Yerington Monday: Wovoka
Wovoka, Paiute Shaman (c. 1856, Smith Valley, NV -1932, Yerington, NV) (aka Jack Wilson), was the Northern Paiute religious leader who founded the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "cutter" or "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language. Wovoka wanted to give his people a feeling of faith in themselves. He urged them to follow the ways of peace. One of the ways he worked for this was by the Ghost Dance. Saying that the dance had come to him in his dream, he taught it to his people in the Nevada region. From there, it spread to other parts of North America.
Wovoka's Appearance
Wovoka, at nearly 6 feet, was much taller and heavy in comparison to the average Paiute Indian. He had a round head with extremely bushy eyebrows and an irregularly low forehead. His physical features were very distinct and conspicuous, very different from other Indians who belonged to his tribe. He spoke eloquently, with a deep and masculine voice that grasped the attention of any listener. Wovoka's deep and glaring eyes made him stand out from his fellow companions. The Prophet mostly dressed like a "white man," in a full suit, black shoes, and a ribbon tied around his neck.
Jack Wilson or Wovoka—also known as the Prophet— was born in either the Colony District of Smith Valley or Mason Valley. While Wovoka’s exact birth-date is unknown, it has been suspected that he was born around 1856-1863. Wovoka invented the religious Ghost Dance and was regarded as the spiritual leader of the Northern Paiute tribe in Nevada. In Yerington Paiute Wovoka means “The Wood Cutter.”
Wovoka was born about 1856 in Smith Valley or Mason Valley, Nevada, as one of four sons of Tavid, also known as Numo-tibo's, a well-known medicine man. His father, who had trained him in the ways of a medicine man or Shaman, (A link of Wovoka's father to an earlier Ghost Dance of 1870 in the region is unclear.) Both of Wovoka's parents survived into the twentieth Century. At about the age of fourteen Wovoka was sent to live with and work for the Scotch-English family of David Wilson. Wovoka lived and worked on the David Wilson land on the Walker River near Yerington. During this period he acquired the names Jack Wilson and Wovoka, meaning "Wood Cutter."
Family
Wovoka’s father Numu-tibo’o, also known as Tavibo, died on 1914 or 1915. The Prophet’s father was also referred to as “Northern Paiute-White Man.” The name was conferred to Wovoka’s father as a result of his capture in the Pyramid Lake War of 1860. Many have speculated that Numu-tibo’o was the first to introduce the earlier version of the Ghost Dance Religion. It has been claimed that Wovoka’s mother, Tiya, died around 1920— two to three years after her husband. Wovoka had two younger brothers, Pat Wilson and Toyanaga-a. Born on 1870, Pat Wilson or Honocha-yu, was the middle child. His younger brother Toyanaga-a was born around 1880.
Early Life
Jack, a handsome Paiute, was a good worker. He became a fast friend and "blood brother" to the oldest Wilson son, Bill. Thus, Jack was welcomed at meals and family prayers. He became very interested with the Christian religion and tried to use its teachings in a new religion which he hoped would offer hope to the Indian people.
Wovoka spent his carefree childhood on the Wilson Ranch, where he filled his joyful days with fishing, swimming in the river, and climbing trees. Mr. Wilson provided his family with employment opportunities in return of food and shelter. As he grew older, Wovoka assumed innumerable responsibilities. After mastering general chores such as chopping wood, hay-growing and milking cows he went on to expand his awareness of various farming practices. Wovoka was extremely proud of his new-found skills in, planting, harvesting, stacking hay, irrigation, leveling lands, etc. Furthermore, Wovoka’s father—a medicine man— inevitably influenced his religious practice. Also it is imperative to consider Wovoka’s relationship with his mentor Mr. Wilson, a devout Christian. Some have speculated that Wovoka’s and Mr. Wilson’s frequent discussion of Christian ideologies might have shaped some aspects of Wovoka’s teachings.
The First Ghost Dance
It has been reported that the first ghost dance occurred on the Walker Lake reservation in the first month of 1889. For the accommodation of hundreds of Indian participants, the location of the ceremony was cleared of grass. Wovoka stood in the middle— surrounded by his tribe members they danced until late night. The tribe continued the same ritual the next day, but without The Prophet’s presence. Wovoka appeared on the last day of the ceremony to dismiss the participants.
