Ghost Dance Shirt

We Shall Live Again
(Ghost Walking 02022016 a part of whole, the rest in the winds)

There is a place within our hearts we make a perfect start, when we rise up and share our dreams inside of all that beams. Keep this hand inside of the human fans, that flame the fire of desire in the most of scrupulous ways to make the healthy come to play. Pure of heart. Sound of mind. Let us all learn to shine, the hopes and dreams of the stars come near to part, the waves of all of time. We are together to shine, bind, bring hopes and a collective dream to the feasible reality. Let us consume our desires of the sweetest to protect this land to keep it, in a place where heaven and earth come home and paradise is our tomb. We sail to hear the place inside of our hearts chime. I hear the bells wind. I hear the small of the back chill due to the placement of the fields. Come home, push the stack, make a pact. We will show the world how to bring the hopes and dreams into reality. Brotherhood is all we need. Brotherhood is all we succeed. Take note to the artichoke.

There is a home in which we sail to make the heart a place that whales. Across the seas and into the mind, where the shining is the beneficial light. Glare a horn, cast a bow, look at the places that we laid a map. There is the place in which we shone, the making of the sacred tones. Wake up and shine forth, the land in which we stand, together we are the man. Home of the free and all that is disease, let it become relativity. To share in misfortune and tune up the fields, saying all will be healed. All will be heeled. Man will make a deal, with each day, each conversation, each page, that love is the greater tool and we will swear it to fulfill.

Dreaming of the stars and all that gone that extra yard. Consume with smoke, we bless instead of choke, yet in our hearts we bind, to help everything chime. Hear the music in our hearts, where we share all the parts. We take hold of yesterday to bring in the perfect rays/race. Tell me true my beloved in you, we are born to feel the range of stars that safe passage of time tells us to shine. We will be born of this fashion to make us with passion.

Shore to shore the dew inside of you, come tither to the sane, the making of the good rain. Let us walk in servitude in the genius of the plan, to give a way in man. There we take hope and swell with love. We push mankind into the place of the divine. We share our hearts, like the stars and the knights. We fight for hopes and dreams to bring in the cream, the mighty stars of the galaxy swim together in love. There we charge forth to bring in the holy and true, when the twins fly on through. We sense the magical truce, the place where crossing the blue and red, make yellow said. There lies the dreaming, the fields of the streaming. And with it's glitter and roll, we stand forth to make it all snow.

Crystalline rainbows appear, in the night sky of the deer. Flowing over the rolling hills, we take pity on those who have not found the course. They indeed need love, yet do not fit tightly like the glove. Where else can man come to play and halt the waves, for a moment in time. We dance and enjoy the prance, as the garden of paradise is lanced. All the animals take hold, a part of the cosmic gold. Where the stars shine, let us learn to bind to each other to cross the path of delight into a sweltering might. Thunder rolls in the making of men. And the beings of Greatness come to share their thoughts. We listen with the open heart of the fervorant and the lost, the tossed and displaced, the making of the finishing touch to ensure that we are not lost in our lust. There we shine true to the making of the good knews.

Let us always find hope in the understanding of men. Learning to climb up the hill finds an option to the falling down the hill. We watch over and blister in the sun's desire. Let us smile, in the lava flow of all that knows, the deepest darkest red is the grand show. We will find this passageway to show others of the good chase. We tend the hearts of men, then forget ... begin to sin. Forthwith the blessings must sit. Must show up in the mildest of fits, to ensure we are on the good list. We are the divine creatures, when we bless the world and all that is heard. We sit to shine it true for me and for you. We share our hearts in the option of the sublime, the mental and the kind. We witness hopes and dreams in the smallest of matters and bring back all that splatters. We share this place. We share this chase. Thank you for making our hearts come home to the sacred stones. We are born to live a life tender and full. We sit to the hopes and dreams. We are born. We are torn away from the womb, to shine true upon the world.

Make blessing to share this life, the star that came to earth with his wife. Tender and pure of heart. They formed a perfect arc. They formed the world with their love. This is the hood, the place within the sky and all is realized. Tending the fields we tear our eyes with the life of smiles, joys and heart breaks. All together the making of the place to stain the lights of the kind-ways, broad-way, the theater act that makes a good pact. There we share our smores (chocolate, sweet cracker and marshmallow) . There is hope. There is a shared dream. There is a faithful gait, the place where we enter into the wisdom. The garden of the stern, makes us burn. Inside of the swollen pot, we make a good stock.

Tasting the world and making hope to the greatness of the loop. We tend to the working class, the sweeping of the gorgeous mask. And as beauty is deep, we must look deep. There you lie in your grains, the tears of the divine show no shame. We are the cries of the world. We are the tears that heal. We are the evils swept away, when we learn to pray. Blessings to every ray. Blessings to save the day. We share this place, atonement to the suns of heaven come to earth to live. A good life. A good life. Tell the world, a good life. Sharing and caring. Love is the winds that blow. Looking forwards to all to be known. Let us sow the good fruits of labor into this world. We will share. We will dare. We will accomplish our hearts to know, which way we will share.

White Buffalo Calf Woman sings and Holiness David Running Eagle Shooting Star drums for all the great suns. We are the stars from heaven come home once again, roosting with a grin. Happy thoughts in the shine, the bringing of the healthy wine, the tears of joy for every girl and boy. We are together once again, the stars that raised us, to the river that gave to us. We share this place. What a good chase.

Ghost Drum

Sacred Pipe Score, the Coordinates of the Knightly Treasure (ghost song)

(silently) Hear my cry. I feel the wine, the pools of diamonds in the sky. We hold onto this world to prescribe. We tend the heart of those who need cry eyes and tears fall down to make us a good sound, where the stones hear the pound.

(singing) Take a hand in all we demand a good dream today to heal our waves. There is a place in which we chase. We take hold of all that is bold. The making of a sacred tree, the place where we seed. Heaven on earth we bound to touch the land of so much. We gift our hand for us to understand, the places we refuge time to make us all bind. Love is the place in which we chase. Heaven hold us true, to make the good knews. We tend to the fields of which we yield, the hand of God is the great seal. We hold our hands to brotherhood, the latest in the good knews, we choose. Love is the law upon the prescribed destiny. We are at the seeds.

Heal our heart today. We can feel this way. We will tend the fields. We will walk on those fields. Where the buffalo roam. We will sow, the green grass knows. We long to feel this place, in which we have our soul's chase. We are on this good knews. Heaven sent our heart to choose. Hold it close to you. We will send our hearts into the place we start. We will send our hearts in to the place we start. There on our feet, joy feels so sweet. We can feel the waves. Tend the hills we save. Come my children we are on this good road, where we plant the seeds we sown.

Stars in the sky and moon in our eyes. The heavenly objects comes to our cries. And inside of our hearts, the place we start. The place of heaven in the sacred arc. Hold it true, the place we knew. Take it hold to all that is bold. Come my children everyday. Heal this place for us to play. Hold it forever and near, the place inside where we take hold our fears. Love is the tears that find this plight. Let it find the gold of knights. There we will shine reflect the gray to bring in the day dream of yesterday. Thank you Grandmother for you sown. Thank you Grandfather for all you know. You send us like stars and diamonds in the fields. We take hold of this sacred wheel.

(talking) Let our mind shine the colors of light. Let our hearts fill up without such plight. Let the joy find this world. Let us become the sacred filled. Heaven on Earth I love you sow, to bring in the heart of all that is gold. Tending the fields of heavenly worth. We take hold of the cosmic girth. We wanted more than love come bring. There we sat in the sacred swing. We did learn about the daze, about how to become faithful even in the gray. Let our hearts find a place to pray. We can sing like Grandmother knows our ways/waves.

(silently) Hear the music in your heart. We will shine this ark. We will shine it true, the land of me and for you. We will tend the fields of this world. We take hold of this cosmic ark. We send the fuels of time to share this binding shining, slightly telling and all in the shelling. We are moving in the swirls and the whirls of the cosmic delights. We send our loving sights. A kiss and a hug and tell you we are the lugs on the wheel that turns, forever it burns. Let this place share our hearts into the sacred ark, the sailing seas of the single breeze, the cosmic means. We send it streams.

(talking) Tell it true where we are the blue, the tales of the diamonds in the river of life. We share our hearts with all that comes. We share it with the ones, those fellows and gents who come to war, to purify rather than gore. We send blessings to our relatives. We send heaven a kiss and in the dusk the warriors of a good bust, where treasures come out to greet the knights, those without fright. We send our blessings to them in the wind. Thank ladies for your songs of demure, the sacred smile that gifts us chills. We want to remember the heart of the winds, the blessings the girls send to begin. Come home safe. Come home true. Do not forget to bless your way through. We send our songs in the winds, to help the soldier to begin. We want you home and safe. Do remember to open the gate, where love is the sacred law, defend and make sure that we gain relatives in the wind. We send wings. (silently) Be safe.

(talking) Share this day with all of the gray, the many different fields we send out in the grays. We send our hearts in all we say. We treasure the making of a good measure. We send our hearts into the world. We send our hearts for all the boys and girls. Bless the homes and all that waves that make us safe. Bless the lands and all that makes us man. Bless the toys to learn to express. Bless the sacred nest. Bless the revelations among the fugue, the good musical knews. Bless the waking of the dawn, where the yellow road moves us along. Take to this place where we shake, the heart of everything is the perfect way. Let us listen to the wings within, the soul that shines it's good knews, heavenly told us too. We are the making of the stars fallen to learn about the world. Angels with virtue and musical flutes to find our way into the woods. And where the trees stand, we remember we are man. We send our blessings to all that band.

(singing) There is a place where heaven chase. There is a home, in which we are the rolling stones. There is judgement upon the stands, the making of the revelation of man. There is a time, in which we bind. There is a place in which we chase. Learning about the stars that fall on down, whope the ground. Stand with me upon this air. We are the holy dew that cares. We are the magic of this dawn. We send forth all of this song. We are the chosen of the time. We are the children learning to bind. We are taking to the faithful of a new time. When we listen to our hearts, we find all that matters to the arcs. Send it forth on a good course. Send our hearts to make it's mark. Tend the soil into the royal. That is the family of man, when they understand. Hear the song upon us along. Hear the wings we have to shine. There is a place where we will gift grace. Hold it for sure, the making of the deer. Running over fields. We know the drills. All those songs help us run along.

Just want to dance and sing my praise. Just want to dance and gift my love away. Just want to clear my heart in waves. Just want stand to make us safe. Love is taking hold. Just want to dance. Love is bold. Just want to dance. Can you feel it in your heart. We are moving the sails of the holy arc. Take a stand and make our feet move, over the rolling stones and the grooves. We are tending the fields. We are making this a home. We are sending our love to every rock and stone. We are holding you true like stars in the sky. We are blessing you through for all of us wise. We share our hearts. Do you feel this arc. We are sending our hearts just to dance in the hoop. And with the loop, we will look real close. Listening to the stories the drum in the spokes. We will hear you where you are. We will send our love in the sacred jar. We will find you in the sky. We will hold you in our cries.

Hold me close. Hand in hand. Hold me close. Help us understand. Hold us close where wheels will turn. Hold us close for all of this spoke. Sacred pipes where you are, tell the world blessings come far. We will send diamonds in the sky. We will send love to you and your cries. Helping the people everywhere. We will send love to the open chairs. We are the family of all that returns. We are taking of the greatness of the royal burns. Sacred pipe, I bless you near. Sacred pipe, I bless those tears. Sacred pipe, the holy dew will roll. Take a blessing to be bold. Take a hand of the sacred mold. Where the perfect fit will be born, the sacred living storm. (talking) I hear the horn. I hear the blowing flames. Love is the name of the game. Love is the name of the game.

Thank you Holiness David Running Eagle on the drum today. Thank you Stars in the sky, my beloved Sioux, grass greener that blue. I send my love to you. Thank you Rainbow Warriors who are true to love's call. Not to the after fall, but to relieve all. Thank you for taking hold instead of the wretched told. We are thankful for this place, where we send our love's chase. We send our love to the winds, to help you once again. Hold me close the sacred drum. I can dance with anyone. I can fly my spirit knows I am alive. And with the dreaming fields opening for this life. We are grateful to the sacred wife. My Holiness, you take care, to make sure we all have long hair. The distance of this flame, you help us gain. Thank you. We appreciate you. We laugh. Love is the good blast.

(singing) Let us take a place where we can chase, all of the particles in the cosmic waste. And what is bold, we take hold. We will send our love to the outer fields. And inside where we are turning the wheel, we will send our blessings for the sacred seals.

(talking) There we sing forever and a ring. There we sing forever and a ring. There we take hold to make us bold. Let us chose the faith of a living grace. Tell the mountains and the fields, we are turning this sacred wheel. The hoop that dances all through the knight. We are faithful for this sight. Where missions lead us on top of mountain fields, we are there to claim the sealed. And the when dead rise, we claim the spirit true and make the living out of you. When dust comes to take hold. We know we are the sacred bold. Let our world come to shine in a good way to bind. Let the rings of faith come to our hearts to chase. We sing in gratitude of this place. We share our hearts forever and a day. We send our hearts in a good ray. We send all that is true to the place of the good knews.

My beloved family who do not understand, that love is the law upon the land. It is time for you to understand, because so many have changed. And with this taking hold, the understanding helps you to become bold. You are lost in a sea that is blind. You cannot find your enemy if you cannot sea, the light within. Where you stand is a whole universe. The sonar of being is the telepathic of the vision you look for, yet you cannot find the score. How will you become this place if you do not understand what is standing near you, with you, taking to you or giving you advice. We must uncover and discover the mystery that is inside of you and aligning with you in the world around you. What is unseen is seen with open hearts, the sonar of your senses. Yet if you are blind to the darkness, your light will not find the vision you need. If you do not bless, then the inner mess will seed. There will be destruction from the inside out and you will find a place to shout, but from the dark without love, the songs will not be heard. And if you destroy your song, you will k/not be able to hear the songs of others. This is a location ability in the spacial fields. We are learning to find our density our parameters (coordinates in the spacial three dimension).

We sing our hearts to the waves we feel to find a path along the wheel. There we find overtures (arc over arc) in which coordinates can be found and a path is laid down. We dream this sound. We feel this bound. We sense the ground. We send our hearts. We send the fields in which we ray, the making of a good day. We send our homes to the world to share all that is good in the fields. We share our hearts and this is the seal. Let it be a good day. A treasure and a wave. We share our hearts to be saved. We send our homes to the world around us. (singing) We share this sacred wake to the making of the perfect shake, when we dance and sing our hearts feel the rings. We share it true to find the location of you. We send our hearts to the world to find the place where we stare. We share our wings to find our sings. We look for you to help all the children get on through. We tend the place of the cosmic space.

There we are the song of hope and dreams. There we are the peace of all that springs. There we will find music in our hearts. There is a magic taking part. We send our dreaming in the fields. We send the magic on the wheels. We send the hopes of all that is true. We send our love to the view. Take place inside of you. There the song and dream comes true. We are the angels that sing this song, to help all of the relatives move along. We are joining all of the family. We are sending our hearts to meet. We are sharing this sacred world to help all those things swirl. Love is the place where we need to shine. We send our love to help things bind. We send our pearls to everything. Let us rejoice and our hearts sing.

(talking) Tell you true my love is blue, the place inside of this sacred knews. We send blessings out to you. We send our hearts for the good knews.

White Buffalo Calf Woman sings and Holiness David Running Eagle Shooting Star drums for all the sacred suns. We send our love to the holy ghost walking, the holy ghost singing, the dancing and the prancing, the joyful and the tears, the sacred river of it all. We bless all the streams and beams, the holy stars and cosmic treasures, the story of the eternal pipe. We send our love to you.

February 5, 2016 10:36 pm pst Palo Alto, California, United States of America (USA). 50 minute ghost song chanupa (exhale, lakota pipe, tell a story).

DESIGNER AD 18K YELLOW GOLD SWALLOW TAIL BIRD PIN DIAMOND EYE

Lakota mythology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008)

Here is a list of articles pertaining to Lakota mythology, a Native American tribe of North and South Dakota:

Anog Ite, the two-faced goddess and mother of the Four Winds and Yum the whirlwind. Daughter of the wizards Ka and Wa.
Anpao, the two-faced god of dawn.
Canotila, forest-dwelling beings
Capa, beaver god of labor
Cetan, hawk spirit of the east
Heyoka, the contrarian who has visions of Waukheon
Iktomi, the spider trickster spirit and son of Inyan
Inyan, the primordial creator god
Iya, the destructive storm monster of the north and brother to Iktomi
Skan, the motion of the universe
Tate, the wind god
Unhcegila, the serpent monster
Untunktahe, the water god
Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit
Waukheon, the Thunderbird
Whope, the Spirit of peace and the wife of the south wind Okaga
Wi, the solar spirit of bison. Also known as Anpetu Wi (Daytime Wi) to differentiate him from Hanwi, who is also known as Wi.
Yuwipi, the healing ceremony
Wakinyan, thunder spirits
White Buffalo Calf Woman, the prophetess who taught the Lakota to practice the Seven Sacred Rites

Other beings include:

Tokahe - the first man to emerge from the underworld
Makȟá-akáŋl, or Maka - the earth goddess created by Inyan as his lover
Yum - a whirlwind god, child of Anog Ite
Han - ancient spirit of darkness banished to be under Maka
Hanwi - the moon goddess who accompanies Wi. Also known as Hanhepi Wi (Nighttime Wi) to differentiate her from Wi, as she is known also as Wi.
Hehaka - the male elk god of sexuality
Hihankara (Owl-Maker) - the aged goddess who stands upon the entrance to the Milky Way and admits the nagi who show her the proper tattoos. Those who fail her will be pushed back to Earth to wander as ghosts.
Hnaska - the frog god of sorcery
Hogan - the purifying fish spirit of water
Iktinike - the dishonest son of Wi who was banished to earth
Ka - the first woman, banished to earth as a witch with her husband Wa for helping their daughter Anog-Ite supplant Hanwi
Keya - turtle spirit of health, safety, and healing rituals
Mato - mischievous healer bear spirit of passionate emotions
Mica - trickster coyote spirit
Nagi - a soul
Okaga - fertility spirit of the south winds
Sungmanito - wolf spirit of hunting and war
Sunka - dog spirit of companionship and faithfulness
Taku Skanskan - capricious chaotic spirit who is master of the four winds and the four night spirits, Raven, Vulture, Wolf, Fox
Ta Tanka (Great Beast) - the male buffalo spirit of plenty. Enemy of Mica.
Tatankan Gnaskiyan (Crazy Buffalo) - malevolent spirit who wreaks havoc on love affairs, causing feuds, murders, and suicides
Unk (Contention) - Maka's companion who causes quarrels, and is banished to the depths of the waters for her actions. She is Iya's mother, and she is the progenitor of all evil things.
Wa - the first man, banished to earth as the wizard Wazi with his wife Ka for helping their daughter Anog Ite to supplant Hanwi. Like his wife, he helps whoever he chooses.
Waziya (Blower From Snow Pines) - a giant who guarded the entrance to the place of the aurora borealis. He fights against the south winds with his cold, icy, breath. He also brings famine and diseases. ^[1]
Wakanpi - spirits or divinities.
Wamaka Nagi - souls of animals, especially of domesticated types such as dogs or horses. They accompany their owners as they go to the Milky Way in the afterlife.
Wambli - eagle spirit of councils, hunting kills, and battle
Wanagi - souls of departed human beings. They ascend to the Milky Way to be judged by Hihankara, who tosses those without proper tattoos to be thrown back to Earth to wander as ghosts. Living souls are known as Woniya.
Wani - the four elder sons of Tate who oversee the cardinal directions, the four winds, health, the weather, and fertility. They can be combined into a single figure.
Wiyohipeyata - the wind god of the west who oversees endings and nighttime occurrences
Wiyohiyanpa - the wind god of the east who oversees beginnings and daytime occurrences
Wo Nagi - spiritual essence of food. Lakotas have to give due reverence and gratitude to their provisions, to ensure that the Wakanpi will not be upset.
Zuzeca - snake god of hidden things, concealed knowledge, and outright lies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakota_mythology

References and External links below

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google search lakota yellow sparrow story

LAKOTA ETHNOASTRONOMY

Lucifer (Fallen Star: Whope or White Buffalo Calf Woman)

(Waziya lakota) Native American Mythology A to Z by Patricia Ann Lynch and Jeremy Roberts

https://books.google.com.my/books?id=0MIqNXvxNNUC&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=Waziya+lakota&source=bl&ots=BdpILwqJgJ&sig=wvEjFamMb5Rvo0PGicKWDi06GAs&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=wohpe&f=false

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LAKOTA ETHNOASTRONOMY

Lucifer (Fallen Star: Whope or White Buffalo Calf Woman)

White Buffalo Calf Woman (Lakota: Pte Ska Win / Pteskawin / Ptesanwi) is a sacred woman of supernatural origin, central to the Lakota religion as the primary cultural prophet. Oral traditions relate that she brought the "Seven Sacred Rites" to the Lakota people.

LAKOTA ETHNOASTRONOMY

by Steven Mizrach Introduction

Although there has been much written about Plains Indian ethnoastronomy, a large amount of that literature has focused on the Caddoan ethnic/linguistic group - in particular, tribes such as the Pawnee, Arikara, and Arapaho. In this paper, I will focus on the "Sioux" Indian tribes (a misnomer), looking in particular at the astronomical practices and beliefs of the Oglala, Hunkpapu, and other Lakota bands. It can be shown that despite what some anthropologists have proclaimed about living 'timelessly', the Lakota did pay attention to the heavens, and they did have means of preserving what they observed.

Sun Dance

Contrary to common belief, the Plains Indian Sun Dance was neither a form of solar worship nor a ritual ordeal or sacrifice. For the Lakota, the Sun was indeed a representative of the Great Mystery (wakan tanka), and was known as a wakan akanta (superior divinity) whose name was Wi. However, the Sun Dance is not for the purposes of offering blood or anything else to the sun; and even though many people have focused on the use of hooks being driven into the flesh of the dancers or their way of dancing until exhaustion, this was not an 'ordeal' in the commonly understood sense. Instead, the "probationer" or dancer volunteered to partake in the ritual in order to help put himself and his band in harmony with the cosmos. (Lincoln, 1994.)

The Lakota hold their Sun Dance very year in late July or August. It is thought that the timing of the Sun Dance had more to do with the height of the buffalo herd population at that time of the year (that was when all the nomadic hunting bands could gather in one place) than with any specific astronomical or calendrical event. A vertical connection (axis mundi) to the sun and the cosmos is necessary for the ceremony to continue, and this is symbolized by erecting a large cottonwood tree at the center of the dance ground. The tree is adorned with flags and artefacts of six colors, representing the six cardinal directions (east, west, north, south, above, below.) The dancing ground is surrounded by an arbor covered with boughs with an opening to the east, where the dancers and the Sun enter each day. (Crummett, 1993.)

One of the more sensational aspects of the dance is, of course, the piercing of dancers with pegs through the chest; these pegs are connected to a rope which is tied around the central tree. The dancer runs from the periphery of the circle to the center and back three times, building up speed. After the third flight, the dancer runs with such force that the pegs are torn out of his chest, ripping free from his flesh. Many Lakota point out that this part of the ritual simply emphasizes that at birth, people are "torn" this way from the Great Mystery and from their connection to the veridical dimension of the cosmos. It reinforces the idea that everything is ultimately dependent on the gifts of the Sun, and can't ever truly be free of the heat and light that it gives. (Farrer, 1992.)

According to the Lakota, the Sun Dance is one of the six great ceremonies, including the smoking of the holy Pipe, that was given to them by their culture-bringer, White Buffalo Calf Woman. Although it became something of a powwow-style tourist attraction around the middle of the century (after the U.S. government outlawed the more sensational aspects of it in the name of "decency"), since the 1970s, AIM members and other Lakota traditionalists have tried to recapture some of the solemnness of the original ritual, and have subsequently banned tourists, alcohol, and other distractions, while restoring the piercing and rigor of the ritual. Non-Indians have been allowed to participate, but only if they are well known and agree to obey by all the rules and taboos of the ceremonies.

From an astronomical standpoint, the Sun Dance is interesting because its elements display many of the features of the Lakota cosmos. The Lakota believe that the circle is a divine shape, primarily because so many things in the cosmos (the Sun, the Moon, etc.) are round. Although the Sun Dance is not held on the vernal equinox, the eastern opening of its arbor clearly is supposed to be oriented toward the rising of the summer sun. The Lakota have not been an agricultural people, at least within historical times, although they may have been before. Like many nomadic societies, they did not attach much importance to fixed points within the year.

Winter Counts

The Lakota did not have a system of writing prior to European contact, and thus did not have a calendrical notation system as we would understand it, or any "true" written history. However, they did utilize a means of counting winters and noting significant events that passed each winter season by recording them ideographically. This was used to supplement their primarily oral tradition. They would begin their year with the first snowfall, and end it with the thawing of spring. The tribal winter count keeper would symbolize each passing winter with a pictograph and a phrase notched into a tanned animal hide, and these were mnemonic devices to record the most significant events of that year.

The tribal count keeper's job was to remember each year and the things that happened. "That was the winter when we saw the purple spotted buffalo," or something like that. Von Del Chamberlain discovered that these winter counts often contained significant astronomical data. Among a sample of some 200 winter counts from many different bands, he claimed to have found pictographic records of 17 astronomical events, including solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, "fireballs" or spectacular meteors, comets, and the Leonid meteor shower -- in particular the famous 1833 meteor "blizzard." (Del Chamberlain, 1984.) The Lakota clearly only recorded very stunning and unique phenomena - unique enough to identify a particular year.

They did seem to realize that eclipses were recurrent events, but they did not seem to believe that there was any type of regularity or periodicity to the most spectacular total eclipses of the sun or moon. Del Chamberlain concludes that the reason why only one comet appears in the winter counts is because the Indians did seem to believe that the recurrence of comet appearances was a recurrent, predictable phenomenon. Why this insistent interest in transient events? Most likely, it was connected to the Lakota belief that such things were connected to the wakan or incomprehensible nature of the cosmos.

For the Lakota, anything which did not behave the same way as other things did was wakan. A heyoka, or sacred-backwards-clown, was wakan because he did things in an ironic, reversed way that was different from everyone else. The planets were wakan because of the way they wandered among the other stars. The pole star was wakan because all the other stars whirled around it while it kept its place in the sky. The spectacular cosmic events recorded in their winter counts are similarly wakan, because they were unexpected and dramatic.

Ultimately, as was suggested earlier, the Lakota were not very interested in recording recurrent astronomical phenomena, because as nomadic hunters, they didn't need an agricultural calendar. They did reckon the months (literally, by the passing of new Moons) and the seasons but the primary annual event for them was when the population of the buffalo herd reached its peak. For them, the most interesting and important aspects of the cosmos were the ones that were idiosyncratic and non-replicated, although they did watch the movements of the Sun and the stars for other purposes or in earlier times, which will be discussed below.

Medicine Wheels

While there has been some argument over the antiquity of North American medicine wheels, and their purpose, most scholars are agreed that they may have had some astronomical function. The medicine wheels were large spoked wheels built from rocks with a central cairn in the middle. The most famous totally intact medicine wheel is the one found in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, which appears to have been used to watch the summer solstice sunrise and the summer dawn stars (Aldeberan and Rigel), and was probably built around 1760. (Krupp, 1983.) There are numerous other medicine wheels in Canada, where they seem to be most common, but they also were utilized on the northern Plains, including in Lakota territory.

John M. Eddy found numerous remains of medicine wheels on the Plains, which were often as large as a hundred meters in diameter. Eddy claims the date of many of these wheels has never been established firmly (some could be as much as 10,000 years old), and that many modern ethnographic informants, when asked about them, seem to have forgotten about their original function, and know only that they are sacred and have to do with powerful "medicine." (Eddy, 1977.) The wheels clearly show similarities to sun dance medicine lodges and tipi rings, and for the Lakota both these structures were thought to be "mirrors" of the cosmos. Many of them have 28 'spokes,' which is a significant astronomical number.

His Plains medicine wheels, like the Bighorn wheel, often use the central cairn as a foresight to view the summer solstice sunrise. A wheel in Montana reinforced this solar connection when he found that opposite the solstice spoke line on the other side of the cairn was a small solar symbol made of sunken lichen-covered stones. This symbol looks like the "parent" wheel, and suggests strongly that the wheels themselves could be solar imagery, with the spokes representing the radiating energy of the sun. The smaller symbol has turned up in several of the wheels found in Canada, so it does seem to be more than just an idiosyncratic marker.

The Canadian wheels are important because they often contain certain correlations or nearby archaeological materials which make them more dateable than their cousins on the Plains. The Moose Mountain wheel in Saskatchewan, for example, is extremely similar to the Bighorn Wheel, and its construction appears to date to somewhere around 100 to 300 CE. (Nikiforuk, 1992.) Eddy feels that these wheels are strong evidence for a "medicine wheel" tradition on the Plains which could stretch back thousands of years. They may not have all been built by the same people, he cautions, but they do seem to represent a certain diffusion of ideas.

