A General Outline of Lakota Sioux Philosophy::

Wakantanka, Wakan and Wakan Entities: The Foundations of Lakota Theology II

The Yankton Sioux writer, Ella Deloria, later criticised Walker's hierarchical classification of Oglala spiritual categories as the invention of "a systematic European mind" (Walker 1983: 24).¹ Instead of 'gods' or 'deities', Deloria used the term 'medium' - "medium of the Wakan" (1944: 53).² The ethnographer, Frances Densmore, used the term 'manifestation' - the sun, for example, was a manifestation of Wakantanka (1918: 85, n.2).³ A recent anthropologist, William Powers, described the aspects of Wakantanka that are personified into various natural phenomena such as the sun, moon, thunder and earth (1975: 45).⁴ Michael Melody called Wakantanka a composite entity - "a composite of different primal forces" (1977: 165).⁵ The Oglala, Luther Standing Bear, described Wakantanka as thus:

"Wakan Tanka breathed life and motion into all things, both visible and invisible. He was over all, through all, and in all […]. The Lakota could look at nothing without at the same time looking at Wakan Tanka, and he could not, if he wished, evade His presence, for it pervaded all things and filled all space" (1933: 197).⁶

Wakan is all that is mysterious, incomprehensible, wonderful, even dangerous in the sense that it must not be meddled with. It also signifies that which is ancient or very old because kan means aged. It is the sacred thread that binds all components of the universe, of life, together. Because all things share of the same wakan nature, all things are related and all things pulse with a powerful, wakan, vitality.

Wakantanka is glossed as the Great Mystery, or less accurately, the Great Spirit, because tanka is that which is very large or great. In everyday language, the Lakota today most often say 'Wakantanka', 'God', or 'Creator'. But in a ritualised setting such as in the sweat lodge or inside the sun dance arbor, the more formal terms are used: 'Tunkasila Wakantanka' (Grandfather Wakantanka), 'Ate Wakantanka' (Father Wakantanka) and various aspects of Wakantanka such as Wanbli Gleska (Spotted Eagle) or Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth).

Wakantanka is the ultimate, unified coalescence of a multiplicity of wakan aspects which compose it. Little Wound told Walker: "Wakan Tanka are many. But they are all the same as one" (Walker 1980: 70).⁷ Walker himself put it thus: "Wakan Tanka is one, yet It is many who are" (Walker 1917: 79).⁸ Wakantanka and wakan things have an eternal quality that goes beyond time and space, though they can be manifested as such.

The many wakan aspects that together form the Wakantanka include such anthropomorphized natural phenomena as Inyan (Rock), Maka (the Earth), Wakinyan (the Thunderbeing), Wi (the Sun), Skan (Sky) or Taku Skan-Skan (that which moves, or is in movement), Tate (Wind) and Tatetob (Four Winds). In ritualised contexts these aspects are frequently called upon, along with other aspects such as Iktomi (Spider, Trickster), Wanbli Gleska (Spotted Eagle), and Tatanka (Buffalo), depending on which wakan entity or spirit is in a special relationship with the medicine man or ritual participant. The gross or physical forms of these aspects - and every spiritual aspect has its physical form - are not worshipped, but the force residing in them that makes them wakan.

The Four Winds, for example, are Eya (West), Yata (North), Yanpa (East) and Okaga (South), and each has his tipi in one of the Four Directions that are appealed to during ritual. They are 'messengers' of Skan or Taku Skan-Skan and their movement in mythological time established the spatial and temporal divisions in the universe. Each of the Four Winds or Directions were spoken of to Fletcher as upholding the earth (Fletcher 1884: 289, n.1).⁹ Skan, the Four Winds and Wakinyan are all connected.

According to Riggs, Skan, Taku Skan-skan or Sky

"is too subtle in essence to be perceived by the senses, and is as subtle in disposition. He is present everywhere. He exerts a controlling influence over instinct, intellect, and passion. He can rob a man of the use of his rational faculties, and inspire a beast with intelligence, so that the hunter will wander idiot-like, while the game on which he hoped to feast his family at night escapes with perfect ease. […] His symbol and supposed residence is the bowlder [sic], as it is also of another god, the Tunkan" (1869: 64-65).¹⁰

It was Skan that was called the Great Spirit - the term that has sometimes been mistakenly applied to Wakantanka - and was said to have given motion to all that moves. His potency prevails in all things and is the presence of Wakantanka in the immediate present. The following conversation between Walker and Little Finger elucidates this:

"What causes the stars to fall? Taku Skanskan. Why does Taku Skanskan cause the stars to fall? Because He causes everything that falls to fall and he causes everything to move that moves. When you move what is it that causes you to move? Skan. If an arrow is shot from a bow what causes it to move through the air? Skan. […] Has the bow anything to do with the movement of an arrow shot from it? Taku Skanskan gives the spirit to the bow and he causes it to send the arrow from it. What causes smoke to go upward? Taku Skanskan. What causes water to flow in a river? Skan. […] Skan is Spirit and all that mankind can see of Him is the blue of the sky. But He is everywhere" (1917: 154-155).

It is Skan that gives each newborn baby his or her spirit, ghost and sicun, which, upon death of the physical body, returns to the stars.

Notes::

• 1 - James R. Walker. 1983. Lakota Myth. Edited by Elaine A. Jahner. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• 2 - Ella Deloria. 1944. Speaking of Indians. New York: Friendship Press.
• 3 - Frances Densmore. 1918. Teton Sioux Music. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 61. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution.
• 4 - William K. Powers. 1975. Oglala Religion. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• 5 - Michael E. Melody. 1977. "Maka's Story: A Study of a Lakota Cosmogony." Journal of American Folk Iore. 90 (356): 149-167.
• 6 - Luther Standing Bear. 1933. Land of the Spotted Eagle. Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• 7 - James R. Walker. 1980. Lakota Belief and Ritual. Edited by Raymond J. DeMaIlie & Elaine A. Jahner. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• 8 - James R. Walker. 1917. "The Sun Dance and Other Ceremonies of the Oglala Division of the Teton Dakota." Anthropological Papers. 16 (2): 51-221. New York: American Museum of Natural History.
• 9 - Alice C. Fletcher. 1884. "The Religious Ceremony of the Four Winds or Quarters, As Observed by the Santee Sioux." Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology Annual Reports. 3 (3,4): 289-295.
• 10 - Stephen R. Riggs. 1869. Tah-koo Wah-kan; or, The Gospel among the Dakotas. Boston: Congregational Sabbath School and Publishing Society.