Lakota (North and South Dakota)
Lakota tribes believe that everything has a spirit, even trees, rocks, and rivers. They also believe in the afterlife, saying the deceased person’s soul will go to the happy hunting ground, a realm that resembles the world of the living but where animals are easier to hunt. The creation myth features, Inyan, the Rock, Wakan Tanka, the omnipresent spirit, and Han, the darkness. Inyan creates the Maka (the Earth) to exercise and keep control of his powers. Inyan starts losing his powers in the process but continues creating the Sun and the Sky. Some of the most famous stories from Lakota mythology were about the adventures of Iktomi, the trickster spider god and Unhcegila, a serpent monster who killed whoever stumbled onto her path. A crystal on her head that functioned as her heart meant to grant its bearer great power, which prompted many soldiers to try to kill her.
There was a time when the land was sacred, and the ancient ones were as one with it. A time when only the children of the Great Spirit were here to light their fires in these places with no boundaries… In that time, when there were only simple ways, I saw with my heart the conflicts to come, and whether it was to be for good or bad, what was certain was that there would be change.
— The Great Spirit
Lakota Instructions for Living
Friend do it this way – that is,
whatever you do in life,
do the very best you can
with both your heart and mind.
And if you do it that way,
the Power Of The Universe
will come to your assistance,
if your heart and mind are in Unity.
When one sits in the Hoop Of The People,
one must be responsible because
All of Creation is related.
And the hurt of one is the hurt of all.
And the honor of one is the honor of all.
And whatever we do effects everything in the universe.
If you do it that way – that is,
if you truly join your heart and mind
as One – whatever you ask for,
that’s the Way It’s Going To Be.
Passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman
Constellation of The Hand
According to the Lakota, the Constellation of the Hand, namely the bottom half of the constellation Orion, represents the arm of a great Lakota chief. The gods wanted to punish the Lakota’s chief for his selfishness and made the Thunder People rip out his arm. The chief’s daughter offered to marry anyone who would recover her father’s arm. Fallen Star, a young warrior whose father was a star and whose mother was human, returned the arm and married the daughter. The return of the arm to the chief symbolizes harmony between the gods and the people with the help of the younger generation.
Myths & Legends of the Sioux
Little Brave and the Medicine Woman
The Seven Bands
Presently known as the Lakota people—often spelled Lahkota or more phonetically, lakhóta—Lewis and Clark most often called them Tetons. Teton is an English borrowing from Thíthuwa which despite numerous interpretations from historians and writers, has no definite meaning. Teton peoples are often referred to by the name of their band. There were three main groups, the Oglala, Brule, and Saone, and the latter group was divided into the Minneconjou, Hunkpapa, Sans Arc, Two Kettles, and Blackfoot—not to be confused with the Algonquian-speaking Blackfoot. Collectively, they are often called the seven bands of the Lakota Nation. At the time of the expedition, the bands typically lived separately, hunted freely within each other’s territory, and came together for community events. There was no evidence, however, of a centralized Lakota government.
Sacred Sun Dance
Ultimate Ritual of Pain, Renewal & Sacrifice
The Sun Dance is the most sacred ritual of Plains Indians, a ceremony of renewal and cleansing for the tribe and the earth. Primarily male dancers—but on rare occasions women too—perform this ritual of regeneration, healing and self-sacrifice for the good of one’s family and tribe. But, in some tribes, such as the Blackfeet, the ceremony is led by a medicine woman. It has been practiced primarily by tribes in the Upper Plains and Rocky Mountain, especially the Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Crow, Gros Ventre, Hidatsa, Sioux, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibway, Omaha, Ponca, Ute, Shoshone, Kiowa, and Blackfoot tribes. Usually the ceremony was practiced at the summer solstice, the time of longest daylight and lasts for four to eight days. Typically, the Sun Dance is a grueling ordeal, that includes a spiritual and physical test of pain and sacrifice. This ritual usually—but not always—involves piercing rawhide thongs through the skin and flesh of a dancer’s chest with wooden or bone skewers. The thongs are tied to the skewers then connected to the central pole of the lodge. The Sun Dancers dance around the pole leaning back to allow the thongs to pull their pierced flesh. The dancers do this for hours until the skewered flesh finally rips. The Sun Dance is also a rite of passage to manhood.
