The Lakota Sioux essays

The Lakota Sioux essays The Sioux were a tribe of Native Americans who lived in the Great Plains. They flourished for hundreds if not thousands of years, before they were decimated and re-settled by White Men in after a long series of wars in the 1800s. The Sioux were a very religious people. Like almost (if not) all Native Americans, they were Polytheistic-although, unlike other polytheistic tribes, they did believe in one supreme power. They called the supreme power Wakan Tanka, the great spirit, who includes all the other gods combined, most notably Wi, the sun, Skan, the sky and judge of everyone, and Maka the earth. Other famous and important powers are The buffalo, the four winds, bear, the four directions, Hanwi the the moon, Iktomi the trickster, and Tate the wind. The Sioux had many rituals. Examples are the sun dance and heyokas. Heyokas were people who dreamed of thunder or a legendary thunderbird. Heyokas would do everything backwards-including riding horses. They interpreted dreams. They basically were religious clowns. If and when they want to quit this role, they would rid themselves of it by sticking their hand in a steaming kettle and drawing a chunk of meat out from it. The sun dance was a 12 day prayer to the sun. The first four days all the men wore red skirts and put sage wreaths in their hair. While gazing at the sun and blowing eagle bone whistles, they danced around the Sacred Pole, which was a cottonwood tree. They then stuck sticks attached to the Sacred Pole into their chests. At the end, people who didnt want to become holy men pulled the sticks out of their chests. If they wanted to become holy men, they were lifted by the sticks in the air until their flesh ripped. if you survived, you were considered a holy man. The Sioux religion also had many legends. Among them is the white Buffalo woman, a legend that is intended to explain how various Sioux customs developed. The daughter of wi the s...