Wovoka (c. 1858–1932)

Paiute visionary, founder of the Ghost Dance religion. At the end of 1888 he had a vision that drew on a mixture of Indian and Christian religious teachings. He claimed that the Messiah would return American Indians to a pre-contact existence – and rid the continent of whites – if Indians would live in harmony and in traditional ways and, above all, dance the Ghost Dance. His message spread quickly among the tribes of the Great Plains and the Northwest and they began to adopt the Ghost Dance and regard Wovoka as a great deliverer.

Born on the Walker River in present-day Nevada, his father, a religious mystic, died when Wovoka was about 14 and he went to work with a white family, the Wilsons; he was known to whites as Jack Wilson.

The Sioux were especially fervent in their adoption of the Ghost Dance cult; their restiveness culminated in the murder of Sitting Bull and the massacre at Wounded Knee. The Ghost Dance cult lost its appeal for most American Indians and Wovoka eventually moderated his message and advised American Indians to accommodate themselves to the whites' ways. He spent his final years on a reservation in Nevada.