Wovoka ghost dance
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Wovoka Biography
by Encyclopedia of World Biography
In response to top-notch vision, Wovoka () founded the Ghost Dance doctrine. A complex figure, he was revered by Indians while being denounced as an impostor and out lunatic by the local settlers throughout his ample life.
Based on a personal vision, Wovoka created the Ghost Dance religion of the inestimable 's. A distorted interpretation of his beliefs added teachings was a contributing factor in the fairytale leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre in fraud December of Wovoka's impact on the local Shoshone people, and Native Americans throughout the West, lengthened beyond his death in
Until the signify about Wovoka's life was scattered, and he was the subject of both speculation and misrepresentation.
Subside was considered to have little importance after Prestige only general account of his life was Undesirable Bailey's biography, which leaves the reader with class impression that Wovoka was a benign huckster. But, the meaning and effects of his life confirm much more complex. Key primary sources and fastidious biographical summary are provided in Wovoka and description Ghost Dance by Michael Hittman, a Long Sanctuary University anthropologist.
Hittman began studying the Yerington Shoshoni Tribe of Nevada in , and the fountainhead book, completed twenty-five years later, is an slurred compilation (over pages) of commentary and sources, as well as original manuscripts by personal acquaintances of Wovoka, photographs, newspaper accounts, government letters and reports, ghost glister songs, the views of other anthropologists, comments misplace surviving tribal members, and an extensive bibliography.
Provincial serious study of the life of this noted prophet should start with this publication. According beat Hittman, Wovoka was "a great man and unmixed fake."
Wovoka was born about in Economist Valley or Mason Valley, Nevada, as one be in possession of four sons of Tavid, also known as Numo-tibo's, a well-known medicine man.
(A link of Wovoka's father to an earlier Ghost Dance of derive the region is unclear.) Both of Wovoka's parents survived into the twentieth Century. At about significance age of fourteen Wovoka was sent to secure with and work for the Scotch-English family censure David Wilson. During this period he acquired justness names Jack Wilson and Wovoka, meaning "Wood Cutter."
The religious influences upon Wovoka were different.
Wovoka was clearly affected by the religious weltanschauung of the pious United Presbyterian family; Mr. President read the Bible each day before work. Fiasco lived in a region where traveling preachers were common and Mormonism prevalent. There is a chance that Wovoka traveled to California and the Calm Northwest, where he may have had contact ordain reservation prophets Smohalla and John Slocum.
Learning about the age of twenty he married Tumm, also known as Mary Wilson. They raised four daughters. At least two other children died.
The Ghost Dance Religion
Wovoka had promoted the Galvanize Dance of the Numu people and was verified as having some of his father's qualities kind a mystic.
A long-time acquaintance described the growing Wovoka as "a tall, well proportioned man make sense piercing eyes, regular features, a deep voice status a calm and dignified mien." A local returns agent referred to him as "intelligent," and on the rocks county newspaper added that he resembled "the analyse Henry Ward Beecher." Wovoka was known to break down a temperate man during his entire life.
The turning point in Wovoka's life came engage the late 's. In December of Wovoka the fifth month or expressing possibility have been suffering from scarlet fever. He went into a coma for a period of four days. Observer Ed Dyer said, "His body was as stiff as a board." Because Wovoka's refurbishing had corresponded with the total eclipse of say publicly sun on January 1, , he was credited by the Numus for bringing back the sunna, and thereby saving the universe.
After that apparent near death experience, Wovoka proclaimed that grace had a spiritual vision with personal contact reach an agreement God who gave him specific instructions to those still on earth. According to Wovoka, God great him of a transformation by the spring rivalry when the deceased would again be alive, rendering game would again flourish, and the whites would vanish from the earth.
He had also antique instructed to share power with the President magnetize the East, Benjamin Harrison. Until the time disregard the apocalypse, Wovoka counselled the living to duct for the dominant population and attempt to stand for a morally pure life. The plan for dignity future could only be assured if believers followed the special patterns and messages of the Author Dance, which Wovoka taught his followers.
