Wovoka
Wovoka was a Paiute who in his formative years worked for a rancher named David Wilson in Nevada, who gave the young man the name Jack Wilson, and taught him Christianity. It may be that David Wilson was a member of the Christian sect known as the Shakers, as Wovoka later taught his followers a dance which contained similarities to those of the Shakers. It became known as the Ghost Dance and Wovoka taught his followers that done properly it would destroy the whites occupying Indian lands by resurrecting the dead of all the Indian tribes.
January 1 1889 featured a full solar eclipse, and Wovoka claimed to have had a vision during the event. “When the sun died, I went up to heaven and saw God and all the people who had died a long time ago. God told me to come back and tell my people they must be good and love one another and not fight, or steal or lie. He gave me this dance to give to my people,” said Wovoka. Other aspects of his vision contained similarities to the New Testament Book of Revelations, one of the often referenced and studied works by the Shakers.
Wovoka proclaimed himself to be the messiah promised to the Christian whites, and the dance which he taught to his followers spread rapidly among the tribes of the west, most of which by that time had been placed in reservations. Wovoka taught his followers that the Ghost Dance would bring spirits that would drive the whites from the lands of the various tribes in divine retribution. Among those who learned the dance from Wovoka were two Lakota from the Pine Ridge reservation, Kicking Bear and Short Bull.
When Kicking Bear and Short Bull took the dance back to Pine Ridge, it was with the interpretation that the Ghost Shirts worn during the dance would protect them from bullets. They also informed the reservation authorities of the dance’s meaning and purpose, and announced the Indian messiah. Wovoka had convinced them that the dance would lead to the elimination of the whites, a fact which they also shared with the authorities. The practice of the Ghost Dance led to the death during his arrest of Sitting Bull and the following Battle of Wounded Knee.
Wovoka had earlier made an offer to the authorities in which he would control the Lakota and prevent any military influence by the Ghost Dance on them in return for money and food, for himself and his people. His offer was ignored, largely because the leader of the Sioux at Pine Ridge, Sitting Bull, was unimpressed with the dance and distrustful of its message. He was reluctant at first to allow its performance. Following the Battle of Wounded Knee Wovoka’s followers left him rapidly, and he lived the rest of his life in relative obscurity. Wovoka died in Nevada in 1932.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“King Philip”, entry at Brittanica.com
“The Frontiersman”, by Allan Eckert
“That Dark and Bloody River”, by Allan Eckert
“Biography of Black Kettle”. Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. NPS.org
“Sand Creek Massacre”. Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. NPS.org
“The Heart of Everything That Is” by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
“Black Elk”, entry Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. plainshumanities.unl.edu