Wocekiye

Wocekiye (pronounced Woh-cheh-kee-yeh) is the Lakota word for prayer, but has since come to be their general word for religion in general. [1] It surrounds the worship of a pantheon of deities, who are related in a similarly derivative manner from one another as the Christian god is often related to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. These spirits are known collectively as the Wakantanka (wah-kaw-taw-kah), or the Great Mystery. All of the spirits in general are called the Wakan.

Up to the late 19th century, much of the edicts surrounding the religion were considered taboo to speak of to outsiders. The Wicasa Wakan (Wee-chah-shuh wah-kaw), or Shamans/ Holy Men, made an exception with a Caucasian man named James Walker. Among the Lakota POWs in the Dakotas, they put him through the rites to become one of them and passing on much of their knowledge in the hopes that it could be preserved and one day returned to the Siouan people. He wrote all he learned down in 3 books, Lakota Myth, Lakota Society, and Lakota Beliefs & Ritual, but much of what he was taught was often confused, contradictory and muddled. Other holy men continued to pass down important knowledge to their own children. Other things were recorded through happenstance by a missionary named Eugene Buechel around the turn of the 20th century, who created the groundwork for the Lakota Dictionary.

Some of this knowledge may not be complete or accurate. It is also important to note that there are different variants, or sects, of this religion, by tribe and culture. This article mainly covers the Lakota/ Dakota version, which is nearly identical to the Assiniboine version. Other wildly different interpretations include the Ho-chunk version, the Dhegihan/ Chiwere version and the Eastern Siouan version once practiced by tribes on the east coast. Since there are unknown cultures, like the Fort Ancients, there may have once been even further derivatives.

Wakantanka

The pantheon consists of a series of 16 deities. These beings are divided into sets of two, whose powers complement one another to create the known world. They are as follows:

• Skan-skan/ Takuskanskan (Shkaw-shkaw)- God of sky & time. Also known as the Great Judge & Mediator.
• Omaka/ Unci (Uh-chee)- Goddess of the Earth & seas
• Inyan (Ih-yaw)- God of the Mountains
• Wakinyan (wah-kih-yaw)- The Thunderbird/ Storm God
• Tate (Tah-teh)- Wind God
• Yumni (Yoo-muh-nee)- Whirlwind/ Cyclone God. Also commonly referred to as the God of Love for the role he plays in creation myths.
• Okaga- The south wind
• Yata- the north wind
• Yunpa (yuh-bah)- the east wind
• Eya- the west wind
• Wazi- The first man/ the Wizard
• Wakanka- the first woman/ the Witch
• Wi (wee)- the sun god
• Hanwi (haw-wee)- the moon goddess
• Unk (uhk)- Dark Goddess of Passion & Discord
• Gnaski (Guh-nah-suh-kee)- Dark God of lies. aka the Crazy Buffalo[1][2]

The Wakan

There are also a variety of other spiritual aids in the world. They are as follows.

• Canotila (Chaw-oh-dee-lah)- The Little People who dwell in the trees. They protect the forests, are commonly portrayed as tricksters & send men important messages in their dreams.
• Wakinyan- Different from the Thunderbird, they are the spirits of the air who help the Thunderbird move the storms in the sky.
• Unktehi (Uh-kuh-teh-hee)- Spirits of the water & teachers & guides in sacred artwork & tattooing. They are commonly described as being something along the line of a Buffalo or Goat with a long tail, but certain stories give them odd characteristics such as a thick, brittle tail & backward horns that sound more like giant, clawless Crawfish or lobsters.
• Unkcegila (Uh-kuh-cheh-ghee-lah)- Draconic spirits of the land. They are responsible for natural disasters and the fertility of the land. In legend, they were supposedly formed from the wrath of Unk when she was tossed into the sea, and so much of Walkers' work often confuses Unktehi & Unkcegila. They are the mortal enemies of the Thunderbird and it is said that fossils are the result of the battles between the two.
• Tatanka (tah-taw-kah)- The spirits who protect the Buffalos.
• Hohnogica- Spirits of the home & hearth.
• Wanagi (wah-nah-ghee)- The souls of the dead still trapped in the human world. They take the form of disembodied shadows.
• Tunkan (Tuh-kaw)- Spirits of the rocks. They are said to play a major role in the sweat lodge ceremonies.[1][2]

Other specific beings from the mythology are as follows.