Wovoka and Chiefs
Wovoka Sitting (Standing L-R: Charlie Whiteman, Rising Buffalo, Red Pipe, William Penn, George Shakespear, Night Horse, Painted Wolf, Little Ant, Goes In Lodge (Northern Arapaho)
The Ghost Dance spread throughout much of the West, especially among the more recently defeated Indians of the Great Plains. Local bands would adopt the core of the message to their own circumstances, writing their their own songs and dancing their own dances. In 1889 the Lakota sent a delegation to visit Wovoka. This group brought the Ghost Dance back to their reservations, where believers made sacred shirts -- said to be bullet-proof -- especially for the Dance.
In addition, The Prophet informed his tribe that God wished that Numus— along with other Native Americans in the United States— to carry out a traditional dance in a series of three or five days. Wovoka further instructed that the ceremony was to be conducted every three months. The Prophet notified his followers that adherence and devotion to the "Great Revolution" will result in revitalization of their youth in Heaven.
Ghost Dance Shirt. Sioux, South Dakota, ca. 1890.
The Ghost Dance movement was a manifestation of Native Americans' fear, anger, and hope regarding the onslaught of white invaders, U.S. Army brutalization, and the U.S. legislative oppression of indigenous nations. Ghost Dance was the term Plains Indians applied to the new ritual; Paiutes, from which it sprang, simply called it by their traditional name, Round Dance.
1890 Observation and Description of the Ghost Dance:
Mrs. Z.A. Parker observed the Ghost Dance among the Lakota at Pine Ridge Reservation, Dakota Territory on June 20, 1890 and described it:
We drove to this spot about 10:30 o’clock on a delightful October day. We came upon tents scattered here and there in low, sheltered places long before reaching the dance ground. Presently we saw over three hundred tents placed in a circle, with a large pine tree in the center, which was covered with strips of cloth of various colors, eagle feathers, stuffed birds, claws, and horns-all offerings to the Great Spirit. The ceremonies had just begun. In the center, around the tree, were gathered their medicine-men; also those who had been so fortunate as to have had visions and in them had seen and talked with friends who had died. A company of fifteen had started a chant and were marching abreast, others coming in behind as they marched. After marching around the circle of tents they turned to the center, where many had gathered and were seated on the ground.
I think they wore the ghost shirt or ghost dress for the first time that day. I noticed that these were all new and were worn by about seventy men and forty women. The wife of a man called Return-from-scout had seen in a vision that her friends all wore a similar robe, and on reviving from her trance she called the women together and they made a great number of the sacred garments. They were of white cotton cloth. The women's dress was cut like their ordinary dress, a loose robe with wide, flowing sleeves, painted blue in the neck, in the shape of a three-cornered handkerchief, with moon, stars, birds, etc., interspersed with real feathers, painted on the waists, letting them fall to within 3 inches of the ground, the fringe at the bottom. In the hair, near the crown, a feather was tied. I noticed an absence of any manner of head ornaments, and, as I knew their vanity and fondness for them, wondered why it was. Upon making inquiries I found they discarded everything they could which was made by white men.
The ghost shirt for the men was made of the same material-shirts and leggings painted in red. Some of the leggings were painted in stripes running up and down, others running around. The shirt was painted blue around the neck, and the whole garment was fantastically sprinkled with figures of birds, bows and arrows, sun, moon, and stars, and everything they saw in nature.
Down the outside of the sleeve were rows of feathers tied by the quill ends and left to fly in the breeze, and also a row around the neck and up and down the outside of the leggings. I noticed that a number had stuffed birds, squirrel heads, etc., tied in their long hair. The faces of all were painted red with a black half-moon on the forehead or on one cheek.
As the crowd gathered about the tree the high priest, or master of ceremonies, began his address, giving them directions as to the chant and other matters. After he had spoken for about fifteen minutes they arose and formed in a circle. As nearly as I could count, there were between three and four hundred persons.
One stood directly behind another, each with his hands on his neighbor's shoulders. After walking about a few times, chanting, "Father, I come," they stopped marching, but remained in the circle, and set up the most fearful, heart-piercing wails I ever heard-crying, moaning, groaning, and shrieking out their grief, and naming over their departed friends and relatives, at the same time taking up handfuls of dust at their feet, washing their hands in it, and throwing it over their heads.
Finally, they raised their eyes to heaven, their hands clasped high above their heads, and stood straight and perfectly still, invoking the power of the Great Spirit to allow them to see and talk with their people who had died. This ceremony lasted about fifteen minutes, when they all sat down where they were and listened to another address, which I did not understand, but which I afterwards learned were words of encouragement and assurance of the coming messiah.