If this is true, why the apparent lack of such sun-watching among most modern Lakota? Eddy thinks that with the introduction of the horse by the Europeans and their shift to a nomadic lifestyle, the Lakota lost much of their traditional astronomy - the kind of star-charting that could be found among the horticultural Caddoans, for example. He heralds it as a classic example of a loss of traditional knowledge through cultural contact. As it turns out, he wasn't completely correct.

Celestial Imagery

The fact that astronomy was important for the Lakota can clearly be found inscribed on their artefacts. Eppridge and others have collected a lot of the artefacts associated with the Ghost Dance religion or "ethnic revitalization movement" founded by the prophet Wovoka. In the Ghost Dance ritual, the morning star was identified with the Messiah: it was the "yellow star" who those in Ghost Dance trance were supposed to watch. It appears in the form of a Maltese cross on many ghost shirts worn by the dancers. Other shirts often contain images depicting stars, moons, suns, and comets. (Eppridge, 1980.)

The Lakota often made a special war shield following a Vision Quest. The design on the shield was supposed to offer them special protection and guidance. Many of the shields found by ethnographers contain celestial designs, usually depicting the sun, the Pleiades, the Little Dipper, Castor and Pollux, the Pole Star, and the morning star. Vision questers were often directed to make the focus of their visions the central element of their shields. The fact that they frequently chose astronomic elements shows what their attention was often directed toward. (Carlson, 1990.)

The heyokas or sacred clowns of the Lakota often covered their bodies with special painted designs. Sometimes these designs reflected sheer chaos. Sometimes they contained things that were supposed to be deliberate insults against enemies of the tribe. Often they contained the particular "step" or zigzag design that was supposed to reflect the lightning or thunder which was the hallmark of Wakinyan, the Thunder Bird. (One was supposed to become a heyoka if they were frightened by thunder.) But particularly interesting to ethnoastronomers was their frequent use of the sun and the moon, or the morning and evening star, to reflect on their bodies their unique "oppositional" or reversing nature.

The Pole Star appears infrequently on Lakota artefacts, but always prominently. Like the Sun, it is thought to be part of the Superior Mysteries. They call Polaris Wichapi Owanjila, "the Star that always stands in one place." The other stars are said to be moving in a "dance circle" around it, paying homage to it. The Lakota claimed that Polaris was emblematic of the way that all of creation moved around Wakan Tanka, "that-which-moves-moving-things." (Hollabaugh, 1996.) On objects, it often appears on top of the axis mundi (world-tree): much like the Christmas Star does on the trees people use today...

Other everyday objects of the Lakota have been found to have astronomical images, ranging from moccasins to tipis. There are even examples of the aurora borealis and shooting stars appearing on certain objects. One problem complicating this research is the sheer variety of pictographs used for depicting stars. The Lakota used crosses, lozenges, circles, and interlocking triangles , as well as the kind of five-pointed and six-pointed images Western people would readily identify as stars... only ethnographic information has helped people understand the nature of these depictions.

Lakota Cosmology

Two books, by Hassrick and Powers, give a general indication of what religion was like among the Lakota Sioux. In their complex pantheons, some Lakota ideas about the cosmos can be discerned. The counterpart of Wi, the Sun, was Hanwi, the Moon, whose name literally means "Night Sun." The stars were regarded simultaneously as parts of Skan, the Sky, and were also thought to be supernatural people in their own right. Because Sun had abandoned his wife at a feast of the gods, Skan passed judgement on him. From then on, Sun was forced to rule over the day and Moon over the night. Wohpe, their daughter, was the White Buffalo Calf Woman. (Powers, 1972.)

In Lakota cosmology, there were quadripartite divisions of everything: four colors (red, green, blue, yellow), four superior mysteries (sun, sky, earth, rock), four classes of gods (superior, associate, subordinate, spirits), four elements in the sky (sun, moon, sky, stars), four parts of time (day, night, month, year), and four winds corresponding to the four cardinal directions. All of these are symbolized by the Lakota cross-within-a-circle, a symbol which appears throughout the Americas. For the Lakota, it is the "sacred hoop" and represents the totality of their people. (Steinmetz, 1990.)

The user of the Sacred Calf Pipe faces east toward the rising sun at dawn, west toward the setting sun at dusk. The Sun was recognized as one of the greatest of the Lakota's divine Controllers. Inktomi, the trickster-spider, mediates between gods and men. According to this text, Wohpe is Falling Star, and *she* marries the South Wind as her husband. (Hassrick, 1964.) The Morning Star is said to represent the light of knowledge as a counter to the darkness of ignorance.

The eastern part of the tipi symbolizes the source of light. The south, death and the spirit path. The west, darkness and thunderbirds. The north, the path of forefathers. The Buffalo People are said to reside in the north. The Lakota claim to see a woman, rather than a man's face, in the moon, and she is said to be stirring a kettle by the fire. The moon is explicitly linked to women's menses and to pregnancy and fertility. For the Lakota, two of the six directions are marked by the solar zenith and nadir. (Williamson, 1984.)

The stars are said by some Lakota to be very remote from human affairs. People are not to concern themselves with their business because the stars are wakan. (Walker, 1980.) However, this is contradicted by stories which suggest that the star people come to earth to look for brides, and the fact that heroes and other important ancestor figures go to join the stars. (Monroe, 1987.) Lakota society was very individualistic, and so were the visions that were granted to people. So we can expect some degree of variance among religious ideas. The person who made this statement to Walker (Ringing Shield) might not have been familiar with all of the specialized star lore of the tribe.

Milky Way and Fallen Star

Among the Lakota, there are many interesting myths and legends which are used to explicate their ideas about the cosmos, as is the case among many cultures. According to mythographer James LaPointe, "the ancient Lakota wise men said that all heavenly bodies exert influences upon life on Earth, and the destinies of individual life are at all times under the spell of the sun, moon, and stars." LaPointe also suggests, "... they imparted their knowledge to posterity through oral narratives and object lessons. One star cluster was called Pa yamini pa, 'a monster with three heads.' "

The Lakota have one fascinating myth which tells a great deal about their astronomical beliefs. According to this legend, Fallen Star, a supernatural hero, was the son of the North Star and a Lakota woman. (Interestingly, in Western mythography, the morning star or "Lucifer" is known as the "fallen star" or "the bright star cast out of heaven.") Fallen Star was said to be a member of the Maghpia Oyate or Cloud People and to be a special protector of the Lakota. His mother had lived with North Star in the clouds, but fell to Earth when she made the mistake of trying to dig up a plant growing in the cloud world - something she had been warned against. The North Star now broods in immobile solitude over the loss of his beloved Lakota maiden.

Tupun Shawin (the red-cheeked maid) was found by a group of boy hunters while she was lying unconscious after she had fallen from the cloud world. Her child was nursing from her "vigorously." The boys did not know if she was a cloud or spirit woman and so left her alone. But they did not want to abandon the helpless infant, so they brought it back to the village. The mysterious baby was named Fallen Star and given to a lonely, barren woman in the village. He matured very quickly, and became aware of a special destiny. He told others in the village that he was the child of a bright star in the heavens, and then told his adopted mother that he had to return to his father's place in the sky. He is said to be there now, watching over the Lakotas, his adoptive people.

Lakota people call the Milky Way Wanaghi Tachanku or "trail of the spirits." It was "the trail all Lakota people must take when fate overtakes them." (This is another interesting cross-cultural 'coincidence,' because among the Indians of South America, the Milky Way was also thought to be a "road of the dead" or "way of souls.") They claimed that at the point where the Milky Way splits, a divine Arbiter stood ... people who lived an immoral life were forced to head down the part of the Milky Way that ends in a nebula, tumbling through space forever. Those who lived a proper life took the other road to Wanaghiyata, the promised home of departed souls.

What is fascinating about this myth is that it ends this way, at least according to the translator: "Today, somewhere near the Trail of Spirits, known to others as the Milky Way, Fallen Star sends rays of hope for his earth people." (LaPointe, 1976.) This suggests Fallen Star might be one of the stars found near the Milky Way. Which one can't be determined from the story, but it could be the one of the ones in the Big Dipper. Based on the legend, it would have some special relationship to the Pole Star. This would be an interesting topic for further investigations.

Lakota Constellations and the Black Hills

Sinte Gleiska University scholar Ronald Goodman spent ten years studying the astronomical folklore of Lakota people, and the result of this work was Lakota Star Knowledge: Studies in Lakota Stellar Theology, a book which detailed the literally "cosmic" importance of the Black Hills for Lakota people. It discusses the spring constellations which the Lakota people observed while moving in a cyclical round from site to site in the Black Hills. The Black Hills were thought to be a terrestrial mirror of the cosmos, so the Lakota were simply "mirroring" the motions of the heavens. As the sun moved counterclockwise through the ecliptic, the Lakota were moving clockwise through the terrestrial analogues of their constellations. (Goodman, 1990.)

These constellations were: Canshasha Ipusye (Dried Willow), which was watched from the winter camps during the spring equinox; Wincinchala Sakowin (the Seven Little Girls = the Pleiades), which were watched from Harney Peak during "thunder's welcoming"; Tayamni (the Buffalo), which were watched from a central cairn during "life's welcoming in peace"; Ki Inyanka Ocanku (the center of the "Race Track"), which were watched from Pe Sla (a bare hill); and Mato Tipila (the Bear's Lodge), which were watched from Devil's Tower, during the summer solstice, prior to the Sun Dance. The 'race track' was subdivided into Cangleshka Wakan (sacred hoop) and Tayamni Cankahu (the Animal's Backbone.) The idea of the Black Hills as a 'terrestrial zodiac' is interesting; such an idea was proposed by Katharine Maltwood for some of the formations around Glastonbury.

The key sacred sites within the Black Hills, which are themselves thought to be enclosed by a terrestrial 'race track,' are Bear Lodge Butte, Old Baldy, Ghost Butte, and Thunder Butte. Devil's Tower is actually outside the Black Hills, but it forms the symbolic "Buffalo's Head" of the Lakota with two other hills inside the area -- Bear Butte as the "Buffalo's Nose," and Inyan Kaga as the "Black Buffalo Horn." Goodman notes that the tipi's shape also mirrors the heavens: 3 poles for the North Star, 7 poles for the cardinal directions, 2 poles for "ears", equaling the 12 months and the 12 stars (morning, evening, 7 in the dipper, 3 in Orion's belt.)

Goodman also discusses Fallen Star and the afterlife beliefs of the Lakota. This ties into the Lakota constellation known as nape, "the Hand," which consists of Orion's belt and sword, and the stars of Rigel and Eridanus Beta. He suggests "the Hand" can be correlated with the "Chief who Lost his Arm." In this legend, the chief has his arm torn from his shoulder by Thunderbirds as a result of his selfishness. His daughter offers to marry Fallen Star if he can recover the hand for her. Fallen Star succeeds in this quest, defeats the Thunderbirds and Inktomi, and marries her. As Goodman points out, Fallen Star represents the new chief and the new year, and their son the renewed earth of spring.

In the legend, it is said that while searching for the arm, "Fallen Star... seems to be in the Black Hills area, but at the same time he also appears to be moving through the star world. He travels through three villages or 'star peoples,' and it is said his son will have to visit the other four." Something of astronomical significance is being described here... but I am not sure what. What's most fascinating is how similar this is to the "wounded king" myth of European Grail legends - the wound leads to a loss of fertility, and only healing this wound restores the land. The Grail legends are said to have a zodiacal basis too...

Winter Solstice Stars

Besides the "Race Track," the Lakota watch another important group of stars around the winter solstice. Although they didn't observe the winter solstice itself (it was usually way too cold on the Plains to be out at night star-watching all the time), these stars were noted around this time. Parts of this group of winter stars are parts of the earlier "race track," shifted in the sky; others are not.

Some of these stars/asterisms include Wichapi Owanjila (Polaris), Wakinyan (the Thunderbird = gamma Draconis + 2 stars from "Ursa's bowl"), Wichakihuyapa (the Big Dipper), Mato Tipila (the Bear's Lodge, which includes Castor and Pollux), Tayamni (the Buffalo, which includes Sirius, Rigel, and Aldeberan), Capella, the "Fireplace" (which includes parts of Leo and Gemini), Canshasha Inpusye (the Dried Willow = Triangulum plus Aries), Hehaka (the Elk, which has part of Pisces plus other stars), Keya (the Turtle), Zuzuecha (the Snake = stars in Canis Major + Columba), and Wanagi Ta Chanku (the Spirit's Road = the Milky Way.)

Paula Giese, a Lakota student at Sinte Gleiska, discusses these constellations because she feels that Lakota Star Knowledge only deals with the spring stars. She mentions a few others of importance: Arcturus is said to be variously either Iktobu (going toward), or Wichapi Sunkaku (Morning Star's younger brother), or Oglechkutepi (Arrow game), or Ihuku Kigle (it went under). It has a special relationship to Anpao Wichahapi (dawn star, Venus.) The Agleshka, or Salamander, corresponds to no known Western constellations. The Crab Nebula, which has no Lakota name, apparently occupies a special position among these stars. (Giese, 1995.)

Giese also mentions some interesting things about the Big Dipper. Its seven stars are said to correspond to the seven stages of a woman's maturation and to the seven Lakota council fires. Towin, the Blue Woman Spirit who assists midwives with births, lives in the center of the dipper -- the place where one can find the hole from which Fallen Star's mother fell. The Dipper is said to carry the water for celestial sweat lodge ceremonies, and to ferry the spiritual essence of deceased people to the Milky Way.

Basically, she suggests that there may have been some limited star-watching "from some sheltered location" around the end of the year, close to the winter solstice. Young people were taught about these constellations because the "life-paths" for girls and boys were marked out by the Dipper and so it was important for them to know about it. They were taught that the Sun would eventually return from its southerly drift, and that these stars were a reassurance of that fact. All in all, these are interesting additions to the insights in Goodman's book.

Conclusion

Why, until the publication of Lakota Star Knowledge, did many anthropologists think that the Lakota had no ethnoastronomy? Mostly, this is due to misinterpretations of the stories from Walker's informants, who claimed that the Lakota had no interest in the stars. It was partly due to a misunderstanding of the term wakan. Although they regarded the stars as mysterious and incomprehensible, they still observed them - as part of their religion. Astronomers studying Lakota culture after they had lost control of the Black Hills would not have known how vital star-watching was to their religious ceremonies.

Most ethnographers assumed that only the Caddoan (such as the Skidi Pawnee) groups on the Plains had any meaningful astronomy because only settled horticulturalists would have the time to make observations and only they would have the need to use the heavens as timing mechanisms for agriculture. (Ruggles and Saunders, 1993.) It was assumed by people like Del Chamberlain that, although star knowledge might have been used by the Lakota in the past, the introduction of the horse and the transition to a nomadic buffalo-hunting lifestyle caused this knowledge to disappear. (Chamberlain, 1982.) The Lakota also had an extensively oral tradition, and did not make the complicated sky maps and star charts of the Pawnee, or make other kinds of astronomical notation.

The problem was that Western astronomers simply didn't look closely enough at the Lakota religion. Other societies use star-watching as a form of utilitarian time-keeping ... a purely "secular" (literally) pursuit. The problem was that ceremonies like the Sun Dance, Sweat Lodge, and Sacred Pipe contained cosmological knowledge; but ethnoastronomers left study of those rituals to scholars of religion. They didn't realize that the Lakota were the descendants of the "vanished" cultures that created the Plains Medicine Wheels. They spent too much time hunting for alignments and not enough time collecting legends. They didn't understand that some of the adornments on Lakota costumes and artefacts were astronomical, because they didn't look "like stars," and they never really asked anyone about their museum collections.

Unlike some of the other cultures of Mesoamerica and South America, the Lakota did not have an astronomical calendar. They didn't build large, fixed, monumental structures with celestial alignments. They were not interested in fixing the length of the year, or of establishing precise planting and harvesting times, or calculating the beginning of climactic seasons. All that mattered to them was the size of their precious buffalo herd, and they could always determine its peaking point through simple observation. The only part of the year they counted were winters, because on the Plains surviving winters was something worth remembering, and it was the time that hunting ceased.

But research with the Lakota should teach us that nomadic hunting societies do not ignore the heavens, either. Like many other societies on the move, the Lakota used the stars as a guidepost for when to move on from place to place in the Black Hills. Ethnoastronomers seem to have a biased belief that only people who stay in one place bother to stretch their heads out and look up at the sky. But for wandering peoples, the heavens literally may have laid out a "map" of their migrations. Other forms of religious pilgrimage should be studied in this light. The Lakota were probably not the only race who chose to mimic the movements of the stars above by their migrations below.

Bibliography

Carlson, John B., "America's Ancient Skywatchers," in National Geographic, Vol. 177 No. 3, March 1990, pp. 76-108.

Chamberlain, Von Del, "Astronomical Content of North American Plains Indian Calendars," in Archaeoastronomy, Vol. 15 No. 6, Fall 1984, pp. S1-S51.

Chamberlain, Von Del, When Stars Came Down to Earth: the cosmology of the Skidi Pawnee Indians of North America, Ballena Press, College Park, 1982.

Coller, Beth A., A Selected Bibliography on Native American Astronomy, Colgate University Press, Hamilton, 1978.

Crummett, Michael, Sun Dance, Falcon Press, Helena, 1993.

Eddy, John M., "Medicine Wheels and Plains Indian Astronomy," in Aveni, Anthony F., ed., Native American Astronomy, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1977.

Eppridge, Theresa, "The Star Image and Plains Indian Star Legends," in Ball, Gene, and Horse Capture, George P., eds., Design Symbology and Decoration, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, 1980.

Farrer, Claire, and Williamson, Ray, eds., Earth and Sky: visions of the cosmos in Native American folklore, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1992.

Giese, Paula, Aboriginal Star Knowledge Home Page, Internet URL: http://indy4.fdl.cc.umn.us/~isk/stars/starmenu.html, 1995.

Goodman, Ronald, Lakota Star Knowledge: studies in Lakota stellar theology, Sinte Gleiska College, Rosebud, 1990.

Hassrick, Royal B., The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1964.

Hollabaugh, Mark, "Celestial Imagery in Lakota Culture," paper presented at 5th Oxford Intl. Conference on Archaeoastronomy, 1996.

Krupp, E.C., Echoes of Ancient Skies: the astronomy of lost civilizations, Harper & Row, New York, 1983.

LaPointe, James, Legends of the Lakota, Indian Historian Press, San Francisco, 1976.

Lincoln, Bruce, "A Lakota Sun Dance and the Problems of Sociocosmic Reunion," in History of Religions Journal , Vol. 34 No. 1, August 1994, pp. 1-15.

Monroe, Jean Guard, They Dance the Sky: Native American star myths, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1987.

Nikiforuk, Andrew, "Sacred Circles (North American Plains Indians' medicine wheels)," in Canadian Geographic, Vol. 112 No. 4, August 1992, pp. 50-61.

Powers, William K., Oglala Religion, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1972.

Ruggles, Clive, and Saunders, Nicholas, eds., Astronomies and Cultures, University Press of Colorado, Niwot, 1993.

Steinmetz, Paul, Pipe, Bible, and Peyote among the Oglala Lakota: a study in religious identity, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1990.

Walker, James R., Lakota Belief and Ritual, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1980.

Williamson, Ray A., Living the Sky: the cosmos of the American Indian, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1984.

http://www2.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/lakota.htm

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Some Common Lakota Words and Terms

From Lakota Belief and Ritual by James R. Walker

And Reading and Writing the Lakota Language by Albert White Hat Sr.

Asanpi- Milk

Ate-Father.

Heyoka-Opposite to nature

Hunka Lowanpi-

The Hunka ceremony or making of relatives. Lowan means song or singing. Lowanpi means singing with

ceremonies or performances.

Ihanktonwan-

The Yankton people. Those who dwell by the end.

Ihanktonwanna-

The smaller division of the Yankton people. Or Little End dwellers. Yanktonais.

Iktomi-

Spider Like (the trickster spirit who once was called Ksa, son of Inyan).

Inyan-

The Stone or Rock.

Before there was any other thing, or any time, Inyan was, and his spirit was, Wakan Tanka.

Inyan was soft and shapeless but he had all powers. He gave of his blood to make Maka

(Earth)

and became hard

and powerless. His blood was blue and became the waters of the earth.

Isanti or

Sisitonwan-

Those who lived near Knife La

ke east of the Mississippi.

Iwoblu-

Blizzard

Iya-

The second son of Inyan, who is utterly evil and the chief of all evil beings. Committed incest with his mother

Unk-

and their offspring is a very beautiful, enticing and deceitful demon whose name is

Gnaski.-

Iya Tate-

Wind

Kan-

Incomprehensible. An incomprehensible fact that cannot be demonstrated.

Kola-

A male friend

Ksa-

The older son of Inyan brought forth full-grown from an egg in an anti-natural manner by

Wakinya-

n.

God of wisdom but he became the imp of mischief and his name is (now)

Iktomi-

.

Maka-

The Earth and Grandmother of all things.

Maza waken-

Wakan iron or gun. (Because the shot from it is like the act of the Wakan.)

Mdewakantonwan-

Spirit Lake or Sacred Lake people.

Mini wakan-

Wakan water, intoxicating liquor.

Nagi-

The spirit that has never been in a man. The spirit that guides man but is not part of a man. Both good and bad.

Niya-

Ghost

Okaga-

South Wind

Olowan-

A song.

Oyate-

The People or Nation

Sicun-

Guardian or intellect.

Skan-

The Sky

Taku Skanskan-

Changes things.

Taku Wakan-

Wakan Relatives. (“Relatives” relates to all things in nature, not just to blood relatives or other humans.)

Taku wakan-

Things mysterious.

Tatanka-

Great beast (bull buffalo or bison). The patron of ceremonies, of health, and of provision.

The one with the

big body.

Tate-

The Wind, created by Skan to be his companion.

Tetonwan-

People of the prairie or dwellers in the grass lands.

Tunkan-

Venerable one.

Unk-

Contention. Created by Maka to be her companion, but wa

s cast into the waters and is the Goddess of the Waters

and Ancestress of all evil beings.

Unktehi-

One who kills.

Wahpetonwan-

Those who live among the leaves or trees.

Wakan Tanka-

Those that made everything. The unknowable. Above all other Wakanpi.

Wakan Wanantu-

Superior Wakan.

Wakanpi-

All things above mankind. They have power over everything on earth.

Wakinyan-

Thunderbird created by Inyan to be his active associate.

Wakpekute-

Shooters in the leaves or forest people.

Wamaka nagi-

Animal spirit.

Wanagi-

That is the spirit nagi that was once in a man.

Wanagi makoce-

The spirit world.

Wanbli-

The Eagle.

Wani-

The four Winds. The weather.

Wankanla-

Wakan-ish. Wakan like. The la ending in Lakota is like th

e ending ish in English. Making adjectives of nouns.

Meaning “of the nature of

” or “diminutive of”).

Wasica wakan-

Refers to white citizens of the United States. Wasica does

not refer to the color of their skin, but rather to

“those we do not understand”. (Because he could do marvelous things like Wakan could do)

Wasicun-

Ceremonial bag of the Lakota with mythical potency.

Wasna-

Pemmican, a mixture of dried meat and fruits.

Waziya-

Of the north

Wi-

The Sun. The chief of the gods.

Wica nagi-

The spirit of a man.

Wicasa wakan-

Wakan man or shaman.

Wo nagi-

The spirit of food.

Wohpe-

Daughter of Skan,

the Mediator.

Patron of harmony, beauty and pleasure. More beautiful than any other.

Woniya-

The life, or breath of life or

wanagi when it is in a man.

Yanpa-

East Wind

Yate-

North Wind

Yum-

The Whirlwind. The god of

chance, games and love.

http://sdpb.sd.gov/oceti/documents/LakotatermsTable.pdf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Lakota Pantheon

The Lakota People are a Plains Indian group, very commonly known today as the Sioux. They seem originally to have dwelt in what is now central, southern, and western Minnesota, parts of western Wisconsin, parts of northern Iowa, and the eastern Dakotas. In the late 17th century and early 18th, many Lakota bands began migrating westward toward the Missouri River, the western Dakotas, and parts of Montana. The name "Lakota" describes the entire people - close dialectal cognates are "Dakota" and "Nakota". Lakota culture has seized the imagination of many in a way that few other tribes have managed. Think of feather-bedecked Indians astride horses on the Great Prairie hunting buffalo or fighting the cavalry, think of tepees, "counting coup", or peace pipes - all these are common Lakota themes (even though they are also found in other Amerindian cultures as well). Some of the best known Indians - Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and more recently, the shaman Black Elk - are Lakota. In recent years, Lakota spiritual concepts have found currency beyond their original context, and are among the most widely recognized ideas to non-Indians, a dismaying notion to some Lakota.
This page is intended as a reference guide for students of Plains Indian mythology, focused on the Lakota people. The format will consist of a Name (and occasionally a translation) with a description of the divinity. The description will include areas of authority, attributes, images, appearance, and selected comments or stories which might help characterize the divinity better. This is an ongoing work which, at the moment, is incomplete. I most certainly solicit comments and contributions; if you have additional information for me (or complaints, for that matter), I ask only that you try to supply documentation in support of what you have to say.

Anog Ite (Double-Face Woman) Originally Ite, daughter of Skan and wife of Tate. Caught while attempting to replace Hanwi by seducing Wi, She is condemned to bear two faces, one beuatiful and the other hideous. She is in some ways a figure of disharmony, of turning aside from tradition - She appears in dreams to young women, offering to teach them the skill of Quilling (Quilling is a complex and difficult technique of matching, dyeing, and attaching porcupine quills to a robe - full-length quill robes are rare and valued ceremonial garb.), or sometimes other crafts. The role of a quiller is regarded as a valued skill, but good quillers do not follow societal norms: they spend most of their time attending to the needs of their craft, and seldom marry - many become lesbians, in fact.

Anp Spirit of light, especially the reddish sunlight of dawn. Created by Skan as sourceless radiance in replacement of Han, the icy emptyness of Maka was thus revealed, whereupon Wi was created; but then things became too hot. It was ordained, therefore, that Han should be recalled from the place of exile under Maka and Anp go there, but only for a short while - they should follow each other in regular fashion in order that Maka be not too hot, or cold, or dark, or bright.

Capa The Beaver. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of hard work and domestic tranquility.

Cetan The Hawk. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of swiftness in action, and inner stamina.

Han Spirit of darkness. Evidentally pre-existant to all things, Han was banished to underneath Maka by Skan, who replaced him with Anp. This proved to carry difficulties with it, and so an arrangement was worked out whereby Han and Anp would follow each other to exile beneath Maka and return, thereby balancing light and dark.

Hanwi The moon; created by Wi to accompany Him. She wanders somewhat, though.

Hehaka The (male) Elk. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of sexuality and intimate relations.

Heyoka The Spirit of perversity and chaos, considered both as a divine entity in it's own right, and the effects of that spirit upon humans. The entity is double-faced (see also Anog Ite), showing joy on one side and grief on the other. He is said to be the source of meteors, and in other ways exhibits most of the characteristic heyoka attributes. Mortals who dream of Wakinyan often become heyokas - they laugh when sad and cry when happy, they walk backwards, they wear their clothing backwards or in reverse order, and they often dress in winter gear during summer, and vice-versa. They are known to have healing powers, and can interpret dreams. Thunder and lightning terrify them.

Hihankara (Owl-Maker) An aged crone who stands upon the entrance to the Sky-Road (the Milky Way). She examines each nagi who approaches, and if they cannot show Her the proper tattoos, She pushes them from the path and fall back to earth, there to wander as ghosts.

Hnaska The Frog. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of sorcery and magick in general.

Hogan The Fish. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of water in it's attributes, particularly as a cleanser and purifier.

Iktinike Son of Wi, banished to earth by His father for telling lies.

Iktomi Son of Inyan, He resembles a spider to a degree. He can speak to all things living or inanimate (He is regarded as having given the power of speech to humans), and therefore, since He can talk to Wakinyan, He is regarded as heyoka. He is full of wisdom, but a trickster on a par with Mica as well, and is responsible for any of a number of difficulties that humans have fallen prey to. He panics animals, and can shapechange or become invisible in order to create problems. His greatest accomplishment was to convince the Lakota to live apart from one another, as nomads, becoming vulnerable thereby.

Inyan Primal being, sourceless and the source of all. Because He was lonely, he separated a piece of Himself, Maka, in order to have a place to indwell. The act of creation drained Him of much power, and He coalesced and became hard, Rock, in fact. His blood (water) flowed and became all the rivers, streams, and lakes. As a passive force from then on, He created Wakinyan to be His active companion. His sons are Iktomi and Iya. He is the spirit of Wakan Tanka.

Iya Child of Inyan, an evil entity responsible, directly or indirectly, for all the subsequent evil beings in the world. Unlike His mischieveous brother Iktomi, Iya desires nothing but destruction and woe.

Ka First Woman; wife of Wa and the mother of Ite. She aided Ite in her bid to supplant Hanwi, and for this She was banished to Earth and separated from Wa. Here, She became known as Kanka, a great witch, and gives aid or provides difficulties to those She encounters, as She choses.

Keya The Turtle. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of health, safety, and healing rituals, especially surgical treatments. Turtle amulets are often given to small children, because He provides general protection.