• Wohpe (Woh-huh-beh)- aka the White Buffalo Calf Woman. In the mythology, Tate was once the mediator for Skanskan, but forsook this role for a mortal woman named Ite. In his place, Skan created a feminine being called Wohpe, the Fallen Star Goddess. She plays a major role in the spiritual beliefs in a similar fashion to the angel Gabriel in Christianity & brought many of the oldest rituals to the Siouan people, including the Peace Pipe.
• Iya/ Waziya- The giant winter god. Using the imagery of the first man, Wazi, they also created a form in the mythology called Waziya that is supposed to resemble a common Amerindian personification—old man winter. He lives in the Aurora Borealis and looses winter on the world, then gathers it back up and returns it to the north in spring. Waziya is also a common euphemism for Santa Claus.
• Anung-Ite (Ah-nuhk ee-teh)- The two-faced woman. Originally Ite, the daughter of Wazi & Kakanka, she was tricked into upsetting Hanwi by trying to seduce the sun. For her transgression, she was banished into the world and merged with part of Unk to become a murderous monster called Anung-Ite, however, Tate still did not leave her and brought his family to live in the early world with her. She may be considered a direct ancestor to all men.
• Iktomi (ee-kuh-toh-mee)- The God of Wisdom/ the Trickster/ the spider. He was born of the powers of Inyan & Wakinyan to keep them company, but came into an odd, crippled form (as wisdom often comes in strange ways). Still, he wished to be helpful and become a close friend & ally to Skanskan, who brought him to his position as a god of wisdom. However, he came to be tricked by Gnaski & reprimanded by Tate, infuriating him. In his attempts to get even by tricking Ite into falling for Wi instead of Tate, he was cast out and became the trickster spirit. Now, he only teaches wisdom through playing tricks on those who live without it, convincing them to embrace it on their own.
• To Win (Tow whih)- The Blue Woman who guards the road to the afterlife. Every act in one's life marks one's spirit with "tattoos" that the To Win can read. She is encountered on the Spirit Road (seen as the center of the Milky Way in the sky) and throws spirits back to earth if they aren't prepared for the next life. To Win is most likely a play on the Siouan word for aunt, Tonwin.[3]
• Heyoka- The thunderbird, Wakinyan, usually has many tricks to conceal himself from others. Any man said to see him is believed to be rendered insane & becomes his slave. These are the Heyoka, often translated as Clowns, who wear moccasins with mismatched or non-patterned beadwork, a thick cape & literally nothing else. This word is also a common euphemism for, not just the insane, but anyone who is odd or does or thinks anything antithetical to the greater society. Such people were usually recruited to be Wicasa Wakan, Holy Men.[1][2]

Mythological origins

The Siouan mythology concerning their Religious origin stories are the main issue with Walker's work. It was made & kept mostly by the Shamans who saw it only as a useful teaching method rather than a true story, thus much of it is contradictory & has no useful or meaningful chronology. It is likely that it had once been conceived as a complete narrative, was split into smaller chunks in order to ensure accuracy in the teachings &, over time, each piece may have been embellished to better stand on its own. However, a general story can be assembled from it.

In the beginning, there was only one god, the Wakantanka, and he was all of existence, fixed in place and lonely. One day, he resolved to create other beings of power for him to act upon and talk to and bled away his power, causing him to split into three deities—The Rock, the Earth & the Sky. As these beings began coming to their own sentience, they took on their own personalities and began communing with one another, learning from these interactions as children would. They soon saw flaws to their existence and began creating more and more beings and things to fill the spaces between them, creating the laws of nature as they went along, however, their work expended beyond their ability to control. In this, they not only created other gods, but mortal beings and accidentally brought evil into the world. Since the goddess of passion, Unk, was just as powerful as any of them, they couldn't recall her from existing and had to create new things to give to mortals in order to combat her—such as spiritual power and medicine. In this, the first mortals, the Pte Oyate (Buffalo People) came into being in a great cave in the womb of the earth.