There were two spirits who lived on the surface of the earth: Iktomi and Anog-Ite. Iktomi, the spider, was the trickster spirit. Before he was Iktomi, his name was Woksape — “Wisdom” — but lost his name and position when he helped the evil spirit Gnaskinyan play a trick on all the other spirits. Anog-Ite, the double face woman, had two faces on her head. On one side, she had a lovely face, rivaling the beauty of any other woman who existed. On the other, she had a horrible face, which was twisted and gnarled. To see this face would put chills down any person’s spine. Anog-Ite was once Ite, the human wife of the wind spirit, Tate. She longed to be a spirit herself, so when the evil Gnaskinyan told her dressing up as the moon spirit, Hanwi, would grant her wish, she followed without question. Gnaskinyan used both Ite and Woksape as pawns in his trick on the other spirits. The Creator, Takuskanskan, decided not to punish Gnaskinyan for this trick, because evil does what’s in its nature. Woksape and Ite were both punished because they let their pride determine their actions and allowed themselves to be guided by evil, when both should have known better. Takuskanskan transformed the two into Iktomi and Anog-Ite, allowing Iktomi to play tricks forever and Anog Ite to be the spirit she desired to be. Both were banished to the surface of the earth.
The Lakota are a Native American tribe. Also known as the Teton Sioux (from Thítȟuŋwaŋ), they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people. Their current lands are in North and South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.
The seven bands or “sub-tribes” of the Lakota are:
- Sičháŋǧu (Brulé, Burned Thighs)
- Oglála (“They Scatter Their Own”)
- Itázipčho (Sans Arc, Without Bows)
- Húŋkpapȟa (Hunkpapa, “End Village”, Camps at the End of the Camp Circle)
- Mnikȟówožu (Miniconjou, “Plant Near Water”, Planters by the Water)
- Sihásapa (“Blackfeet” or “Blackfoot”)
- Oóhenuŋpa (Two Kettles)
Ancient Sioux Tribes, A Ghost Dance, and a Savior That Never Came
Elder Says “Live For The Living”
ICTINIKE [Spider Trickster God of War, Treachery and Mischief]
Our prayer continues that we may yet find workable effective ways to create a viable, safe and abundantly nurturing environment to grow each individual within our nation and beyond, encourage and educate each to take full responsibility in respectfully expressing their own unique and sacred life way within the circle, and to thus honor the whole and gather back the sacred tools and resources still available to us, to mend, heal, and thrive in peaceful wholeness and bring back to life the peaceful dignified ways of Saons, the ancestors, and rebirth in spirit the Seven Council Fires – Oceti Sakowin.
| “Upon suffering beyond suffering: the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again. In that day, there will be those among the Lakota who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things and the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom. I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am that place within me, we shall be one.” – Chief Crazy Horse |
The Lakota tribe was one of the three Sioux tribes of the Plains. They played a key role in the development of the west as they fought to keep their lands. There were many famous warriors that came from the Lakota tribe and they fought valiantly for their freedom.
The Lakota are found mostly in the five reservations of western South Dakota:
- Rosebud Indian Reservation, home of the Upper Sičhánǧu or Brulé.
- Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Oglála.
- Lower Brule Indian Reservation, home of the Lower Sičhaŋǧu.
- Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, home of several other of the seven Lakota bands, including the Mnikȟówožu, Itázipčho, Sihásapa, and Oóhenumpa.
- Standing Rock Indian Reservation, home of the Húŋkpapȟa and to people from many other bands.
The Lakota tribe would become known for their excellent horseback riding during the 19th century, however, the early Lakota people did not ride horses. Horses were not native to America and came from Europe. The Cheyenne people introduced the Lakota tribe to horses in the early 18th century. This changed their culture and hunting considerably. The Lakota people then became a horse culture and soon were excellent riders. They hunted the buffalo on horseback as well as other game. They became efficient with the bow while riding the horse which made them deadly during wartime.
