Lakota Mythology
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Lakota Mythology
Lakota mythology is the body of sacred stories that belong to the Lakota people also known aTeton Sioux Overview The Lakota believe that everything has a spirit; including trees, rocks, rivers, and almost every natural being. This therefore leads to the belief in the existence of an afterlife. Creation According to Lakota belief, Inyan (Rock), was present at the very beginning, and so was the omnipresent spirit Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery, and the darkness Han. Inyan wanted to exercise his powers, or compassion, so he created Maka (the Earth) as part of himself to keep control of his powers. But he sacrificed much of his blood by doing so, which became water, and he shriveled up, became hard, and begins losing his powers. The water cannot retain his powers, and Skan was created. Maka complains to Inyan that everything is cold and dark, and so he creates Anpo, the Dawn. As Anpo's red light was not enough for Maka, Inyan creates Wi, the Sun. Maka now wanted to be separate fro ...
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Inyan
In Lakota mythology Lakota mythology is the body of sacred stories that belong to the Lakota people also known aTeton Sioux Overview The Lakota believe that everything has a spirit; including trees, rocks, rivers, and almost every natural being. This therefore lea ..., Íŋyaŋ (Rock) was the first of the powerful spirits. He existed before the beginning. He then created Maka and gave it the spirit Makȟá-akáŋl (Earth spirit), the second of the spirit beings and a part of Íŋyaŋ. After creating Makȟá, Íŋyaŋ was very weak. He created miniature versions of Makȟá, and her lover, father sky. Those miniatures were humans. This effort made Íŋyaŋ hard and powerless. His blood became the blue waters and the sky. Lakota spirit beings Lakota culture Creator gods Sky and weather gods Water gods {{NorthAm-myth-stub ...
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Wakan Tanka
In Lakota spirituality, ''Wakan Tanka'' ( Standard Lakota Orthography: ''Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka'') is the term for the sacred or the divine. This is usually translated as the "Great Spirit" and occasionally as "Great Mystery". ''Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka'' can be interpreted as the power or the sacredness that resides in everything, resembling some animistic and pantheistic beliefs. This term describes every creature and object as ''wakȟáŋ'' ("holy") or having aspects that are ''wakȟáŋ''. The element ''Tanka'' or ''Tȟáŋka'' corresponds to "Great" or "large". Before contact with European Christian missionaries, the Lakota used ''Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka'' to refer to an organization or group of sacred entities whose ways were mysterious: thus, "The Great Mystery".Helen Wheeler Bassett, Frederick Starr. The International Folk-lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893. Charles H. Sergel Company, 1898p221226 Activist Russell Means also promoted the translatio ...
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Skan
In Lakota tradition, Škaŋ is the Motion of the universe. The Great Spirit, Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka, reflected upon himself and created the four Superior Spirits, Wi (the first to be created, bringing light to the world), Skan, Maka (Mother Earth) and Íŋyaŋ (the solid support of the Earth or the rock associated with the natural forces of the Earth). In the beginning, Wakáŋ Taŋka, The Great Mystery, reflected upon itself and created the four Superior Spirits. The first was Inyan, the Rock. Íŋyaŋ In Lakota mythology Lakota mythology is the body of sacred stories that belong to the Lakota people also known aTeton Sioux Overview The Lakota believe that everything has a spirit; including trees, rocks, rivers, and almost every natural bein ... created a companion, Makhá, the earth. Then Sky, or Škaŋ, was created to wrap around the first two. All was still dark, so lastly Wí, the Sun, was created to give light. Škaŋ is the source of all animated life. All things have ...
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Anpao
In Sioux mythology (a Native American mythological tradition that includes Lakota mythology), Anpao (Lakota: ''Aŋpáo''), or Anp, is a spirit with two faces that represents the dawn. Anpao dances with Han, a primordial spirit of darkness, to ensure that Wi does not burn up the Earth, resulting in day and night. George Bushotter (Yankton Dakota-Lakota, 1860–1892) wrote that when his younger brother was ill, the brother was told to pray to Anpao, the Dawn, and recovered. ''Anpao zi'' is the "yellow of the dawn", which oral history described as the meadowlark's breast. See also *Anog Ite, a two-faced goddess from Lakota mythology *Bangpūtys, two-faced Lithuanian god whose focus is on the weather and the sea * Hausos, PIE dawn goddess, reflexes of whom are common in daughter cultures *Ikenga, two-faced Igbo spirit of fate, fortune, and achievement *Isimud, two-faced Mesopotamian messenger god *Janus, two-faced Roman god whose focus is on doorways, endings, and beginnings in gene ...