Iktomi, the Trickster, was disgraced by Gnaski, son of Unk, & chose to get revenge on Tate for his harsh treatment in the aftermath. Wazi & Wakanka, the spiritual leaders of the Pte Oyate & parents of Tate's wife Ite, are convinced by Iktomi to cause their daughter to fall in love with the sun god Wi and take the place of the moon. Somehow, he does this before Ite exists, even though she already existed as Tate's wife before. Ite is cursed to become Anung-Ite, & she, Wazi & Wakanka are banished to the surface of the earth to wander forever. Iktomi is also cursed and disgraced from godhood & Tate comes to live on the surface of the earth, with his five sons—Yata, Yunpa, Okaga, Eya & Yumni.

Wohpe is sent to earth to help Tate & his sons forge the world as people know it. The four adult sons would go out into the world to mark out the four directions and help Skanskan create time & space. Tate is so surprised, and pleased, to meet his replacement that he asks her to live with him as his adoptive daughter & take care of his youngest son, Yumni. However, the brothers all fall for her and wish her to be their wife. Not possessed of an ability to love, she shuns all of them, going to far as to use magic to curse them should they ever break with her wishes. Two of the brothers concede. However, on their journey, they are tricked by Wazi, Wakanka & Iktomi at various points, which drives them into conflict.

Wohpe soon begins to feel that she cannot avoid becoming the wife of one of the brothers and asks Yumni which she should choose, and he drives her into the arms of his favorite big brother, Okaga. Upon the return of the four brothers, Tate holds a great feast for the gods to celebrate the works of his sons. During this feast, Tate gives magical gifts to all the attendees, however, Iktomi, still sore, uses his powers to ruin most of them. Then, Okaga and Wohpe marry.

Unfortunately, this infuriates Yata and the two fall to violent arguments that push all five brothers apart, with Yumni & Tate caught in the middle. Yata tries multiple times to rape Wohpe, and she uses her magic to escape by shrinking and hiding under her dress, but goes to far with it, she cannot escape her own spell. It is afterward that the four directions move to the corners of the earth, never to speak again & Yumni becomes the whirlwind god, constantly forced to move between them in order to keep in touch with his brothers.

Further stories put together certain ideological points and the origins of other aspects of Lakota life & the natural world after this. Eventually, the humans meet the Pte Oyate once again on the surface of the earth and form a close interdependence with them that lasts forever.

All of this is mainly supposed to point out one thing in particular—the importance of exercising wisdom in decision making. Wisdom is defined as the ability to predict the consequences of one's actions and those of others, and to understand what is coming before it happens. For, not even the gods or early Siouan ancestors were born with it, but it could have prevented all of this tragedy.[2]

The Dead

Siouan people buried the dead in specified burial grounds, usually consisting of a buried grave marked with a pile of rocks. They may have also, at times, participated in sky burials, or leaving the dead upon a scaffold in a sacred place.[4] In Siouan mythology the dead pass through the reflections on the water to enter the spirit world, which is reflected in the sky. It is believed that the stars—known as Wi Can (wee chaw. Branching lights)-- are the souls of the dead and it is passed down that they paint pictures in the sky to resemble things on the earth in order to send their children messages. Supposedly, this is what led the Lakota to settle in the Black Hills region. [3]

Cangleska Pejuta

The most important religious symbol in Wocekiye is known as the Cangleska Pejuta (chaw-guh-reh-shkah peh-zhoo-duh), also known as the Medicine Wheel. It is represented as a circle divided into four by a cross or X and decorated with the colors red, yellow, black & white. Its use is widespread due to the wide variety in its symbolism.

