the ghost dance religion was founded by its prophet wovoka in nevada, a paiute indian who had a vision on 1 january 1889 during a solar eclipse. in this vision, he was taken up to heaven and given a dance (the ghost dance) to pass on to the indians to ensure their place in heaven. wovoka's religion was heavily influenced by christianity. he predicted that a messiah figure, identified with the christian jesus, would come to earth and resurrect all the indian dead. all the whites would be removed from earth and the buffalo would return. wovoka predicted that this would happen in spring 1891. in the meantime, according to wovoka's preaching, the indians were not to fight the whites, but were to perform the ghost dance.