The Ghost-dance religion and the Sioux outbreak of 1890 : $b Fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, part 2.Mooney, James
Religion
The Ghost-dance religion and the Sioux outbreak of 1890 : $b Fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, part 2.
Mooney, James
Dakota Indians -- Wars, 1890-1891; Ghost dance
At last he signified that he understood and was satisfied, and then in
answer to my questions gave an account of himself and his doctrine, a
great part of the interpretation being by Dyer, with whom he seemed
to be on intimate terms. He said he was about 35 years of age, fixing
the date from a noted battle[7] between the Paiute and the whites near
Pyramid lake, in 1860, at which time he said he was about the size
of his little boy; who appeared to be of about 4 years. His father,
Tävibo, “White Man,” was not a preacher, but was a _capita_ (from the
Spanish _capitan_) or petty chief, and was a dreamer and invulnerable.
His own proper name from boyhood was Wovoka or Wüvoka, “The Cutter,”
but a few years ago he had assumed the name of his paternal
grandfather, Kwohitsauq, or “Big Rumbling Belly.” After the death of
his father he had been taken into the family of a white farmer, David
Wilson, who had given him the name of Jack Wilson, by which he is
commonly known among the whites. He thus has three distinct names,
Wovoka, Kwohitsauq, and Jack Wilson. He stated positively that he was
a full-blood, a statement borne out by his appearance. The impression
that he is a half-blood may have arisen from the fact that his father’s
name was “White Man” and that he has a white man’s name. His followers,
both in his own and in all other tribes, commonly refer to him as “our
father.” He has never been away from Mason valley and speaks only his
own Paiute language, with some little knowledge of English. He is not
acquainted with the sign language, which is hardly known west of the
mountains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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