Lakota culture has seized the imagination of many in a way that few other tribes have managed.” When people think of Native Americans, they often imagine natives in feather headdresses, on horses fighting the U.S. cavalry or hunting buffalo – as the Lakota did on the Great Plains of the American Midwest and West.
Wakan Tanka (Great Mystery Power):
“Often designated by non-Indians as “the Great Spirit”. In a certain sense, Wakan Tanka is the supreme power of the Lakota universe. The term has a double meaning – technically it refers to all the spiritual powers of the universe, as if assembled together around a council fire […] The spirit underlying Wakan Tanka itself is Inyan, who caused all things to be by sacrificing His own nature, and thereby infusing all things with His nature. Wakan Tanka can be addressed directly in prayer and ritual, but His influence within the world is diffused through His elements and aspects.”
The Lakota tribe of the Sioux people are vivid in the world’s imagination as buffalo hunters and warriors who fought the U.S. Calvary from horseback in feather bonnets on the Great Plains and Wild West. It may be a surprise to learn the Sioux were first woodland people who lived farther east in the Great Lakes region. “The stories that they are telling are either war deeds, horse-raiding scenes, ceremonial scenes, or courting,” says the show’s curator Emil Her Many Horses (Oglala Lakota). “Usually they were rendered on clothing or robes or tipis, then later other materials were introduced: muslin, canvas, then ledger books.”
Black Elk, Lakota Sioux holy man, warrior, survivor
Black Elk is not a man much known to readers in Britain. He should be. He lived one of those storied lives that spanned epochs. In his case he was old enough to fight at what became known as Custer’s Last Stand (the Battle of the Little Bighorn) in 1876 – but also young enough to live until 1950 by which point everything he had grown up with had been destroyed. Black Elk saw this all first hand. But first he saw something different – at the age of nine, a great vision, which changed the course of his life forever. He had been very unwell, and explains in detail a vision in which he meets six grandfathers or ‘thunder spirits’ in a cloud tepee. They were “the Powers of the world… the first was the Power of the West, the second, of the North, the third, of the East; the fourth, of the South; the fifth, of the Sky; the sixth of the Earth.”
The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, published by the University of Nebraska, calls him ‘probably the most influential Native American leader of the 20th century’. Standing at the peak, clutching his sacred pipe, Black Elk assails the Grandfathers and great spirit and recalls his great vision. “It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives,” he said. “Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds. Hear me not for myself, but for my people.” “The Wasichus [white men] had slaughtered all the bison and shut us up in pens” – and the run up to the Ghost Dance religious phenomenon that ultimately led to the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota on 29 December, 1890. That was when 250 mostly Lakota women and children were gunned down by the US Seventh Cavalry.
The Sioux ( Dakota), are groups of Native American tribes & First Nations peoples in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation’s many language dialects. The Dakota are first recorded to have resided at the source of the Mississippi River & the Great Lakes during the seventeenth century. They were dispersed west in 1659 due to warfare with the Iroquois. By 1700 the Dakota Sioux were living in Wisconsin & Minnesota, at this time they exterminated the Wicosawan, another Siouan people in 1710. A split of branch known as the Lakota had migrated to present-day South Dakota. Late in the 17th century, the Dakota entered into an alliance with French merchants. The French were trying to gain advantage in the struggle for the North American fur trade against the English, who had recently established the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Among the many battles & skirmishes of the war was the Battle of the Little Bighorn, often known as Custer’s Last Stand, the most storied of the many encounters between the U.S. army & mounted Plains Indians. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota & other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass & also commonly referred to as Custer’s Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, & Arapaho tribes & the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of US forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory.
Storytelling and the Lakota People
“Storytelling is multifaceted. Storytellers have trained themselves to capture the essence of a story and then retelling it with their own twist. I grew up loving the storytelling festivals because of the rich history I was able to understand.
