We all start in this world like tiny seeds: we are not different from our relatives deer, bears, bison, trees, the forests and the winged people. Eagle Man.
In the native, indigenous We are all Related Family, one love, one family including the sun, mother Earth and all our Animal, plant, fungi and crystal kingdom. This is a little bit of history, vocabulary and old Lakota Wisdom.
Diving into it let's gather around a cosmic bonfire, really unveiling the depth & love of our oneness through a Lakota perspective.
The Lakota concept of creator implies both the masculine and the feminine. The masculine aspect is personified by wisdom, light and sky, in relation to the concepts of grandfather and father. By On the other hand, unshi or grandmother represents the feminine aspect of the creator, characterized in knowledge, birth and land (Black, 1990, p. 188). In Lakota thought, grandmother and mother come together; So how the masculine and the feminine are complementary in creation. In our Western culture, relatives are parents, children and brothers; In some cases, the husband or wife are added, grandparents and grandchildren; In a few cases, the uncles, nephews, cousins and some emotionally close people who They are connected by ties of blood or political relationship. In the west aging is seen poorly, including that of parents & grandparents, in our culture there are people who, due to age or circumstances of life, they have been left alone, without family, without relatives. For the Lakota, this situation is unacceptable. The grandparents of all preceding generations remain relatives.
All are relatives Mitakuye Oyasin
What's more, heaven is a relative, considered as a father; the earth, considered as mother, which is why each footprint must be a prayer dedicated to the Earth, because they are walking in a way sacred about one of their closest relatives.
Unlike Westerners, where the adult becomes old, Among the Lakota the adult, as time passes, becomes an old man from whose lips comes wisdom. In turn, that wisdom does not come from the same old man, but has been transmitted to him through of the stories that where told to him when he was a child, songs and stories passed on
in the oral tradition
that his grandparents told him.
"Of the old, the elders, I learned about the spirit warriors who control the air and the universe. They gave me the names for the stars, the Morning Star and Evening Star. They made the stars live. Is there greater power than that?” explains the elder King (Crow and Erdoes, 1990, p.22).
When the Lakota says Mitakuye Oyasin he is not only referring to human beings, but to all beings in the world. The world, for them, the world is not full of inanimate or inferior objects, nor much less resources for exploitation. For the Lakota all beings are our relatives, they are part of us. In fact, relatives closest are tunkashila (our grandfather), ate (our father), Wakan Tanka (the Great Spirit), unshi (our grandmother), ina (our mother), ina maka (the earth, Mother Earth), makpiya ate (the sky, the Father Sky) and tatuyetopa (the four powers of the universe). Our Western definition of kinship, compared beside with the Lakota concept, is supremely limited.
There is a sacred narrative by elder Pete Catches that allows us to appreciate the importance of knowing the ancient and sacred origins of the concept of kinship, and also the deep sense of commitment to our "family".
YouTube Elder Pete Catches
But, just as this narrative shows the depth of those kinship relationships, there are also some rituals that allow us to understand these factors.
“All are my relatives” "my kin" are phrases that are frequently uttered in rituals to remember people's kinship with everything they exists. This phrase is repeated, especially, in the well-known inipi rite, a purification rite in the sweat lodge.
***The Inípi, also known as a sweat lodge, is a purification ceremony and central part of Lakota religion that has been passed down through generations. The Lakota word Inípi means "to live again", and the ceremony is intended to help vision quest seekers achieve humility and spiritual rebirth. It can also be used to begin or end a ceremony, or stand alone as a ceremony on its own.***
During the ritual in the sweat lodge, the phrase honoring, we are all relatives & that we are related to all, repeats itself. It is repeated as the person walks in to enter through the small opening, circular entry, in an attitude of humility towards the sacred.
Its also repeated at the end of each of the four stages of the ceremony of purification, when the helper (who remains outside the ritual hut) opens the door, raising the skins (or blankets) that cover the opening for light to enter. Each stage of the ritual symbolizes a cosmic age, and the passage from darkness to light materializes with the expression Mitakuye Oyasin. Every cycle in the cosmos is fulfilled reaffirming the kinship with all beings and all things, and there is a renewal of being and the world. In this same rite, there is a stage in which all those present smoke together; the chanunpa is filled by invoking the powers of the four directions, to heaven and Earth, and in all actions he has concentrated in the ritual and sacred object to the entire cosmos and to Wakan Tanka.
All the participants sit together in a circle which also symbolizes the cosmos, and each one smokes in his turn. Then they say Mitakuye Oyasin, circulating the chanunpa, sacred pipe, until everyone has smoked.