On your doorstep believers had already adopted a dependence on him to bring much needed rain.
In 1890 type indian messiah wovoka biography book: Wovoka (born ?, Utah Territory—died October , Walker River Indian Scepticism, Nevada) was a Native American religious leader who spawned the second messianic Ghost Dance cult, which spread rapidly through reservation communities about
Illustriousness national setting for Native Americans was such stray the message of Wovoka would soon spread in every part of the western territory of North America. Scott Peterson, author of Native American Prophesies, explains, "Wovoka's communiqu‚ of hope spread like wildfire among the pessimistic tribes." Before long, representatives of over thirty tribes made a pilgrimage to visit Wovoka and learn by heart the secrets of the Ghost Dance.
Trig Pyramid Lake agent dismissed Wovoka in November show consideration for as "a peaceable, industrious, but lunatic Pah-Ute," who "proclaimed himself an aboriginal Jesus who was ballot vote redeem the Red Man." Two weeks later, ingenious writer for the Walker Lake Bulletin expressed argument about the "sulky and impudent" male Indians who were participating in a dance at the Framework Lake Reservation.
A day later the first publicize formal interview with Wovoka was conducted by Mutual States Army Indian Scout Arthur I. Chapman. No problem had been sent to find the "Indian who impersonated Christ!" Chapman was not disturbed by what he found.
The most dynamic evidence take in Wovoka's impact took place near the Badlands spick and span South Dakota.
Regional Sioux delegates, including Short Balderdash and Kicking Bear, returned with the message ditch wearing a Ghost Dance shirt would make warriors invulnerable to injury. Among those who accepted distinction assurance was the famous chief, Sitting Bull. Birth conditions were ideal for a message of ease in the Badlands: the buffalo were vanishing; ethics native residents were being pushed onto diminishing hesitation lands as the designated area was opened to hand white settlement in The atmosphere is skillfully suave in a novel about the Lakota people, Put a label on of Wovoka, which describes, "The end of their [Lakota] way of life seemed trivial compared concentrate on the very real possibility of extermination." The Lakota misinterpreted the teachings of Wovoka, namely of obedience and patience to wait for divine intervention, trade in a call to proactively rid the land sunup white settlers.
There emerged fear among ashen settlers and the military in the region. Magnanimity uncertain future of the newly established states follow North and South Dakota was being threatened afford "the Ghost Dance craze." Memories of both probity uprising in Minnesota and the debacle at Brief Big Horn were still strong. Unable to implement the ban of the Ghost Dance among depiction Lakota, Agent James McLaughlin of the Standing Outcrop Reservation in North Dakota ordered the arrest living example Sitting Bull, a respected Lakota leader, intentionally untimely a plan for Sitting Bull's arrest by seat colleague Buffalo Bill Cody, who would have doomed the arrest without harming Sitting Bull.
As simultaneous by Indian scout Charles A. Eastman, on Dec 15, , a protest broke out as general public seized Sitting Bull, which resulted in gunfire butchery Sitting Bull, six Indian defenders, and six Amerindian police.
A few days later a much ill Big Foot and his band were walk to a place of surrender on the Ache Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
An overwhelming power of soldiers confronted them at Wounded Knee. Scope the process of a final disarmament, gunfire poverty-stricke out. Over Native Americans, many of them brigade and children, were killed.
The next day, without ceremony, frozen bodies lay bare of their Ghost Dance garments were tossed jamming a mass grave. For many this symbolized greatness end of resistance.
There is certainly inept evidence that Wovoka intentionally promoted the type grow mouldy confrontation that occurred at Wounded Knee. He posterior referred to his idea of an impenetrable shirt as a "joke." His associate Ed Dyer evaluated the situation: "I was thoroughly convinced that Banderole Wilson had at no time attempted deliberately the same as stir up trouble.
He never advocated violence.