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Wi (mythology)
In Lakota mythology, Wi is one of the most powerful spirits. He is a solar spirit, and is associated with the American Bison. He is the father of Wóȟpe. Anog Ite attempted to seduce Wi, but she had one of her two faces changed into an ugly visage as punishment. His wife is the lunar goddess, Hanwi. As "Wi" refers to both him and his wife, he is referred as Anpetu Wi (Daytime Wi), while his wife is referred as Hanhepi Wi (Nighttime Wi) to differentiate the two deities. See also * List of solar deities A solar deity is a deity who represents the Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this ene ... Lakota spirit beings Solar gods Lakota culture {{NorthAm-myth-stub ...
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Unhcegila
In Lakota mythology, Unk Cekula (uŋȟčéǧila or uŋkčéǧila) is a serpentoid creature which was responsible for many unexplained disappearances and deaths. Her male counterpart is known as ''Unk Tehi''. Description She was described at first as having no real shape or form; she had eyes of fire, and a fanged mouth that was shrouded in a smoky or cloudy mass. As time went on further, her form was exposed as being massive, with a long scaly body whose natural armor was almost impenetrable. Her eyes burned with wrathful hunger, her claws were like iron, and her voice raged like thunder rolling in the clouds. Whoever looked upon her will become blind or go insane. Her weakness is a seventh spot on her torso, behind of which her heart lies within, which burned fierily. To kill her, one has to shoot a medicine arrow at it. Accounts The ancient Lakota tribes of the Northwest had heard rumors, from neighboring tribes, that a Giant Evil Spirit had emerged from the icy waters of the ...
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Badlands National Park
Badlands National Park ( lkt, Makȟóšiča) is an American national park located in southwestern South Dakota. The park protects of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles, along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. The National Park Service manages the park, with the South Unit being co-managed with the Oglala Lakota tribe. The Badlands Wilderness protects of the park's North Unit as a designated wilderness area, and is one site where the black-footed ferret, one of the most endangered mammals in the world, was reintroduced to the wild. The South Unit, or Stronghold District, includes sites of 1890s Ghost Dances, a former United States Air Force bomb and gunnery range, and Red Shirt Table, the park's highest point at . Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, it was not established until January 25, 1939. Badlands was redesignated a national park on November 10, 1978. Under the Mission 66 plan, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center ...
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Wakinyan
Wakíŋyaŋ is a Lakota word for "thunder." It also may be a portmanteau word which associates "wahka" ("sacred") and "kinyan" ("wings"). The word is usually translated as "Thunder Spirits", "Thunder Beings," or " Thunder Birds". Heyokas, that is contrarians, dream of Wakinyan and can burn cedar (''Juniperus scopulorum ''Juniperus scopulorum'', the Rocky Mountain juniper, is a species of juniper native to western North America, from southwest Canada to the Great Plains of the United States. Description ''Juniperus scopulorum'' is a small evergreen conifer ...'') to protect themselves from thunder and lightning, since Wakinyan respects and will not harm that tree. References Lakota mythology Lakota culture Thunder gods Lakota words and phrases {{NorthAm-myth-stub ...
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Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term ''Milky Way'' is a translation of the Latin ', from the Greek ('), meaning "milky circle". From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with an estimated D25 isophotal diameter of , but only about 1,000 light years thick at the spiral arms (more at the bulg ...
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List Of Lakota Deities
Below is a list of commonly recognized figures who are part of Lakota mythology, a Native American tribe with current lands in North and South Dakota. The spiritual entities of Lakota mythology are categorized in several major categories, including major deities, wind spirits, personified concepts, and other beings. Gods Major Spirits * Aŋpo - The spirit of the dawn, an entity with two faces. *Haŋwí - The moon Spirit who accompanies Wi. Also known as Haŋhépi Wi (Nighttime Wi) to differentiate her from Wi. The Spirit of mother hood, constancy, kinship, and feminine things. *Íŋyaŋ - The primordial creator Spirit. His color is yellow. *Kssa - The Spirit of knowledge and wisdom. He invented language, stories, names, games, and the first lodge, in which fire from Wi was placed at the center. One story about Iktomi mentions that Iktomi was Kssa, but was stripped of his title for his trouble-making ways. The Oglala Lakota believe that Iktomi was the second manifestation, or deg ...
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