*** Chanunpa (čhaŋnúŋpa, Chanupa, or Canupa) is the Lakota language name for the sacred, ceremonial pipe and the ceremony in which it is used. The pipe ceremony is one of the Seven Sacred Rites of the Lakota people.***
*** Seven basic sacred rites-purification
Inípi — Rite of Purification
Haŋbléčheyapi — Crying for a Vision
Wiwáŋyaŋg Wačhípi — Sundance
Huŋkálowaŋpi — Making of Relatives
Išnáthi Awíčhalowaŋpi — A Girl’s Coming of Age
Wanáǧi Yuhápi — Keeping of the Soul
Tȟápa Waŋkáyeyapi — Throwing of the Ball***
At the end of the sacred rite of purification, the officiant also says Mitakuye Oyasin to all. They share a kinship. One of the closest relatives is the chanunpa (the sacred pipe) According to oral traditions, the Sacred Pipe has been with the Lakota for nineteen generations; was granted to them by Pte Cincala Win or Pte Cincala Ska Wakan Winan, the Sacred White Bison Woman, and serves to communicate with Wakan Tanka. The chanunpa, which still exists and It is guarded in a very sacred site in Green Grass, Montana, it is guardian of the town. The importance is also found in prayers and songs, Prayer songs, by the repetition of the expression Mitakuye Oyasin. In the Lakota language, the word wocekiye is basically equivalent to “pray” or “pray.” However, it also means “to seek a connection with”, “to claim a relationship with” (Rosenberg, 1972). Of course, with the act of praying seeks contact with the sacred.
Let's look, as an example, at these verses that are part of a sentence: Mitakuye ob wani kte lo / eyaya hoyewaye lo. This can translate as “I will live with my relatives / Saying (this), I send a voice". The purpose of this song is to guarantee that ideal of living with all of my family members, the whole world- all of it.
Other verses of this prayer say Mitakuye oba ni kta ca lecamun we / eyaya Tunkashila cewakiye lo.
As a whole, We can translate these verses like this:
“I do this to be able to live with my relatives / saying this I am praying to Tunkashila.”
There is another short prayer song where the importance of the reiteration in the poetic, rhythmic and ritual structure of the wocekiye:
Wakan Tanka tokaheya cewakiye lo / Wakan Tanka tokaheya cewakiye lo /Mitakuye ob wani kta ca /Tokaheya cewakiye lo.
This song is can be translated as follows: “First I pray to Wakan Tanka / First I pray to Wakan Tanka / To (be able to) live with all my relatives / First I pray to Wakan Tanka.”
It is a sentence that is repeated incessantly during Lakota ceremonies, such as during the quest or imploring of a vision (hanbiecheyapi), and during the Sun Dance ceremony (Wiwanvag Wachipi).
Let's see now this other fragment:
Wakan Yanka / Unshimala ye / Oyate wani wachin cha.
Although this sentence does not explicitly include the word Mitakuye (with which relatives are named), we do find the oyate expression (“people”, “beings”).
Its translation could be “Wakan Tanka / Have mercy on me / so that my people may live.”
By way of that is asked not for oneself, but so that all the people can live.
That is, it is requested by and for all *relatives*. All of these sacred expressions of the Lakota reveal the place of human being in this broad context of kinship with all things.
Understanding the multiple dimensions of the Mitakuye expression Oyasin awakens in us not only deep admiration, but also the conviction of our true kinship with the world we live in.
Maybe it's not too late to recover or adapt in our communities the traditional values of the American natives.
The basis of this spiritual teaching is love, respect for others and oneself, humility and patience. Always there must be respect for our mother, the Earth, respect for Wakan Tanka, respect for human beings and all their relatives, and respect for freedom individual (as long as that freedom does not threaten the people or “The Tribe of Our Mother Earth” (Lame Deer, 1990, p. 19).
Lakota: Tunkashila / Hoye wayin kte / Namah› on yeyo / Maka sitomniyan / Hoye wayin kte / Namah ' on yeyo / Mitakuye ob / Wani kte lo / Epelo.
“Grandpa / I will send a voice / listen to me / over the entire universe / I will send a voice / listen to me / with my relatives / I will live / I have said/
Grandfather great spirit!
Lakota poetic wisdom for your practice, meditation or contemplation practice
Wakan Tanka,
Great Mystery (Great Spirit),
Teach me how to trust my heart,
Teach me how to trust my mind,
Teach me how to trust my intuition,
Teach me how to trust my inner knowing,
The senses of my body,
The blessings of my spirit.
Teach me to trust these things
so that I may enter my Sacred Space
and love beyond my fear
and thus Walk in Balance
with the passing of each glorious Sun.
Lakota Wisdom
Honor the sacred
Honor the Earth, our Mother
Honor the Elders
Honor all with whom we share the Earth
Four-leggeds
Two-leggeds
Winged ones
Swimmers
Crawlers
Plant and rock people
Walk in balance and beauty.
watch on YouTube
_________________________________take a breath
Ahhhhh
And Dive back in
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There are many stories of creation to share, here is another one rich in symbolism and numbers and teachings.