When they arose again, they enlarged the circle by facing toward the center, taking hold of hands, and moving around in the manner of school children in their play of "needle's eye." And now the most intense excitement began. They would go as fast as they could, their hands moving from side to side, their bodies swaying, their arms, with hands gripped tightly in their neighbors', swinging back and forth with all their might. If one, more weak and frail, came near falling, he would be jerked up and into position until tired nature gave way.
The ground had been worked and worn by many feet, until the fine, flour-like dust lay light and loose to the depth of two or three inches. The wind, which had increased, would sometimes take it up, enveloping the dancers and hiding them from view. In the ring were men, women, and children; the strong and the robust, the weak consumptive, and those near to death's door. They believed those who were sick would be cured by joining in the dance and losing consciousness. From the beginning they chanted, to a monotonous tune, the words:
Father, I come;
Mother, I come;
Brother, I come;
Father, give us back our arrows.
All of which they would repeat over and over again until first one and then another would break from the ring and stagger away and fall down. One woman fell a few feet from me. She came toward us, her hair flying over her face, which was purple, looking as if the blood would burst through; her hands and arms waving wildly; every breath a pant and a groan; and she fell on her back, and went down like a log. I stepped up to her as she lay there motionless, but with every muscle twitching and quivering. She seemed to be perfectly unconscious. Some of the men and a few of the women would run, stepping high and pawing the air in a frightful manner. Some told me afterwards that they had a sensation as if the ground were rising toward them and would strike them in the face. Others would drop where they stood. One woman fell directly into the ring, and her husband stepped out and stood over her to prevent them from trampling upon her. No one ever disturbed those who fell or took any notice of them except to keep the crowd away.
They kept up dancing until fully 100 persons were lying unconscious. Then they stopped and seated themselves in a circle, and as each recovered from his trance he was brought to the center of the ring to relate his experience. Each told his story to the medicine-man and he shouted it to the crowd. Not one in ten claimed that he saw anything. I asked one Indian, a tall, strong fellow, straight as an arrow-what his experience was. He said he saw an eagle coming toward him. It flew round and round, drawing nearer and nearer until he put out his hand to take it, when it was gone. I asked him what he thought of it. "Big lie," he replied. I found by talking to them that not one in twenty believed it. After resting for a time they would go through the same performance, perhaps three times a day. They practiced fasting, and every morning those who joined in the dance were obliged to immerse themselves in the creek. - Z.A. Parker, 1890.
Following the killing of Sitting Bull, the United States sent the Seventh Cavalry to "disarm the Lakota and take control." During the events that followed, now known as the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890, 457 U.S. soldiers opened fire upon the Sioux, killing more than 200 of them. The Ghost Dance reached its peak just before the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
When it became apparent that ghost shirts did not protect from bullets and the expected resurrection did not happen, most former believers quit the Ghost Dance. Wovoka, disturbed by the death threats and disappointed with the many reinterpretations of his vision, gave up his public speaking. However, he remained well-respected among his followers and continued his religious activities. He traveled and received visitors until the end of his life in 1932. There are still members of the religious movement today.
The slaughter of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890 was cruel proof that whites were not about to simply vanish, that the millennium was not at hand. Wovoka quickly lost his notoriety and lived as Jack Wilson until sometime in 1932. He left the Ghost Dance as evidence of a growing pan-Indian identity which drew upon elements of both white and Indian traditions.
Believers in the Ghost Dance spirituality are convinced that performing the Ghost Dance will eventually reunite them with their ancestors coming by railway from the spirit world. The ancestor spirits, including the spirit of Jesus, are called upon to heal the sick and to help protect Mother Earth. Meanwhile, the world will return to a primordial state of natural beauty, opening up to swallow up all other people (those who do not have a strong spirituality based upon the earth). The performers of the Ghost Dance theoretically will float in safety above with their ancestors, family, and peoples of the world who follow the extensive spirituality.
Mass grave for the dead Lakota after the conflict at Wounded Knee Creek
The religious influences upon Wovoka were diverse. Wovoka was clearly affected by the religious values of the pious United Presbyterian family; Mr. Wilson read the Bible each day before work. He lived in a region where traveling preachers were common and Mormonism prevalent. There is a possibility that Wovoka traveled to California and the Pacific Northwest, where he may have had contact with reservation prophets Smohalla and John Slocum.
The Ghost Dance Religion
Wovoka had promoted the Round Dance of the Numu people and was recognized as having some of his father's qualities as a mystic.