• Represents the four stages of life
• Represents the four main edicts of the Siouan people; wisdom, fortitude, gratitude & respect
• Represents the 16 arch deities (when thought of as a sphere) with two gods at north, south, east, west, above & below respectively & the cross representing the four winds.
• Represents that all life comes from Wakantanka and can only go back to him in the end.
• Represents the four directions[5][6]

The Three Types of Holy Men

There are three distinct groups of holy men.

• Wicasa Wakan- The Shamans. Their main concern is conducting regular public & private religious ceremonies, recording tribal history & keeping the time. They do this by counting the 13 full moons of the year and referencing that with weather patterns & bird song. Many native people would make little rhymes out of the songs of different birds from different times of the year telling what kinds of things happened in the natural world during that time, so they wouldn't forget. The Wicasa Wakan would be marked with a hat made from the scalp of a buffalo, horns and all, commonly referred to as a Brown Bonnet.
• Pejuta Wicasa- The Medicine Men. These people were the healers & physicians of the native world and actually had access to pretty decent medicine. They were also believed to practice witchcraft & learned a wide variety of magic tricks in order to prove as such. Medicine & Magic were often seen as indistinguishable from one another to native peoples. Pejuta comes first in this odd case because, upon becoming a medicine man, the person is considered medicine themselves over being a human being. The Pejuta Wicasa were marked by wearing a coyote or wolf hide over their head & shoulders, commonly referred to as a Grey Bonnet.
• Holy Dancers- Specific people were charged with performing certain sacred dances for different reasons throughout the year. They costumes were overly elaborate & considered holy in their own right. No one but the intended dancer was allowed to so much as touch them.[1][2][3]

Common Beliefs With Other Siouans

• When one's pets die, their souls stay in this world and take care of one. When one dies, all ascend to the next world together.[1]
• Those who practice medicine must never fall prey to the belief that the power originates from them, or they will lose the power to heal forever.[7]
• Pointing at a rainbow is bad luck, as it is believed the tail of the Thunderbird is a rainbow & he doesn't like to be seen.[1]
• All men are born with an inherent power, called Sicun, which acts as their breath and lifeforce. It is also their conscience, connection to the Creator and their main protection to being victimized by or succumbing to evil. This also influenced a common, widespread Native American euphemism for white people,

wasicun, which means "Powerful One."[1]

• Wisdom is earned through experience and it is the duty of all men to call out those who do not fulfill it.[2]
• "Thunder Hears Me" is a common expression, usually used in place of "I swear to god" when one is making a threat or promise. Essentially, may the thunderbird strike me down is I am lying. The less intense version is "The Earth Hears Me."[1]
• When a spirit takes a specific liking to someone, it becomes their protectorate & is referred to as a Manitukala. (word taken from Ojibwe/ Medewiwin tradition)[1]
• Beadwork is supposed to represent the stars and, therefore, the ancestors.[1][2]<[3]
• Human souls trapped on the earthly plane take the form of shadows.[1]
• Medicine Pouches were often worn by different people for different purposes & often consisted of a beadworked, ornamental pouch with some kind of medicinal herb sown inside. Mothers would make pouches containing the umbilical cords of their children; Salamanders for boys & Turtles for girls.[3]
• The Man in the Moon comes from Siouan beliefs. The Winnebago, who have kept a very pure storytelling tradition, claim that it is a transgender man (teją́čowįga). It can be seen as a dress-wearing individual sitting Indian style, but wearing feathers in their hair the way a man would (off to the side) rather than how a woman would (straight up from the back.). This sentiment may have once been shared, as the Lakota word is Hanwi Hokewins'e (Effeminate Moon).[1][8][2]
• Reincarnation is possible. The only clear cut written reference states that the Ho-Chunk believed that spirits on the other side who were unsatisfied for whatever reason could petition the Creator to be reborn. They would be granted opportunities of seven paradises and, if they could reject them all, they would be allowed to be reborn as any one or thing they desired.