Maka The Earth. Created by Inyan from His own substance, Maka was cold and barren, but did not know it until Skan created Anp. Thereafter, Maka complained to Skan, and He created Wi to warm Her. The sun was too hot, though, and Maka continued to complain, so Skan arranged that Anp and Han should follow each other in regular order, which satisfied Maka.

Mato The Bear. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of passionate emotions. He is also a healer, and is regarded as being mischieveous in much the same manner as Iktomi.

Mica Coyote. He is a trickster par excellance, and their are many stories about Him - He is, in fact, simply the Lakota version of a trickster divinity who appears in the mythologies of most Indian tribes. He is especially involved in the Ta Tanka Lowanpi, the girls puberty rite ritual: young women who experience their first menses are isolated, and instructed to carefully bundle the blood, so that it may be lodged in a tree (tree spirits will aid in fertility). Iktomi persuades Mica to try and carry off such bundles, thereby gaining control over the girl - but if they are protected, He cannot identify them.

Okaga The spirit of South. Bringer of the south winds, and a fertility spirit associated with warm weather.

Skan The spirit of Sky. Created by Inyan, He listened sympathetically to the complaints of Maka about how cold and dark it was. He therefore banished Han to a place behind Maka, and created Anp. But light alone does not warm, and by it Maka could see how barren She was, so Skan created Wi. The sun proved too hot and inhospitable for life, and Maka continued to complain. Skan therefore recalled Han from exile, and arranged with Han and Anp that they should walk around Maka, following each other in regular order, so that She was neither too hot nor too cold, too dark nor too bright.

Sungmanito The Wolf. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of the hunt and of war.

Sunka The Dog. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of faithfullness and companionship.

Taku Skanskan An aerial spirit associated with chaos. Master of the four winds, and master of the four Night spirits (Fox, Raven, Vulture, Wolf), he directs these servitors in bringing change - usually baneful (i.e. disease, war, famine, etc.), but sometimes helpful (i.e. warm winds from the south signifying Spring).

Ta Tanka (Great Beast) The (male) Buffalo. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of plentiful food, health, and general tribal well-being. He teaches the proper rituals, and thus has magickal competence as well. Unusual for totem spirits, Ta Tanka is regarded as remaining within the physical remains of the animal, especially the skull - occasional finds of wooly mammoth skulls were regarded as belonging to Him. He is locked in eternal conflict with Mica, and is called upon as the defender of young women's menstrual bundles associated with the Ta Tanka Lowanpi (girls puberty rite ritual), that Mica wants to steal out of the trees they are lodged in, so as to control the girl they belong to.

Tatankan Gnaskiyan (Crazy Buffalo) A malevolent spirit who attempts to wreak havoc upon love affairs, causing feuding, murders, or suicides.

Tate The Wind. Created by Skan to be His companion (evan as Unk was created for Maka), Tate in turn took Ite as His wife. She bore Him four sons, but while pregnant again plotted to supplant Hanwi as the companion of Wi. She was banished for this, but Tate recieves permission for He and his children to dwell upon Maka so as to be near Her. They settle in the middle of the world, where Tate establishes a lodge and sends His four elder sons to the cardinal points, to establish dominion over them (see also, Wani and Yum).

Unhcegila A malevolent spirit dwelling in secret places, and resembling a large reptile. He is responsible for disappearances and mysterious deaths.

Unk (Contention) Created to be a companion for Maka, and by Inyan the mother of Iya. She was the cause of much here were quarreling and other problems, so She was banished to the depths of the waters, where She, with Iya, became the progenitor of all evil beings.

Unktehi Any of a class of spirits, males living within water and females on land. They resemble giant ruminants with long tails, and are regarded as being often dangerous or malignant - they cause flooding and are responsible for contaminated water sources. They are also teachers though, and instructed humans in the proper method of body painting for ceremonial purposes.

Wa First Man; husband of Ka and the father of Ite. He aided Ite in her bid to supplant Hanwi, and for this He was banished to Earth and separated from Ka. Here, he became known as Wazi, a great wizard, and gives aid or provides difficulties to those He encounters, as He choses.

Wakan Not a divinity, or even a spirit, as such, the concept of wakan is a very central one and should be commented upon. Wakan means "mystery", "something marvellous", "a sacred essence". It is an impersonal force within all things, animate and inanimate alike. Some things have more of it than others, though - language is wakan, food is wakan, medicine (magick) is wakan, birth and death are wakan. To be a Wicasa Wakan (a shaman or "medicine man") is to develop a great deal of wakan within oneself, and to utilize it conducting rituals, interpreting dreams, healing, and understanding hanbloglaka, the language of the spirit world.

Wakanpi The general term for spirits, supernatural beings, and divinities. They can be benign or malignant, but all watch over humans, and all expect the proper ceremonies to be given them.

Wakan Tanka (the Great Mystery) 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. As imagined though, the "council" of the spirits becomes a single entity, and this is the second meaning of the term - the collective power of all the Gods, considered as a specific entity. This entity informs all space and time, and is present in all things animate and inanimate. 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.

Wakinyan (the Mysterious Flyers) Thunderbirds. These creatures appear in the mythologies of a number of Indian nations. Among the Lakota, four types are recognized: black, blue, red, and yellow. All dwell in the west, and fly above the clouds. Their voices are as thunder, and they are eternally at war with the Unktehi. To speak with them, even in a dream, is to become heyoka. They are generally benign, having created the grasses and offer protection from Waziya.

Wamaka Nagi The soul of an animal, generally a domestic favourite of a human. Dogs or horses were often interred with their deceased masters so as to accompany them upon the Sky Road (the Milky Way).

Wambli The Eagle. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of councils, especially war or hunting councils. Wambli also oversees battles and hunting kills as well.

Wanagi The soul (nagi) of a deceased human (the soul within a living human is a Woniya). Wanagi will leave the earth to travel the Sky Road (the Milky Way), but first they must successfully pass Hihankara, a crone who determines if they have the proper marks and tattoos. If they do, all is well, but if not, She throws them from the Road and they tumble back to Earth, to wander as ghosts.

Wani The four elder sons of Tate, representing the cardinal points and the four winds. They have authority over health, fertility, and the weather in general - combined as the single entity called Wani, they/He govern inner strength and vitality.

Wasicun Not a divinity in and of itself, and not precisely an animate spirit, wasicun is nevertheless an important concept. In general, it refers to anything hidden or mysterious, or the container that such a thing is held in. It often refers to the medicine bag borne by the Shaman, containing objects imbued with great power that he uses in his work. Such objects, together with the bag they are within, are thought to take on an independent existence in their own right, and thus must be carefully dealt with. The term can be applied to any of a wide variety of foci of mystery and power; one such application was to people of European descent when the Lakota first came in contact with them.

Waziya (Blower-From-Snow-Pines) The north wind, bringer of winter and, thus, also a patron of famine and disease. He guards the dancing sky (the aurora borealis), and is constantly in conflict with Okaga and with the Wakinyan. He has special control over ice and snow.

Wi The Sun. Created by Skan in order to warm Maka, it proved too hot, and needed to be moderated by the eternal dance of Anp and Han. Note that the term "Wi" can refer to either the sun or the moon, and under such circumstances is differentiated into Anpetu Wi (Daytime Wi, the sun) and Hanhepi Wi (Niighttime Wi, the moon)

Wiyohipeyata The West, the spirit ands wind associated with the finishing of things, and having authority over all things which occur by night.

Wiyohiyanpa The East, the spirit and wind associated with the beginnings of things, and having authority over all things which occur by day.

Wohpe Daughter of Skan, a divinity of perfection of form, and joyfulness in spirit. She teaches games, social skills, and certain dances. She gifted humanity with the proper use of the pipe rituals, and of the ceremonial usage of tobacco, in the form of the White Buffalo Maiden. She is also credited with devising the Lakota calendar.

Wo Nagi The soul, or spiritual essence, of food. All things, whether animate or inanimate, have souls, foodstuff not excepted. It is important to give due reverence and gratitude to one's provisions, lest the Wakanpi become angered. See also, Wamaka Nagi, Wanagi.

Yum (Tornado) The Whirlwind, fifth child of Tate and Ite, who was separated from His mother and raised by His father, with the help of Wohpe. He has authority over games good and bad luck, and matters of romance.

Zuzeca The Snake. This animistic spirit is regarded as the source and patron of hidden things, concealed knowledge, and outright lies.

________________________________
A note concerning the description of Native American beliefs As indicated in the introduction, certain Lakota spiritual ideas have recieved wide currency of late. This has been dismaying to some Lakota, for easily understandable reasons. In common with most conquered peoples, the American Indians have endured much over the past few centuries, and perhaps one of the most damaging elements of this period has been the active suppression of native religious beliefs, at the hands of not only missionaries but also government officials. Now that such suppression has largely ended, their is a perception on the part of many that such customs, beliefs, and rituals as have remained ought to be strictly kept from view, lest the Europeans steal the very essence of the Indian, and leave nothing at all. It must in fairness, though, be pointed out that this view is not shared by all. Beginning with the work of the Lakota shaman Black Elk, a movement to make available to interested folk the essence of Native American belief systems has been active. Those that adhere to this idea feel that it is precisely Native American spirituality, with it's reverence toward the land and it's instinct toward harmony between all things, that Native Americans have best to offer to the world at large.
I am not Native American, and so for me to comment directly on this controversy would be unuseful. Even so, I am a researcher in this and similar fields, and I am also a seeker - I want to gain an appreciation of all modes of spirituality, including Native American. I feel that it is important for all people to gain a greater understanding of these matters, and thus I publish this little archive and this particular file.
Nevertheless, if the publication of this file is offensive to you, please accept my sincere apologies, for it is not my intent to offend at any level. If you feel that I am using something which is not mine, and ought to be kept from view, please accept that I respectfully disagree, but that I am also sensitive to such concerns.
http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/LakoPan.html
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Hau, kolapila! > Языки.

О Лакота на английском

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Unchida:
Имею много интересной информации, но это все на английском, если это не препятствие, тогда отправлю первое:

THE 7th DIRECTION

Next, Tokahe taught the Ikce Oyate about the 7th Direction. He said the order of the directions is West, North, East, South, Earth, Sky, and the Self. One's Self consists of four parts-the spiritual, the mental, the emotional, and the physical, as shown below:

Mental
|
Physical--Self--Spiritual
|
Emotional

These four parts are connected to each other and when at least one part is neglected, the other parts soon become diseased, as well. Taking care of our four parts establishes inner peace (intimacy), and by natural law we then project (reflect) this peace outside of our bodies to the universe around us. This is called establishing our 7th Direction.

Whatever is within us is what we project out to the world around us. Likewise, how we perceive the world around us is a reflection of our current state of being within ourselves. As we change within ourselves, we are also changing the way we perceive the world around us. Whatever we do, say, think, and feel affects the universe within us and it also affects the universe around us. Thus, everything within us is connected as we are connected to the universe around us.

Establishing our 7th Direction, creates a survivor-perspective based on compassion & free-will which breathes life into all of creation, thus enabling soul-development. This also helps us to be in the present moment because whatever happens in the present moment decides what will happen in the near future. This is also how we set up good things to happen to us in the future as we continue on our journey of soul-development. Life is just what you make it.

When we are willingly and respectfully generous, it returns to us fourfold from other sources. Likewise, when we wrong any member of creation in any way, that returns to us in the same manner, fourfold. Therefore, the honor of one is the honor of all.

Sometimes, certain things may happen to us in our lives in which we have no control over. However, when our 7th Direction is established and we are maintaining it, we have a strong and healthy foundation that prepares us so that we are better able to survive the experience and to learn from it, as well.

When we establish our 7th Directions, we are aware of the communication constantly occurring in the universe within us. The Natural Law of Projection then makes it possible for us to communicate effectively with the universe around us. Thus, healthy communication is vital to our existence.

When we establish our 7th Direction, we can also understand how our dreams and visions may guide us as we journey through Life. Our dreams and visions may reveal to us a future based on our current thought patterns. If we do not like what we see, all we have to do is change our thought patterns, as Life is just what we make it.

When a person does not have an established 7th Direction, it is easy for Iktomi to trick that person. When one's 7th Direction is established, Iktomi only tricks himself. Also, when a person does not have an established 7th Direction, that person becomes like Iktomi and will sometimes be called as being "Ikto". Since Iktomi's tricks backfire on him, those who have no established 7th Directions end up only tricking themselves, as well.

When a man establishes and maintains his 7th Direction, he becomes aware of his cycle. When a nation's men does not know about its (men's) cycle, this is an indication that that nation has become unhealthy. This unhealthy nation has lost its 7th Direction and thus, has become dualistic (addictive). Hence, it is very important for the men to know about their cycle and learn from it, so they and their nation can truly live in health.

A person chooses to become healthy by establishing and maintaining his/her 7th Direction. If a person chooses to not become healthy, then he/she will remain in his/her dualistic tendencies (addictions). To remain dualistic would be to try to be only positive or to be only negative. This is the reason why it is dangerous to laugh too much or cry too much. Sometimes it is ok to cry, and sometimes it is ok to laugh. But if one chooses to laugh or cry too much, then this person will become dualistic and lose his/her established 7th Direction, and would become like Anun-Ite.

7th DIRECTION
|
|
|
POSITIVE CONTENTMENT NEGATIVE
(UNBALANCED) (BALANCE) (UNBALANCED)

Both positives and negatives can be used to bring a person back into balance; thus, restoring his/her 7th Direction.

Tokahe reminded the Ikce Oyate that Iktomi represents everything they should not be because Iktomi has no established 7th Direction. Iktomi's virtues are dishonesty, disrespect, greed, lack of humility, lack of wisdom, lack of compassion, lack of spirituality. His number is 3. His colors are black, red, and white, all combined together. Oftentimes, he focuses on only certain colors so they will cause others' colors (medicine circles) to weaken which then leads those others to become diseased. This is one way he gets his victims.

Iktomi is lazy and when he does work he overdoes it. He thinks he is above, better, smarter, wiser, than others. His communication is the transfer of bad medicine (i.e. jealousy, revenge, hatred, ignoring others, etc.), and he tells people what they want to hear, instead of the truth.

Iktomi creates duality by trying to separate everything into two opposing extremes. These two opposing extremes create tensions which then create addictions. These two opposing extremes become the oppressor (Iktomi) and its victim. In a duality, both the oppressor and its victim have no established 7th Directions because they are creations of Iktomi. As a result, both the oppressor and its victim need each other to exist. Sadly, the victim may also oppress those who are weaker than themselves.

Iktomi continually tries to prove himself right in all matters which indicates a lack of respect for others' rights to think, speak, feel & act according to their free will. As a result, Iktomi desires to manipulate his victim into what he thinks the victim should become. Iktomi would say, "If you do not agree with me, then you are wrong. I know what's best for you because I am smarter and better than you, and because you cannot think as good as me".

This reveals his need to control what he does not and refuses to understand; thus, his society is based on fear and control. Iktomi says that if he cannot prove that something exists, then it does not exist. When one reacts against Iktomi, he/she remains Iktomi's victim.

MAHASANI

Mahasani is a Lakota term of affection which both partners in a relationship call each other. The word Mahasani literally means my other skin; however, the true meaning is much deeper. Mahasani means that both partners are connected to each other in all four areas of the self: spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally. The meaning is defined as both are journeying together holding each other's hands. Within the palms of the hands are medicine wheels in which energy flows through. When partners hold each other's hands, their energies unite them as they continually define what Mahasani means.
A Lakota relationship follows the example and teachings of the Sacred Pipe which the White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman brought to our people. The Pipe-stem represents the male and the Pipe-bowl represents the female. When the Pipe is assembled, the universe unites and the Pipe becomes effective and alive, creating the 7 Lakota virtues of:

1. Wocekiya (Prayer)
2. Waohola (Respect)
3. Waunsila (Compassion)
4. Wowicake (Honesty)
5. Wawokiye (Generosity)
6. Wahwala (Humility)
7. Woksape (Wisdom)

A Lakota relationship emulates these 7 virtues, because it is these 7 virtues. Like the teachings of the Sacred Pipe, it takes both partners in a relationship a lifetime to understand the meaning of Mahasani. When both partners call each other Mahasani, this is a transfer of medicine (energy) to each other which strengthens the union of their relationship and this also helps them in their journey with each other, as they continually learn about this teaching. Hence, even the word Mahasani contains healthy medicine. The prerequisite to accomplish this is each partner must have an established 7th Direction.

LAKOTA SEXUALITY

Sex is communication; therefore, the Lakota Natural Law of Generosity applies to sex, as well. The Lakota Natural Law of Generosity states that how one chooses to communicate will return to that person fourfold.

Before a person can share intimacy and healthy sex with another, he/she must first establish intimacy within him/her-self and also have the ability to communicate in an open and nonjudgmental manner. This is accomplished by establishing his/her 7th Direction. This makes it possible to acquire a healthy sex education, since we are not born experts in anything. Acquiring knowledge about anything includes getting the facts straight and cleaning the myths out of our minds. This concept is also true concerning acquiring a healthy sex education.

Then we are able to become more comfortable within ourselves, as well as with the world around us. How we perceive the world around us is a reflection of the world within us. Therefore, we can not truly share intimacy with another unless we are comfortable with ourselves-spiritually, mentally, physically & emotionally.

Natural Law states that "Like attracts Like", so a person with an established 7th Direction will attract a healthy partner. Then the couple nurtures their relationship by maintaining healthy communication with each other. Sex is an extension of the intimacy which two people choose to share with each other, and is more than physical penetration because it involves all four areas of the self.

Sex can be as good as embracing each other and looking inside each other's eyes. When a couple engages in healthy sex, the healthy energy they exchange with each other will return to them fourfold. This is one way a couple, who is trying to live a healthy relationship, can strengthen their connection to each other; thus, helping them to further define what Mahasani means to each other.

When a person focuses only on the physical aspect of sex, s/he is neglecting the other areas of his/her self. This is a transfer of unhealthy medicine which will eventually lead to this person to lose his/her 7th Direction, and become like Iktomi. Activities and ideas such as flirting, lust, prostitution (including being a courtesan), exotic dancing, pornography, phone sex with strangers, are all communications which send out bad medicine to all those who participate in such activities.

When a person engages in casual sex without emotional attachments and merely to satisfy his/her physical urge, s/he is abusing him/her-self because casual sex is also a transfer of bad medicine. According to the Lakota Natural Law of Generosity, this unhealthy medicine will then influence all participants, including those who flirt, the exotic dancers, the prostitutes, the pornographic actors, those who engage in phone sex with strangers, and those who engage in casual sex to satisfy an urge, to lose their 7th Directions. This will lead to sexual dysfunction in one's personal life, and it will slowly deteriorate relationships with those in other areas of one's life.

Also, when a person suppresses certain emotional issues, this will lead to difficulties within his/her lifestyle, which includes his/her sexuality. Thus, physical loving evolves as intimacy grows.

Wayanke:
Очень интересно, жалко время пока нет вчитываться в буржуйский. При случае мож тогда перешлешь по почте ;) ?

Unchida:
MARRIAGE

When the man was ready to ask for the woman to marry him, the starting price for marriage was six good buffalo robes. Then he could add whatever gifts he wanted to in addition to the buffalo robes. Sometimes this included horses, hunting tools, among other items. However, no matter how many gifts he would bring to the woman's family, it was still her option to approve of his proposal. Even if she turned him down, the family still kept the gifts.

When a healthy man looked for a healthy woman to be his wife, he looked for a woman who was skillful and respected herself. He looked for a woman who was motherly and compassionate. He avoided women who were loud, flirtatious, and selfish, because this kind of woman would think more of herself than anything else.

Likewise, when a woman looked for a husband she looked for someone who could provide for a family and who would protect the people, and who would also be a compassionate father. She avoided men who tried to be better than others, and who thought too highly of themselves. She avoided selfish and vain men who liked to brag about everything they did.

Hence, when someone looked for a mate, he/she did not base his/her decision on outward appearances, the sound of her/his voice, the way she/he talked, or anything of this nature. They also knew that to attract a healthy partner meant that they themselves also had to be healthy: mind, heart, body, and soul.

When a couple gets married, certain relationships are created between a person and his/her in-laws. The husband does not communicate to his wife's parents, aunts, and uncles, as a sign of respect. However, the cousins, brothers, and sisters of the wife now assume a joking relationship with the husband.

Likewise, the wife does communicate to her husband's parents, uncles, and aunts. Also, the husband's cousins, brothers, and sisters now enter into a joking relationship with the wife.

In one story, a newly wed Lakota couple went to visit the wife's family. Then the wife's family decided to prepare a big dinner for all the relatives, and they decided to have the feast outside, as it was summer time. The wife asked her husband to go into the kitchen to get a certain pan she needed. As the husband entered the kitchen, he noticed his mother-in-law was in the kitchen. He did not know where the pan was located.

He knew he was not to speak to his mother-in-law so he did not know what to do. A very short while later, a cat walked into the kitchen. So the man asked the cat if the cat knew where the pan was located because his wife needed it right away.

The mother-in-law told the cat where the pan was located. And so the man soon found the pan, which his wife needed right away. Then as the man was leaving the kitchen, he thanked the cat for telling him where to look for the pan. And so the cat said, "You are most welcome."

This story, humorous as it may seem, relates the how respect is shown to one's mother-in-law.

When a woman was not satisfied with her husband, all she had to do was place his belongings outside of her tipi, as the home belongs to the wife. When a man no longer wanted his wife, he would have dress up and he would put her on his best horse. Then he would announce to all the people that they are no longer together.

HINHAN

Long time ago, all the land was joined together forming one enormous continent. There was much peace and contentment in all the land. Then the humans began to become too prideful as they boasted they were above and separate from the earth and the other Wamakaskan. The humans began to violate the earth, and the balance of nature. Only a few humans maintained their 7th Directions. Mother Earth called for her children to come inside of her as she was going to cleanse the surface of herself to restore the balance of nature. Only the few with established 7th Directions heard her call to safety and so they went inside of her. Thus, they were the only ones who were saved from the Cleansing. Then after the Cleansing, the land was broken up into smaller continents and so this is the way the world looks today. Then our ancestors came out of what is known today as Wind Cave which is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
One day, the four-leggeds and everything else that moves had a meeting to address their feelings about being separated from their relatives who now lived on the other continents. They were very upset because the once huge and only continent was now broken up into several continents all over the earth, and this is what literally tore apart their tiospayes. All this happened because the humans violated the balance of nature. So they decided to destroy all the two leggeds from off the face of this earth, as the humans are members of the two-legged Wamakaskan.
A magpie from the winged nations was listening in on this meeting. Immediately, he reported back to the winged nations about what was decided by the four-leggeds and the other things which move. After he announced the decision which was made at that other meeting, many of the winged nations also wanted to join in on destroying all the two-leggeds because they too were very upset, as their tiospayes were also torn apart with their relatives also dwelling on different continents. And all this happened because the humans violated the balance of nature. Then an old owl spoke up saying that if all the two-leggeds were to be destroyed, then they would also have to destroy the bears because the bears are also members of the two-legged Wamakaskan. The owl reminded the winged nations that the bear represents Wisdom. And if there is no wisdom, then there can be no contentedness because contentedness is nothing without wisdom. Contentedness is also a maintained 7th Direction.
So the winged nations decided to try to keep Wisdom in this world. They held a meeting with the four-leggeds and everything else that moves. The wingeds presented their argument, but the others still wanted to destroy all the two-legged Wamakaskan. Again the wise old owl spoke saying to everyone that a contest should be held between the wingeds and the others. If one of the wingeds wins the contest, then all the two-leggeds would have to be allowed to live. If one of the others wins, then the wingeds will stand back as the two-leggeds are destroyed by the rest. And so all present in this meeting agreed to the owl's recommendation. It was decided that a race would be held around the Heart of Everything That Is, which is known today as He Sapa, or the Black Hills. All the runners were to race around the Black Hills four times and in a clockwise direction. Just as the final lap was about to be completed, a buffalo and a little magpie, were the only participants remaining in the race. The little magpie was getting really tired, so he flew up on top of the buffalo's hump and rested for a while. Just as they were approaching the finish line, the little magpie flew across before the buffalo arrived there. Thus, a little magpie saved Wisdom.
After the race was over, another meeting was held. The four-leggeds and everything else that moves, stated that they would live up to the agreement which was made before the race started. But they also added one more item which was that the humans were also responsible for all Wamakaskan. They also stated that if the humans ever abused or neglected this responsibility, that they would also break the pact they made with the wingeds and they would begin their destruction of all two-leggeds at that time. And so everyone agreed to that additional item.
The butte which was created on the east side of the Black Hills, as a result of the race, was named after the symbol of Wisdom, which is the bear. And so it is called Mato Paha, or Bear Butte. This butte is considered Wakan, a place of energy, to the Lakota. It is a symbol of Wisdom and the great race which took place around the Black Hills, in which the result was that the humans' existence was won by a little magpie. It is also a symbol of the humans' responsibility to all Wamakaskan. The racetrack around the Heart of Everything That Is, is also a reminder of our great responsibility to all Wamakaskan. When we, as humans, consider ourselves as Wamakaskan and not separate and above the rest of creation, then we are able to hear and communicate with all Wamakaskan, which includes all two-leggeds, all four-leggeds, all wingeds, and everything that moves.
In this story, the owl also showed great wisdom in his words, and when he could foresee possible danger, he warned the other Wamakaskan about it. Then he gave advice on how to remedy this difficult situation. By following his advice, wisdom was saved. And so today, the role of the owl remains as one who warns of danger. Some owls also are known to bring news of a serious nature, as well. For example, some owls bring messages that someone is hurt or near death or even that someone is dead.
White owls are known to be very wakan and they appear to those who have grossly violated their own 7th Directions. They will confront these people to warn them. The protocol when confronted by a white owl is to turn around and go back to where you came from and pray with all of your heart, mind, body, and soul. It is your responsibility to re-establish your 7th Direction, and make amends with everyone you have wronged. Also, to show that they mean business, the white owls will sometimes mimic your voice and body movements. Sometimes, from a distance, a white owl may even cry like a baby to either scare you or to get you to find it. Should you choose to search for the source of this crying baby, the white owl will lead you further and further into places that are unknown to you. In conclusion, owls provide a special service in our lives, depending on how we are maintaining our 7th Directions.

THE FIRST POW-WOW

One day, a giant bear named Hu Nump was pretending to sleep outside the area where the Wakan Tanka had their meetings above the earth. In this way, Hu Nump was able to learn the sacred Lakota language, as well as the ceremonies of the Wakan Tanka. Then Hu Nump taught these songs and dances to Tatanka, who was the chief of the Pte Oyate at that time. He also taught Tatanka how to make drums and rattles, as well.

Hu Nump then instructed Tatanka to teach the Pte Oyate all these things and that when they have learned them they were to hold their first pow-wow. So Tatanka taught his people all of what Hu Nump taught him about these drums, rattles, songs, and dances. Then they held the first pow-wow.

When Wakinyan heard these noises, he went to look for where it was coming from because he thought another Wakinyan was making them. When Wakinyan arrived at where the noises where coming from, Wakinyan was really amazed to see all these buffaloes sitting around a drum and singing really good songs. Some buffaloes were even dancing and they were dancing really good and some were shaking rattles, too.

This really made Wakinyan happy so he told the people that whenever they do this, he will come to cleanse the area so no contention would come near the drumming. And since contentious spirits flee when Wakinyan comes around, they also flee when they hear drums, rattles, (and today's bells and jingles), and clapping hands because they think it's Wakinyan making those sounds.

Next, Wakinyan asked the rest of the Wakan Tanka to let Tatanka join them, but Tatanka said he would join only if they let Hu Nump join, too, because it was Hu Nump who taught him all of these dances and songs. So the Wakan Tanka agreed to let both Tatanka and Hu Nump join.

Skan proclaimed that Tatanka is now the protector of chaste women and the patron of all ceremonies. This is why buffalo skulls are used in ceremonies, and also why when girls have their first menstruation, the Buffalo Ceremony is performed for them.

Skan next proclaimed that Hu Nump is now the patrom of wisdom (replacing Ksa) and medicine. This is why those who dream of the bear usually acquire much wisdom and become medicine people.

So then the Wakan Tanka was now organized as follows:

INYAN (rock)
WI (sun)
MAKA (earth)
SKAN (sky)
WAKINYAN HANWI (moon)
WOHPE THATE (wind)
TATANKA HU NUMP TATE TOB YUM

At this time, the members of the Wakan Tanka have matured and Wi asks Skan if Tatanka could be his companion friend. Skan granted Wi's wish, and so that's why long time ago the buffalo's migration pattern reflected the path of the Sun's path among the stars. Later on when Wohpe brings the White Buffalo Calf Pipe to the Lakota, she also follows this same path, as well. The Sun Dancers also reflect this path during the Sun Dance ceremony.

Now that Tatanka was a member of the Wakan Tanka, some of the Pte Oyate began to listen to his advices again. However, there was still some of Pte Oyate who refused to follow Tatanka.

