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Inspired by a religious vision in 1761, Neolin proclaimed that Native Americans needed to reject the goods and lifestyles of the European settlers and return to a more traditional lifestyle,Trafzer, Clifford E. As long as the grass shall grow and rivers flow a history of Native Americans. Fort Worth: Harcourt College, 2000 specifically by rejecting alcohol, materialism, and polygamy. Neolin's message was a direct inspiration for Pontiac's Rebellion.
In 1762, Neolin claimed to receive a prayer from the Master of Life to be said every morning and evening. Neolin's greatest work was the "Great Book of Writing", a chart in which he mapped the path a soul must take to get to heaven. This description of the 'path to happiness' was portrayed by Neolin on a diagram, inscribed on a deer hide. The diagram "drew a path from earth to heaven ascending to happiness". Each path was blocked by 'strokes' which represented the vices brought by the Europeans. To reach happiness, an individual would need to follow the narrow path on the diagram and avoid each of these vices. He declared that, "to help the Indian remember these teachings, Neolin advised the hearers to obtain a copy of the Bible, which he offered to reproduce at the fixed rate of one buckskin or two doeskins each".
Hundreds of native people in the area later known as Ohio became disciples of Neolin. Neolin taught that Native Americans had been corrupted by European ways and needed to purify themselves by returning to their traditions and preparing for a holy war. "Drive them out," he declared of the settlers. A group of chiefs, most prominently chief Pontiac of the Odawa, gained influence by adopting Neolin's ideas and organized a confederacy of tribes in the Great Lakes region. Pontiac and his allies planned a coordinated attack against the British in the spring of 1763. Neolin rejected the uprising and called for the tribes to lay down their arms, but Pontiac's War persisted despite his appeal. The conflict was one of many Native American anti-colonial resistance movements inspired by religious leadership.
The Trout, also called Maya-Ga-Wy, was an Odawa people prophet on the scene in the early 1800s. He was noted for having carried on the legacy of Neolin and Pontiac, advocating the return to traditional ways as a means of combating European domination. His beliefs went further, not only condemning alcohol and the fur trade with whites, but also the consumption of bread ("food of the Whites") and the wearing of hats.
Neolin's teachings, as adopted by Pontiac, affected the policy "of nearly twenty tribes from Lake Ontario to the Mississippi, including among them the Ojibwa, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Seneca, Huron, Miami, Shawnee, and Delaware." Pontiac was known to use "Neolin's message as a slogan ... to attract warriors" for the military movement on Detroit".
Historians have speculated that Neolin's prophecy was influenced by his exposure to Christianity by European settlers. Many aspects of Neolin's vision seem to borrow from Christian mythology, including the pillars of fire, , ascension to heaven, the voice of God, and the promise of a halo.Anthony F. C. Wallace (1972). 9780394716992, Vintage Books, a division of Random House. . ISBN 9780394716992 Most significantly, Neolin's story mirrors the Book of Exodus, in which Moses receives the Ten Commandments atop Mount Sinai and delivers them to the Israelites. Neolin's message also closely reflects the Christian value of Akrasia in the rejection of sin.
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