Those things are important to know, because it makes it obvious where Wovoca got his ideas. And as for Wovoca's "miracles," one of them was to cause ice to float down Walker River in midsummer. But, while that did happen with numerous witnesses watching, they did not know that the Wilson boys, to help their adopted brother, had filled a wagon with blocks of ice from an ice house and covertly dumped them in the river above the place Wovoca said would be the scene of his miracle.
The legend of Wovoca includes other stories of other miracles, about making rain fall, making birds talk, and bringing a dead buffalo back to life. Many Indians believed such miracles happened, and apparently some still do today. But, while it may very well be possible that Wovoca had actual magical abilities, most researchers agree that Wovoca might have been a very accomplished hypnotist, and was certainly a very good trickster and huckster.
It should also be understood why Wovoca's religion, built mostly on magic or supposed magic, spread so rapidly. By the late 1880s most of the Plains Indians had been defeated by white men in battle. Their lands had been taken from them. Most of their buffalo had been slaughtered and skinned by white men who only wanted to sell the hides and just left the carcasses to rot. They had been relegated to reservations on land that the white men didn't want. Their way of life had totally changed for the worse. Consequently, there was great resentment toward the white man, and many Indians were easily attracted to a "religious" idea that claimed they would rise again and they would be rid of the white man for good.
Now, I mention Wovoca's teachings and prophecies because you may notice that there is an obvious contradiction in them. On one hand, he tells the Indians that they would soon be rid of the white man and their land would become like a paradise for only them, while on the other hand he advised his Indian people to live in peace with the white man in the meantime. That is because Wovoca was influenced by evangelical Christians and Mormons. But, he obviously refashioned the symbolic events and warnings in the book of Revelation, and he borrowed from Jesus the advice to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" and be non-violent pacifists. And he claimed that the Native American peoples would soon receive God's favor, and that they would be rid of all white men because they were all hypocrites who claimed to be Christians but instead rejected Christ.
Wovoca was certainly justified in his criticism of white hypocrites who claimed to be Christians, but he was not what he claimed, and his vision was probably concocted. Nevertheless, Tavibo's and Wovoca's ritualistic religious dance caught on and became known as the Ghost Dance. Unlike his father, Wovoka found an audience willing to follow his teaching, because it appealed to many of the Native peoples. The Ghost Dance spread quickly throughout the West, because the idea was that if the Indians danced and followed the instructions, they would soon be rid of the white man. So many Indians jumped on the bandwagon, as it were.
In the summer of 1890, two members of the Lakota Sioux tribal reservation in South Dakota, named Kicking Bear and Short Bull visited Wovoca and became intrigued by his faith and prophecy. They brought Ghost Dance back to their people, but they distorted Wovoca's teachings. Even though Wovoka's teaching advised peace and non-violence with whites, Kicking Bear and Short Bull established a militaristic aspect to the Ghost Dance. They fashioned what they called Ghost Shirts that they claimed would deflect the bullets and weapons of white soldiers or settlers. And Kicking Bear and Short Bull added the Indian Messiah would appear to the Lakota in the Spring of 1891.
The Ghost Dance then became a phenomena that soon began to frighten white people. Newspapers printed stories of savages engaging in wild pagan rituals, and the Ghost Dance was condemned by the whites. Since Wovoka was considered the founder of the Ghost Dance, he was interviewed by an anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institute, and Wovoka told him he would control any violent uprising in return for financial and food compensation from Washington. But Wovoca's offer was ignored, and he was blamed for the uprising. Blame was also laid on Sitting Bull, the chief medicine man of the Lakota people, even though he really was actually skeptical of Wovoca's vision. In spite of that, police were sent to arrest Sitting Bull on December 15, 1890, and when several of his people fought to protect him, Sitting Bull was killed.
Two weeks after Sitting Bull was killed, the U.S. Army began to relocate and disarm the Lakota people who would not stop their Ghost Dance. Then, at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation, government troops opened fire on unarmed Lakota people, killing 290 of them in just a few minutes. Thirty-three white soldiers died, but most of them were hit by friendly fire and not by the Indians, and 20 Medals of Honor were presented to surviving soldiers.
Following that, the Ghost Dance died pretty quickly. Most Indians began to consider Wovoca's prophecies as phoney, and Wovoca's popularity rapidly declined and seemed to vanish. By the time of his death in September 1932, he was mostly forgotten by both white and Native peoples.
Even so, in 1970s belief in Wovoca was revived. Influenced by the spiritual new age movement of the 1960s, the peace and freedom movement, and the civil rights movement, Native American activism came alive and the story of Wovoca and the Ghost Dance began to be told again because it appealed to Native Americans who wanted to assert themselves, and it especially appealed to those who tended to feel resentful and vindictive.
Even today, there are web sites about Wovoca, and there are some Native American Indians who are like evangelicals, clinging to and pushing Wovoca's ideas and prophecies and claiming they are the ideas and prophecies of Jesus. They cling to a false interpretation of John's book of Revelation, but with a twist, condemning all white people rather than "godless heathen, pagans, and secular humanists," as the misguided, so-called Christian Right does in America.
Granted, Native American Indians have every right to feel offended at the way they have been treated for over two hundred years. But, unfortunately, Wovoca's legacy is actually one of pain and suffering among the very people he claimed he would save. And the fact is that his teachings and prophecies are not only contrary to the true parts of the prophecies of genuine Native American prophets, they are contrary to the actual, literal teachings and prophecies of Jesus of Nazareth.
After all, to paraphrase what Jesus essentially said, it was that he had to "go away and be seen no more on earth, but at the end of the age a son of man expressing the Spirit of truth shall come to issue judgment, guide you unto truth, show you things to come, glorify me, and bear my testimony, but first he will be rejected by his generation and suffer many things." (John 16:7-15; John 12:47-48; Revelation 19:10; Luke 17:24-25; Isaiah 49:4, etc. Also see the articles on Prophecies Re: The One to Come, The Virgin Birth Story, and The Martyrdom of Jesus for the scriptural evidence and clarification about that.)
Of course, as I already mentioned, many prophecies of the world have a dark side to them, and some even seem to have a "doomsday" quality to them. Some people interpret prophecies to mean that there will be an even bigger escalation of war, and even a third world war, with horrible nuclear destruction. But, while that could be possible if we permit it, that need not happen. We can prevent it. For whether that dark side was created by the original prophets, or by later followers or scribes or copiers or translators who were deeply resentful of powerful, harmful forces that oppressed and persecuted their people, it was to instill fear in the enemy, and especially to instill faith in their people that they or their descendants would ultimately prevail.
The Light of truth shines through, however, in all genuine prophecies that foretell that there will be a time when generous, humble, gentle, peaceful and "meek" people will inherit the earth, and greedy, proud, militant and aggressive people will be rebuked, lose status in the world, and suffer unless they repent, become contrite, change their ways, and start treating all other people as they would want to be treated if they were them.
After all, there is really no "us and them" in the Spirit. Black Elk was correct. And, as Jesus said, when the Spirit of truth comes to you, you shall know that the Spirit is in you and you are in the Spirit, as we all are. We have but to realize it, and awaken to the divine reality that is within and at hand.
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