Lakota Souix Creation Story
There was a world before this world, but the people in it did not know how to behave themselves or how to act human. The Creating Power was not pleased with that earlier world. He said to himself: "I will make a new world." He had the pipe bag and the chief pipe, which he put on the pipe rack that he had made in the sacred manner. He took four dry buffalo chips, placed three of them under the three sticks, and saved the fourth one to light the pipe.
The Creating Power said to himself: "I will sing three songs, which will bring a heavy rain. Then I'll sing a fourth song and stamp four times on the earth, and the earth will crack wide open. Water will come out of the cracks and cover the land." When he sang the first song, it started to rain. When he sang the second, it poured. When he sang the third, the rain-swollen rivers overflowed their beds. But when he sang the fourth song and stamped on the earth, it split open in many places like a shattered gourd, and water flowed from the cracks until it covered everything.
The Creating Power floated on the sacred pipe and on his huge pipe bag. He let himself be carried by waves and wind this way and that, drifting for a long time. At last, the rain stopped, and by then all the people and animals had drowned. Only Kangi, the crow, survived, though it had no place to rest and was very tired. Flying above the pipe, "Tunkasllila, Grandfather, I must rest soon"; and three times the crow asked him to make a place for it to light.
The Creating Power thought: "It's time to unwrap the pipe and open the pipe bag." The wrapping and the bag contained all manner of animals and birds, from which he selected four animals known for their ability to stay under water for a long time. First he sang a song and took the loon out of the bag. He commanded the loon to dive and bring up a lump of mud. The loon did dive, but it brought up nothing. "I dived and dived but couldn't reach bottom," the loon said. "I almost died. The water is too deep."
The Creating Power sang a second song and took the otter out of the bag. He ordered the otter to dive and bring up some mud. The sleek otter at once dived into the water, using its strong webbed feet to go down, down, down. It was submerged for a long time, but when it finally came to the surface, it brought nothing.
Scooping mud from the turtle's feet and sides, the Creating Power began to sing. He sang all the while that he shaped the mud in his hands and spread it on the water to make a spot of dry land for himself. When he had sung the fourth song, there was enough land for the Creating Power and for the crow.
"Come down and rest," said the Creating Power to the crow, and the bird was glad to.
Then the Creating Power took from his bag two long wing feathers of the eagle. He waved them over his plot of ground and commanded it to spread until it covered everything. Soon all the water was replaced by earth. "Water without earth is not good," thought the Creating Power, "but land without water is not good either." Feeling pity for the land, he wept for the earth and the creatures he would put upon it, and his tears became oceans, streams, and lakes. "That's better," he thought.
Out of his pipe bag the Creating Power took all kinds of animals, birds, plants and scattered them over the land. When he stamped on the earth, they all came alive.
From the earth the Creating Power formed the shapes of men and women. He used red earth and white earth, black earth and yellow earth, and made as many as he thought would do for a start. He stamped on the earth and the shapes came alive, each taking the color of the earth out of which it was made. The Creating Power gave all of them understanding and speech and told them what tribes they belonged to.
The Creating Power said to them: "The first world I made was bad; the creatures on it were bad. So I burned it up. The second world I made was bad too, so I drowned it. This is the third world I have made. Look: I have created a rainbow for you as a sign that there will be no more Great Flood. Whenever you see a rainbow, you will know that it has stopped raining."
The Creating Power continued: "Now, if you have learned how to behave like human beings and how to live in peace with each other and with the other living things—the two-legged, the four-legged, the man-legged, the fliers, the no-legs, the green plants of this universe—then all will be well. But if you make this world bad and ugly, then I will destroy this world too. It's up to you."
The Creating Power gave the people the pipe. "Live by it," he said. He named this land the Turtle Continent because it was there that the turtle came up with the mud out of which the third world was made.
"Someday there might be a fourth world," the Creating Power thought. Then he rested.
At the end of the story, Wakan Tanka gives the people the ceremonial pipe and a Sioux audience would have understood this to mean he was also giving them the seven sacred rituals that informed their spiritual beliefs and traditions. The conclusion of the story echoes the words of White Buffalo Calf Woman, the intermediary between the people and Wakan Tanka, that they will endure and prosper as long as they remember and honor their creator and creation through the Sioux ceremonial pipe and seven sacred rituals.
The rainbow, in this story, only serves as a reminder that it has stopped raining while, in the biblical tale, it is set as a sign of the promise that God will not destroy humanity again. The Sioux creation story makes no such promise, however, ending with the possibility of the destruction of the present third world if people again forget what they owe to their Creator, each other, the animals, and Earth as everyone's collective home
Mark, J. J. (2023, September 19). Lakota Sioux Creation Story. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2279/lakota-sioux-creation-story/
Want to Explore more?
Sun dance Ceremony
Powwows: An Ancient Tradition Thriving Today
"The Sacred Sun Dance" was first posted on NotesfromtheFrontier.com
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