Unchida:
WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE

The Wounded Knee Massacre which occurred in the freezing cold morning of December 29th, 1890, was concerned with the Ghost Dance Movement, which was started by a self-proclaimed alleged native messiah named Wovoka from the Paiute tribe of Nevada. His birth name was really Jack Wilson and he could read and write English very fluently. He read about an upcoming solar eclipse so he tricked his people by saying he could make the sun disappear. When the eclipse occurred, his people became very frightened. He said if they chose him to be their spiritual leader, he would bring the sun back again. When the eclipse was over he became their leader.
During those times, the situation for many Native people was in dire straits so to increase his following he told the people exactly what they had wanted to hear at that time. He told them that if they followed his Ghost Dance Religion, the world will cover up all the white people and their civilization, the buffalo would come back, and all their dead relatives would come back. As a result, his movement grew very rapidly throughout many tribes in the USA. The USA government didn't think too much about this new Indian movement until some of the Lakota people began to practice this new Indian religion. Only a handful of Lakotas followed this Ghost Dance Movement, which is absolutely not connected to or a part of the 7 Lakota Ceremonies.
The USA cavalry was concerned that a possible Sioux uprising was about to occur, which in fact was not true. On the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, Chief Sitting Bull was assassinated on December 15th, 1890, by Indian police officers at his own home because the USA cavalry thought he was stirring up this alleged uprising. In fact, Sitting Bull thought this Ghost Dance Movement was not right at all. His followers became scared after he was murdered so they fled to the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation for protection from the USA cavalry. They camped and joined with the Ghost Dancers from this area. Together, this Cheyenne River/Standing Rock entourage decided to go to the Pine Ridge Agency to seek the assistance of Red Cloud, who at this time sold himself out and was known as a hang-around-the-fort Indian, which means that he sided with the USA government and oftentimes went against Lakota traditionalists like Crazy Horse.
This Cheyenne River/Standing Rock entourage began its journey to Pine Ridge through an extremely vicious blizzard. They only had a few blankets and they were starving. Unfortunately, they were intercepted by a very fast moving USA cavalry unit at Wounded Knee Creek. Chief Bigfoot, the chief from the Cheyenne River group, was asked to surrender and because he was very ill with pneumonia, he agreed to surrender. Then, the Ghost Dancers were asked to surrender their weapons and they did.
A scuffle broke out in the Lakota camp between a Lakota man and a USA cavalryman. A gunshot was fired and no one really knows who fired the first shot. The USA cavalry were set up all around the Lakota encampment and after that first shot was fired, this entire USA cavalry unit began to shoot into the Lakota camp with everything they had. This group of Lakotas was consisted of mainly old people, women, and children. That day about 300 unarmed Lakota women, children, and elders were murdered in cold blood. A few days later (since the USA cavalry had to wait for the blizzard to stop), a mass grave was dug, and all the frozen and twisted Lakota bodies were haphazardly thrown into it. The USA cavalry began to take items from the dead Lakota bodies for souvenirs and to sell these items to various museums. In the 1990's, a baby's foot (from an infant victim of the Wounded Knee Massacre) was discovered in a museum. The foot was chopped off because it was frozen in such a way that the USA cavalryman could not pull off the baby's moccasin.
Several days later, these USA cavalrymen were awarded medals of honor from the USA government. They called this the Battle of Wounded Knee, but in reality it was a massacre. Some Lakota children were able to escape the scene and today there are many accounts of these young survivors' flights to survival. The little people can be very brave warriors, indeed. Again, this Ghost Dance Movement was not a Lakota ceremony, and it was taught by a self-proclaimed Paiute prophet who told his followers exactly what they wanted to hear. Nevertheless, it happened and we must all learn from it.

Black Wolf:
О, материалы Дейвида Маленкого лося (David Little Elk)... которые он пару лет назад быстренько убрал из Интеренета, когада начал продавать свои книги... ;D

http://forum.wildwestshow.ru/index.php?topic=1617.0;wap2

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Ghost Dance Shirts and Dresses (their meanings)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/whitebuffalocalfwoman/permalink/783428825095709/ , google+ https://plus.google.com/+WhiteBuffaloCalfWomanTwinDeerMother/posts/9qjS3fxgFjE

The Role of Ghost Shirts & Ghost Dance Dresses
by James Mooney

NOTE: It is now believed that the Sioux were one of the few tribes that associated Ghost Shirts and Ghost Dance Dresses with war, and most tribes wore them for purely peaceful purposes in conjunction with the Ghost Dance ceremony. However, the following essay by James Mooney published in 1896 helped to shape popular understanding of these garments and is therefore an important historical document.

The most noted thing connected with the Ghost dance among the Sioux is the “ghost shirt” which was worn by all adherents of the doctrine—men, women, and children alike. During the dance it was worn as an outside garment, but was said to be worn at other times under the ordinary dress. Although the shape, fringing, and feather adornment were practically the same in every case, considerable variation existed in regard to the painting, the designs on some being very simple, while the others were fairly covered with representatives of sun, moon, stars, the sacred things of their mythology, and the visions of the trance. In some cases the fringe or other portions were painted with the sacred red paint of the messiah. The shirt was firmly believed to be impenetrable to bullets or weapons of any sort. When one of the women shot in the Wounded Knee massacre was approached as she lay in the church and told that she must let them remove her ghost shirt in order the better to get at her wound, she replied: “Yes; take it off. They told me a bullet would not go through. Now I don’t want it any more.”

The protective idea in connection with the ghost shirt does not seem to be aboriginal. The Indian warrior habitually went into battle naked above the waist. His protecting “medicine” was a feather, a tiny bag of some sacred powder, the claw of an animal, the head of a bird, or some other small object which could be readily twisted into his hair or hidden between the covers of his shield without attracting attention. Its virtue depended entirely on the ceremony of the consecration and not on size or texture. The war paint had the same magic power of protection. To cover the body in battle was not in accordance with Indian usage, which demanded that the warrior should be as free and unencumbered in movement as possible. The so-called “war shirt” was worn chiefly in ceremonial dress parades and only rarely on the warpath.

Dreams are but incoherent combination of waking ideas, and there is a hint of recollection even in the wildest visions of sleep. The ghost shirt may easily have been an inspiration from a trance, while the trance vision itself was the result of ideas from previous observation or report. The author is strongly inclined to the opinion that the idea of an invulnerable sacred garment is not original with the Indians, but, like several other important points pertaining to the Ghost-dance doctrine, is a practical adaptation by them of ideas derived from contact with some sectarian body among the whites. It may have been suggested by the “endowment robe” of the Mormons, a seamless garment of white muslin adorned with symbolic figures, which is worn by their initiates as the most sacred badge of their faith, and by many of the believers is supposed to render the wearer invulnerable. The Mormons have always manifested a particular interest in the Indians, whom they regard as the Lamanites of their sacred writings, and hence have made special efforts for their evangelization, with the result that a considerable number of the neighboring tribes of Ute, Paiute, Bannock, and Shoshoni have been received into the Mormon church and invested with the endowment robe. The Shoshoni and northern Arapaho occupy the same reservation in Wyoming, and anything which concerns one tribe is more or less talked of by the other. As the Sioux, Cheyenne, and other eastern tribes make frequent visits to the Arapaho, and as these Arapaho have been the great apostles of the Ghost dance, it is easy to see how an idea borrowed by the Shoshoni from the Mormons could find its way through the Arapaho first to the Sioux and Cheyenne and afterward to more remote tribes. Wovoka himself expressly disclaimed any responsibility for the ghost shirt, and whites and Indians alike agreed that it formed no part of the dance costume in Mason valley. When I first when among the Cheyenne and neighboring tribes of Oklahoma in January, 1891, the ghost shirt had not yet reached them. Soon afterward the first one was brought down from the Sioux country by a Cheyenne named White Buffalo, who had been a Carlisle student, but the Arapaho and Cheyenne, after debating the matter, refused to allow it to be worn in the dance, on the ground that the doctrine of the Ghost dance was one of peace, whereas the Sioux had made the ghost shirt an auxiliary of war. In consequence of this decision such shirts have never been worn by the dancers among the southern tribes. Instead they wear in the dance their finest shirts and dresses of buckskin, covered with painted and beaded figures from the Ghost-dance mythology and the visions of the trance.
http://ghostdance.com/images/images-ghostshirtsmooney.html

The Glasgow Ghost Shirt (not shown on this post with wbcw knews and visions facebook circle)
The so-called "Glasgow Ghost Shirt" was discovered by a Cherokee Indian named John Earl during a visit to a museum in Glasgow, Scotland. The shirt had been in the Kelvingrove Museum there since 1892 when George C. Crager, a member of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, sold it and several other items to the curator. This shirt is believed to have been taken from one of the 146 victims of the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. It is pierced in several places with bullet holes, and slight brown stains still mar the torn cloth. This shirt has been returned to the Lakota people, and replaced by a new Ghost Dance Shirt made in 1998 by Marcella Le Beau, greatgrandaughter of one of the survivors of the massacre at Wounded Knee.

The bloodstains on the plain cotton shirt are barely visible anymore. The holes created by the fatal bullets almost look as if they could have occured naturally with the passage of time. The Raven, Owl and Eagle feathers hanging from the neck of the off-white tunic are tattered and ragged.

A Ghost Shirt was a shirt or dress worn by someone participating in a Ghost Dance. The shirt was usually made of white cotton cloth, although a few were made of leather. Blue, yellow and red pigment was used to paint stars, moons, birds and other designs on the shirt. Feathers, especially those of birds sacred to the wearer, and buffalo fur often adorned the shirts as well. Each wearer decorated his or her shirt with symbols from personal visions or items of power.

While many tribes wore the ghost shirts and took part in the dance, only the Lakota believed that the clothing would protect them from the bullets of the white man. One of the songs sung at the Lakota ceremonies celebrated the special protection of the Ghost Shirt: "Verily, I have given you my strength, Says the Father, says the Father. The shirt will cause you to live, Says the Father, says the Father." Kicking Bear, a Miniconjou Teton, made a pilgrimage to Nevada to learn about this new "religion". He returned to his people and together with Short Bull, another Miniconjou mystic, gave the religion a unique interpretation, choosing to disregard Wovoka's anti-violence and emphasizing the eventual elimination of the white people. Short Bull told his followers that if surrounded by white soldiers, those wearing the ghost shirts should sing a certain song to make the soldiers fall down dead. Short Bull continued by stating "you must know this, that all the soldiers and that race will be dead."

Ghost Dance shirts are objects of power to the wearer, and sacred to the tribes. While some shirts are displayed in museums, this practice isn't one of universal acceptance among the families of those who participated in the Ghost Dance.
http://ghostdance.com/images/images-glasgowghostshirt.html
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Museum Mondays: Rare treasure on exhibit, through Wednesday
October 13, 2013 at 6:49 pm

How do cultures change themselves? One way is through “revitalization movements,” deliberate efforts by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture. Revitalization movements usually occur in response to outside stresses and pressures and are often religious in nature. One of the best-known examples of revitalization movements was the Ghost Dance, a short-lived but significant example of Native American unification and resistance.

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In 1889 a Paiute man named Wovoka from the Wind River Reservation in Nevada began preaching a new prophecy he had received in a vision. In this vision, if native people lived good lives and danced a new dance, the world would be renewed. Whites would disappear, game animals would return, and the Indians would be reunited in this world with their dead ancestors. This dance we know today as the Ghost Dance. Many tribes sent delegates to learn the dance from Wovoka, and the religion spread rapidly.

Within just a few months, dozens of tribes throughout the Great Basin and the Great Plains had adopted the Ghost Dance. The religion became a uniting force among the tribes. White society got nervous. Newspapers reported the “Messiah Craze,” as it was called, in an alarmist manner. In addition to the anxiety caused by any pan-Indian movement, authorities feared that the Lakota Sioux, most of whom were practitioners of the Ghost Dance led by Sitting Bull, were preparing to attack white settlements and railroads in South Dakota. Misunderstandings of the prophecy and dance led directly to the Wounded Knee Massacre in December of 1890, which effectively ended the movement.

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Because the Ghost Dance is no longer practiced, one of the best ways to understand its values and ideals is through its surviving material culture. The Logan Museum of Anthropology’s latest exhibit, Dancing to Renew the World: The Plains Ghost Dance, curated by Julia Lacher’13, features one of the museum’s most significant objects: an Arapaho Ghost Dance dress. Only a handful of these dresses are known to exist. Pioneer anthropologist Alfred Kroeber observed this dress or an identical one among the Southern Arapaho in Oklahoma in 1899. Albert Green Heath collected the dress in 1916 and the Logan acquired it from the Heath family in 1955.

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The exhibit also includes two other Ghost Dance objects: a Sioux man’s shirt and a Kiowa feathered ornament.

The Arapaho dress was last exhibited 20 years ago at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and has not been on public view on campus since 1976 due to the light sensitivity of its painted images. Curator of exhibits and education Dan Bartlett has rigged up a new LED lighting system to minimize fading of the paint. Still, the exhibit will only be in place for a few more days: it closes on Wednesday (Oct. 16)

MM 101413 4

https://www.beloit.edu/campus/news/?story_id=396450
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WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE

On December 29, 1890, on Wounded Knee Creek in southwestern South Dakota, a tangle of events resulted in the deaths of more than 250, and possibly as many as 300, Native Americans. These people were guilty of no crime and were not engaged in combat. A substantial number were women and children. Most of the victims were members of the Miniconjou band of the Lakota Sioux who had been intercepted by military forces after they fled their reservation in South Dakota for refuge in the Badlands.

The story begins in October 1890, when Daniel F. Royer arrived at Pine Ridge Agency, home of the Oglala Lakotas, to assume responsibility as agent. His selection as agent could not have been worse: he knew nothing about Native Americans and was irrationally fearful of them, and from the time of his arrival the dispatches he sent back to Washington were peppered with warnings of an outbreak similar to the one in Minnesota in 1862 in which hundreds of settlers were killed by Santee Sioux. Royer's appointment was also ill timed. In 1890 drought replaced the bountiful rainfall of the 1880s, resulting in crop failures and economic depression. On their reservations, Native Americans were forced into dependence on the federal government for food and clothing. When Royer took over as agent, there was widespread anxiety among the Oglalas regarding the adequacy of government provisions.

A year earlier, the Ghost Dance had appeared on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Born from the vision of a Paiute named Wovoka (aka Jack Wilson), the Ghost Dance blended the messianic account of Christianity with traditional Native beliefs. This new religion told of the return of the Messiah to relieve the suffering of Native Americans and promised that if they would live righteous lives and perform the Ghost Dance in the prescribed manner, the European American invaders would vanish, the bison would return, and the living and the dead would be reunited in an Edenic world. But in Royer's paranoid mind the Ghost Dance was a war dance that threatened imminent bloodshed. His dispatches to Washington urged that troops be sent to protect citizens from war.

In mid-November 1890 President Benjamin Harrison responded to the fears of an Indian outbreak by ordering troops into the area. Regular troops were sent from Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and on November 18, 1890, the Second Nebraska Infantry left Fort Omaha in two special trains. On the train was also a cadre of newspaper reporters. From that point on, the crisis at Pine Ridge was a significant news item in newspapers across the country and around the world.

The trains unloaded their travelers at Rushville, Nebraska, on November 20, 1890, and from there the troops and reporters made their way to Pine Ridge Agency, where they all soon discovered that there was no crisis to be found. Soon a regular fare of rumors and lies began to appear in the national press, fed by merchants who wanted to keep the reporters, and their expense accounts, engaged in the economically strained communities south of the Pine Ridge Reservation. These fantastic stories fed a growing national anxiety about impending war. They also appeared on the reservations, where Lakotas who had been educated in the nation's Indian schools read the reports of troop activities and the rumors of outbreak to other members of their community. In this manner, the press became an important factor in stoking the anxiety both on and off the reservation.

By mid-December 1890 the combination of news reports, governmental reports (particularly those of the panic-stricken Royer), and Ghost Dancing had every nerve in the region on edge. The Lakotas polarized into political camps commonly referred to in the press as "hostiles" and "friendlies," a distinction between those who were opposed and those who were reconciled to reservation life. The Ghost Dancers were generally assigned to the "hostiles" camp. On December 15, 1890, the Hunkpapa holy man and Ghost Dance leader, Sitting Bull, was killed at Standing Rock Agency. Sitting Bull's death was seen by many as the fate that awaited all who failed to accept reservation life. To the south, at Cheyenne River Agency, the Miniconjou Lakotas grew nervous. Their leader, Big Foot, was also engaged in the Ghost Dance, and though not considered a major threat, he was under close observation by the military. In an attempt to quiet the Miniconjous, the military asked a local squatter named John Dunn to persuade them to acquiesce to the military's wishes that they stay in their own village on the reservation. Dunn's tactics are inexplicable: he is reported to have told the Miniconjous that the military planned to take their men prisoner and deport them to an island in the Atlantic Ocean. He apparently advised them to take sanctuary on Pine Ridge Reservation.

On December 23, the Miniconjous left their village in the dead of night and fled south toward the Badlands. Big Foot soon contracted pneumonia, which slowed the escape. Nonetheless, the tribe managed to avoid the military pursuit for five days. But on December 28, the Seventh Cavalry intercepted the ailing Big Foot and his people and ordered them into confinement on Wounded Knee Creek. On the morning of December 29, Col. James W. Forsyth convened a council with the Miniconjous. He demanded that they surrender all their firearms and told them that they would be relocated to a new camp. The order to a new camp was interpreted by the Miniconjous as exile, probably to Indian Territory, a prospect that they found intolerable.

While these discussions proceeded in the Lakota camp, a number of Indians began singing Ghost Dance songs, with some rising to throw handfuls of dirt in the air. The troops who surrounded them perceived the singing and dirt throwing as signals to attack, and at this tense moment the fuse was lit. A man named Black Coyote (sometimes called Black Fox) refused to surrender his rifle to a soldier. The two began wrestling over the gun, and in the struggle it discharged. Immediately the nervous troops began firing, while the Miniconjous retrieved their weapons and returned fire. The military's rifle fire was complemented with cannon rounds from Hotchkiss guns, whose accuracy and exploding shells were formidable. The outnumbered and outgunned Lakotas fled, and for several hours intermittent gunfire continued, with the military in pursuit. Bodies were found as far away as three miles from the camp. Firing ceased, and by midafternoon the troops had gathered up their dead and wounded, as well as Lakota wounded, and returned to Pine Ridge Agency. The fear of a reprisal attack kept troops and civilians entrenched at the agency until January 3, 1891, when a military-escorted civilian burial party proceeded to the site of the massacre. There they buried 146 Lakotas in a single mass grave. Other dead were accounted for later, bringing the total to more than 250 Lakotas; the Seventh Cavalry lost twenty-five men.

Photographers accompanied the burial detail and made a total of sixteen photographs. A snowstorm that occurred shortly after the massacre added a cold and grim edge to the scene of carnage. The photographs sold well and, together with news stories, carried the story of the massacre at Wounded Knee worldwide. Soon the event developed a meaning that transcended the reality of the tragic loss of life, and Wounded Knee became, and remains, the symbol of the inhumanity of U.S. government policy toward Native Americans.

See also NATIVE AMERICANS: Sitting Bull / RELIGION: Ghost Dance.

John E. Carter Nebraska State Historical Society

Jensen, Richard E., R. Eli Paul, and John E. Carter. Eyewitness at Wounded Knee. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991.

Mooney, James. The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1896.

Utley, Robert. The Last Days of the Sioux Nation. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1963. http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.war.056

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The Ghost Dance

In 1889 the Lakota and Dakota at Standing Rock, and on all the newly defined Sioux reservations, were in poor health, starving, and were witnessing relentless assaults on their tribal way of life. The signing of the Sioux Bill of 1889 accentuated the grievances of the Sioux people and caused sharp division between signers and non-signers. Sitting Bull openly spoke against those who signed the Sioux Bill, and he predicted the government would not honor its promises and those Indians who signed would live to regret giving in. Sitting Bull continued to be the leading opponent of the government’s civilizing policies. Against this backdrop, word of the Ghost Dance was spreading among the Sioux the summer and fall of 1889. The Ghost Dance was a pan-tribal religious movement originating from the vision of a Paiute man in Nevada named Wovoka. The Ghost Dance was basically Christian in its tenets but Indian in ceremonial trappings. The Ghost Dance was not part of spiritual traditions of the Lakota or Dakota, but it had appeal to some Lakota and Dakota people because it promised a return to older traditions and values. Indian people were in terrible straits by 1889 and to some, the Ghost Dance promised many good things. Some Sioux, primarily on the Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock Reservations became interested in the Ghost Dance.

Sitting Bull, SHSND 5356

Sitting Bull. (State Historical Society

of North Dakota, 5356)

Wild and unfounded rumors of the Ghost Dance and an impending Sioux outbreak spread to non-Indian communities throughout the Dakotas in the spring of 1890. Fear of the Ghost Dance apparently played into Agent McLaughlin’s hands. Some people in Sitting Bull’s camp participated in the Ghost Dance although Sitting Bull did not take part in it. McLaughlin considered Sitting Bull a malcontent who refused to accept government policy and clung “tenaciously to the old Indian way...slow to accept the better order of things...” So McLaughlin seized on local fear of the Ghost Dance to order the arrest and removal of Sitting Bull from Standing Rock.

The real issue of importance at Standing Rock in the fall of 1890 was not the Ghost Dance but the survey of lands for allotments. Sitting Bull and his followers let it be known they would not take allotments when the time came; they stated they had not signed the Sioux Bill and would therefore “continue to enjoy their old Indian ways.”

In late fall McLaughlin devised a plan to arrest Sitting Bull and by December he was able to implement it. In the pre-dawn hours of December 15, 1890, Indian police from Standing Rock were sent to arrest Sitting Bull and take him to Fort Yates. By daybreak Sitting Bull, eight of his people, and six Indian police lay scattered about Sitting Bull’s camp, dead or dying. Many of those involved in this melee were related, a fact McLaughlin was aware of and commented on.

Sitting Bull’s death caused his people to scatter, and many headed south to relatives on the Cheyenne River Reservation and joined with Hump’s or Spotted Elk’s bands. Some joined relatives living with Big Foot, whose band was attacked on the morning of December 29, 1890, along the Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Sitting Bull’s death, followed soon by the deaths of almost 300 men, women, and children in the barren gullies and draws of Wounded Knee, was a profound sign that indeed, a new way of life was upon the people.

By 1890 federal policy sought to erase all traces of Indian lifeways. A report from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs clearly sets forth this policy:

The Indians must conform to the “white man’s

ways” peaceably if they will, forcibly if they must.

They must adjust themselves to their environment,

and conform their mode of living substantially to

our civilization. This civilization may not be the

best possible but it is the best the Indians can

get. (BIA Report, 1889)

http://www.ndstudies.org/resources/IndianStudies/standingrock/historical_ghostdance.html

Image: Sitting Bull. (State Historical Society of North Dakota, 5356)

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The Ghost Dance Religion started in the 1860'2 by Tavibo but slowly faded out. It was revived though by Wovoka, the son of Tavibo, in the 1880's. It was practiced widely among Native Americans until the whites stopped it in 1890 at wounded Knee.
Ghost Dance prophecy
Wovoka was a Paiute. He prophesied the end of white expansion westward and the return of land to the Native Americans. He was referred to as Christ, and he said he had come to prepare the Indians for salvation. Tribe representatives from all over came to Nevada to meet him and learn the Ghost Dance.
A tribe dancing the Ghost Dance as they were taught by Wovoka
Wovoka fell asleep during the day on an eclipse and had a vision. He said he saw god with all the fallen Warriors and last women and children. He wrote about it in a letter called "The Messiah Letter," written below.
"...don't tell no white man. Juesses was on ground, he just like cloud. Every body is alive again, I dont know when they will [be] here, may be this fall or spring. Every body never get sick, be young again (if young fellow no sick any more) work for white men never trouble with him until you leave, when it shake the earth dont be afraid no harm any body You make dance for six (wks) night , and put you foot [food?] in dance to eat for everybody and wash in the water. that is all to tell, I am in to you. and you will received a good words from him sometime, Dont tell lie."
Tribe dancing the six weeks as said in letter.
He also said white men and bad Indians would drown in a big flood. He promised the apocalypse. He said that all of their suffering came from sin.

In 1890 James Mooney went to study Cherokee in the Oklahoma terr. He sent many letters back to the Bureau and drew many picture of the dance. It had been snowing very hard and it was impossible to dance. He was invited to pray to stop the snow so they could dance again.
Photo above was taken by James Mooney when he was studying the Cherokee.
"The ground was covered deeply with snow, witch stopped the dancing for several weeks." He also said, "Sunday I counted at one time 139 dancers with 26 others inside the circle-some in a manic frenzy, some in spasms and others stretched out on the ground stiff and unconscious
Above and to the right are pictures draw by Mooney
Photo taken by Mooney of the Ghost Dance
How to Dance the Ghost Dance
The "Ghost Dance Prophet" was the dance leader. When he is ready he walks out the dance place. There will be a tree or a symbol of a tree there decorated with religious offerings. The leader faces inward. The other leaders come and they join hands to form a small circle.
The Picture to the left is of Short Bull. He was on of the main leaders of the Ghost Dance Religion. In this picture he is wearing the traditional Indian out fit, worn during the Ghost Dance among the Arapaho Indian tribes.
They then sign the opening song once. They raise their voices to full strength and repeat. This time they slowly circle counter-clockwise, shuffling in a side-step.

The tempo of the dance would gradually increase. People would come, one after another and join the circle, looking toward the sun, until 50-500 men, women , and children were in the dance.
This ritual was danced for 5 successive days. Big Foot's band danced until they collapsed.
Photo of Ghost Dance (taken by Mooney on his trip)
Not all tribes did like Big Foot, many tribes had rest periods. At intervals between songs, especially when there are trances, the dancers will unclasp hands and sit. They would smoke or talk for a few minutes. The leaders would sometimes say short sermons of addresses. When someone woke up from a trance. the leader would ask them to describe it and relate to it. Then it was sung by the group. This was done mostly in the afternoons until dark. It was taught on all Sioux reservations and many others.

The clothing worn during the dance differed greatly from tribe to tribe. The Arapaho and Cheyenne danced in full Indian dress (buck skin, paint, and feathers.) There were several tribes that wore shirts with a turtle, to bring soil for the world's creation, and birds, to be messengers to the spirit world.
The Sioux performed the ritual wearing ghost shirts that they thought would protect them from bullets. The women discarded belts with silver on them because metal came from the white men. Some tribes though, liked to wear hats made by whites.
Cheyenne dress	Ghost dance dress (tribe unknown)	Dress wore during dance (tribe unknown)	Lakota Ghost Dance Shirt
Ghost Dance Shirt		Ghost Dance Shirt
Ghost Dance Shirt (tribe unknown)	Ghost Dance Shirt	Ghost Dance Shirt	Ghost Dance Shirt thought to be bullet proof
The songs that were sung expressed their desire to see those that died. Each tribe had its own. Here is one the Lakota sang called "Song of Hope" The whole world is coming A nation is coming, a nation is coming The Eagle has brought the message to the tribe The father say so , the father say so Over the whole earth they are coming The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming The crow has brought the message to the tribe The father says so, the father says so.
Here is another song that was sung by the Lakota. It has many of the same words from the song above. It was also sang during the dance. Verily, I have given you my strength: say the father, say the father: The shirt will cause you to live: say the father, say the father

Slowly the dance began to change. The message at first was to be peaceful but it slowly changed to make the Indians Invincible. Sitting Bull doubted the religion at the very beginning. He worried that more people would die. Kicking Bear though, said that if they wore Ghost shirts, bullets would not hurt them. This idea lead to his death.
Picture of Indians having visions
The government wanted to put a stop to it but didn't know how. They had already banned it but still the Indians danced. It didn't make much sense for them to want to stop it anyway. The religion promoted Christianity, and peace with whites. It met all to goal the government was trying to reach. Still the government decided to stop it once and for all at Wounded Knee. They killed hundreds of Native Americans there that were practicing the Ghost Dance. The religion abruptly came to and end.
Lacey N. Deiter 8th Grade 2001 American History Rossville Junior High		Bibliography

http://www.kawvalley.k12.ks.us/schools/rjh/marneyg/archived_projects/2001_plains_projects/01_GhostDanceReligon_LaceyD.htm
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#‎GhostDance‬ ‪#‎GhostSongs‬ ‪#‎WoundedKnee‬
Always Remember the Ghost Dance, We Sing These Songs Today
Why We Still Mourn for Wounded Knee
Massacre at Wounded Knee
https://www.facebook.com/groups/whitebuffalocalfwoman/permalink/776983745740217/

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"Dancing was a way of life. Even the wind or the tree, everything seems to dance. So everything begins with a song and a dance. It's a ritual. This is why the Ghost Dance was acceptable."
--Birgil Kills Straight, Lakota

"All Indians must dance, everywhere. Keep on dancing. Pretty soon, next spring, Great Spirit come, He bring back all game of every kind. All dead Indians come back and live again when Great Spirit comes this way. Then all Indians go to mountains, high up away from whites. Then while Indians way up high, big flood comes and all white people die. After that, water go away and then nobody but Indians everywhere. Then Medicine Men tell Indians to send word to all Indians to keep up dancing and the good times will come." --Wovoka

When the Sun died, I went up to Heaven and saw God and all the people who had died a long time ago. God told me to come back and tell my people they must be good and love one another, and not fight, or steal or lie. He gave me this dance to give to my people. --Wovoka
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Why We Still Mourn for Wounded Knee
Jacqueline Keeler 1/3/14

There are always things happening in Indian country that never make it into the mainstream news, and we Indian people are accustomed to it. We never expect the issues near and dear to our hearts to be covered 24 hours on CNN or to trend on Twitter or on Buzzfeed. And yet, this year, I felt it more than usual.

