Longyu Zhang
Mr. Helke
Culture History
Sep. 28th
Wovoka
Wovoka, a Paiute mystic American Indian, born in 1856 and died in 1932. He was a religious leader who scattered the ghost dance in Western American during the late 19th century to agitate those native American to banish the American colonizers (Wovoka, Britannica) & (Wovoka, American History).
He made the similar prophet like what Tävibo made, which delivered the thought that at one day in two years, their ancestors would reborn, their cattles would again be prosperously, and the white man colonizers would go away (Wovoka, Britannica). In order to came into the position of power, he made up the Ghost dance and taught to American Indians that they could reborn their ancestors by dancing it, which later on spread out rapidly among those native American clans and tribes in Western American (Wovoka, Britannica).He hoped to achieve the peace between native American and White colonizers, because he also reported the prophet said that to prosper the American Indians, they have to keep the peace with American colonizers and allowed the American colonizers to govern them, which shows that his actual goals was to accomplish the peaceful relationship between native American and White colonizers (Wovoka, Britannica) & (Wovoka, PBS). Even though the original goal of the Ghost dance religion was to keep the peace between native American and American colonizers, American colonizers started to be afraid of this religious group as it getting more and more popular (Wovoka, Britannica). Especially for the Sioux tribes, American colonizers were worried about the rebellion of them, which cause their hostility to each others aggravated (Wovoka, Britannica). Wovoka as a religious leader, he represented a very distinct cultural identity for his Ghost dance religion that only native American like the American Indians, could take part in this religious group (Wovoka, PBS). Because he elaborately said that American Indians would prosper, which indicates that the religious was for native American (Wovoka, PBS). He made the prophet about the beautiful future and prosperity of native American and made up the Ghost dance, which enable the religion became more believable for native American (Wovoka, Britannica). Therefore, very obviously, the supporter of Wovoka were all native American. He gained their support because those people believed that Ghost dance would achieve a beautiful future for them (Wovoka, PBS). His opposers were the American colonizers, because they were worried that Ghost dance religion group would rebell them (Wovoka, Britannica). He was not really successful in overcoming the American colonizer (Wovoka, Britannica). Although he warned to his believers that they should keep peace with American colonizers, one of the fighting tribes among his believers called Sioux, ignored and misunderstood Wovoka’s goal (Wovoka, Britannica). They generated conflict to American colonizers, and ultimately, many of his believers started to give up the Ghost dance religion after a massacre of Sioux tribes that executed by American colonizers (Wovoka, Britannica).
He was kind of an important historical figures. Even though, many of Indian tribes stopped the belief to Ghost dance, there were still some of tribes believed it and regarded it as their important tradition and custom until now (Wovoka, Britannica). Wovoka was positive figure, because his goals primarily was to keep the peace between native American and American colonizers and make native Americans more united (Wovoka, Britannica).
Bibliography:
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Wovoka.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 16 July 2014,
www.britannica.com/biography/Wovoka.
“Wovoka.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 2001,
www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/wovoka.htm.
"Wovoka." American History, ABC-CLIO, 2017,
americanhistory-abc-clio-xaaa.orc.scoolaid.net/Search/Display/273112. Accessed 4 Oct. 2017.