 There was a time when the buffalo covered our plains and furnished us with all the meat we needed.Now they are gone, wantonly destroyed by the white man and we are obliged to beg for something to take their place.Extreme desperation and disillusionment always forms a fertile environment for the spread of evangelical religious movements, and the Ghost Dance promises of reuniting with dead loved ones, resurrection of the buffalo, and unity among Indians throughout the region now held special appeal to the Lakota.