As we entered the holiday season it felt good to see, on my Facebook and Twitter feeds, hundreds of posts, videos, and retweets hailing the Dakota 38 riders as they began their 330-mile trek on December 10th, riding on horseback down snowy roads from Lower Brule in South Dakota to Mankato, Minnesota. It was here, the day after Christmas in 1862, that 38 Dakota men were executed in the largest mass hanging in U.S. history for rising up in an insurrection against the Americans who had occupied their land without compensation. President Lincoln signed the orders, reducing the number to be executed from 303 to the 38 who were hung that day.

The United States had failed to fulfill their part — i.e. monetary compensation — of the treaty agreements with the Santee in exchange for the surrendering of up to 24 million acres of hunting grounds; without the ability to hunt, their children were starving. Reportedly, the money owed the Santee was reallocated by Congress to cover the costs of Mary Todd Lincoln’s redecorating of the White House and sunk into years of graft by Indian agents. A trader, Andrew Myrick, refused to release any food from his stores without payment and famously said, “If they are hungry, let them eat grass — or their own dung.” Myrick was the first white man killed in the uprising, and his body was found days later with grass stuffed in his mouth. General Jon Pope was dispatched to Minnesota to quell the insurgency (Pope’s assignment was in part a demotion for losing the 2nd Battle of Bull Run against the Confederacy); he wrote, “It is my purpose utterly to exterminate the Sioux if I have the power to do so.”

Then on December 29 came the anniversary of the Wounded Knee massacre (1890), just three days after the Dakota 38 riders reached Mankato bearing gifts for reconciliation for the town. A tweet by @williamcander of the image of the burial of the frozen victims’ bodies was retweeted hundreds of times with my twitter name attached to it. My Twitter stream became filled with that painful image repeated ad infinitum regarding the December 29th, 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota: “123 years ago this past Sunday, 150 ‪#‎Lakota‬ men/women/children were massacred by the US 7th Calvary @ #WoundedKnee H/T @jfkeeler.” Each time someone would retweet it would show up again on my timeline, and so, even though I clicked on the image only one time, the long rectangular hole dug for mass burial with the bodies of Lakota people strewn in it and those waiting frozen on the ground while white men pose, holding guns or with their hands at their hips as if for a job well done — that grave stayed in my mind.

That image is filled with all those things that, as Native people, we cannot name, and remains a symbol of all the ways in which we are not allowed to be ordinary Americans simply living our lives in the most powerful nation in the world. December 29th, 1890 is the date when we became a marginalized people denied the comfort of being part of a nation that recognizes our experiences and commemorates them with us. We live out our lives in this so-called democracy in a twilight existence where the only time Americans remember us is as we were then, when we were truly separate from them. Then they dress up “like us” with feathered headbands made in China and cheer for their sports teams on weekends named to “honor” us, not acknowledging us as we are today, as our encounter with them has made us. But still, after all this time, we are different because we remember; we remember Wounded Knee — and Mankato — and The Long Walk — and every broken promise that we must, for our own good, put aside to live in this new country, the United States. It only makes it harder that they do not join us in this; it makes what we lost, the millions of acres and lives of our loved ones feel cheapened and unappreciated and forgotten and makes their present-day ignorance of us even harder to bear.

So, as we Native people mourn and reflect upon these painful events in our history, we do so very much apart from the rest of this country. There is no national 24-hour news coverage of the Dakota 38 riders. No one is following their journey down icy roads and freezing temperatures except for us who look for updates on their Facebook event page and watch their YouTube interviews, creating our own piecemeal media coverage that does not exist elsewhere. Instead, on that Sunday on the 123rd anniversary of Wounded Knee a Washington Redsk*ns football game was featured on TV.

Seeing photos of Redsk*ns and Chiefs and Braves fans dressed up in fake eagle feather headdresses, I think of a photograph of Owl Man, my great-grandmother’s grandfather, as he stood with a delegation of Yankton Dakota headmen at the White House in Washington, DC in 1867 to sign the Yankton treaty with the U.S. Government. A diminutive President Andrew Johnson stands in frock coat in the balcony above the Yanktons, and he is flanked by the Miami tribe’s delegation who tower over him in turbans and eagle claw necklaces. My ancestor is easily identifiable as he is the only one wearing the full eagle feather headdress. I think what he would have thought of all this. Each feather is said to have represented the confidence the people had for the leader. It was something very precious, but it came with a great deal of responsibility and accountability to the people. When the headmen returned home, the women chastised them for signing away the salt mines which they needed to preserve meat. Even then, there were no good deals to be made in DC. The people were focused on securing their survival, to live, to protect and raise the young, but sometimes, like at Wounded Knee, even that was an impossibility.

Looking at this image of Wounded Knee I want to run—run like the Ihanktonwan man my dad used to tell us kids about at dinner. He was at Wounded Knee visiting, and despite being shot through the middle of his body, he ran all the way across the state of South Dakota to our people. We kids would pepper our dad with questions about the story, “How could he run all the way across the state with a gunshot wound in the middle of his body?” “They were just tougher back then.” “But, why did he do it?” “Because he thought our people really needed to know. It was important to the people.” I want to run like him — running, carrying the story with the pain still lodged inside of me, the worry and the doubt eating me up. Only by putting my feet to ground and feeling the tempo my movement like a heartbeat upon the body of my Mother, Maka, can I find where I belong again and shake loose the despair.

I suppose a lot of Native people feel that way, and this is why we share our stories with each other on social media. Because these things are terrible and the country we are supposed to be part of cares not at all, or it cannot care without assuming guilt, and it is unwilling to do that because of Manifest Destiny. In their minds it was all for the greater good of creating this country that our nations were buried in the snow. And so, we live in a country where Wounded Knee and the Mankato 38 does not receive the same amount of broadcast time as does a perpetually losing NFL team’s flailing weekly on the field.

And even as we mourn, publicly for the first time in a long time, on social media sites like Twitter, we are confronted by those who would tell us to “get over it.” And they refuse to see that we cannot as long as our concerns remain shunted off into the gutter of our daily American experience. We are mourning the dead, but also the death of our own centrality in the story of our lives. We are surrounded by stories of white men and boys overcoming obstacles and triumphing in their quests to get the woman of their dreams, to save the world, become rich from TV, films and books.

One white guy had to respond to the tweet of the photograph of Wounded Knee by saying it was okay, because Indians were not Noble Savages and did far worse to each other, so we should stop remembering. In rejecting one stereotype he had embraced something even worse. The notion that unless Native people are better than any other people in the world they do not deserve basic human rights accorded to every other people in the world. That has to be the most dehumanizing thing anyone can say against us. Does he mean that we, having fallen off our pedestal must now endure any atrocity against us, even against unarmed women and children—even infants? In his myopic attack on the Noble Savage, he has returned full circle to the mindset that initiated the genocide on this continent. It reminded me of Col. Chivington’s words to his soldiers before the Sand Creek Massacre, “Kill them one and all, nits make lice.” I think the truth is to Americans like this gentleman, we are just an annoying reminder of the true price paid for this land, a reminder that needs to be silenced. It is so important to him that he’s willing to publicly make his point grandstanding on top of a massacre. Something that the Dakota 38 descendants recognize as wrong. Jim Miller, the Dakota man who had the vision for the commemorative ride has said that part of the ride’s purpose was for the Dakota to be the first to apologize for their role in the historical tragedy. Another organizer, Dakota veteran Peter Lengeek explained, “We’re trying to reconcile, unite, make peace with everyone because that’s what it means to be Dakota.”

On YouTube is a video of Redbone, the Native rock band singing in 1973, “We were all wounded at Wounded Knee for Manifest Destiny,” but I’d take it even a step further than that. As a people, a living vibrant culture, we all died that day. Even if your tribe had no runners present to bring them the news, that was the day that, as Black Elk said, the tree was cut. Both the Minnesota Sioux Uprising and Wounded Knee affected two members of my father’s family in ways that marked them the rest of their lives. The first was Owl Man. After the Dakota fled Minnesota they came and sought refuge amongst our people, the Yanktons, and as their cousins we took them in. When the U.S. Military found out they sent Colonel Sully who demanded we fulfill the treaty and kill them or he would return to “kill us all.” The headmen met, and, in the meeting, Owl Man was chosen to kill one of the Santee in order to fulfill the treaty — he had had a vision as a boy that he would do this when he received his powers as a medicine man. So he killed the man, and then went up on a hill and sat for four days and four nights without any weapons proclaiming that any Santee who wanted to come and kill him could if they wished. None did, and the Santee were able to remain, another massacre was averted, but it bothered my great-grandfather the rest of his life. He claimed to be haunted by the spirit of the man until he died.

My grandmother told me about the second relative her uncle, the Rev. Charles Cook. One day, we were in her attic and she unrolled a large portrait-sized daguerrotype of a young, handsome Indian man. She told me he was the Episcopal minister at Wounded Knee during the massacre. It was the holidays, so the church was decorated for Christmas; desperate to save the people, he and Dr. Charles Eastman, a Dakota, turned it into a hospital for the wounded and dying. They were both young, educated Dakota men still in their 20’s, working tirelessly to save the lives of their people. I asked her what happened to him, as I had never heard him spoken of before. She said simply, “Oh, he died a few years later, they say, of a broken heart by what he saw that day.”

I think of those young men, educated to be leaders in this new way of life their people were supposed to assume. And how they found themselves, instead of building this new society of churches and hospitals, patching together the bloodied bodies of their own people torn to bits by U.S. soldiers. Dr. Charles Eastman was embittered by the experience, noting the banner inside the church which read “peace and goodwill to all men.” My great-great uncle, could not reconcile the two, and even Owl Man, a seasoned warrior, was wracked with guilt by the choices he had to make to save the most people possible. I highly recommend reading a wonderful blog post written by Cutcha Rising Baldy, (On telling Native people to just "get over it" or why I teach about the Walking Dead in my Native Studies classes... *Spoiler Alert!*) where she explains why we cannot just “get past” these experiences by using The Walking Dead and survival of a zombie apocalypse. In it she notes just how American invaders were like a zombie swarm, how our people were unable to get them to see our humanity; when she asks people how they think the great-grandchildren of the Walking Dead will be able to “get past” the terrible things that happened to their ancestors, all her students understand that in this fictional event they cannot — yet, not all can understand our experience in the same way.

And then, thinking of these things—the annoyed rantings of a white man on Twitter telling us to “get over it”, and another on Facebook carrying on about the terrible hardships of giving up his enjoyment of Native Mascotry he loves to change its name because of whiney Native people—I am reminded of these very real decisions my ancestors had to make for our survival, and I remember it was not made for these white men’s benefit, nor for their comfort; it was made for me, for us, their descendants. We are the reason they did these things and made these hard choices. It was for the hope that we would be alive, their descendents living today and loving life, the sun on our faces, and even the blistering snow on a long ride as we remember them. I write these thoughts down, these family stories in attempt to preserve the dignity of their actions because no one else will. No one in the American media cares as much as we do about these things. And ironically, it is because social media provides these communal spaces to grieve and remember and to take courage in the acts of Reconciliation that riders like the Dakota 38 do, that make me feel even more the great yawning distance between my experience, as a Native woman and mother, and that as an American citizen. I wish the two were closer together. The distance is a part of the pain, and being told to be silent about it makes me think others know it, too.

Jacqueline Keeler is Navajo and Yankton Sioux. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/…/why-we-still-mo…
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Massacre at Wounded Knee
US Attorney General Eric Holder laying a wreath at the site of the Wounded Knee Memorial. Photo taken September 26, 2009.

November is Native American Heritage Month. As you will read below, November and December are also the months leading to the tragic massacre at Wounded Knee.

Moving along in my A to Z challenge we are now on W, and a topic that has caused me great heartache every time I think of it, from the time I first read Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. My mother bought the book when I was 12, and it was a brutal, harsh, painful introduction to American history for a 12 year old, but one that has never left me. (Note: I have revised and removed photos of the dead at Wounded Knee out of respect for those who died and their ancestors.)

"All Indians must dance, everywhere. Keep on dancing. Pretty soon, next spring, Great Spirit come, He bring back all game of every kind. All dead Indians come back and live again when Great Spirit comes this way. Then all Indians go to mountains, high up away from whites. Then while Indians way up high, big flood comes and all white people die. After that, water go away and then nobody but Indians everywhere. Then Medicine Men tell Indians to send word to all Indians to keep up dancing and the good times will come." --Wovoka

'
Wovoka, Paiute Shaman.

"Indian people were ready to try anything, and what Wovoka proposed sounded reasonable. To a drowning man, he would reach for a straw floating by, and it was in that state that the coming of the Messiah idea was presented, and they grasped it." --Johnson Holy Rock, Lakota

Sioux Ghost Dance, circa 1894 (If video fails to play, click on link.)

"Yes, it is so about Jesus, and all the Indians are talking about it. He has come to save the Indians. It is the first time he has come to save just the Indians. It was too far to go to him where he was before, up in the sky. Now it is not half so far to where he is, so you may come to him. All Indians may." --Crooked Nose.

"Dancing was a way of life. Even the wind or the tree, everything seems to dance. So everything begins with a song and a dance. It's a ritual. This is why the Ghost Dance was acceptable."
--Birgil Kills Straight, Lakota

"Our elders speak of a one brief period of time that the divine being gave our people the opportunity to make a connection with the life hereafter. The Ghost Dance was powerful, it was real, and it came to pass." --Leonard Little Finger, Descendant of Big Foot

December 29, 1890: The Beginning of the End

It was December 29, 1890. The Great Indian Wars were over, but the tension remained. The white settlers feared the Native American Indians. The surrender of the Sioux was less than a decade behind them. The Native American Indians, cheated and lied to in nearly every promise made to them, were equally distrustful of the white men. This one battle, the battle of prejudice, was not over.

On that fateful day, December 29, 1890, the atmosphere of hatred and distrust exploded in a tragedy that shocked the nation with the Massacre at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

The Ghost Dance

As you may recall, the Ghost Dance moved from one reservation to another like wildfire to the desperate Indians on their drought-parched land. It reached the Sioux in the Dakotas around 1890. By the time it reached the Sioux it was obvious that the government and white settlers were afraid of the implications of the dance, in spite of its ties to Christianity. The dance, the shirt, the press, the desperate-sounding messages of naive Indian Agents added together to form a lethal mix.
Kiowa Ghost Dance shirt. Photo by Wolfgang Sauber.

The Implications of the Ghost Dance Shirt

The impact of the Ghost Dance Shirt must be understood when piecing together the events of that day. The shirts were not in the vision of Wovoka, they were introduced to the Sioux by a warrior named Kicking Bear. Kicking Bear told the Sioux that the symbols--the eagle, stars--would protect them from bullets should the military try to harm them.

The military believed the magic symbols were a sign that the Sioux were planning an uprising. "Why would they need protection if their intentions were honorable and their actions were peaceful?" the settlers asked. Suspicion and mistrust was everywhere.

By this time the military knew the way of life of the Native American Indians. I believe they would have/should have known that painting symbols on their shirts was part of their spiritual practice, similar to painting their bodies, shields, teepees, and even their horses.

According to "Native American Tech," the symbols used on shields, teepees, bodies, and clothing were often chosen because they came to a person in a vision or dream. For instance, Oglala Sioux warrior Crazy Horse painted lightning bolts on his face and white circles resembling hail stones on his horse and his own body.

According to Oglala Lakota Nation Historian Aaron Ten Bears speaking on "Native American Tech," these symbols represented their medicine, and every warrior walked his own path and had his own medicine. Therefore, painting symbols on the Ghost Shirts for protection would be a logical action and a way of life, and not necessarily preparation for war.

Paint came from ground minerals mixed with bear grease. Black came from charcoal, white from clay, blue from duck poop. Images decorating shields, teepees, and horses were believed to help protect them from enemy arrows. The Ghost Shirt symbols were certainly not new to the military. They should have known the painted symbols had the same meaning as all other painted symbols used by the Native American Indians--protection, not a declaration of war.

Fear and Panic Inspired by Indian Agents

The dance and its promise of the return of the prosperity and great leaders of past years was the last hope to the desperate Sioux. They left their jobs and schools and everything the white government tried to force them to do to make them more "white," and they danced and danced into a frenzy.

Nevertheless, it was not the dance that spread fear among the pioneers as much as the Indian Agents, their messages to the government and military and their quotes to the press. All Indians were practicing the Ghost Dance, but only the Sioux wore the Ghost Shirts, and it was the Indian Agents who were supposed to be working with the Sioux who inspired fear in the hearts of the settlers.

According to the Story of the Great American West, Indian Agent James McLaughlin of the Standing Rock Agency wrote, "A more pernicious system of religion could not have been offered to a people who stood on the threshold of civilization." It was one of the few logical statements made by McLaughlin, in my opinion. At least he recognized the religious connection, but failed to see that the white civilization had failed the people, all of the people. It did not bring peace to the community. It did not bond the Native American Indians and the settlers. Forcing one's beliefs on others does not create unity.

According to the US National Park Service website, Valentine McGillicuddy was the Indian Agent at Pine Ridge from 1879 to 1886, and McGillicuddy clashed regularly with Oglala Chief Red Cloud over education, farming, and social and religious changes forced upon the Sioux. McGillicuddy was replaced by Indian Agent Hugh D. Gallagher from 1886-1890, and Gallagher seemed to have a more calming affect on the situation, but the resentment still existed between the Sioux and the white settlers.

On October 9, 1890, when the Ghost Dance religion was at its peak, the inexperienced agent Daniel F. Royer replaced Gallagher, which proved to be one of the worst decisions the US government could have made in Indian relations. Within four days of his arrival he was already sending frantic pleas for help and military protection based on his misunderstanding of the Sioux way of life and the meaning of the Ghost Dance.

According to Leonard Little Finger, descendant of Big Foot, speaking on "Wild West Tech," Indian agents were political appointees who rarely had any understanding of the ways of life of the Native American Indians, little understanding of their dreams and hopes, or what they had lost. It is certain that Daniel F. Royer did not understand the culture of the Sioux.

The local Indians referred to Daniel F. Royer as Young Man Afraid of Indians, and their description was spot on. Royer felt fear and spread fear like a contagious virus. "Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy," Royer said in an urgent appeal for help, help that was unnecessary as there was no real threat. Nevertheless, he begged in his message to the military, "We need protection and we need it now."

In Washington, D.C., far removed from the events taking place on the reservations, the only information US President Benjamin Harrison had available in order to guide him on the situation in South Dakota was the frantic messages sent by Daniel F. Royer, so he sent troops to both the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Agencies.

The Arrival of the Military

On November 20, 1890, the first contingents of military troops arrived at the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations. They came from Omaha and Forts Robinson and Niobrara, Nebraska. Within a week, thousands of troops filled the reservations from surrounding states.

According to the National Park Service Website, "nearly half the Army's infantry and cavalry and some artillery, the largest concentration of troops anywhere in the United States between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War and one of the largest ever assembled in one place to confront Indians."

Major General Nelson Appleton Miles

At Pine Ridge Reservation, Major General Nelson A. Miles commanded the operation with approximately 3000 troops, including the entire 7th Cavalry Regiment serving under Colonel James W. Forsyth. The soldiers essentially sat and waited while their leaders tried to gather information and calm the situation, but their presence alone was enough to incite fear in the Indians.

"Troops or no troops, we do not intend to stop dancing." --Little Wound

Colonel James W. Forsyth commanded the 7th Cavalry Regiment at Pine Ridge Reservation.

Then the reporters arrived looking for a war that wasn't there. They gathered each morning over coffee and concocted stories to send across the nation. They did not imply, they outright claimed that a war was taking place, and the government and the people believed every word they read. The Indians knew what was being said, and they could sense what was coming.

Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull became the focus of much of the fear and anxiety of the white community. He was feared more than the Ghost Dance. Sitting bull was a Hunkpapa Sioux, a medicine man, one of the last of the great warriors to surrender to the military, one of the last to accept the white government's authority and many believed he never did accept the white government's authority.

Sitting Bull was the man who had a vision of the defeat of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Calvary at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the man who made that happen.

Sitting Bull, circa 1885. Photo by David Francis Barry (1854-1934).

Sitting Bull led the Sioux in the Battle of Little Bighorn and The Great Sioux War of 1876. He escaped with some of his followers to Sasketchewan, but surrendered to US soldiers in 1881. He then worked for Buffalo Bill Cody's Buffalo Bill's Wild West where he was paid $50 a week. He was a celebrity, a warrior, and earned a small fortune before returning to the Standing Rock Agency.

Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Cody. Photo taken in 1885.

According to the Story of the Great American West, Sitting Bull was also one of the few leaders of the Sioux who questioned the power of the Ghost Dance, but he kept a respectable distance and did not interfere.

Then James McLaughlin, Indian Agent at Standing Rock Agency, heard rumors that Sitting Bull converted to Catholicism. For some reason, this incised McLaughlin, who began a campaign to bring about the end of Sitting Bull. McLaughlin insisted that Sitting Bull was responsible for what he considered to be a dangerous religious frenzy created by the Ghost Dance and argued both with the government and in the press for the immediate arrest of Sitting Bull.

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, McLaughlin's accusations regarding Sitting Bull were believed by military leaders and in December of 1890, Major General Nelson A. Miles at Fort Yates on Standing Rock ordered the arrests of Sitting Bull and Big Foot, leader of the Miniconjou Sioux on the Cheyenne Reservation.

Chief Sitting Bull

On December 14, 1890, McLaughlin sent a letter to Lt. Henry Bullhead with instructions on how to capture Sitting Bull, recommending an early morning arrest. The troops arrived at Sitting Bull's camp at 5:30 a.m. on December 15 and included 39 officers and four volunteers. They surrounded his house, shouted out that he was under arrest, then entered. Sitting Bull was led outside and told to mount a horse. Bullhead told Sitting Bull he would be taken to meet with an Indian Affairs agent, then he could return. Sitting Bull refused and the officers grabbed him and a struggle ensued.

Lakota Catch-the-Bear shot Bullhead who turned and fired his revolver at Sitting Bull. Another officer, Red Tomahawk, shot Sitting Bull in the head. The Great Chief Sitting Bull died in the arms of his people.
According to the show "Native American Tech," Sitting Bull's horse, a gift from Buffalo Bill, was trained to do a dance in the Wild West show. Sitting Bull's horse survived the shooting of Sitting Bull and his followers believed this was a sign, that the horse was telling them to continue with the Ghost Dance as the horse pranced and bowed for the people. Some believe the horse was simply doing a trick, but to the mourning, desperate people, it was a sign. (I know animals, and love them as much as they love me. I would have also believed it was a sign, that Sitting Bull's horse was speaking to the people.)

The grave of Chief Sitting Bull, circa 1906. Sitting Bull was originally taken to Fort Yates for burial, but in 1953 Sitting Bull's ancestors had his remains removed and reburied near his birthplace at Mobridge, South Dakota.

At this point the military, white settlers, US government and the press were closely following three "hot spots" and three Indian tribes involved in the situation: The Oglala Lakota at Pine Ridge Reservation led by Chief Red Cloud; the Hunkpapa at Standing Rock where Sitting Bull died; and Chief Big Foot and the Miniconjou at the Cheyenne River Reservation.

Around 400 of the Hunkpapas attempted to flea to the Cheyenne River Reservation led by Sitting Bull's half brother Spotted Elk, but Miniconjou Chief Hump, with the assistance of US Army officers, managed to convince most of them to surrender and they were taken to Fort Bennett. However, 38 of the Hunkpapa turned to Big Foot for help, joining him at his village on the forks of the Cheyenne River west of Fort Bennett.

Big Foot's band of Miniconjou Sioux at a dance at the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota, circa August 8, 1890.

Fear and Tension Inspires Desperate Acts

Lt. Col. Edwin V. Summer was given the responsibility to arrest Chief Big Foot, but considering the tragic circumstances he decided to hold off on the arrest and keep the village under surveillance. His actions only increased the tension and fear in the village. More troops arrived for the surveillance operation and the tension and fear in the village grew stronger.

Chief Big Foot was in a terrible position. He knew he had to act to bring peace to his people and the Hunkpapa refugees, 350 in all, but what could he do that would not incite a violent reaction from the military? He must have known that any action would bring violence. In his heart, he must have known he was facing his own death.

Late in the evening on December 23, in an act of desperation to save his people, Big Foot led his people and the remaining Hunkpapa Sioux out of the village and into the darkness. They quietly headed south through the Dakota Badlands toward the Pine Ridge Reservation. Big Foot's intention was to ask for help from Chief Red Cloud on how to make peace with the military and save his people and the people of Sitting Bull.

Chief Red Cloud

The military were not as quiet in their pursuit. They were angry, and perhaps felt foolish that they had missed Big Foot's escape. The 7th Calvary, the former command of deceased Lt. Col. George Custer serving under Major Whiteside, left in pursuit of Big Foot who of course surrendered without violence--it was never his intention to do anything else. Big Foot and his followers, now numbering around 350, all made camp at Wounded Knee Creek 20 miles from the Pine Ridge Agency while 500 soldiers positioned themselves in the surrounding hills. Big Foot, who by this time had pneumonia and was very sick, had no intention of running anywhere. Nevertheless, the entire 7th Calvary was called in, as well. The military, and the press, was prepared and aching for a war.
A 1923 re-enactment of the encampment at Wounded Knee Creek showing a line of US troops in the background. The rest of the troops were positioned in the nearby hills.

Then, early in the morning on December 29, 1890, Col. James W. Forsyth ordered the surrender of all weapons. The military and the press would have their war. They insisted on it, no matter how the Indians felt, no matter what their intentions.

The Shot Heard Round the West

On the morning of December 29, 1890, Chief Big Foot and the 350 men, women and children who looked to him for guidance awoke to find themselves completely surrounded by military with a line of military on the hillside and orders to surrender all of their weapons to the US military. Chief Big Foot was so sick he could barely stand unassisted. His warriors refused to surrender their weapons--they were already surrounded and the request, to them, was illogical and might place them in danger. They were right. They were in danger.

The warriors were lined up and ordered to bring their guns out of their teepees. They said they had no guns. Forsyth was angry, and impatient. He ordered his soldiers to enter the tepees, the homes of the Miniconjou, and the Hunkpapa refugees, to search for and confiscate all weapons.

The medicine man, Yellow Bird, sang and danced and called to the people to resist.

Forsyth then ordered his men to search the Miniconjou and Hunkpapa. It was unwise for a white man to lay hands on a Sioux, particularly military men, but they were not even respectful in their search. They were bullying, rough, and insulting. And what happened next was confusing, fast, and deadly. It is believed that a young man named Black Coyote, angry over the rough treatment he received at the hands of a soldier, stood up and said, "This is my rifle, I paid for it, and no one is going to take it from me without paying me for it." He was grabbed by two soldiers.

Then came that horrible moment. A shot was fired. There was a struggle. Who fired the shot was never verified. It was the shot heard round the West. It's source was never identified, but that one shot will never be forgotten.

The massacre began. The peaceful valley was suddenly filled with the screams of women and children. The soldiers on the hill were infuriated that the women and children were escaping in the ravine and pursued them for two miles, shooting them down, making certain that they would all die. It was ghastly. It was torture. It truly was a massacre. Over 200 men, women, children, and tiny babies lay dead in the snow.

A nearby church, still decorated for Christmas was used as a makeshift hospital. Men were hired to bury the dead at $2 per body in a mass grave. The press stayed on, reporting every last horrible detail they could find, propping up the frozen bodies of the dead to take pictures that were later made into postcards and sold to tourists.

Closing Thoughts on The Wounded Knee Massacre

The Wounded Knee Massacre was a symbol, a threat, really, for those who refused to adopt the ways of the white man. The white American government was dissatisfied with simply rounding up the Native American Indians like cattle and watching them with armed guards like criminals, the government wanted to see the Sioux, and anyone else who stood up for their rights for fair treatment, destroyed. Wounded Knee was the last confrontation, a violent end to the spirit, culture, and dreams of the Native American Indians.

Big Foot at the Cheyenne River Delegation in 1888. I removed the previous photo because I spoke with one of Big Foot's ancestors who feels Big Foot's death photo is sacred, and I agreed and removed the photo. There were many photos taken of the dead after the shooting and these photos were printed on postcards and sold to tourists.

"Wounded Knee was the last act in the government conspiracy to dispossess the Sioux," according to Paul Andrew Hutton, Professor at University of New Mexico speaking on The Final Clash: Wounded Knee. "When all of their nefarious schemes and with bogus treaties with false negotiations with broken promises failed, the government reacted with thuggery, and they achieved their ends with violence."

Soldiers on horseback return to the Cheyenne River Reservation following the massacre at Wounded Knee. Photo from the Office of the Chief Signal Officer.

According to Dee Brown, author of Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, "Wounded Knee is usually listed as the last battle of the American Indians. It was not a battle, it was a massacre. There is no way it could be called a battle, or even a fight."