A long-time acquaintance described the young Wovoka as "a tall, well proportioned man with piercing eyes, regular features, a deep voice and a calm and dignified mien." A local census agent referred to him as "intelligent," and a county newspaper added that he resembled "the late Henry Ward Beecher." Wovoka was known to be a temperate man during his entire life.
The turning point in Wovoka's life came in the late 1880's. In December of 1888 Wovoka may have been suffering from scarlet fever. He went into a coma for a period of two days. Observer Ed Dyer said, "His body was as stiff as a board." Because Wovoka's recovery had corresponded with the total eclipse of the sun on January 1, 1889, he was credited by the Numus for bringing back the sun, and thereby saving the universe.
After this apparent near death experience, Wovoka proclaimed that he had a spiritual vision with personal contact with God who gave him specific instructions to those still on earth. According to Wovoka, God told him of a transformation by the spring of 1891 when the deceased would again be alive, the game would again flourish, and the whites would vanish from the earth. He had also been instructed to share power with the President of the East, Benjamin Harrison. Until the time of the apocalypse, Wovoka counselled the living to work for the dominant population and attempt to live a morally pure life. The plan for the future could only be assured if believers followed the special patterns and messages of the Ghost Dance, which Wovoka taught his followers.
Local believers had already adopted a dependence on him to bring much needed rain. The national setting for Native Americans was such that the message of Wovoka would soon spread throughout the western territory of North America. Scott Peterson, author of Native American Prophecies, explains, "Wovoka's message of hope spread like wildfire among the demoralized tribes." Before long, representatives of over thirty tribes made a pilgrimage to visit Wovoka and learn the secrets of the Ghost Dance.
The Middle Years, 1890-1920
The role of Wovoka in the years after Wounded Knee has been generally overlooked. But it is clear that he did not fade into oblivion or hesitate to use his unusual fame and powers. An Indian Agent reported in June 1912 "that Jack Wilson is still held in reverence by Indians in various parts of the country, and he is still regarded by them as a great medicine man." Two years later he reinforced that statement, adding, "the influence of Jack Wilson the 'Messiah' of twenty five years ago is not dead." Indian Agent S. W. Pugh took a position quite different than that of C. C. Warner. When Jack Wilson sought an allotment on the reservation, he encouraged the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to help make it possible. "I would like to have him as he is still a power among his people and could be used to excellent advantage if here. He is a very intelligent Indian, and peaceably inclined apparently… . These people will follow him anywhere, and he has advanced ideas.
Although Wovoka had established a reputation as a strong, reliable worker as a young man, the renown of the Ghost Dance phenomenon resulted in other uses of his time during the balance of his life. Attempts to bring him to both the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the Midwinter Fair in San Francisco in 1904 apparently failed, but he made trips to reservations in Wyoming, Montana, and Kansas, as well as the former Indian territory of Oklahoma. Some trips lasted as long as six months. He was showered with gifts and as much as $1,200 in cash on a single trip.
The Middle Years, 1890-1920
While at home Wovoka practiced another brisk form of enterprise. With the aid of his friend Ed Dyer and others he replied to numerous letters and requests for particular items, including thaumaturges and articles of clothing that he had worn. He had a fee for red paint, magpie feathers, etc. Conveniently, Dyer, his frequent secretary, was also a supplier. One of the most popular items was a hat that had been worn by "the Prophet." The usual price to a correspondent was $20. Dyer noted, "Naturally he was under the necessity of purchasing another from me at a considerable reduced figure. Although I did a steady and somewhat profitable business on hats, I envied him his mark-up which exceeded mine to a larcenous degree." Surprisingly, none of the response letters that Wovoka dictated have been found.
Despite his relative notoriety and financial security, Wovoka continued to live a simple life. As late as 1917, he was living in a two-room house built of rough boards. A visitor reported, "He lives purely Indian customs with very little household effects. They sleep on the floor and from all appearances also use the floor as their table for eating."'
Wovoka also had an interesting peripheral role in the "political" world. As early as November 1890 an ex-Bureau of Indian Affairs employee suggested that an official invitation to Washington, D.C., for Wovoka and some of his followers "might have a tendency to quiet this craze." His early vision of course included the view that he would share national leadership with then President Benjamin Harrison.
In 1916, the Mason Valley News reported that Wovoka was considering a visit to President Woodrow Wilson to help "terminate the murderous war in Europe"
In 1924, historian-actor Tim McCoy delivered Wovoka by limousine to the set of a movie he was making In northern California. There he was treated with absolute reverence by Arapahos who had been hired for the film. McCoy was an American actor, military officer, and expert on American Indian life and customs. The Arapahos are closely related to the Cheyennes.