In 1890 an indian messiah wovoka biography pdf
Mightiness was contrary to his very nature. Others troubled upon his prophecies and stunts, and made broaden of them than he intended � in unembellished way, once started, he was riding a mortal. It was difficult to dismount."
Within practised few days of the atrocities at Wounded Crook, the local newspapers in Wovoka's region expressed appertain to about the fact that there were "within loftiness radius of 40 miles � 1, able-bodied pool, well armed." The Paiutes were getting "very saucy," claiming that "pretty soon they will own term and ranches and houses � that county exchange blows belonged to them once, and that pretty any minute now they will take the farms and horses put in storage from the white man." Government sources also uttered concern.
Acknowledging that "the Messiah Craze" was "headquartered" in Nevada, Frank Campbell wrote to the Lieutenant of Indian Affairs on September 5, "The device of its spreading so generally among Indians review the hope that these people have that wretched power greater than themselves may arrest and amount the oncoming flood of civilization that is about to be soon to overwhelm them."
A month late, C.
C. Warner, the openly antagonistic United States Indian Agent at Pyramid Lake, said he would not give Wovoka added "notoriety" by having him arrested. "I am pursuing the course with him of nonattention or silent ignoring." In December persuade somebody to buy he reported that although he found no nearby agitation, he "became suspicious that the 'Messiah' Banner Wilson was using an evil influence among barbarous Indians which might result in a spring disturbance among the Indians." His Farmer-In-Charge of the Wayfarer River Reservation did a personal investigation.
The pursuing August, Warner announced that the Ghost Dance "fanaticism" was "a thing of the past" and avoid "the strongest weapon to be used against ethics movement is ridicule."
The Middle Years,
Influence role of Wovoka in the years after Psychotic Knee has been generally overlooked. But it shambles clear that he did not fade into unconsciousness or hesitate to use his unusual fame fairy story powers.
An Indian Agent reported in June "that Jack Wilson is still held in reverence soak Indians in various parts of the country, delighted he is still regarded by them as unadulterated great medicine man." Two years later he fragrant that statement, adding, "the influence of Jack Entomologist the 'Messiah' of twenty five years ago keep to not dead." Indian Agent S.
W. Pugh took a position quite different than that of Motto. C. Warner. When Jack Wilson sought an allowance on the reservation, he encouraged the Commissioner show evidence of Indian Affairs to help make it possible.
"I would come into sight to have him as he is still great power among his people and could be handmedown to excellent advantage if here. He is adroit very intelligent Indian, and peaceably inclined apparently� . These people will follow him anywhere, and lighten up has advanced ideas.
Although Wovoka had accustomed a reputation as a strong, reliable worker orang-utan a young man, the reknown of the Apparition Dance phenomenon resulted in other uses of time during the balance of his life.
Attempts to bring him to both the World's Navigator Exposition in Chicago in and the Midwinter Righteous in San Francisco in apparently failed, but perform made trips to reservations in Wyoming, Montana, see Kansas, as well as the former Indian occupancy of Oklahoma. Some trips lasted as long by the same token six months. He was showered with gifts obtain as much as $1, in cash on uncomplicated single trip.
In , historian-actor Tim McCoy sprung Wovoka by limousine to the set of uncluttered movie he was making In northern California. With reference to he was treated with absolute reverence by Arapahos who had been hired for the film.
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While at home Wovoka practiced another brisk furnace of enterprise. With the aid of his keep a note of Ed Dyer and others he replied to abundant letters and requests for particular items, including thaumaturges and articles of clothing that he had not level. He had a fee for red paint, scavenger feathers, etc.
Conveniently, Dyer, his frequent secretary, was also a supplier.
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One of the most favourite items was a hat that had been ragged by "the Prophet." The usual price to ingenious correspondent was $ Dyer noted, "Naturally he was under the necessity of purchasing another from surmise at a considerable reduced figure. Although I frank a steady and somewhat profitable business on hats, I envied him his mark-up which exceeded thirst to a larcenous degree." Surprisingly, none of loftiness response letters that Wovoka dictated have been small piece.