Black Elk said the Sacred Hoop was broken at Wounded Knee. According to Black Elk, "Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished," he explained in Black Elk Speaks. "And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth, — you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead."

Resources:

Brown, Dee. Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. Sterling Innovation Publishing. New York: 1970.
"Native American Tech." Wild West Tech. Originally aired May 11 2004. Accessed August, 2007.
"Pine Ridge Agency: South Dakota." National Park Service Sites and Buildings. Accessed October 4, 2013.
"The Final Clash at Wounded Knee." Story of the Great American West. Reader's Digest Association, Inc. New York: 1977.
"The Final Clash: Wounded Knee." Wild West Tech. Greystone Television. First aired September 16,1993. Accessed February, 2011.
"The Ghost Dance." Native American Encyclopedia. Accessed October 4, 2013.
The Spirit World. Time Life Books. Alexandria, Virginia: 1992.

Posted by Darla Sue Dollman at 4:50 PM
11 comments:

Joseph Greer said...

Wow, what a research...a real eye opener! The thing that strikes me...it seems to have all started with ignorance when Daniel T. Royer writes: "Indians are dancing in the snow, and they are wild and crazy."
Honestly, I see it even today...with the celebration of our holidays...like Thanksgiving...if we only knew the sacrifices that were made...for our freedom today. Thanks...really enjoyed this one!
November 22, 2013 at 5:32 PM
Darla Sue Dollman said...

Honestly, Joseph, this article was so painful it took me nearly a month to research and write. I have two follow-up pieces, one about a survivor, a baby found beneath her mother's body. Now that it is finished, I feel like I'm in shock. It still stuns me to think something so horrible could take place in our country. Yes, I do believe Royer's ignorance had a lot to do with what happened, but the behavior of the reporters was just as bad. There was no journalistic integrity. They simply wanted to sell papers, and they did so by printing anything they could think of that would frighten the people, and in all fairness, the military, as well. The soldiers were acting out of prejudice, but fear is a part of prejudice. I have read repeatedly that Wounded Knee was responsible for breaking the spirit of the Native American Indians and I also wrote this in my post, but in my heart I hope this isn't true. I want to believe that they will recover their strength.
November 22, 2013 at 6:11 PM
Mike Biles said...

That's a morbidly fascinating and horrific tale, well told. I remember reading "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" years' ago and it had a huge impact then. Ignorance, fear - and such a huge gap in cultures that humans are not valued as such. I enjoy your blog - following as A Bit About Britain - look forward to the next article!
November 23, 2013 at 2:17 AM
Darla Sue Dollman said...

Thank you Mike! I tried to cover the situation carefully. The posts below it and a few that are coming are on the same topic. It was complicated, and yes, painful. Sadly, I think ignorance and fear ruled that situation. Thank you for reading my blog!
November 23, 2013 at 10:48 AM
♥ß∃∀υ₮iƒuL| DIs∀sⓣ∃я♥ said...

Your research on it was very good and it is thorough. I am sure it took its toll on you, just reading and writing about it. It is a story that is told on the reservation to this day. My family is from Pine Ridge Reservation and I have family buried in Wounded Knee. This is something that will always be remembered, it was horrific and tragic.

I enjoyed reading this! Great work smile emoticon
November 23, 2013 at 7:17 PM
♥ß∃∀υ₮iƒuL| DIs∀sⓣ∃я♥ said...

Your research on it was very good and it is thorough. I am sure it took its toll on you, just reading and writing about it. It is a story that is told on the reservation to this day. My family is from Pine Ridge Reservation and I have family buried in Wounded Knee. This is something that will always be remembered, it was horrific and tragic.

I enjoyed reading this! Great work smile emoticon
November 23, 2013 at 7:17 PM
Darla Sue Dollman said...

Thank you! I am honored that you read my blog, and I am sorry that your ancestors were forced to endure this experience. I read recently that someone is trying to sell land at Wounded Knee. If you know anything about this will you please email me? I would like to write about it and help stop it if I can. Thank you again! dsdo...@yahoo.com
November 23, 2013 at 7:55 PM
Bea Long said...

If anyone has not watched the movie "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" they should. I grieve every day for my ancestors and I visit the graves and it never gets any better. We have paid with much more than life and land. Thank you for your research but we need more active people to join the council of Native American Indian Affairs and to stand with us and not just to research or write about. I appreciate your article. Maybe it will help someone to speak up for another who cannot. Have a great day.
December 16, 2013 at 11:58 PM
Darla Sue Dollman said...

I do the best I can. Unfortunately, I do not believe I would be qualified to join the council as I am not a member of the reservation. All I can do is research and write. Thank you for reading, though!
December 17, 2013 at 1:57 AM
Appartement à vendre casablanca said...

Hello, I enjoy reading all of your post. I like to write a little comment to support you.
June 20, 2015 at 6:19 AM
Christopher Monson said...

Beautiful pictures.
October 1, 2015 at 7:41 PM

Images:
1. Kiowa Ghost Dance shirt. Photo by Wolfgang Sauber .
2.Soldiers on horseback return to the Cheyenne River Reservation 1890 following the massacre at Wounded Knee. Photo from the Office of the Chief Signal Officer. Return of Casey's scouts from the fight at Wounded Knee.
3. Burial of the dead (massacre) at the Battle of Wounded Knee S.D 1890
4. Wounded Knee 1973
5. and 6. Remembering Wounded Knee 1973 through photography

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paiute Legends

The Legend of the North Star

Long ago, when the world was young, the People of the Sky were so restless and traveled so much that they made trails in the heavens. Now, if we watch the sky all through the night, we can see which way they go.

But one star does not travel. That is the North Star. He cannot travel. He cannot move. When he was on the earth long, long ago, he was known as Na-gah, the mountain sheep, the son of Shinoh. He was brave, daring, sure-footed, and courageous. His father was so proud of him and loved him so much that he put large earrings on the sides of his head and made him look dignified, important, and commanding.

Every day, Na-gah was climbing, climbing, climbing. He hunted for the roughest and the highest mountains, climbed them, lived among them, and was happy.

Once in the very long ago, he found a very high peak. Its sides were steep and smooth, and its sharp peak reached up into the clouds.

Na-gah looked up and said, "I wonder what is up there. I will climb to the very highest point."

Around and around the mountain he traveled, looking for a trail. But he could find no trail. There was nothing but sheer cliffs all the way around. This was the first mountain Na-gah had ever seen that he could not climb.

He wondered and wondered what he should do. He felt sure that his father would feel ashamed of him if he knew that there was a mountain that his son could not climb.

Na-gah determined that he would find a way up to its top. His father would be proud to see him standing on the top of such a peak.

Again and again he walked around the mountain, stopping now and then to peer up the steep cliff, hoping to see a crevice on which he could find footing.

Again and again, he went up as far as he could, but always had to turn around and come down.

At last he found a big crack in a rock that went down, not up. Down he went into it and soon found a hole that turned upward. His heart was made glad. Up and up he climbed.

Soon it became so dark that he could not see, and the cave was full of loose rocks that slipped under his feet and rolled down. Soon he heard a big, fearsome noise coming up through the shaft at the same time the rolling rocks were dashed to pieces at the bottom.

In the darkness he slipped often and skinned his knees. His courage and determination began to fail. He had never before seen a place so dark and dangerous. He was afraid, and he was also very tired.

"I will go back and look again for a better place to climb," he said to himself. "I am not afraid out on the open cliffs, but this dark hole fills me with fear. I'm scared! I want to get out of here!"

But when Na-gah turned to go down, he found that the rolling rocks had closed the cave below him. He could not get down. He saw only one thing now that he could do: He must go on climbing until he came out somewhere.

After a long climb, he saw a little light, and he knew that he was coming out of the hole.

"Now I am happy," he said aloud. "I am glad that I really came up through that dark hole."

Looking around him, he became almost breathless, for he found that he was on the top of a very high peak! There was scarcely room for him to turn around, and looking down from this height made him dizzy. He saw great cliffs below him, in every direction, and saw only a small place in which he could move. Nowhere on the outside could he get down, and the cave was closed on the inside..,

"Here I must stay until I die," he said. "But I have climbed my mountain! I have climbed my mountain at last!

He ate a little grass and drank a little water that he found in the holes in the rocks. Then he felt better. He was higher than any mountain he could see and he could look down on the Earth, far below him.

About this time, his father was out walking over the sky. He looked everywhere for his son, but could not find him.

He called loudly, "Na-gah! Na-gah!"

And his son answered him from the top of the highest cliffs.

When Shinoh saw him there, he felt sorrowful, to himself, "My brave son can never come down. Always he must stay on the top of the highest mountain. He can travel and climb no more. I will not let my brave son die. I will turn him into a star, and he can stand there and shine where everyone can see him. He shall be a guide mark for all the living things on the Earth or in the sky."

And so Na-gah became a star that every living thing can see. It is the only star that will always be found at the same place.

Always he stands still. Directions are set by him. Travelers, looking up at him, can always find their way.

He does not move around as the other stars do, and so he is called "the Fixed Star." And because he is in the true north all the time, our people call him Qui-am-i Wintook Poot-see. These words mean the North Star.

Besides Na-gah, other mountain sheep are in the sky. They are called "Big Dipper" and "Little Dipper." They too have found the great mountain and have been challenged by it. They have seen Na-gah standing on its top, and they want to go on up to him.

Shinoh, the father of North Star, turned them into stars, and you may see them in the sky at the foot of the big mountain. Always they are traveling. They go around and around the mountain, seeking the trail that leads upward to Na-gah, who stands on the top. He is still the North Star.

The Legend of the Deer/Dog Star

The Paiute Indians in the desert hills have this story of the bright star that may be seen low down in the eastern sky about sunrise of summer mornings -- the star we know as Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, commonly called the "dog-star."

A long time ago, one of their young men attempted to run down a deer. All the village watched them as they ran across the desert, away over the rim of the world into the sky. There they were changed, the deer and the runner, to a star. Since that time the Indians say that the best deer-hunting is to be had when the "deer-star" is in the sky; and this is really true.

Hear now a tale of the deer-star,
Tale of the days agone,
When a youth rose up for the hunting

In the bluish light of dawn
Rose up for the red deer hunting,
And what should a hunter do
Who has never an arrow feathered,

Nor a bow strung taut and true?
The women laughed from the doorways,
the maidens mocked at the spring;
For thus to be slack at the hunting is ever a shameful thing.

The old men nodded and muttered,
but the youth spoke up with a frown:
"If I have no gear for the hunting,
I will run the red deer down."

He is off by the hills of the morning,
By the dim, untrodden ways;
In the clean, wet, windy marshes
He has startled the deer agraze;

And a buck of the branching antlers
Streams out from the fleeing herd,
And the youth is apt to the running
As the tongue to the spoken word.

They have gone by the broken ridges,
by mesa and hill and swale,
Nor once did the red deer falter,
nor the feet of the runner fail;

So lightly they trod on the lupines
that scarce were the flower-stalks bent,
And over the tops of the dusky sage
the wind of their running went.

They have gone by the painted desert,
Where the dawn mists lie uncurled,

And over the purple barrows
On the outer rim of the world.

The people shout from the village,
And the sun gets up to spy

The royal deer and the runner,
Clear shining in the sky.

And ever the hunter watches for the rising of that star
When he comes by the summer mountains
where the haunts of the red deer are,

When he comes by the morning meadows
where the young of the red deer hide;
He fares him forth to the hunting
while the deer and the runner bide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wovoka - Ghost Dances

Known as the messiah to his followers, Wovoka was the Paiute mystic whose religious pronouncements spread the Ghost Dance among many tribes across the American West.

Wovoka (1856-1932), also known as Jack Wilson, was a Northern Paiute religious leader and founder of the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language.

Wovoka was born in the Smith Valley area southeast of Carson City, Nevada, around the year 1856. Wovoka's father may have been Numu-Taibo ("white person"), a religious leader whose teachings were similar to those of Wovoka. Regardless, Wovoka clearly had some training as a shaman.

Wovoka's father died around the year 1870, and he was taken in by David Wilson, who was a rancher in the Yerington, Nevada area. Wovoka worked on the Wilson ranch, and used the name Jack Wilson in his dealings with whites. David Wilson was a devout Christian, and Wovoka learned English, Christian theology, and bible stories while living with him.

In his early adulthood, Wovoka gained a reputation as a powerful shaman. He was adept at magic tricks. One trick he often performed was being shot with a shotgun, which may have been similar to the bullet catch trick. Reports of this trick may have convinced the Lakota that their "ghost shirts" could stop bullets. Wovoka is also reported to have performed a levitation trick.

In early 1889 Wovoka proclaimed that he had a prophetic vision during the solar eclipse on January 1 of that year. Wovoka vision entailed the resurrection of the Paiute dead and the removal of whites and their works from North America.

To bring this vision to pass, Wovoka taught that they must live righteously and perform a round dance, known as the "Ghost Dance".

At around age thirty, Wovoka began to weave together various cultural strains into the Ghost Dance religion. He had a rich tradition of religious mysticism upon which to draw.

Around 1870, a northern Paiute named Tavibo had prophezied that while all whites would be swallowed up by the Earth, all dead Indians would emerge to enjoy a world free of their conquerors.

He urged his followers to dance in circles, already a tradition in the Great Basin area, while singing religious songs. Tavibo's movement spread to parts of Nevada, California, and Oregon.

Whether or not Tavibo was Wovoka's father, as many at the time assumed, in the late 1880's Wovoka began to make similar prophecies.

His pronouncements heralded the dawning of a new age, in which whites would vanish, leaving Indians to live in a land of material abundance, spiritual renewal and immortal life. Like many millenarian visions, Wovoka's prophecies stressed the link between righteous behavior and imminent salvation. Salvation was not to be passively awaited but welcomed by a regime of ritual dancing and upright moral conduct.

Despite the later association of the Ghost Dance with the Wounded Knee Massacre and unrest on the Lakota reservations, Wovoka charged his followers:

Do not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must not fight. Do not refuse to work for the whites and do not make any trouble with them.

While the Ghost Dance is sometimes seen today as an expression of Indian militancy and the desire to preserve traditional ways, Wovoka's pronouncements ironically bore the heavy mark of popular Christianity.

Wovoka's invocation of a "Supreme Being," immortality, pacifism and explicit mentions of Jesus (often referred to with such phrases as "the messiah who came once to live on Earth with the white man but was killed by them") all speak of an infusion of Christian beliefs into Paiute mysticism.

The Ghost Dance spread throughout much of the West, especially among the more recently defeated Indians of the Great Plains. Local bands would adopt the core of the message to their own circumstances, writing their their own songs and dancing their own dances.

In 1889 the Lakota sent a delegation to visit Wovoka. This group brought the Ghost Dance back to their reservations, where believers made sacred shirts -- said to be bullet-proof -- especially for the Dance.

The slaughter of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890 was cruel proof that whites were not about to simply vanish, that the millennium was not at hand. Wovoka quickly lost his notoriety and lived as Jack Wilson until sometime in 1932.

He left the Ghost Dance as evidence of a growing pan-Indian identity which drew upon elements of both white and Indian traditions.

Wovoka's Message: The Messiah Letter

The Promise of the Ghost Dance

Ghost Dance

By the morning of January 1, 1889, Wovoka was clearly a man torn apart by the conflicts of his past. His father's failure to be taken seriously as a prophet, the suffering of the Native peoples and his own religious concepts (both tribal and Christian) weighed heavily on him. On that day, Wovoka claimed to have dreamed a vision of a new and glorious world for the Native peoples. But was it really a new world?

In his dream, Wovoka conversed with God, who promised a new world set aside for the Native peoples. The wildlife of the region which was nearly depleted by white settlers (buffalo, elk, deer) would be replenished. The white settlers would vanish en mass and the Native dead would be resurrected and reunited with their living ancestors. Suffering, starvation, pain and disease would be wiped away forever. From a theological viewpoint and the safety of hindsight, however, one can detect prophecies which were not tribal in origin.

Even the most casual churchgoer would recognize the visions of the Book of Revelation in Wovoka's prophecies. Yet Wovoka's audience - the Paiute people and, later, other tribal nations - did not recognize it simply because Christianity did not take root among the Native peoples. White missionaries, for all of their efforts, did not put their faith into the hearts of most Native peoples. Wovoka, obviously recognizing this, refashioned the Revelation warning to his world.

He claimed the Native peoples would receive God's favor since it was the white man who rejected Christ. And unlike the New Testament, which was vague concerning the time and place of God's new world, Wovoka spelled out the immediacy of what he said. "Jesus is now upon the Earth," he stated. But again, there is historic contradiction here- Wovoka is quoted as saying he was Christ and he wasn't Christ. It would seem that either he excelled at playing to different audiences or was damned to being preserved by faulty historians.

Wovoka added this new world for Native peoples would come, but only if a ritualistic dance was practiced. In his initial preaching, he instructed his audiences to dance five days and four nights, then bathe in a river and go home. Wovoka promised to send a good spirit to his followers, who were to return in three months, at which time he would promise "such rain as I have never given you before."

The ritualistic dance, which became known as Ghost Dance, clearly appealed to the Native peoples who were baffled by the pew-bound protocol of Christian faiths. Unlike the calls of his father Tavibo, Wovoka found an audience eager to follow his teachings.

Ghost Dance spread to different nations throughout the west with a speed and ferocity unrivaled by any religious frenzy of the day. This turn of events was all the more remarkable for three reasons: the geographic and language barriers among the various nations, the lack of access to media or technology for spreading this news, and the fact that Wovoka never left the Paiute land.

Instead, members of other nations came to Nevada to learn from him. Why Wovoka did not travel could be attributed to either a fear of unknown territories, a lack of funds to accommodate travel or even the possibility of enemies.

In the summer of 1890, among those who visited Wovoka were two members of the Lakota reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, named Kicking Bear and Short Bull.

They became enraptured by Wovoka's faith and even stated that Wovoka levitated through the air above them. Kicking Bear and Short Bull brought Ghost Dance back to Pine Ridge, but in a very different form which lead to totally unexpected results.

Wovoka's faith was based on non-violence with whites. In fact, he even urged his followers not to tell the whites what they were doing. But as interpreted by Kicking Bear and Short Bull, Ghost Dance took on a militaristic aspect. Special garments known as Ghost Shirts were to be worn to deflect bullets fired by white soldiers or settlers. Government agents were permitted to witness the Ghost Dance ceremony and were told what it meant. Kicking Bear and Short Bull added the Indian Messiah would appear to the Lakota in the Spring of 1891.

Ghost Dance came to the Lakota with a fury. All activity at the Pine Ridge Reservation was put aside and the Native peoples adopted this faith with a mania. Government agents and white settlers were terrified by this sudden and (to them) bizarre turn of events. Newspapers spread stories of savage Indians in wild pagan practices.

Tensions became overpowering in this region as the Lakota people gave all their waking hours to Ghost Dance. (One government agent, Daniel F. Royer, tried to distract the Lakota by bringing his nephew to Pine Ridge to introduce baseball. It did not work. A missionary named Catherine Weldon offered to debate Kicking Bear on religion, but nothing came of it.)

Blame for Ghost Dance was placed on two people. Wovoka was traced as the father of the Ghost Dance and was interviewed by James Mooney, an ethnologist and anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institute. Wovoka passed a message to Mooney that he would control any militaristic uprising among the Native peoples in return for financial and food compensation from Washington.

The offer was ignored. And blame was also put on Sitting Bull, the chief medicine man of the Lakota people. Ironically, Sitting Bull was apathetic to Ghost Dance and only allowed its introduction at Pine Ridge with great caution. His initial qualms were realized: government agents considered Sitting Bull responsible solely due to his leadership role among the Lakota. Tribal police were dispatched to arrest him, but his apprehension resulted in conflict when several Lakota fought to protect him. Sitting Bull was killed in the crossfire on December 15, 1890.

Fourteen days after Sitting Bull's fatal shooting, the U.S. Army sought to relocate and disarm the Lakota people, who failed to stop their Ghost Dance. On the frozen plains at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation, government troops opened fire on the overwhelmingly unarmed Lakota people, killing 290 in a matter of minutes. Thirty-three soldiers died, most from friendly fire; 20 Medals of Honor were presented to surviving soldiers.

As news of Wounded Knee spread throughout the Native nations, Ghost Dance died quickly. Wovoka's prophecies were hollow; the land would not be returned from the white man through divine intervention. With the suddenness of its birth, Ghost Dance disappeared.

Wovoka himself virtually vanished into obscurity. In his later years, he exhibited himself at sideshows in county fairs and worked as an extra in silent movie Westerns. (The one surviving photograph of Wovoka was taken on the set of a film.) By the time of his death on September 20, 1932, he was virtually forgotten by both white and Native peoples. It would not be until the 1970s and the birth of Native American activism that the story of the Ghost Dance was told againÑ even if its father's life was reduced to footnote status.

The tragedy of Wovoka is a legacy of pain and suffering among the very people he wanted to save. The songs of the Ghost Dance are silent today and the dream of Wovoka vanished in the harsh light of reality. The Christian principles which he laced into his theology were brutally ignored by the soldiers and settlers who held allegiance to Christ and yet destroyed the Native way of life with a brutality unknown in the Gospel teachings.

- James Mooney, The Ghost-dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890

________________________________

Woman Spirit - Sarah Winnemucca

Sarah was born into a family of great leaders with both her father and her grandfather having been Chiefs of this Nevada Nation. It was her grandfather who led Capt.John Fremont and his group across the Great Basin to safety in California. This willingness to befriend the whites was never forgotten, and word of these deeds quickly spread across California.

When Sarah's father decided to take his family for a visit to the San Joaquin Valley in California, his news was received with great fears for Sarah was terrified of the whites. However, her fears disappeared as the Winnemucca party was assisted along the way by kind and generous whites.

Sarah was fascinated by these strange people and their strange ways, and set out to learn all she could about them. While on her 3 week visit in California, she quickly learned the basics of English.

Upon her return to Nevada, she had the opportunity to live for a year with the Ormsby family where she mastered the language. Sarah became 1 of 2 Paiutes in the entire state to read, write and speak English. In addition, she mastered Spanish, and 3 other Native dialects.

In her thirst for knowledge, she enrolled in St.Mary's Convent, but was forced to leave after only one month because of white anger at a Native being allowed into the school.

Great tensions arose between the Paiute and the growing river of whites pouring into Nevada. As a result of the Paiute War, the Paiute Reservation was established at Pyramid Lake, outside of what is now Reno.

Even this did not halt the unwarranted aggression against the Natives who were killed at random and their homes destroyed by raiding soldiers. In an effort to stop the bloodshed, Sara became an interpreter and spokesperson between the Paiutes and whites but, in retaliation against her, her mother, sister and brother were murdered by whites. Impressed by her command of English, Sarah was hired by the Army to serve as official interpreter between the U.S. and several Native tribes of the area. She was barely in her teens.

In her official capacity with the Army, Sarah was able to watch politics at work from the inside out. It did not take her long to understand that the persecution of the Paiutes lay at the feet of the government Indian Agents. Despite orders from Washington, and even an Act of Congress, the violence against the Paiutes continued. Sarah's hatred of the government Indian Agents is legendary, and became a cause that dominated her life. She traveled to the West Coast, meeting with official after official to present her case for justice. She was ignored.

When the neighboring Bannocks of Idaho rose up against white encroachment, the Northern Paiute joined their war. Sarah distinguished herself as a mighty warrior in battle. Sickened at the bloodshed, Sarah once again took on the role of interpreter and peacemaker, traveled into the heart of Bannock country, and convinced her father, Chief Winnemucca, to return home to Nevada with his warriors.

During the Bannock War, the reservation Paiutes had been forcibly taken from their land and moved to a reservation in the State of Washington. There, they continued to suffer at the hands of still more unscrupulous Indian Agents.

For Sarah, this was the final blow, and she took her cause to Washington, D.C. She spoke before Congress, and in other major cities on the East Coast where she could get an audience. In Boston, she became the protegee of Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and Mary Mann, wife of influential Horace Mann. With their encouragement and help, Sarah wrote her autobiography, "Life Among The Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims", as a way to spread the word of the injustice and corruption among government agents to even more people.

She was a master political activist and lobbyist in the classical sense.

During her long absences, the Paiute had begun to escape their confinement in Washington State, and were gradually returning to their homeland.

Sarah had kicked up such a storm across the country that her people were more or less left alone and were not forcibly removed again. She returned to Nevada where she opened a series of Native schools across the state.

However, a lifetime of crusading had taken its toll on Sarah's physical and emotional state.

She gave up her fight, and moved to a sister's home in Monida, Montana where she died of tuberculosis at age 47.

Sarah Winnemucca was called "The Princess" by whites; "Mother" by the Paiutes, and "The most famous Indian woman on the Pacific Coast" by historians.

The City of Winnemucca, Nevada carries her family name, and Sarah's memory.

Paiutes Socializing with the White Man

First European contact with the Southern Paiutes was in 1776 when Father Dominguez and Escalante chanced upon them on their failed attempt to find an overland route to the missions of California.

In 1851, Mormon settlers strategically occupied Paiute water sources creating a dependency relationship.

Although encroached upon and directed into reservations by the U.S. government in the 19th century, the Southern Paiute had comparatively little friction with whites. Many stayed scattered in the territories, working on the ranches of whites or remaining on the fringes of white settlements.

Southern Paiute communities today are located at Las Vegas, Pahrump, and Moapa, Nevada; Cedar City, Kanosh, Koosharem, Shivwits, and Indian Peaks,Utah; at Kaibab and Willow Springs, Arizona; and at Death Valley and Chemehuevi on the Colorado River in California. Some would include the 29 Palms Reservation in Riverside County California.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lamanite and Nephite (Native American Ghost Dance Relation)

Lamanites

Nephi with Laman and Lemuel in Book of Mormon

Lamanites is a term used in the Book of Mormon and was originally used to describe the descendants of Laman, the first-born son of Lehi (a prophet who was led by God out of Jerusalem to “the promised land” or the Americas), and his followers. In Mosiah 10:11-17, it is stated that the Lamanites hated the Nephites because they felt their ancestors had been wronged by the ancestors of the Nephites (another group of Book of Mormon people who were the descendants of Lehi’s fourth son, Nephi and his followers). These two groups were often engaged in lengthy wars and contentions. In fact, the Book of Alma, which takes up the largest part of the Book of Mormon is almost completely filled with explanations of wars that occurred between the Lamanites and Nephites.

Throughout the Book of Mormon many of the literal Lamanite descendants accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ, became righteous and joined the Nephites. There were also many Nephites who dissented from the gospel, became wicked and joined the Lamanites. This happened so often with such large numbers of people that the terms Lamanite and Nephite no longer represented ancestry and instead represented two separate cultures; the term Nephite came to represent those who followed God’s law and were righteous, and Lamanite was used to describe those who were wicked.

For a short time (about AD 34 to AD 230) after the resurrected Christ visited the Americas (see 3 Nephi 11) the division between Lamanite and Nephite was not used because all the people had become righteous. In 4 Nephi 1:17 we read,

There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.

As wickedness slowly came back, the terms were brought back and used again as a way to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. In 4 Nephi 1:20 it reads,

And he kept it eighty and four years, and there was still peace in the land, save it were a small part of the people who had revolted from the church and taken upon them the name of Lamanites; therefore there began to be Lamanites again in the land.

The true believers began to call themselves Nephites.

Many of the people, including Nephites, became wicked and by AD 400 all of the Nephites were destroyed in numerous wars with the Lamanites.

For More Information visit Wikipedia's article on Lamanites

http://www.mormonwiki.com/Lamanites

Lamanite

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also: Nephite, Jaredites and Mulekites

The Lamanites /ˈleɪ.mʌn.aɪt/^[1] are one of the people described in the Book of Mormon, a religious text published in 1830 by Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The Book of Mormon portrays the Lamanites as usually dark-skinned, wicked rivals to the usually lighter-skinned, righteous Nephites, both of whom are portrayed as descendants of Israelites who traveled to the New World by boat circa 600 BC. (Other groups from the book include the Jaredites, and Mulekites.) Historically, Mormons have identified the Lamanites as the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Polynesians, or some part of their ancestors. However, in the 21st century, Mormon scholars who favor a limited geography model have been disclaiming any significant genetic connection between Lamanites and any modern people. Because only Mormons consider the Book of Mormon to have an ancient historical basis, Lamanites are not considered to be a valid category of people by mainstream scholars.

According to the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites are descendants of Laman and Lemuel, two rebellious brothers of a family of Israelites who crossed the ocean in a ship around 600 BC. Their brother Nephi is portrayed as founding the rival Nephites.^[2] The book states that after the two groups separated from each other, the Lamanites received a curse of a "skin of blackness" so that they would "not be enticing" to the Nephites.^[3]^[4]^[5] After the two groups warred over a period of centuries, the book says that Jesus appeared and converted all the united Nephites and Lamanites to Christianity. However, after about two centuries, the book says that many of these Christians fell away and began to identify as Lamanites,^[6] leading some of the "true believers in Christ" to identify as Nephites.^[7] Ultimately, the book describes a series of great battles in which the Lamanites exterminated all the Nephites.

