In the 1915 narrative, he says the man who spoke to them was white and spoke in the Lakota language. Short Bull only refers to the man by name or title once, but it is illuminating, as he calls a vision he had of Wovoka during a Ghost Dance the “the Son of God.” Though he does not specifically note seeing the stigmata as Porcupine did, the man who speaks to his group of the Dance tells them that due to his murder there are “many holes in me.” The idea of narratives being used for different purposes is consistent with the Bible, where some scholars believe books of the Gospel were written for different audiences. Upon the start of this project, the author was hoping to find the Ghost Dance religion had only a tangential relation to Christianity, but the more digging into the primary sources, the more it seems Wovoka’s religion, whether intentionally or not, had parallels to Christianity, while maintaining a uniquely Native American culture. Porcupine provides the obvious parallel, and the only occurrence of the term Messiah which fits the Judeo-Christian philosophy. Wovoka as the returning Christ, angry at the white man for having killed him, it occurs in Short Bull’s 1915 testimony as well. When referring the Messiah (in the testimony, he is a white man) being killed by the white men, rose from the grave, and came to the Native Americans to improve their situation. It is unquestionable by Short Bull’s recollections in 1891 he was told the second Chief of his agency was to be the Church, and all who went to Church would be saved. This is unfortunately a clear sign of a connection between the Christian Church and the Ghost Dance. On the other hand, it is possible these Christian undertones were not espoused by Wovoka.
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Nowhere within his interviews with Chapman or Mooney does he claim to literally be Christ, as Porcupine, Short Bull in one of his narratives, and others have claimed. Quite the opposite in fact. While the Messiah Letter does state Jesus is on Earth and coming in a cloud, Wovoka himself does not claim he is Christ, at least according to Mooney, and certainly none of the primary source documents studied in this paper indicated he came to anyone in a cloud. It is possible, when talking to his followers, he drew connections between himself, his religion, and Christianity, but he did the opposite when speaking to Chapman and Mooney. However, the purpose of changing the tone in such a way seems unclear. It would seem less problematic, in the long run, for Wovoka to simply say to Mooney and Chapman something along the lines of “Jesus came to me, and provided a new way to worship,” rather than to describe a religion which, while it bears similarity in the morality, is not truly Christianity. Others who knew Wovoka did draw such associations, such as Edward Dyer, his long-time friend and letter writer, who also assisted Mooney in translation. He wrote in his memoirs he felt Wovoka had envisioned “himself as some sort of an Indian version of an Old Testament prophet.” There was also an event in which Wovoka caused ice to fall from the sky onto a blanket on a warm day. After the ice fell the Paiute present drank from its melt water, then Wovoka had them bathe in the river. In Dyer’s opinion, this was an attempt to
Nowhere within his interviews with Chapman or Mooney does he claim to literally be Christ, as Porcupine, Short Bull in one of his narratives, and others have claimed. Quite the opposite in fact. While the Messiah Letter does state Jesus is on Earth and coming in a cloud, Wovoka himself does not claim he is Christ, at least according to Mooney, and certainly none of the primary source documents studied in this paper indicated he came to anyone in a cloud. It is possible, when talking to his followers, he drew connections between himself, his religion, and Christianity, but he did the opposite when speaking to Chapman and Mooney. However, the purpose of changing the tone in such a way seems unclear. It would seem less problematic, in the long run, for Wovoka to simply say to Mooney and Chapman something along the lines of “Jesus came to me, and provided a new way to worship,” rather than to describe a religion which, while it bears similarity in the morality, is not truly Christianity. Others who knew Wovoka did draw such associations, such as Edward Dyer, his long-time friend and letter writer, who also assisted Mooney in translation. He wrote in his memoirs he felt Wovoka had envisioned “himself as some sort of an Indian version of an Old Testament prophet.” There was also an event in which Wovoka caused ice to fall from the sky onto a blanket on a warm day. After the ice fell the Paiute present drank from its melt water, then Wovoka had them bathe in the river. In Dyer’s opinion, this was an attempt to