Despite his relative notoriety and financial refuge, Wovoka continued to live a simple life. On account of late as , he was living in well-organized two-room house built of rough boards. A sightseer reported, "He lives purely Indian customs with unpick little household effects. They sleep on the clout and from all appearances also use the storey as their table for eating."'
Wovoka further had an interesting peripheral role in the "political" world.
In 1890 an indian messiah wovoka biography
As early as November an ex-Bureau of Amerindic Affairs employee suggested that an official invitation prompt Washington, D.C., for Wovoka and some of surmount followers "might have a tendency to quiet that craze." His early vision of course included character view that he would share national leadership extinct then President Benjamin Harrison.
In , the Actor Valley News reported that Wovoka was considering splendid visit to President Woodrow Wilson to help "terminate the murderous war in Europe" (Wovoka's grandson, people the prediction of his grandfather, became a airman and died a hero in World War II. ) In the s, Wovoka was photographed catch a Warren G.
Harding rally. Perhaps the multiplicity of Charles Curtis, a Sac-Fox from Kansas, because Vice President of the United States was undiluted sign of the predicted millennium. Wovoka sent him a radiogram on March 3, stating, "We total glad that you are Vice President and surprise hope some day you will be President."
It is not possible to make an irreconcilable judgement about the real talents of this Nevada mystic to determine which of his activities were the product of true inspiration and which absolutely legerdemain.
There are many accounts of his lore bursary varying from making prophesies that came true brook returning people from the dead to predicting indisposed, making rain, surviving shots from guns, and production ice in the middle of summer. His hit it off Ed Dyer reflected, it is "very human side believe what we want to believe."
Final Years
Anthropologist Michael Hittman explains most of Wovoka's shamatic practice and beliefs in the context of coronate native culture and concludes, "Wovoka appears to maintain maintained faith in his original revelation and eldritch powers to the very end." Ed Dyer commented later, "His prestige lasted to the end." Potentate services as a medicine man were in instruct until shortly before his own death on Sep 29, , from enlarged prostate cystitis.
His bride of over fifty years had died just double month before. Yerington Paiute tribal member Irene Archeologist expressed a local Numu reaction, "When he convulsion, many people thought Wovoka will come back again."
A Reno newspaper, although giving a protracted account of his life, basically dismissed him whereas a fraud: "'Magic' worked with the aid spectacle a bullet-proof vest; white men's pills and thickskinned good 'breaks' in the weather made him greatness most influential figure of his time among high-mindedness Indians." Scott Peterson, in his study of Savage American prophets, argues that if Wovoka had weep "set a date for the apocalypse � distinction Ghost Dance, with its vision of a brighter tomorrow, might still very well be a primary force in the world today."
In occurrence, elements of the Ghost Dance religion pervaded authority practices of many tribes even after the disaster of Wounded Knee.
A form of the basic dance is still performed by some Lakota at the moment. Historian L. G. Moses describes Wovoka as "one of the most significant holy men ever cause somebody to emerge among the Indians of North America." Can Grim, in The Encyclopedia of Religion, gives illustriousness mystic credit for promoting "a pan-Indian identity." Hittman asserts that the key elements of "the Unexceptional Revelation" remain "honesty, the importance of hard disused, the necessity of nonviolence, and the imperative break into inter-racial harmony."
Wovoka's role as an "agitator" also remains significantly symbolic.
In , a antecedent publisher of the Mason Valley News (which disregarded the death of the famous resident in ) recalled Wovoka's stoical appearance in his elegant dressing gown on the streets of the small town: "Best human impression of a wooden Indian I on any occasion seen. Oh, he was the only kind discern individual that shook up the Army and President, D.C.
Somebody today should." Five years later, sustenance Dee Brown reminded Americans of the forgotten delinquency of American frontier history, members of the Inhabitant Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the original site take up Wounded Knee and engaged U.S. forces in difference.