Other Siouan Belief Systems

Ho-Chunk

In their version, there are seven Thunderbirds instead of one. Three are good, three are bad and one is neutral. They are each associated with a different species of real bird.

They also believe in the Underwater Panther, or Water Spirit, instead of the Unkcegila. The existing literature would suggest that they originally called their spirits the Waxo, and knew the Lakota as the Wakan People.

There is no equivalent being to Wohpe among the Ho-Chunk.

The goddess Unk is replaced with a war God associated with comets/ falling stars and modeled for a raccoon. [8]

Dhegihan/ Chiwere

The Dhegihans seem to have mixed their religious beliefs a great deal with that of the Caddoan People's, like the Pawnee. When the ancestors' of the Ioway, Oto and Missouria people's came to live on the same side of the river as the ancestors of the Quapaw, Osage, Omaha, Kansa and Ponca peoples, those tribes also took on many of the same divergent aspects.

They believe that humans were created by the sun and descended to the earth to take physical form and live mortal lives. It is unclear if the Lakota had a similar myth.

There is greater emphasis on worship of the Planet Venus than in other Siouans cultures.

They believe in four Thunderbirds who represent the four directions and have an entirely different thunder spirit as the god of storms.

In their medicine wheels, they replace the color yellow with either blue or green, depending on the tribe/ band.

The concept of the great spirit is known as Wakanda. It would appear that the Dhegihans called the spirits the Wakan, like the Lakota did, but the Chiweres called them the Waxo, like the Ho-Chunk.

Their Trickster spirit was a rabbit. [9]

Eastern Siouan

Very little is known about the Eastern Siouan variant, except for random scraps of information here and there. Some of it may have been accidentally written as Cherokee mythology instead.

The genders of the sun and moon deities are reversed.

They believed in one Thunderbird, like the Lakota, and seem to have believed in the Unkcegila. Their Trickster spirit was a rabbit, like the Dhegihans.

Eastern Siouans originally buried their dead in Burial Mounds, but began interring them under their dwellings during the 14th century. They also observed a four day vigil and fast after burials, similar to one brought up in reference to the Ho-Chunk.

The buffalo were still highly important to, at least, the Saponi, even though the animals didn't live in their lands. They are noted to have travelled to Ohio on annual hunts.

Eastern Siouan medicine men wore vests made of crow feathers to mark them, instead of coyote/ wolf hides. [10]

We think the Saponi-Tutelo may have called their spirits the Waho, given a pattern noted in the etymology of the names Wakan and Waxo, but there is no direct reference.

Other

Two other groups of Siouan peoples practice entirely different religions. The Tanoan-Siouan tribes-- the Crow, Hidatsa and Mandan-- seem to practice a form of the Sun Dance religion, however the Mandan also call the spirits that they worship the Maho, which is derivative of Siouan Culture.

The Gulf Siouan peoples, of which the Biloxi are the only surviving member, appear to have practiced a form of Muskogean religion. [11]

References

1. Buechel, Eugene & Manhart S.J., Paul Lakota Dictionary: Lakota-English / English-Lakota, New Comprehensive Edition 2002.
2. Jahner, Elaine A. & DeMallie, Raymond J. Lakota Myth 2006.
3. Sharon Lee, Annette & Rock, Jim Dakota/Lakota Star Map Constellation Guidebook: An Introduction to D(L)akota Star Knowledge 2014.
4. https://archive.org/details/bureauofethnology00thomrich
5. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/exhibition/healing-ways/medicine-ways/medicine-wheel.html
6. http://medicinewheel.com/
7. Neihardt, John G. & Deloria, Phillip J. Black Elk Speaks: The Complete Edition 2014.
8. http://www.hotcakencyclopedia.com/
9. Liebert, Robert M. Osage Life and Legends 1987.
10. Speck, Frank G. Catawba texts 1969.
11. A dictionary of Biloxi and Ofo