John Wilson (Caddo)
John Wilson (ca. 1840-1901) was a Caddo-Delaware-French medicine man and religious leader. John Wilson's Caddo name was Nishkû'ntu, meaning "Moon Head."
Though he was of half-Delaware descent, quarter-blood French, and quarter-blood Caddo, John Wilson spoke only the Caddo language and identified only as a Caddo.[2] He is believed to have been born in 1840, when his band of Caddo were still living in Texas. They were driven into Indian Territory in 1859.[3]
Wilson was a medicine man, who in 1880, became a peyote roadman.[3] He became one of the most active leaders in the Ghost Dance in Indian Territory.
During a two-week period, Wilson consumed large numbers of peyote buttons to gain new insights into conducting peyote ceremonies – "learning from the peyote" and, as his nephew George Anderson put it, "peyote took pity on him."[4] The tribe had been exposed to the Half Moon peyote ceremony, but Wilson introduced the Big Moon ceremony to the tribe.[5] The Caddo tribe remains very active in the Native American Church today.
Wilson died in 1901.[1]
Notes
References
- Stewart, Omer Call. Peyote Religion: A History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-8061-2457-5.
- Swanton, John Reed. Source material on the history and ethnology of the Caddo Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-8061-2856-6.