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How did the Ghost Dance movement begin among Northern Paiute people in western Nevada?

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Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin Kaylei Weed (left) of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe with her two sons and mother, Elaine Ethel Weed, at the Wind River Indian Reservation in 2015.

The Ghost Dance movement among the Northern Paiute in western Nevada occurred in two distinct iterations, both led by prophet-dreamers who envisioned the restoration of traditional Native American life.1

The First Movement (1869): Initiated by the dreamer Wodziwob near Walker Lake, this movement featured a ritual dance where participants joined hands and moved in a circle. It spread to tribes in California and Oregon before fading or transforming by the early 1870s.1
The Second Movement (1889): Developed by Wovoka, the son of a shaman who had assisted Wodziwob, this iteration was heavily influenced by 19th-century American millennialism. Following a vision during a solar eclipse in 1889, Wovoka claimed he had spoken with God and was instructed to teach a new dance. He prophesied that the dead would return, traditional lands and food sources would be restored, and white colonizers would vanish. Wovoka preached a message of peace, instructing followers to accept colonial hegemony and adhere to a moral code, though his message was often distorted as it spread to other tribes.213