Living on the prairies in the middle of the North American continent, one cannot help but notice how the land lies in an interconnected pattern of circular sweeps, and that the sky is a circular dome that circumscribes one's world. The circle is a particularly potent symbol to the Lakota, that thoroughly exemplifies the Lakota notion of the circularity of all life. Thomas Tyon told Walker:
"The Oglala believe the circle to be sacred because the Great Spirit caused everything in nature to be round […]. The sun and the sky, the earth and the moon are round like a shield, though the sky is deep like a bowl. Everything that breathes is round like the body of a man. Everything that grows from the ground is round like the stem of a tree. Since the Great Spirit has caused everything to be round mankind should look upon the circle as sacred for it is the symbol of all things in nature […]. It is also the symbol of the circle that marks the edge of the world and therefore of the four winds that travel there. consequently, it is also the symbol of a year. The day, the night, and the moon go in a circle above the sky. Therefore the circle is a symbol of these divisions of time and hence the symbol of all time. For these reasons the Oglala make their tipis circular, their camp circle circular, and sit in a circle in all ceremonies. The circle is also the symbol of the tipi and of shelter. If one makes a circle for an ornament and it is not divided in any way, it should be understood as the symbol of the world and of time. […] The mouth of a pipe should always be moved about in a circle before the pipe is formally smoked" (1917: 160).1
Similarly, a few decades later, Nicholas Black Elk told Neihardt: "Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because [nature] always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. […] The sky is round. […] The earth is round like a ball and so are all the stars. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing" (Neihardt 1932: 35).2
The circularity of life within the temporal span of a year is elaborated upon in the following excerpt of a conversation I had with an Oglala man:
"Everything necessary that is good should be in the circle of a year, which we call 365 days, so, that one year, it's saying that, omaka, o is 'within', maka is 'of the earth'. Omaka, in our language, means year. O, within the land of that year, omaka, everything's that's going to happen on the land should have happened within that omaka, one year. There should have been cracking of those seeds, there should have been landing on the ground, there should have been water on the ground to cause the plant to grow. Then all those connectives that mean growth: we say magaju - ga is another root word - magaju means maka-ga-ju, and that means the water came down to help those things that were planted - the oju, planting means oju - and when that happens, the water helps, we say magaju [rain]. Oju, is in the ground, so the water helps the plant to grow. So there's connection from the water with the ground meaning oju. You plant something, it means oju. Magaju means the water helps. So all those things happening together that way, then you have come to a full circle, then everything that should have happened during that year should have happened. That's why we call it omaka, within the time-span of that earth. And that includes spring, summer, fall, and then winter. Everything that should have happened should have happened in that circle of the omaka, the things of the earth, omaka, the things within the earth" (1998).
A spiritual practitioner described the circle of life to me in the context of the medicine wheel: "[I]f you look at the four directions, the above and below, and then what's in the centre as being something complete and whole, and that would relate to the circle which is complete and whole which relates to the Creator, and that relates to mitaku'oyasin - the sacred hoop of life" (1998). Several people described to me the sacred hoop of life (cangleška wakan) in which seven spheres interconnected - each one related to the other.
The sacred or medicine hoop, most often divided into four symmetrical quadrants representing the four directions or winds, was and is used by medicine and ordinary men as protective power symbols.
Some Lakota today talk about the broken nature of the sacred hoop and the necessity for it to be mended. Others are not so pessimistic, pointing to the fact that life is still revolving. The earliest written documentation of the notion of a broken sacred hoop is in the interviews of the Oglala Black Elk with Neihardt.
In a vision, a nine year old Black Elk was taken up into the skies to meet the Six Grandfathers who lived inside a tipi made of clouds and sewn with lightning, with a flaming rainbow door. These Six Grandfathers were the six powers of the world: the powers of the west, north, east, south, sky and earth. Black Elk looked down at the earth and "saw it lying yonder like a hoop of peoples, and in the center bloomed the holy stick that was a tree" (Neihardt 1932: 31).
"The leaves on the trees, the grasses on the hills and in the valleys, the waters in the creeks and in the rivers and the lakes, the four-legged and the two-legged and the wings of the air - all danced together to the music of the stallion's song. […] Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the centre grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy. […] Then I saw the rainbow flaming above the tepee of the Six Grandfathers, built and roofed with cloud and sewed with things of lightning; and underneath it were all the wings of the air and under them the animals and men. All these were rejoicing, and thunder was like happy laughter" (Neihardt 1932: 39-41).
In this vision the Grandfathers showed Black Elk that in these troubled times the flowering tree of the Lakotas was withered and the nation's hoop was broken. They told this nine year old boy that it would be in his power to bring this hoop together and make the holy tree flower again.
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