The Ghost Dances of 1870 and 1890 were similar social movements among American Indian peoples of the western United States. Both originated near the Walker River Reservation in western Nevada. The early prophets of both movements belonged to the same Paviotso (Northern Paiute) tribe (one disciple of the 1870 dance appears even to have been the father of the originator of the 1890 dance, though there is scholarly debate on this issue). Both movements sought similar objectives, especially the return to life of American Indian dead (Kroeber, 1904: 34–35). And both movements included similar tribal rituals of songs and circular dances (Kroeber, 1925:868).

Despite such similarities, each movement was in fact distinct. They occurred approximately twenty years apart. They also covered basically different geographical areas, with only some slight overlap. The 1870 Ghost Dance spread from its late 1860s origin in extreme western Nevada throughout most of Nevada and into Oregon and California, where it was probably strongest and certainly most pervasive. The 1890 Ghost Dance began from virtually the same Nevada location in the late 1880s and reached throughout the state, but only slightly westward into Oregon and California; it spread primarily to the north, east, and south, affecting Indian peoples in Idaho, Montana, Utah, the Dakotas, Oklahoma Territory, New Mexico, Arizona, and other states as well.