The Dakota Indians are the tribes who are generally known by the name of
Sioux, a name given them by early French explorers.
Of the Dakota there are several—seven—grand divisions who are, by their
orators, sometimes spoken of as “SEVEN FIRES.”
These again were divided into a great number of smaller tribes or clans,
each having its little chief, who was simply the most influential
individual in the clan, which was composed chiefly of blood relations.
The chief, for generations, seems to have had but little authority except
that which he derived from the support of some medicine-man, who attached
himself to him, or from the fact that government officers and traders
transacted business with the clans through them.
The name Dakotah signifies much the same as confederacy. The word is
often used as the opposite of enemy.
These divisions and subdivisions of Indians are all embraced under the
comprehensive name DAKOTA, the name by which they call themselves. The
Assinnaboines are said to have belonged originally to the Dakota family.
A few years ago, these Dakota tribes occupied the country along the
Mississippi river, from about Prairie du Chien, to far above the Falls of
St. Anthony, the whole of the Minnesota valley, and the immense plains
extending westward to, and beyond the Missouri river.
The language of all these tribes is the same, with unimportant dialectic
differences, and seems to be entirely distinct from that of the tribes
around, except, perhaps, that of the Winnebago tribe.
Being one in language they are alike in their civil polity, if indeed
it can be said that they have any, alike in their religious belief and
practice, and alike in all their manners, allowing for the modifications
which have been produced by diversity of circumstances.
It is to the superstitions of these Dakotas that the following paper
relates.
In the first place it seems to be necessary to define the very
significant Dakota word _wakan_, for, in it is contained the quintessence
of their religion. It is an epitome of the whole, containing its pith and
marrow.
The word _wakan_, signifies anything which is incomprehensible. The more
incomprehensible the more wakan. The word is applied to anything, and
everything, that is strange or mysterious. The general name for the gods
in their dialect is this, _Taku-Wakan_, i. e., that which is wakan.
Whatever, therefore, is above the comprehension of a Dakota, is God.
Consequently, he sees gods everywhere. Not Jehovah every where, but
_Taku-Wakan_.
This is the starting point in their superstitions, but it is not with
ease that one can arrive at the other end of the subject. It runs out
like the division of matter, to divinity. To use an expression of one of
their own most intelligent men, “there is nothing that they do not revere
as God.” _Wakan_ is the one idea of divine essence. The chief, if not
the only difference that they recognize to exist, among all the tens of
thousands of their divinities, is the unessential one of a difference in
the degree of their wakan qualities, or in the purposes for which they
are wakan.
_We_ speak of the _medicine_-man, _medicine_-feast, _medicine_-dance, and
the great-_spirit_ of the Indian, while he speaks of _wakan_-man, the
_wakan_-feast, the _wakan_-dance, and the great-_wakan_.
Evidence is wanting to show that these people divide their _Taku-Wakan_
into classes of good or evil. They are all simply wakan. The Dakotas have
another word to represent spirit, or soul, or Jehovah, but the word wakan
is never used in that sense, though a spirit might be wakan.
Evidence is also wanting to show that the Dakotas embraced in their
religious tenets, the idea of one Supreme Existence, whose existence is
expressed by the term GREAT SPIRIT. If some of the clans, at the present
time, entertain this idea, it seems highly probable that it has been
imparted to them by individuals of European extraction. No reference to
such a being is to be found in their feasts, or fasts, or sacrifices. Or
if there is any such reference at the present time, it is clear that is
of recent origin and does not belong to their system. Individuals of them
may tell us that the worship of the great medicine-dance is paid to the
Great Spirit, but it is absolutely certain that it is not, as will be
seen as we proceed.
Mr. Carver tells us of a religious ceremony of a very singular
nature—very wakan—in which a person is carefully bound hand and foot and
mysteriously released by the gods—the performance of which he witnessed,
and which he said had reference to the GREAT SPIRIT. Doubtless it had
such reference in his opinion, but it will be shown in another place,
that in fact, it had not.
It is indeed true, that Dakotas do sometimes appeal to the Great Spirit
when in counsel with white men, but it is because they suppose him to be
the object of the white man’s worship, or because they themselves have
embraced the Christian doctrines. Still it is generally the _Interpreter_
who makes the appeal to the Great Spirit, when the speaker really
appealed to the _Taku_-wakan, and not to the wakan-_Tanku_.
Besides, the great struggle which at the present time exists between
the heathen and the Christian Dakotas, is freely _expressed_ to be a
strife, between the old system of worship rendered to the _Taku Wakan_,
and the new, which is rendered to the _Wanku Tanku_. The Christians are
universally distinguished from the pagans, as being worshippers of Wakan
Tanku, or as we speak, the Great Spirit.
One word more by way of introduction. It is true of all the Dakota gods,
or wakans, that they are male and female, are subject to the same laws of
propagation under which men and animals exist, and are mortal. They are
not thought of as being eternal, except it may be by succession.