against their officers in what is often called the Cibecue Creek incident. Several of the scouts involved were later tried, and the affair contributed to a period of increased tension in the region. The causes of the clash, and how much of the blame to assign, are still debated.
This movement preceded the Ghost Dance by about nine years and arose from local circumstances. It is not part of it, even though both involve prophecy and a hope for renewal. Describing Nochaydelklinne as an Apache “Ghost Dance” leader would be a mistake.
Why such movements arise
Historians often note that religious movements of renewal tend to appear when communities face severe stress: loss of land, restrictions on movement, pressure to abandon traditions, and confinement. By 1881, the Western Apache were living under reservation controls at places such as San Carlos and Fort Apache, and conditions were difficult. It is reasonable to say that the movement of Nochaydelklinne arose in that setting. It would not be reasonable to claim more than the sources support about individual motives.
Avoiding the “haunting” trope
The title’s word “haunting” evokes ghosts and mystery, a framing that tends to turn Native religion into spectacle. The Ghost Dance was a serious religious and political movement of people in hardship. Describing Native beliefs as spooky obscures that.
Readers who find “Apache Ghost Dance” listed in popular sources should check the claim. Several sources conflate the Ghost Dance with other dances, or invent practices. For reliable information, rely on tribal and academic sources, and treat internet summaries with caution. Apache communities today have their own ceremonies and religious lives, and none of that depends on the 1890 movement.