Wovoka, who popularized the Nanigukwa (Ghost Dance, lit. “dance in a circle”), was born in western Nevada around 1856. His father Numu-tibo’o was a follower of Wodziwob, the founder of the Nanigukwa. At the age of about thirty, Wovoka began to make prophecies about the end of Euro-American dominance of the region and a return to an idyllic past. These prophecies centered on the actions of the movement’s followers, whom Wovoka claimed must live a moral life and perform the Ghost Dance in order for his predictions to come true.

His new religious movement was heavily Christian in many respects, including its espousal of pacifism and personal ethics as well as several explicit references to Jesus, but at the same time, it was influenced by the dances and mystical aspects of Paiute religious beliefs. Wovoka’s message only provided the basic outline of the Ghost Dance movement, allowing the nations that embraced it to adapt its principles to meet their own circumstances.

Wodziwob’s original prophecy went as follows: “within a few moons there was to be a great upheaval or earthquake, during which the improvements of the whites—⁠—all their houses, their goods, stores, etc.—⁠—would remain, but the whites would be swallowed up, while the Indians would be saved and permitted to enjoy the earth and all the fullness thereof, including anything left by the wicked whites”.