While the story of White Buffalo Calf Woman plays an important educational and culturalrole in the Lakota culture, there are other stories that focus on healing, humor, history, creation, and so on. These stories are writing the past, living in the present, and preserving the future. These are the lessons that preserve culture and unit the people of Pine Ridge.
The Pine Ridge Reservation is the second largest in the U.S., consisting of over a million and a half square miles. Its population estimates vary widely between the U.S. census and FEMA with numbers of 14,295 and 39,734, respectively (Petrillo, Trejo, & Trejo 2007: 3). In ethnographic studies in relation to work and identity, an example of the complicated problem of Lakota people finding work lies in the tribal affiliation and the extensive racial mixing over time; in order to survive as an individual, one often needs to find work either in a tribal casino or other tribal business on the reservation or leave the reservation.
The Lakota lifestyle varies from group to group. Older Lakota females speak of the hard work just to keep a household together, such as hauling water, quilt making after school where one quilt would take all winter, ramshackle houses with leaking roofs and making their own clothes, having learned sewing in school. Lakota life is not well documented in any detail due to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations being restricted to outsiders, including anthropologists, ethnologists and other non-Native groups. The earlier customs and language were uprooted when the Natives were forcibly moved onto reservations and indoctrinated by the whites. The early times of this conflict saw Native children completely uninterested in learning English in the non-reservation day schools so boarding schools were built.
Masters of the Plains
The Lakota are a Native American people that make up part of the Great Sioux Nation, a confederation of related tribes that existed at the time of their first contact with Europeans. Although we often think of the Lakota as a people of the Great Plains, they did not originate there. As late as the early 17th century, the Lakota people lived in what is today Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa as well as parts of the Dakotas. However, during this same era, they went to war with the Anishnaabe (such as the Ojibwa) and the Creek peoples as they all desired the same natural resources, such as wild rice.
Hān Mítakuyāpi! Čhaŋté waštéya napé čhiyúzapi Justina wašíču emacíyāpí kštō! Oglala Oyanye na North Carolina ematanhan. Brush Breaker, Randall, Gallegos, na Bruns tiospaye etan waun. Oglála Lakȟóta Wíŋ hemáčha Kštó, Čanté wašté napé čiyuzāpé!
Hello relatives, my English name is Justina. I am from both the Oglala Lakota Nation and North Carolina. I am from the Brush Breaker, Randall, Gallego, and Bruns family. I stand before you as an Oglala Lakȟóta Woman; I shake your hand with a good heart!
“We are the buffalo people and this buffalo dance was given to us by the buffalo. They call us their brothers and when we’re going to hunt buffalo, we do this dance to give thanks for hunting the buffalo and they give us good success. Today, it’s a special ceremony, but we bring it into the pow wow to let it be seen and recognized that as a buffalo nation people we’re still here. We’re still surviving.”
The indigenous meanings of colors are nearly gone from the mindset of the present-day “Indian.” People see colors and use colors without a second thought. Actually, the European and Lakota meaning or interpretations of colors are as dissimilar as peas and carrots in a pot and we must recognize that. For instance, the colors red, white, or blue, are widely used in modern society and they are used in the flag of the U.S. White meaning purity and innocence, red, hardiness and valor, blue, vigilance, perseverance and justice. However, these same colors do not mean the same thing in Lakota culture, especially in a spiritual sense. In Lakota culture, black denotes honor, respect, adulthood. It also acknowledges the wind, water, the lightning and thunder that reside in the west. All of this is called Wakinyan (of the air) and it does not mean merely “thunderbird.” Wearing black face paint is earned by a warrior. It isn’t worn because it looks awesome. Although it frightened early Europeans, it is not used to “scare” an enemy.
Among the 562 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States, there are seven bands of the Titowan (Lakota) division that constitute the Great Sioux Nation. The Oglala people on Pine Ridge make up one of these seven tribes. Roughly translated to “Scatter Their Own”, they are recognized for their fierce passion and dedication to the preservation of their culture. Their great Headmen, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Black Elk and many others provided wise and strong leadership, though always seeking guidance from the women as theirs is a matriarchal society.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 