Mormons beginning with Joseph Smith have historically identified Lamanites with indigenous Americans, and sometimes even Polynesians. Scholars outside Mormonism do not consider the term Lamanite as a category of real people, or accept the Book of Mormon as a valid source of ancient American history. Mormon scholars, representing a small minority view, have identified a few alternative locations in the ancient New World where they hypothesize Lamanites described in the Book of Mormon might have lived, the most popular of which is Mesoamerica. Traditionally, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) taught that Lamanites were "the principal ancestors of the American Indians." In 2007, the church changed this teaching to the belief that that Lamanites were "among" the ancestors of American Indians.^[8]

Lamanites as described by the Book of Mormon

According to the Book of Mormon, the family of Lehi (a wealthy Hebrew prophet), the family of Ishmael, and Zoram traveled from the Middle East circa 600 BC to the Americas by boat. Some time after the death of Lehi (in the Americas), one of the sons of Lehi, Nephi, was concerned that his brothers were plotting to kill him; as a result, Nephi, his family, and his followers left and went into the wilderness. The followers of Nephi called themselves Nephites and referred to others as Lamanites, after Lehi's oldest son, Laman.^[9]

The Nephites later discovered another civilization living in America, and the combined group also called themselves Nephites. According to the Book of Mormon, there were many interactions between the Lamanites and the Nephites; intermittent war, trade, and proselytizing transpired with varying degrees of success. God initially marked the Lamanites with a darker skin color to identify them and their state of wickedness. The Nephites were initially righteous, though over time, individuals and sub-groups defected and joined the Lamanites. Likewise, some penitent Lamanites defected to the Nephites.

Following the American visitation of the resurrected Jesus Christ, the Lamanites and Nephites coexisted for two centuries in peace (from circa AD 30 until 230); "There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God."^[10] Eighty-four years after the coming of Christ, "a small part of the people who had revolted from the church" started calling themselves Lamanites.^[6] After four generations this period of peace and cooperation between the two suffered corruption and decline as social and economic classes resurfaced. In the year 231, "[the] true believers in Christ" started calling themselves Nephites.^[7] The Lamanites eventually became a larger portion of the population.

Ultimately, the Lamanites were successful in destroying the Nephites, in a series of wars from AD 326 to about 400.^[11]

Zeniff describes them as:

"Believing that they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that they were wronged in the wilderness by their brethren, and they were also wronged while crossing the sea; and again, that they were wronged while in the land of their first inheritance, after they had crossed the sea" (Mosiah 10:12–13).

Zeniff also says that the Lamanites felt that they were wronged by Nephi, and thus swore vengeance against his descendants:

"[the Lamanites] were wroth with him [Nephi] because he departed into the wilderness as the Lord had commanded him, and took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, for they said that he robbed them.

"And thus they have taught their children that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi" (Mosiah 10:16–17).

Theories regarding modern descendants

Joseph Smith preaching to the Sac and Fox Indians who visited Nauvoo, Illinois on August 12, 1841.

Many Latter Day Saints believe that the Lamanites comprise some part, if not the primary origin, of Native Americans. Some publications of the LDS Church have accepted this position,^[12]^[13] although the church has stated its view that "[n]othing in the Book of Mormon precludes migration into the Americas by peoples of Asiatic origin."^[14] The non-canonical introduction to the 1981 LDS Church edition of the Book of Mormon stated, "the Lamanites are the principal ancestors of the American Indians."^[15] The wording was changed in the 2006 Doubleday edition and subsequent editions published by the LDS Church, stating only that the Lamanites "are among the ancestors of the American Indians."^[16]^[17]

Many Latter Day Saints also consider Polynesian peoples and the other indigenous peoples of the Americas to be Lamanites.^[12]^[18]^[19] A 1971 church magazine article referred to Lamanites as "consist[ing] of the Indians of all the Americas as well as the islanders of the Pacific."^[20]

The existence of a Lamanite nation has received no support within mainstream science or archaeology. Genetic studies indicate that the indigenous Americans are related to present-day populations in Mongolia, Siberia, and environs,^[21]^[22] and Polynesians to those in southeast Asia.

Some Mormon scholars^[who?] now view Lamanites as (1) one small tribe among many in the ancient Americas, the remainder of whom were not discussed in the Book of Mormon, (2) a tribe that intermarried with indigenous Native American cultures, or (3) a tribe that descended with modern Asians from common nomadic ancestry, diverging prior to Lehi's departure from Jerusalem.^[23]

Skin colors

Member of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes, in 1875, being baptized by Mormon missionaries.

In the Book of Mormon, Lamanites are described as having received a "skin of blackness" as means of distinguishing themselves from the Nephites. This "change" in skin color is often mentioned in conjunction with God's curse on the descendants of Laman for their wickedness and corruption, as seen in 2 Nephi 5:21: "And he had caused the cursing to come upon [the Lamanites], yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, and they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."^[3]

On the other hand, the Book of Mormon teaches that skin color is not a bar to salvation: God "denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile".^[24] Elsewhere, the book condemns prejudice against people of dark skin: "O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness".^[25]

Similarly, the Book of Mormon teaches that the color of one's skin has no bearing on one's status as a righteous or sinful person. One prophet declared to the Nephites:

For behold, thus saith the Lord: I will not show unto the wicked of my strength, to one more than the other, save it be unto those that repent of their sins, and hearken unto my words. Now therefore, I would that ye should behold, my brethren, that it shall be better for the Lamanites than for you except ye shall repent. For behold, they are more righteous than you, for they have not sinned against that great knowledge which ye have received; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them; yea, he will lengthen out their days and increase their seed, even when thou shalt be utterly destroyed except thou shalt repent.^[26]

The non-canonical 1981 footnote text of the Book of Mormon closely linked the concept of "skin of blackness" with that of "scales of darkness falling from their eyes", suggesting that the LDS Church has now interpreted both cases as being examples of figurative language.^[27]

Several Book of Mormon passages have been interpreted by some Latter Day Saints as indicating that Lamanites would revert to a lighter skin tone upon accepting the gospel. For example, at a 1960 LDS Church General Conference, apostle Spencer W. Kimball suggested that the skin of Latter-day Saint Native Americans was gradually turning lighter:

I saw a striking contrast in the progress of the Indian people today... The day of the Lamanites is nigh. For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised. In this picture of the twenty Lamanite missionaries, fifteen of the twenty were as light as Anglos, five were darker but equally delightsome. The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation. At one meeting a father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter we represent, the little member girl—sixteen—sitting between the dark father and mother, and it was evident she was several shades lighter than her parents—on the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather .... These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness. One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated.^[28]

This view was buoyed by passages such as 2 Nephi 30:6, which in early editions of the Book of Mormon, read: "[T]heir scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people".^[29] In 1840, with the third edition of the Book of Mormon, purported translator Joseph Smith changed the wording to "a pure and a delightsome people", consistent with contemporary interpretation of the term "white", as used in scripture.^[30]^[31] However, all future LDS Church printings of the Book of Mormon until 1981 continued from the second edition, saying the Lamanites would become "a white and delightsome people".^[32]

Eventually in the Book of Mormon narrative, the labels "Nephite" and "Lamanite" became terms of political convenience, where membership was varied and fluid and not based on skin color. Within the first two centuries of the Nephites' thousand-year chronology, the prophet Jacob stated that any who were enemies of his people were called Lamanites, and any who were friends were called Nephites: "But I, Jacob, shall not hereafter distinguish them by these names, but I shall call them Lamanites that seek to destroy the people of Nephi, and those who are friendly to Nephi I shall call Nephites, or the people of Nephi, according to the reigns of the kings."^[9]

Changes to Book of Mormon chapter summaries

In December 2010, the LDS Church made changes to the non-canonical chapter summaries and also to some of the footnotes in its online version of the Book of Mormon. In Second Nephi chapter 5, the original wording was: "Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cursed, receive a skin of blackness, and become a scourge unto the Nephites." The phrase "skin of blackness" was removed and became: "Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cut off from the presence of the Lord, are cursed, and become a scourge unto the Nephites."^[33] The second change appears in summary of Mormon chapter 5. Formerly, it included the phrase that "the Lamanites shall be a dark, filthy, and loathsome people". The new version deleted the phrase "dark, loathsome, and filthy" and now reads, "the Lamanites will be scattered, and the Spirit will cease to strive with them."^[33]^[34]

These changes are seen by some critics to be another step in the evolution of the text of the Book of Mormon to delete racist language from it.^[33] On the other hand, some believers in the Book of Mormon, such as Marvin Perkins, see these changes as better conforming the chapter headers and footnotes to the meaning of the text in light of the LDS Church's 1978 Revelation on Priesthood.^[35] In an interview, a former BYU graduate student suggested that the changes were made for "clarity, a change in emphasis and to stick closer to the scriptural language."^[33]

Notes

"Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide", lds.org (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «lā´mun-īt»

1 Nephi 9:2

2 Nephi 5:21

Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert (1950): 73-74.

Tvedtnes, John A. (2003), "The Charge of 'Racism' in the Book of Mormon", FARMS Review 15 (2): 183–198

4 Nephi 1:20

4 Nephi 1:36

Stack, Peggy Fletcher (8 November 2007). "Single word change in Book of Mormon speaks volumes". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 12 May 2014.

Jacob 1:14

4 Nephi 1:17

Mormon 8:3

Lane Johnson, "Who and Where Are the Lamanites?," Ensign, December 1975, p. 15.

Book of Mormon (LDS Church edition), "Introduction", stating that the Lamanites "are among the ancestors of the American Indians". Prior to 2007, the non-canonical introduction stated that the Lamanites were the "principal ancestors of the American Indians."

See LDS Church, "Mistakes in the News", taking issue with "DNA and the Book of Mormon", (February 16, 2006), Los Angeles Times.

"Introduction", Book of Mormon (LDS Church edition), 1981.

Stack, Peggy Fletcher (2007-11-08), "Single word change in Book of Mormon speaks volumes", Salt Lake Tribune

"Introduction", Book of Mormon (LDS Church edition), on-line version.

Spencer W. Kimball, "Of Royal Blood," Ensign, July 1971, p. 7.

"The Church in the Lamanite World: Scanning the Special Programs Created to Meet Lamanite Needs," Ensign, December 1975, pp. 16, 20–24.

"The Lamanites (Introduction)," Ensign, July 1971, p. 5.

Merriwether, D. Andrew; et al. (1996), "mtDNA Variation Indicates Mongolia May Have Been the Source for the Founding Population for the New World", American Journal of Human Genetics 59 (1): 210, PMC 1915096, PMID 8659526

M. Raghavan et al, "Upper Palaeolithic Siberian genome reveals dual ancestry of Native Americans," Nature, (July 2013)

Stewart, David G. Junior (2006), "DNA and the Book of Mormon", FARMS Review 18 (1)

2 Nephi 26:33

Jacob 3:8–9

Helaman 7:23–24

Marvin Perkins, "How to Reach African-Americans", ldsgenesisgroup.org.

Conference Report, October 1960; Improvement Era, December 1960, pp. 922–23.

2 Nephi 30:6

Smith, Joseph (1840). Book of Mormon (3rd revised ed.). Nauvoo, Illinois: Robinson and Smith. p. 115. Retrieved 2009-08-03.

"White", Def. 6, Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828): "In a scriptural sense, purified from sin; sanctified. Psalm 51."

The 1841 and 1849 European editions (printed by the Twelve Apostles) were the Kirtland second edition with Anglicized spellings. Future LDS editions continued from the European editions until a major reworking in 1981, which adopted Smith's 1840 edit. See: Crawley, Peter (1997). A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church, Volume One 1830-1847. Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University. p. 151. ISBN 1-57008-395-9. Retrieved 2009-02-12.

Fletcher Stack, Peggy. "Church removes racial references in Book of Mormon headings", Salt Lake Tribune 2010-12-16.

1 Nephi 12:23

Marvin Perkins, "Changes To LDS Scripture Headings & Footnotes", blacklds.org, 2011-02-07.

References

Walker, Ronald W. (1993). "Seeking the 'Remnant': The Native American During the Joseph Smith Period". Journal of Mormon History 19: 1–33..^{[dead link]}

External links

Gordon C. Thomasson, "Lamanites", Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, byu.org
Sidney B. Sperry, "An Answer to Budvarson's Criticisms of the Book of Mormon", Chapter XXIV (addressing the converted Lamanites' skin turning white), shields-research.org
Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR), "Topical Guide: DNA and the Book of Mormon", fairlds.org
Michael R. Ash, "Who Are the Lamanites", fairlds.org
"A ~~White~~ Pure and Delightsome People", Salt Lake City Messenger, Oct. 1981, utlm.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamanite

Nephite

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Nephites)

According to the Book of Mormon, a religious text of the Latter-day Saint movement, the Nephites (/ˈniː.faɪt/^[1]) are one of four groups (including the Lamanites, Jaredites, and Mulekites) to have settled in the ancient Americas. The term is used throughout the Book of Mormon to describe the religious, political, and cultural traditions of this group of settlers.

The Nephites are described as a group of people that descended from or were associated with Nephi, the son of the prophet Lehi, who left Jerusalem at the urging of God c. 600 BC and traveled with his family to the Western Hemisphere, arriving in the Americas c. 589 BC. The Book of Mormon notes them as an initially righteous people who eventually "had fallen into a state of unbelief and awful wickedness"^[2] and were destroyed by the Lamanites c. AD 385.^[3]

Some Mormon scholars claim that the forebears of the Nephites settled somewhere in present-day Central America after departing Jerusalem.^[4] However, both the Smithsonian Institution^[5] and the National Geographic Society have issued statements that they have seen no evidence to support these claims in the Book of Mormon and no non-Mormon archaeologist or historian has supported their existence.

Archaeology

Main article: Archaeology and the Book of Mormon

The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), part of Brigham Young University, has performed extensive archaeological research in this area, and publications on this subject and other historical topics are issued regularly by the FARMS organization.^[6] This research is disputed by many researchers, including Michael Coe, a scholar in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican history, as well as the Smithsonian Institution and others.

In 1973, Michael Coe addressed the issue in an article for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought stating:

Mormon archaeologists over the years have almost unanimously accepted the Book of Mormon as an accurate, historical account of the New World peoples... Let me now state uncategorically that as far as I know there is not one professionally trained archaeologist, who is not a Mormon, who sees any scientific justification for believing the foregoing to be true, and I would like to state that there are quite a few Mormon archaeologists who join this group...

The bare facts of the matter are that nothing, absolutely nothing, has even shown up in any New World excavation which would suggest to a dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon, as claimed by Joseph Smith, is a historical document relating to the history of early migrants to our hemisphere.^[7]

— Michael Coe, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought

In 1996, the Smithsonian Institution issued a statement addressing claims made in the Book of Mormon, stating that the text is primarily a religious text and that archeologists affiliated with the Institution found "no direct connection between the archeology of the New World and the subject matter of the book". The statement further says that there is genetic evidence that the Native American Indians are closely related to peoples of Asia, and that archaeological evidence indicates that the Native Americans migrated from Asia over a land bridge over the Bering Strait in prehistoric times. The statement said that there was no credible evidence of contact between Ancient Egyptian or Hebrew peoples and the New World, as indicated by the text of the Book of Mormon. The statement was issued in response to reports that the name of the Smithsonian Institution was being improperly used to lend credibility to the claims of those looking to support the events of the Book of Mormon.^[8]

Book of Mormon narrative

It is accepted as historical fact by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) that the Nephites existed, although archaeologists and historians say there is no external evidence to corroborate the account given of Nephite history in the Book of Mormon.

History

Three main epochs in the Nephite history are described in the Book of Mormon, separated by two periods where Nephite society experienced particularly significant changes. The greatest amount of information about Nephite society comes from the middle epoch, from about 150 BC to 200 AD (recorded in the books of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, 3 Nephi, and 4 Nephi).

The first major change occurred c. 150–91 BC, during the reigns of Mosiah I, Benjamin, and Mosiah II. The entire populace moved northward, the Nephite and Mulekite societies merged, the government form changed, and traditional laws were codified.

The second major change was c. 200 AD, after the Zion-like society began to crumble.^{[clarification needed]} The Nephite and Lamanite societies had integrated for two centuries, only to separate again.

Kings

From the time the Nephites arrived in America to the reign of Mosiah II (c. 592–91 BC), the Nephites were ruled by kings. Nephi's brother Jacob explains that subsequent kings bore the title "Nephi."

The people having loved Nephi exceedingly … were desirous to retain in remembrance his name. And whoso should reign in his stead were called by the people second Nephi, third Nephi, and so forth, according to the reigns of the kings; and thus they were called by the people, let them be of whatever name they would.

— Jacob 1:10–11

This is comparable to the Roman practice of giving each emperor the title "Caesar" in honor of Julius Caesar (e.g., Augustus Caesar, Claudius Caesar). Thus, just as the later history of the Romans is sometimes called "the reign of the Caesars," the early history of the Nephites could be called "the reign of the Nephis."

Judges

The last Nephite king was Mosiah II. About 91 BC, he declared that, instead of naming a new king, he would finish out his reign as king, after which the Nephites would elect judges to govern them. There were at least three levels of judges: one chief judge, several higher judges, and several lower judges. (Some passages speak of multiple "chief judges," probably synonymous with "higher judges"; e.g., Alma 62:47; 3 Nephi 6:21)

Judges were paid according to the amount of time they spent officiating. Mosiah II set the rate at one senine of gold (or the equivalent senum of silver) for one day's work (Alma 11:1, 3). He also arranged for checks in this system to avert corruption as much as possible. He explained:

And now if ye have judges, and they do not judge you according to the law which has been given, ye can cause that they may be judged of a higher judge.

If your higher judges do not judge righteous judgments, ye shall cause that a small number of your lower judges should be gathered together, and they shall judge your higher judges, according to the voice of the people.

— Mosiah 29:28-29

After announcing the governmental shift from kings to judges, Mosiah explained the principle behind this change:

The sins of many people have been caused by the iniquities of their kings…

Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.

— Mosiah 29:31, 26

The system of judges lasted for 120 years, when it was briefly overthrown for about three years (c. 30–33 AD) by an aristocratic cadre led by a man named Jacob. It was replaced by a loose system of tribes and kinships, which lasted until Jesus appeared in America and established a society that approached the ideals of Zion. This society last for about two centuries before the people fell into wickedness again.

After Fourth Nephi, no mention is made of whether the Nephites used judges or kings. Mormon mentions that "the Lamanites had a king" (Mormon 2:9). His inclusion of this detail, phrased as it is, could be seen as a contrast to the Nephites having a chief judge. Coupled with the fact that no change in government form is specifically mentioned after Fourth Nephi, it could be assumed that the Nephites continued to use judges until their destruction in c. AD 385.

Law

The record in the Book of Mormon is scant, but it appears that for the first couple of centuries little distinction was made between religious and civil laws. The law of Moses covered all aspects of life, both temporal and spiritual. There was no need to distinguish between religious and civil law since everyone practiced the same religion. Mosiah II seemed to refer to the civil aspect of this legal system when he refers to "the law which has been given to us by our fathers" (Mosiah 29:15, 25).

This changed when the Nephites migrated north from the land of Nephi into the land of Zarahemla. They assimilated the Mulekite society, which appears to have raised several new issues that had never been encountered before. One of which was the question of what to do when someone commits an act considered a violation by the majority but considered permissible by the individual. The answer was not to leave judgment in each individual's hands, for that would lead to anarchy. Yet the law of Moses couldn't be applied generally when many members of the new Nephite-Mulekite nation were not adherents of the Nephite religion.

Mosiah II resolved the problem by apparently establishing a distinction between civil crimes and religious crimes when Alma brought several church members to him to be judged.

And he [Alma] said unto the king: Behold, here are many whom we have brought before thee, who are accused of their brethren; yea, and they have been taken in divers iniquities. And they do not repent of their iniquities; therefore we have brought them before thee, that thou mayest judge them according to their crimes.

But king Mosiah said unto Alma: Behold, I judge them not; therefore I deliver them into thy hands to be judged.

— (Mosiah 26:11–12)

Mosiah allowed Alma to decide the consequences of religious infractions. Alma received a revelation that "whosoever will not repent of his sins the same shall not be numbered among my people" (Mosiah 26:32). As high priest of the Church of Christ, he could exercise this power to excommunicate unpenitent members of the Church.

Only judges could apply consequences for civil infractions. Defining exactly what constituted a civil crime (versus a religious crime) was apparently decided by Mosiah and submitted for acceptance by the vote of the people. This process is alluded to at the beginning of the book of Alma.

Mosiah … had established laws, and they were acknowledged by the people; therefore they were obliged to abide by the laws which he had made.

— (Alma 1:1; see also 1:14)

The laws that Mosiah established were so significant in their impact that sixty years later, instead of referring to "the laws which have been given you by our fathers" (Mosiah 29:25), people referred to "the laws of Mosiah, or that which the Lord commanded him to give unto the people" (Hel. 4:22).

Civil law

Civil Crimes
Prohibition	Reference
Murder	Alma 1:14, 18; 30:10
Stealing	Alma 1:18; 30:10
Robbing	Alma 1:18; 30:10
Lying	Alma 1:17
Slavery	Alma 27:9; cf. Mosiah 2:13
Adultery	Alma 30:10. See also Hel. 7:5
Religious persecution	Mosiah 27:2–3
Paid clergy	Mosiah 27:5; Alma 1:12

Robbing may be distinguished from stealing in that robbing is a violent crime, stealing from a person under threat of harm, rather than stealing unattended property. The nature of the prohibition against lying is difficult to nail down, but it may be akin to perjury. It is interesting that adultery was not just a religious crime, but a punishable civil offense. The Nephites clearly saw a relationship between unchastity and temporal social breakdown. It is also interesting to note that the prohibition against priestcraft apparently applied not just to Christians but to society at large, for this was one of the crimes Nehor was punished for (Alma 1:12), and Mosiah's proclamation against paid priests was given in the context of "unbelievers," "all the churches," and "every man" (Mosiah 27:1–3).

Religious law

Actions that were contrary to the laws of the Church of Christ but apparently not illegal are also mentioned.

Religious Crimes
Prohibition	Reference
Idolatry	Alma 1:32
Sorcery	Alma 1:32
Babbling	Alma 1:32
Preaching against Christ	Alma 30:12

The exact nature of some crimes is unknown, such as "babbling." The legal toleration of idolatry may indicate how thoroughly ingrained the practice was in local cultures, including the Mulekites. It also implies that this New World idolatry was not identical to the Old World idolatry mentioned in the books of Moses. In Canaan, idolatry was virtually inseparable from fornication and thus merited the Lord's command to His people to purge the region. In America, idolatry was apparently separate enough from adultery that the former was considered legal and tolerable, while the latter was not.

In Alma 1:32, Alma lists the vices of unbelievers. He does not distinguish between civil crimes and religious crimes, since to him they are all sins. However, it is notable that his list begins with religious crimes and ends with civil crimes. He explains that, although as chief judge he could not punish unbelievers for religious crimes, "the law was put in force upon all those who did transgress it, inasmuch as it was possible."

For those who did not belong to their church did indulge themselves in sorceries, and in idolatry or idleness, and in babblings, and in envyings and strife; wearing costly apparel; being lifted up in the pride of their own eyes [religious crimes]; persecuting, lying, thieving, robbing, committing whoredoms, and murdering, and all manner of wickedness [civil crimes]... (Alma 1:32)

An illustration of the distinction made between civil and religious crimes occurs in Alma 30. As long as Korihor preached against beliefs like the coming of Christ, "the law could have no hold upon him" (Alma 30:12). But he was apparently arrested once his actions crossed the line into instigating others to commit civil crimes (Alma 1:18) —in this case, adultery.

Measurement

In Alma 11, Mormon lists "the names of the different pieces of their gold, and of their silver" and their relative value (Alma 11:4). It is unclear what kind of system "reckoning" and "measure" refer to, although most Book of Mormon scholars^[who?] now believe they were weights, not coins. Mormon explains that

the names are given by the Nephites, for they did not reckon after the manner of the Jews who were at Jerusalem; neither did they measure after the manner of the Jews; but they altered their reckoning and their measure, according to the minds and the circumstances of the people, in every generation.

— (Alma 11:4)

Mormon then explains that this fluctuating system was replaced with a standard system established by Mosiah II. Such a uniformity of measuring systems would have done much to unify the newly formed society, streamline the calculation of exchange rates in long-distance trade, and increase trade revenue.

Gold units	Silver units	Relative value (in measures of barley)	Equivalent
limnah	onti	7
shum	ezrom	4
seon	amnor	2
antion		1½
senine	senum	1	a measure of barley; one day's wage for a judge
	shiblon	½	half a measure of barley
	shiblum	¼
	leah	⅛

One of the apparent purposes of this system was economy of use. A set of weights that contained one of each unit could be used to measure out increments of up to 14 units without needing two of the same weight. Thus, a Nephite merchant could use his small personal set of weights for a range of products being sold instead of relying on a large quantity of weights.^[9]

Metals in the Book of Mormon (particularly in Alma chapter 11) are used to describe a weight measurement system as follows:

Gold

Senine (/ˈsiː.naɪn/^[10]) = ½ seon [sean] = barley measure = any grain measure = judge's wages for a day^[11]
Antion (/ˈæn.tiː.ɑːn/^[12]) = 3 shiblon^[13] = 1½ senine
Seon [sean]^[14] = 2 senine = ½ shum^[15]
Shum (/ʃʌm/^[16]) = 2 seon [sean]^[17]
Limnah = (/ˈlɪm.nɑː/^[18]) 'the value of them all'^[19]

Silver

Senum (/ˈsiː.nʌm/^[20]) = senine = barley measure = any grain measure^[21]
Amnor (/ˈæm.nɔːr/^[22]) = 2 senums^[23]
Ezrom [ezrum] (/ˈɛz.rʌm/^[24]) ^[25] = 4 senums^[26]
Onti (/ˈɑːn.taɪ/^[27]) ^[28] = 'as great as them all'^[29]
- Zeezrom offered six onties to Amulek if the latter would reject his belief in God.^[30]

Unknown

Shiblon = ½ senum = ½ barley measure = 2 shiblum [shilum] = ⅓ antion^[31]
Shiblum [shilum]^[32] = 2 leah = ½ shiblon^[33]
Leah = ½ shiblum [shilum] = ¼ shiblon = ⅛ senum/senine

References

LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «nē´fīt»

Book of Mormon: Helaman 4:25.

Mormon 6, Ibid.

John E. Clark (2004). "Searching for Book of Mormon Lands in Middle America". FARMS Review (Maxwell Institute) 16 (2): 1–54. Retrieved Oct 20, 2011.

Terryl L. Givens, By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 132.

Laura F. Willes. "LDS SCRIPTURE RESEARCH". Center for Book of Mormon Studies, Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University.

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1973, pp. 41, 42 & 46

Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution. "Statement Regarding the Book of Mormon". 1996. Letter posted online by the Institute for Religious Research.

Jack Welch, "Weighing and Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon," FARMS, 1999. p. 36–46

LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «sē´nīn»

Alma 11:3, 7-8

LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «ăn´tē-än»

Alma 11:19

At Alma 11:5,8-9, the Printer's MS has sean, corrected in MS to seon in vs 9, and set thus in all three verses by the 1830 edition compositor, per Royal Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon (Provo: FARMS, 2004-2009), 3:1806, 6:3579

Alma 11:8-9

LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «shum»

Alma 11:9

LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «lĭm´nä»

Alma 11:10

LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «sē´num»

Alma 11:7

LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «ăm´nōr»

Alma 11:11

LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «ĕz´rum»

At Alma 11:6,12, the Printer's MS has ezrum, erroneously set as ezrom by the 1830 edition compositor, per Royal Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon (Provo: FARMS, 2004-2009), 3:1806-7, 6:3637

Alma 11:12

LDS.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «än´tī»

At Alma 11:6,13,22,25, the Printer's MS has anti thrice, but the first as onhi, all four corrected in MS to onti which was followed by the 1830 edition compositor, per Royal Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon (Provo: FARMS, 2004-2009), 3:1807-8, 4:2094, 6:3579

Alma 11:13

Alma 11:22

Alma 11:15,16,19

At Alma 11:16-17, the Original and Printer's MSS have shilum, erroneously set as shiblum by the 1830 edition compositor, per Royal Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon (Provo: FARMS, 2004-2009), 3:1810-11

Alma 11:16-17

External links

How Many Nephites?: The Book of Mormon at the Bar of Demography by James E. Smith

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephite

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is the consistent LDS Church Doctrine regarding the ancestral origins of American Indians?

The Lord declares it in the Doctrine and Covenants scriptures:

D&C 3:18-20 --

18 And this testimony (The Book of Mormon] shall come to the knowledge of the Lamanites, and the Lemuelites, and the Ishmaelites, who dwindled in unbelief because of the iniquity of their fathers, whom the Lord has suffered to destroy their brethren the Nephites, because of their iniquities and their abominations.

19 And for this very purpose are these plates preserved, which contain these records—that the promises of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to his people;

20 And that the Lamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers, and that they might know the promises of the Lord, and that they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ, and be glorified through faith in his name, and that through their repentance they might be saved. Amen

Official LDS Church Proclamation

"We also bear testimony that the "Indians" (so called) of North and South America are a remnant of the tribes of Israel; as is now made manifest by the discovery and revelation of their ancient oracles and records."
- OFFICIAL CHURCH PROCLAMATION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST, OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. April 6, 1845

For the record, the LDS Church has consistently and emphatically declared that Lamanites exist today, and who they are:

The Doctrine and Covenants

D&C 28: 8
And now, behold, I say unto you that you shall go unto the Lamanites and preach my gospel unto them; and inasmuch as they receive thy teachings thou shalt cause my church to be established among them; and thou shalt have revelations, but write them not by way of commandment.