Final Years
Anthropologist Michael Hittman explains most of Wovoka's shamatic practice and beliefs in the context of his native culture and concludes, "Wovoka appears to have maintained faith in his original revelation and supernatural powers to the very end." Ed Dyer commented later, "His prestige lasted to the end." His services as a medicine man were in demand until shortly before his own death on September 29, 1932, from enlarged prostate cystitis. His wife of over fifty years had died just one month before. Yerington Paiute tribal member Irene Thompson expressed a local Numu reaction, "When he died, many people thought Wovoka will come back again."
A Reno newspaper, although giving a lengthy account of his life, basically dismissed him as a fraud: "'Magic' worked with the aid of a bullet-proof vest; white men's pills and some good 'breaks' in the weather made him the most influential figure of his time among the Indians." Scott Peterson, in his 1990 study of Native American prophets, argues that if Wovoka had not "set a date for the apocalypse … the Ghost Dance, with its vision of a brighter tomorrow, might still very well be a vital force in the world today."
In fact, elements of the Ghost Dance religion pervaded the practices of many tribes even after the tragedy of Wounded Knee. A form of the original dance is still performed by some Lakota today. Historian L. G. Moses describes Wovoka as "one of the most significant holy men ever to emerge among the Indians of North America." John Grim, in The Encyclopedia of Religion, gives the mystic credit for promoting "a pan-Indian identity." Hittman asserts that the key elements of "the Great Revelation" remain "honesty, the importance of hard work, the necessity of nonviolence, and the imperative of inter-racial harmony."
Wovoka's role as an "agitator" also remains significantly symbolic. In 1968, a former publisher of the Mason Valley News (which ignored the death of the famous resident in 1932) recalled Wovoka's stoical appearance in his elegant apparel on the streets of the small town: "Best human impression of a wooden Indian I ever seen. Oh, he was the only kind of individual that shook up the Army and Washington, D.C. Somebody today should." Five years later, after Dee Brown reminded Americans of the forgotten atrocity of American frontier history, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the original site of Wounded Knee and engaged U.S. forces in battle.
Wovoka Headstone, Schurz Paiute Indian Cemetery
Wovoka passed away on September 29,1932 at the age of 74. He died at 1:00 a.m. in his cabin at the Yerington Indian Colony. The cause of his death was attributed to nephritis, an inflammation of the kidneys. Wovoka was laid to rest along his wife, Mary Wilson, on the Walker River Reservation. The funeral services were administered by Methodist Pastor E. E. Ewing. The Prophet's headstone reads: "Founder of the Ghost Dance. His teachings of hope, good will, and promise of life after death will live as long as man inhabits this earth."
At about the age of twenty he married Tumm, also known as Mary Wilson. They raised three daughters. At least two other children died. Wovoka tied the knot with Mary Wilson in 1887. His wife’s Northern Paiute name was Tumma— which means a closely woven, heart shaped basket. Yerington Paiutes referred to Mary or Tumma as a short, quiet lady who adhered strictly to the religious standards of the tribe. Tumma passed away in August of 1932 and was buried in Schurz, Nevada. Furthermore, the exact number of Wovoka’s children is unknown. However, some claim that he had five children. Misfortune knocked on the Wilson’s door when their four-year-old son Billy was killed in a horse and wagon accident. Unfortunately, bad luck did not want to leave the Wilson family just yet, the death of their daughter—Wovoka’s second child— exacerbated their agony and grief. Wovoka had three surviving daughters, with the eldest being Zohooma or “Grinding Flour.”
WOVOKA Family Plot
Wovoka Monument, Yerington, NV
Song of Wovoka by Earl Murray
Twenty years after Dance with Wolves, Father Mark Thomas finds a life with the Cheyenne River Sioux and a beautiful woman named Fawn more compelling than his Jesuit training. But as Father Thomas' new life is beginning, the old life of the Sioux is about to end: one more hard winter and the people will starve.
The Sioux's last hope is Wovoka, a Paiute prophet who promises that if all dance his Ghost Dance then the buffalo will return and the white man will vanish from the earth.
Is Wovoka a savior? Will the Ghost Dance lead the people to salvation, or to the tragedy called Wounded Knee?
Vigil-Gray, Darren
"Indian Self Rule-Wovoka"
Silkscreen
Videos
The Tragedy of Wounded Knee (The Ghost Dance)
https://youtu.be/0EdRT56WK7Q
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