Tatanka received his first tryout match with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on January 8, 1991, against Dale Wolfe at a WWF Wrestling Challenge taping in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He received a second tryout on February 18, 1991, against the Brooklyn Brawler at a WWF Superstars taping in Orlando, Florida. Wrestling as the War Eagle, he was victorious. He followed it up with another win against Dale Wolfe the next day at a Wrestling Challenge taping. On October 21, he received another tryout match at a Superstars taping, this time defeating Skinner. In November, he began wrestling on house shows under his given name, Chris Chavis. Soon after, he took on the ring name Tatanka. After wrestling in tryout matches at house shows, Tatanka made his television debut as a fan favorite on the February 1, 1992 episode of Superstars, defeating Pat Tanaka in his debut match. As Tatanka, he performed a war dance to the Lumbee tribal war cry that preceded his entrance to the ring, and had a red stripe dyed in the middle of his hair.
Tatanka was pushed as undefeated on WWF television; he did not suffer any defeat by pinfall or submission, but he lost several matches at house shows, the first being a countout loss to Rick Martel on June 4, 1992, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Tatanka's earliest rivalry on television was against Martel; it culminated in Tatanka's pay-per-view debut, at WrestleMania VIII, with Tatanka winning the match. On May 18, 1992, Tatanka reached the peak of his success by winning the 40-man Bashed in the USA battle royal. He renewed his "feud" with Martel, who had stolen sacred eagle feathers from him to add to his wardrobe, going on to defeat Martel again at Survivor Series to reclaim the feathers.
At WrestleMania IX, Tatanka received his first televised title shot in the WWF, against Shawn Michaels for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Tatanka won the match by countout. Since a title could not change hands on a countout, Michaels retained the title. On the October 30, 1993 edition of Superstars, Tatanka suffered his first televised defeat in the WWF, losing to Ludvig Borga (Borga had hit Tatanka in the back with a steel chair while Mr. Fuji distracted the referee). After the match, he was attacked by WWF Champion Yokozuna, and was subsequently out of action for three months. Tatanka returned to the WWF in the beginning of 1994. He was scheduled to face Borga in a rematch at the Royal Rumble, but Borga injured his ankle just days before the event. Borga was replaced by Bam Bam Bigelow, who Tatanka defeated. Bigelow, however, would go on to eliminate Tatanka from the 30-man Royal Rumble match.
Tatanka was honored by Chief Jay Strongbow and Chief Wahoo McDaniel and by Lumbee tribesman Ray Littleturtle on an episode of Raw. Littleturtle presented him with a full-length Lumbee tribe chief headdress. Tatanka engaged in a storyline feud with Irwin R. Schyster, who insisted he pay a gift tax on the item. Strongbow briefly served as Tatanka's mentor and manager during the duration of the feud.
During the summer of 1994, Tatanka accused Lex Luger of selling out to Ted DiBiase, which resulted in a match between the two. Afterward, DiBiase entered the ring with a red, white and blue bag full of money. Luger kicked the bag out of DiBiase's hands resulting in Tatanka attacking him and turning him into a villain at SummerSlam, joining DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation. He spent the remainder of the year feuding with Luger, which topped off in a cage match on Raw that saw Luger come out the victor.
In spring 1995, Tatanka had another feud with Bam Bam Bigelow, who had just turned face. As a result, he teamed with Sycho Sid at the King of the Ring pay-per-view to lose to Bigelow and Diesel.
Following a hiatus at the end of August 1995, Tatanka returned to the WWF to compete in the Royal Rumble event, where he was eliminated by Diesel.
On March 19, 1996, Tatanka wrestled his final televised match in the WWF, losing to the WWF Champion Bret Hart in a non-title match. Tatanka left the WWF in the spring of 1996.
On August 1, 2005, Tatanka returned to Raw as a face once again, which was intended to be a special one-time appearance, to face Eugene in the "Eugene Invitational", a three-minute match with Kurt Angle's Olympic gold medal on the line. Tatanka lost the match when Angle attacked Eugene with twenty-seven seconds remaining, causing a disqualification.
Tatanka returned to a full-time schedule for WWE at the tail end of 2005, debuting at a December 27 house show, teaming with Shelton Benjamin in a win over Carlito and Jonathan Coachman. He returned to television in the Royal Rumble match at the January 2006 event, where he was eliminated by Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro. The next month, he began appearing on Velocity before being moved full-time to the SmackDown! brand.
As a face, he teamed with Matt Hardy to defeat MNM, the then-WWE Tag Team Champions, in a non-title match at No Way Out. They were granted a title shot on the next edition of SmackDown!, but lost. On the April 28 SmackDown!, a vignette played announcing that "a new warrior would soon be forged in Tatanka." Over the next three weeks, footage aired of Tatanka being adopted into the Oglala Sioux Tribe (Lakota). When he returned to wrestling, Tatanka defeated Simon Dean with his new finisher, "Wakinyan" (from the Lakota word for "Thunder").
On the September 1, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, he lost to The Miz in Miz's debut match, and would later lose a rematch to Miz as well. Tatanka engaged in a mini-feud with Sylvain Grenier, trading victories with him, before he was moved into an angle where he entered into a losing streak due to what he perceived to be bad decision-making by referees during his matches, especially Charles Robinson. This escalated until the October 27 SmackDown! when Tatanka, alongside partner Bobby Lashley, lost a match to William Regal and Dave Taylor when Regal pinned Tatanka by illegally using the ropes. After the match, Tatanka argued the decision again, then turned heel by attacking the referee and then Lashley when he tried to calm him down. The next week, he appeared on SmackDown! with a new style of warpaint, covering the top of his face in black and the bottom in white, and cut a promo on Lashley saying he owed neither him nor the crowd an explanation for his actions. He compared his recent losing streak to the years of persecution that his people had suffered over the years and said that he "called upon his forefathers to unleash a new warrior in him". Tatanka was released from his WWE contract on January 19, 2007, but not before ending his losing streak by defeating Jimmy Wang Yang, his first victory in months.
Tatanka made an appearance on the Old School Raw on November 15, 2010, backstage along with Ron Simmons, Dusty Rhodes, IRS, and The "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.
On November 3, 2015, WWE announced that they signed Tatanka to a Legends contract. On April 3, 2016, at WrestleMania 32, Tatanka competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal as a face, and was among the last to be eliminated.