D&C 28: 9
And now, behold, I say unto you that it is not revealed, and no man knoweth where the city Zion shall be built, but it shall be given hereafter. Behold, I say unto you that it shall be on the borders by the Lamanites.

D&C 28: 14
And thou shalt assist to settle all these things, according to the covenants of the church, before thou shalt take thy journey among the Lamanites.

D&C 30: 6
And be you afflicted in all his afflictions, ever lifting up your heart unto me in prayer and faith, for his and your deliverance; for I have given unto him power to build up my church among the Lamanites;

D&C 32: 2
And that which I have appointed unto him is that he shall go with my servants, Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer, Jun., into the wilderness among the Lamanites.

D&C 49: 24
But before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose.

D&C 54: 8
And thus you shall take your journey into the regions westward, unto the land of Missouri, unto the borders of the Lamanites.

How could the Lord's servants go among the Lamanites if the Lamanites were gone? How could they establish a church of nonexistent people? How could the Lamanites blossom as a rose if they had already died off?

D&C 10:45,48 "Behold, there are many things engraven upon the plates of Nephi which do throw greater views upon my gospel; therefore, it is wisdom in me that you should translate this first part of the engravings of Nephi, and send forth in this work. Yea, and this was their faith—that my gospel, which I gave unto them that they might preach in their days, might come unto their brethren the Lamanites, and also all that had become Lamanites because of their dissensions.

D&C 19:26-27 "The Book of Mormon, which contains the truth and the word of God - which is my word to the Gentile, that soon it may go to the Jew, of whom the Lamanites are a remnant, that they may believe the gospel, and look not for a Messiah to come who has already come.

D&C 57:Heading, Verse 4 "Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, in Zion, Jackson County, Missouri, July 20, 1831. HC 1: 189–190. In compliance with the Lord’s command (Section 52), the elders had journeyed from Kirtland to Missouri with many varied experiences and some opposition. In contemplating the state of the Lamanites and the lack of civilization, refinement, and religion among the people generally, the Prophet exclaimed in yearning prayer: “When will the wilderness blossom as the rose? When will Zion be built up in her glory, and where will thy Temple stand, unto which all nations shall come in the last days?” To which the the Lord answers the Prophet by telling him to buy up the land "between Jew (Lamanite) and Gentile."

D&C 109: Heading, Verses 65-66. The Lord identifies Native-Americans as "the remnants of Jacob"

The Lord's Messenger to Joseph Smith

"The Angel called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do."

"He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent (America), and the source from whence they sprang."
- PoGP, Joseph Smith History, 1:33-34

The Angel Moroni testified to Joseph Smith that the Book of Mormon gave "an account of THE former inhabitants of this continent" Not "some of" or "many of" but "the former inhabitants."

The Book of Mormon

mormon-gold-plates 2 Nephi 29: 3-4
"For after the book of which I have spoken shall come forth...there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of our seed. And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out of Jerusalem, and that they are the descendants of the Jews."

The preface to the Book of Mormon also announces the book as "written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the House of Israel." Moroni closes the book of Mormon to his descendants, the Native-americans when he makes a great promise about coming to know it is true "by the power of the Holy Ghost" (Moro. 10:4), a promise which he addressed not to the gentiles but "unto my brethren, the Lamanites."

If the Lamanites wouldn't survive until the coming forth of the Book of Mormon - as Moroni should have known, since he was a righteous prophet -- then why address his remarks to them?

Throughout the Book of Mormon scriptures, it promises to reach the descendants of the Lamanites.

It says the Book of Mormon would speak to Native-Americans, to Jews, to gentiles, and to the world.
It would inform the Native-Americans of God's promises (D&C 3:20) and covenants with their ancestors, the Lamanites, that they were members of the House of Israel (Morm. 7:1-2).
It would convince the Native-Americans of the error of their forbearers' traditions and iniquity (Alma 37:8-9; Mosiah 28:1-2).
If Native-Americans were to learn how their Nephite-Lamanite ancestors slaughtered each other until only Lamanites were left, they might believe the gospel that LDS missionaries would bring them (Morm. 5:9, 11, 14).
The Book of Mormon would convince the Native-Americans that the message of the Bible is true; and when they believed the biblical message, they also would accept the Book of Mormon (1 Ne. 13:39).
When the Native-Americans accepted the new scriptures, they would come to a knowledge of God and the redemption of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon would lead them to end their hatred of others, to befriend each other, and to stop their contentions (Alma 26:9).
Their faith in Jesus and restored covenant with God would bring peace and thus fulfill God's promises to Israel. In return the Indians would become a "delightsome people" (W of M 8).

Jesus Christ also spends six chapters of 3 Nephi prophesying to the Lamanites of our day and their central role in the final preparation for His next coming, when all their enemies "shall be cut off" (3 Ne. 20: 17) and they will inherit the gentiles' land, cities, and strength, "no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper" (22: 17) and "in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed" (20:27). Those references are not to the rebellious children of Laman or the wild and dark-skinned enemies of Mormon. Those references are to the diverse, multi-colored, and multi-talented North and South American Indians and Polynesians of today, in and out of the Church. Those peoples have a great mission still to perform beyond what they have already achieved, and they have been promised the help, however uncomprehending or weak, of all of us who will respond to the spirit of Lehi.

The Book of Mormon also speaks about the future of Native-Americans.

As an expression of God's wrath, they would be scattered and smitten by gentiles (1 Ne. 12:14).
God would take away their land (2 Ne. 1:11) and cause them to be afflicted, slain, cast out, hated—to become a "hiss and a by-word" (3 Ne. 16:9).
But they would survive (2 Ne. 3:3; Alma 9:16), and their fortunes would change for the better when they discovered their Israelite origins, learned of the restored gospel and how to be saved (1 Ne. 15:14).
They would know that this knowledge comes from God, would rejoice (2 Ne. 30:6), and would come into the "true fold of God" (1 Ne. 15:15).
They would be nourished by gentiles (22:8) who would share the records of the Jews and the Book of Mormon with them (2 Ne. 29:13).
In future generations the Lamanites would become a "white and delightsome people" (30:6).
Together gentiles and Native-Americans would build the New Jerusalem (3 Ne. 20:22; 21:22-23).

mormon-book The Book of Mormon also makes it clear that the Lord reserved the New World for the Book of Mormon Lamanites.

The Book of Mormon says the Jaredites came to the New world "where there never had man been" as well as making this promise:

"And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people. And he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fullness of his wrath should come upon them."

"And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off."

"For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God."
- Ether 2:7-11

Eventually, the Jaredites were all "swept off the land" because of their iniquity and God's everlasting decree.

Much later when the Book of Mormon Nephites and Lamanites arrived in the New world, it says the land had been "kept from all other nations."

2 Nephi 9-11

"We have obtained a land of promise, a land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord."

"And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance. Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and it shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves."

The Book of Mormon also explain how the Lamanites eventually spread to all parts of the Americas

"And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east."
- Helaman 3:8

The Consistent Testimonies of Joseph Smith

moromn-lamanites Preaching to Native-americans, the Prophet Joseph Smith declared: "The Great Spirit has given me a book, and told me that you will soon be blessed again. The Great Spirit will soon talk with you and your children. This is the book which your fathers made. I wrote upon it (showing them the BoM). This tells you what you have to do. Do not kill white men; it is not good; but ask the Great Spirit for what you want, and it will not be long before the Great Spirit will bless you, and you will cultivate the earth and build good houses like white men."
The Prophet Joseph Smith, Official Church History, Vol 5, p. 381

"The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western Tribes of Indians... By it we learn that our western tribes of Indians are descendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt…".
- The Prophet Joseph Smith, Letter to Rochester, New York, newspaper editor N. C. Saxton, January 4, 1833.

"In this important and interesting book, the history of America is unfolded, from its first settlement by a colony that came from the Tower of Babel, at the confusion of languages to the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era. We are informed by these records that America in ancient times has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first were called Jaredites and came directly from the Tower of Babel. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ. They were principally Israelites, of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the country. The principal nation of the second race fell in battle towards the close of the fourth century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country."
- The Prophet Joseph Smith, Official Church Publication Times and Seasons, (March 1, 1842) III:707.

To be clear what the word “remnant” meant to the Prophet Joseph Smith, used in the Book of Mormon quote above:

“The 'remnant' of Book of Mormon peoples are the Indians that now inhabit this country (The United States)”
- Encyclopedia of Joseph Smith's Teachings, Mormon Church, Deseret Book, p. 336

In June 1834, the Prophet Joseph Smith recounted the discovery of the skeleton of 'Zelph, the white Lamanite' in a mound in Illinois, referring to "the mounds which had been thrown up by the ancient inhabitants of this country - Nephites, Lamanites, etc., subsequently the visions of the past being opened to my understanding by the Spirit of the Almighty, I discovered that the person whose skeleton was before us was a white Lamanite, a large thick-set man, and a man of God. His name was Zelph. He was a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Onandagus, who was known from the Hill Cumorah, or eastern sea to the Rocky mountains. .. He was killed in battle by the arrow found among his ribs, during the last struggle of the Lamanites and Nephites."
- Documentary History of the Church, II:79-80; Manuscript History of the Church, Book A-1:482-83, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City.)

"Must we, because we believe in the Book of Mormon as the history of the aborigines of this continent, must we be expelled from the institutions of our country?"
- The Prophet Joseph Smith, Letter to the Freemen of the State of Vermont, the "Brave Green Mountain Boys", and Honest Men . . .December, 1843

Other Official LDS Church Sources

mormon-doctrine "The Lamanites Will Become a Great People - The Lord said that when his coming was near, the Lamanites would become a righteous and respected people. He said, 'Before the great day of the Lord shall come, . . . the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose' (D&C 49:24). Great numbers of Lamanites in North and South America and the South Pacific are now receiving the blessings of the gospel."
- Current Official Church Instruction Handbook, Gospel Principles, page 265

"There are more than 60 million people of Lamanite extraction. It is no accident that the Church now prospers among them in Mexico, Central and South America, in the islands of the sea, and among the Indian tribes of North America."
- Apostle Boyd K. Packer, Church Ensign, Mar 1974, page 3

indian-tribes "In contrast to the relatively few in North America who could claim Lamanite lineage (1.3 million), Packer pointed to the many millions in Mexico, Yucatan, Guatemala, and throughout South America: 'In all . .. . there are seventy-five million six hundred thousand who share in your [Native American Lamanite] birthright, of whom thirty million nine hundred ninety thousand are pure Indians.'"
- Apostle Boyd K. Packer, Indian Week Conference at BYU, cited by Armand L. Mauss, All Abraham’s Children, p. 96

"Archaeologists have confirmed the existence of a great pre-Aztec civilization on the American continent. The Book of Mormon is a record of this civilization, beginning some 600 years before Christ when a man named Lehi left Jerusalem and came by boat to the Americas. The book was preserved by these ancient people on sheets of gold. Lehi’s son Nephi was a great prophet who foresaw much of this new land’s future. He foresaw a time after Christ’s resurrection when the Son of God would appear in America."
- Apostle L. Tom Perry, “God’s Hand in the Founding of America,” New Era, Jul 1976, 45

“Moses too made promises to the tribe of Joseph, whose land, America, was to be precious for the things of heaven and of earth, and who would “push the people together to the ends of the earth.” (See Deut. 33:13-17.) These are just some of the biblical prophecies, and we have the Book of Mormon record which tells of the Jaredites who were the first to come to America. They came at the time of the confusion of languages during the building of the tower of Babel”
- ApostleN. Eldon Tanner, “If They Will But Serve the God of the Land,” General Conference, also LDS Church Ensign, May 1976, p.48.

"These natives belong to the house of Israel.... The Lord has taken from this race any disposition for improvement even to this day; the best of them consider it a disgrace to work. Whatever drudgery is performed is done by their squaws, or by slaves captured from neighboring, tribes or bands. Ask any of them to work; the reply is, "me big Indian, me no work."... It is prophesied by Nephi as follows: "For after the book [Book of Mormon] of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of our seed [the present American Indians.] And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews."
- The Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses Vol. 10, p.359

mormon-baptism "The work of the Lord among the Lamanites must not be postponed, if we desire to retain the approval of God. Thus far we have been content simply to baptize them and let them run wild again, but this must continue no longer; the same devoted effort, the same care in instructing, the same organization of priesthood must be introduced and maintained among the house of Lehi as amongst those of Israel gathered from gentile nations. As yet, God has been doing all, and we comparatively nothing. He has led many of them to us, and they have been baptized, and now we must instruct them further, and organize them into churches with proper presidencies, attach them to our stakes, organizations, etc. In one word, treat them exactly, in these respects, as we would and do treat our white brethren.
- The Prophet John Taylor, Official Church Publication, Mellennial Star 44:33; Oct 18, 1882.

"I am satisfied that although we have done a little for the Lamanites, we have got to do a great deal more. I sealed the first Lamanite-ish man and woman together that ever were sealed in this dispensation. It was in the Endowment House, and quite a number of brethren and sisters were present. The man's name was Laman. The day will come when these Lamanites, with the dark skin that rests upon them, will enter into these Temples of the Lord in these mountains and do a great deal of work. They will come to an understanding of the redemption of the dead. They will have wisdom given unto them. They will have light and truth given unto them, and the spirit of their forefathers will be manifest unto them. I am thankful that I am able to see these Lamanites here. The Prophet of God saw what would come to pass, and he told the truth.
- The Prophet Wilford Woodruff, St. George Conference, June 12th and 13th, 1892.

"We believe that the existing Indian tribes are all direct descendants of Lehi and his company, and that therefore they have sprung from men all of whom were of the house of Israel."
- Apostle James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, p.293

"Within recent years there has arisen among certain students of the Book of Mormon a theory to the effect that within the period covered by the Book of Mormon, the Nephites and Lamanites were confined almost within the borders of the territory comprising Central America and the southern portion of Mexico; the Isthmus of Tehuantepec probably being the "narrow neck" of land spoken of in the Book of Mormon rather than the Isthmus of Panama...This modernistic theory of necessity, in order to be consistent, must place the waters of Ripliancum and the Hill Cumorah some place within the restricted territory of Central America, notwithstanding the teachings of the Church to the contrary for upwards of 100 years... In the light of revelation it is absurd for anyone to maintain that the Nephites and Lamanites did not possess this northern land... In the face of this evidence coming from the Prophet Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, we cannot say that the Nephites and Lamanites did not possess the territory of the United States and that the Hill Cumorah is in Central America."
- Apostle and Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, Church News, Feb. 27, 1954, pp. 2-3

mormon-lamanites "I saw a striking contrast in the progress of the Indian people today.... The day of the Lamanites is nigh. For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised. In this picture of the twenty Lamanite missionaries, fifteen of the twenty were as light as Anglos, five were darker but equally delightsome The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation. At one meeting a father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter were present, the little member girl--sixteen--sitting between the dark father and mother, and it was evident she was several shades lighter than her parents--on the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather....These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness."
- Apostle and Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, General Conference Address, Spring 1960

"When Columbus discovered America, the native inhabitants, the American Indians as they were soon to be designated, were a people of mixed blood and origin. Chiefly, they were Lamanites, but such remnants of the Nephite nation as had not been destroyed had, of course, mingled with the Lamanites. Thus the Indians were Jews by nationality.... [since then] there has been [a]... dilution of the pure Lamanitish blood. ... But with it all, the great majority are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, the dominant blood lineage is that of Israel. The Indians are repeatedly called Lamanites in the revelations to.... become again a white and delightsome people as were their ancestors a great many generations ago."
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd Ed., 1966, pp. 32-33.

"... that the Book of Mormon is about the only historical document we have at the present time of this great western world? ... . It tells, briefly, it is true, a story that at once could be accepted by scientists, philologists and all other men who would investigate it. Every year brings to our knowledge something that corroborates that book as a true historical document"
- Apostle Andrew Jensen Conference Report, October 1907, p.96

"Here (holding the Book of Mormon in his hand) we present a record of this American continent, a history of a branch of the tribe of Joseph, for nearly 600 years before Christ, and until 420 years after Christ, a history of the Lord's dealings with them from the time they left Jerusalem until one of their principal nations fell in battle, because of their apostasy; and the descendants of the remaining remnant are this degenerated people we call Indians, who still exist. .... which afterwards became a "multitude of nations," according to the blessing pronounced by the ancient patriarch Jacob, when [p.174] blessing his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh."
- Apostle Orson Pratt Journal of Discourses Vol. 19, p.173

"We can pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus, to convert these Indian tribes around us ... that they shall be instructed not only in relation to their fathers and the Gospel contained in the record of their fathers... because they are of the blood of Israel"
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses Vol. 17, p.301, (1875)

"... the blood of Manasseh is found in the tribes and nations of the Indians of North and South America."
- Apostle Hyrum G. Smith, Conf report April 1929, p 123

"And we have scarcely touched the Indian races. There is an immense field spreading out before the Elders of this Church in the redemption of these poor remnants of the house of Israel. ... But here stretches out before us this immense continent on the south, peopled with descendants of the house of Israel"
- Apostle George Q Cannon, Collected Discourses Vol. 5, p.269

"... to serve and to teach hundreds of the children of Father Lehi. One expression of appreciation from an Indian boy included these moving words: "Before I took LDS seminary I didn't have very much to live for. ... I had always felt that Indians could not do things as well as white people. Now I know that I am a child of God. I know that my people are of the house of Israel. ... "
- Apostle Neal A. Maxwell Conference Report, October 1970, p.93

"I have had the privilege of laboring among the true blood of Israel, through the loins of Joseph, through the two branches of the House of Israel--Ephraim and Manasseh -- a people whom the Lord loves -- a people whom the Lord chastens and forgives because of their great faith."
- Apostle E. Wesley Smith Conference Report, October 1950, p.47

"Here he [God] has the Indian or Lamanite, with a background of twenty-five centuries of superstition, degradation, idolatry, and indolence.... I present to you a people who, according to prophecies, have been scattered and driven, defrauded and deprived, who are a "branch of the tree of Israel -- lost from its body -- wanderers in a strange land"--their own land.... I beg of you, do not disparage the Lamanite-Nephites ... Do not scoff and ignore these Nephite-Lamanites... Do not prate your power of speech or your fearlessness unless you too could stand with the Prophet Samuel on the city wall, dodging stones and spears and arrows while trying to preach the gospel of salvation. The very descendants of this great prophet are with us. They may be Navajos or Cherokees.... Mayas or Pimas.... Piutes or Mohicans.... And in these living descendants ... will be redeemed, will rise and will become a blessed people. God has said it."
- Apostle and Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, April 1954, p.106-108

"In a sense I do not feel sorry for the Indian people because they are children of promise, belonging as they do to the house of Israel and are the posterity of Abraham, the father of the faithful, through whose lineage the Lord promised that all nations of the earth are to be blessed; therefore, they are a chosen race and people unto God, possessing a divine and royal heritage."
- Apostle Delbert L. Stapley , Conference Report, April 1956, p.56

"I presume that a majority of the brethren and sisters who are here this afternoon have read in the Book of Mormon the statement made by one of the writers, quoting the words of our Savior, in regard to the city of New Jerusalem, that the Gentiles should be called to assist the Lamanites, or the seed of the house of Israel, in the erection and building of that city. ... I begin to see a little of the preparatory work that I think is going to fit and prepare the seed of Lehi, or the Lamanites, to perform this great and glorious work that has been predicted upon their heads. One of the ancient prophets predicted that kings and queens should be the nursing fathers and nursing mothers of the seed of Israel in the latter days; and I find that, in a sense, this is being fulfilled in the stake over which I preside. The government of the United States, which, I presume, may be classed with the kingdoms of the earth, is establishing schools, and there is one in our neighborhood that I desire to refer to briefly. It is upon the San Juan river, among the Navajo Indians, and is costing several hundreds of thousands of dollars."
- Apostle Walter C. Lyman , Conference Report, October 1907, p.86

"Guatemala is a country of about three million people. About half of them still dress in the Indian costume of a thousand or two thousand years back. They are wonderful people, very simple.... . I went... to present them with a Book of Mormon. I started to say, "I come to give you a copy of the Book of Mormon, a history of your people," and two chiefs immediately arose on their feet, and I started to say, "You are of the house of Israel," but before I could get it out of my mouth they jumped to their feet and said, "We are of the House of Israel."
- Apostle Gordon M. Romney, Conference Report, April 1957, p.80

"That is the destiny of our Indian tribes... the Lord has rewarded unto them double for all the sins that were committed by their ancient fathers in their apostasy, and when he has visited them in judgment according to the prophecies that are contained in this Book of Mormon, and the times of the Gentiles who noir occupy this land are fulfilled, then the Lord will make have his arm, and he will redeem these remnants of Israel, that they may inherit the blessings promised to their ancient fathers."
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses Vol. 16, p.353 (1874)

"Following the discovery of America, the Quiches vigorously opposed marrying Spanish conquistadors and members of successive groups of European colonists. They have held tenaciously to a traditional custom practiced by the ancient Israelites and brought to America by the Nephites who I believe were among their forebears. This custom was based on a belief that people of Israelite stock are God's chosen people and must keep their racial stock pure. While the Nephites were living the gospel of Jesus Christ during Book of Mormon days, this chosen people doctrine was a safeguard against their marrying Lamanites. After the last great war, the surviving Nephites, however, mixed with the Lamanites; but it seems that the chosen people doctrine survived and was handed down through their pagan posterity, the Quiche Mayas. It has resulted in this people maintaining themselves through successive generations as a more or less pureblood Indian race, perhaps maintaining themselves as direct descendants of Nephite-Lamanite peoples more purely than have any other tribe of the American Indians."
- Elder Milton R. Hunter, "Archaeology and the Book of Mormon," p.71

"Neither will He suffer that the Gentiles shall destroy the seed of thy brethren"—that is, the Lamanites proper. They were not to be permitted to destroy Nephi's seed that should be mingled among the Lamanites, nor should they be permitted to destroy the Lamanites—that is, the descendants of Laman and Lemuel. Nephi predicted this. To-day it is said that the Indians will perish, and that it is impossible to save them. Here is the word of God recorded in this sacred book. ... And strange to say—if anything can be said to be strange connected with the work of God—the descendants of those ancient covenant people of the Lord, have gladly received the testimony of the servants of God. Wherever we have gone and mingled with those people, with those Red Men, and been able to communicate to them the truths of which we are in possession, which God has revealed to us, ... and everywhere where those men with red skins dwell, they have gladly received the testimony of God's servants concerning the Gospel, and they rejoice in its fullness and in the knowledge that their fathers once possessed, and of the redemption that Jesus Christ has wrought out for them."
- Apostle George Q Cannon, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 25, p.124, (1884)

We must always remember, we only have the authentic record which furnishes the true origin of the American Indians, their history and God's work and gospel teachings among them. Great are the promises of the Lord unto the Indians, which spiritual blessings this people alone hold the keys, rights, and powers to grant and bestow upon them. In a sense I do not feel sorry for the Indian people because they are children of promise, belonging as they do to the house of Israel and are the posterity of Abraham, the father of the faithful, through whose lineage the Lord promised that all nations of the earth are to be blessed; therefore, they are a chosen race and people unto God, possessing a divine and royal heritage. However, I do feel sorry about the lack of privileges, denial of citizenship rights, and insufficient opportunities for schooling and culture which continue to shroud them in darkness and despair. Our apparent insufficient interest and somewhat unsatisfactory follow-up of the Prophet Joseph Smith's taking the Book of Mormon and the gospel to the Indian as well as partial failure to heed the counsel of all presidents of the Church in relation to this program, is an indictment against us and represents a challenge and an obligation we cannot afford longer to ignore.
- Elder Delbert L. Stapely, Conference Report, April 1956, p.56

And, in May 1844 a band of Sac and Fox Indians came and camped out in Nauvoo to see JS, complaining "they had been robbed of their lands by whites and cruelly treated." J.S.'s response was:
" I told them I knew they had been wronged, but that we had bought this land and paid our money for it. I advised them not to sell any more land, but to cultivate peace with the different tribes and with all men, as the Great Spirit wanted them to be united and to live in peace. 'The Great Spirit has enabled me to find a book [showing them the Book of Mormon], which told me about your fathers, and the Great Spirit told me, 'You must send to all the tribes you can, and tell them to live in peace;' and when any of our people come to see you, I want you to treat them as we treat you.'" (Vol 6, p. 401-402).

"Not until the revelations of Joseph Smith, bringing forth the Book of Mormon, did any one know of these migrants. It was not known before, but now the question is fully answered. Now the Lamanites number about sixty million; they are in all of the states of America from Tierra del Fuego all the way up to Point Barrows, and they are in nearly all the islands of the sea from Hawaii south to southern New Zealand. The Church is deeply interested in all Lamanites because of these revelations and because of this great Book of Mormon, their history that was written on plates of gold and deposited in the hill. The translation by the Prophet Joseph Smith revealed a running history for one thousand years-six hundred years before Christ until four hundred after Christ-a history of these great people who occupied this land for that thousand years. Then for the next fourteen hundred years, they lost much of their high culture. The descendants of this mighty people were called Indians by Columbus in 1492 when he found them here."
--Spencer W. Kimball, "Of Royal Blood," Ensign, July 1971, 7 (In the "Special Lamanite Section")

"This Angel appeared so pleasant, beautiful and glorious, and his countenance radiated such happiness on the mind of this young lad that all fear was taken from him as on the former occasion. This personage told him that he was an Angel of God, and that he had been sent, in answer to his prayer, with a very important message to deliver to him; that God designed to accomplish a great work on the earth, and that he was to be a chosen instrument in laying the foundation of, and establishing this work. He commenced telling him about the ancient inhabitants of this continent. He told him that the present American Indians were the descendants of Israel; that their forefathers were brought here from Jerusalem about six centuries before Christ; that when they came they were a righteous people and had Prophets among them; that when they landed on this continent they commenced, by the commandment of the Lord, keeping a record of their history, their prophecies and sacred doings upon metallic plates; that that nation, after having dwelt here about a thousand years, fell into great wickedness; that they divided themselves into two great nations; that the portion that had these plates, the Nephites, had so far apostatized from the Lord, that he threatened their overthrow, and to destroy them if they did not repent; that the Prophets went forth among them prophesying that if they did not repent, the other nation, called Lamanites, would destroy them from the face of the land.
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Sep 22, 1872

"The Lord had sent him as a messenger, in answer to his prayer, in order to impart unto him further information. And then he commenced telling him that this great American continent was once occupied by a numerous people, the descendants of the house of Israel, most of them the descendants of a remnant of the tribe of Joseph; that they carne here from Jerusalem by the direct guidance of the Almighty, some six centuries before Christ; that in a vessel, which they built by the command of God, they came round by the Gulf of Arabia, crossed the Great Pacific Ocean, and landed on the western coast of South America; that the descendants of these people had many Prophets among them, and that after they had been on this continent about a thousand years, during the progress of which they had become divided into two distinct nations, they fell into great wickedness, and that God threatened them with overthrow; the people of one of these nations were called Lamanites, from Laman, one of the colony which came out of Jerusalem; that the people of the other nation were called Nephites, taking their name from Nephi, the brother of Laman; that between three and four centuries after Christ these two nations occupied the two great wings of this continent, the Lamanites occupying South America, and the Nephites North America; but the Nephites, at that time, having apostatized [p.281] from the religion of their fathers, and many of them having become exceedingly wicked, the Lord threatened them with an overthrow. And he commanded one of the last Prophets, named Mormon, to make an abridgment of all the records of former Prophets who had been raised up on this land, an abridgment of the history of the nation from the time that they left Jerusalem until that time. He did so, and committed the abridged record, written on plates of gold, into the hands of another Prophet, his son Moroni. The original records, from which the abridgment was made, were hid up by Mormon in a hill called Cumorah, in the interior of what is now called the State of New York, but the abridgment was still in possession of the Prophet Moroni. About this time, or a little before this time, there had been a fifty years war between the inhabitants of North and South America; and finally the Lamanites of South America drove the Nephites from the Isthmus, and continued to burn their towns, cities and villages, and they destroyed hundreds and thousands of the Nephites; and ultimately they were driven into what we now call the State of New York. Three hundred and eighty years after the birth of Christ they entered into terms of peace, or, in other words, an armistice, for the space of four years, during which time the two nations gathered together all their forces into one vicinity, near the hill Cumorah. And when the four years of peace, or armistice, had expired, they came together in battle, in which the Nephites were overpowered, and hundreds of thousands of them killed, including women and children. Moroni, who was among the few Nephites who were spared, and in whose possession was the abridgment which had been made by his father, Mormon, was commanded to hide up that abridgment in the hill Cumorah, near the town of Manchester, Ontario County, State of New York."
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Sep 20, 1874

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White Buffalo Calf Woman sings: We Shall Live Again

White Buffalo Calf Woman, your Twin Deer Mother

Lakota mythology

Paiute Legends

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Nephite

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