Indigenous Nations of the Plains – the Sioux

II - Values and Beliefs

This coloured print of an 1830s lithograph by George Catlin depicts a Sioux Buffalo Dance.  Catlin was an American artist who visited the West five times during the 1830s, and devoted what he called "a lifetime of enthusiasm" to describing the scenes he saw in his letters and some 400 paintings.  Catlin has been accused of exaggerating his own importance, and of exploiting his Indigenous subjects for personal fame, but so many Indigenous people wanted to be painted by him that we must assume they were happy with his depictions..

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

The website of St Joseph's Indian School, South Dakota, has wonderful information about Lakota Sioux beliefs and rites.

YouTube

Listen to Elder Duane Hollow Horn Bear telling stories about the Lakota origins and the sacredness of water

The Lakota virtue of Woohitika

Religion

Although early settlers decided that they Indigenous Nations of the Plains had no religion, the opposite was true, and the Sioux were VERY religious: “Whenever the hunter came across a beautiful scene ...  he paused for a moment in worship”. 

Although the Sioux believed in a Great Spirit – called Wakantanka – where wakan was the Power of the universe which gave life to all living things.   The Sioux therefore believed that life was a shared possession and that they had kinship with all living things, including plants, animals ... and supernatural beings called wakampi ('spirits' who, if offended, might cause misfortune or death and needed appeasing).  Thus spirituality permeated every aspect of their daily lives, and they continually performed small ceremonies and said prayers in honour of the spirits. 

When a young man ‘came of age’, he would take part in a ceremony which involved fasting, self-harm, going into a trance and seeing an animal that was a 'spirit friend'.  This vision would be interpreted by the Wicasa wakan (‘holy man’) of the tribe.  Pictures of visions were drawn on the tipis.  After this, the young man would know his future and gain his adult name, e.g. Crazy Horse. 

Visions were also important in later life.  Sitting Bull removed strips of skin from his body before the Battle of Little Bighorn and the vision that he had of men in blue uniforms falling was a reason why his warriors believed that they would win the battle (and they did). 

The Wicasa wakan was important because the Sioux believed that spirits caused the harsh, unpredictable weather of the Plains; he cured illnesses and talked to the spirits. 

The Sioux believed that they could get closer to the spirits by dancing; as well as dancing, this involved meditation, fasting or enduring pain.  Dances happened before battles or raids and before and after a buffalo hunt. 

The most famous dance, common to many Indigenous Nations, was the Sun Dance for spiritual healing and the welfare of their communities: men fasted and meditated and warriors were then suspended from the roof supported by skewers through holes in their chests.  The Buffalo Dance brought the buffalo; the Cheyenne performed an Animal Dance to bring luck to hunters; and the Caddo performed the Turkey Dance, which celebrated the return of warriors from battle. 

Values

Indigenous people “true lovers of Nature”.  They connected their lives to Nature; they accepted they were part of nature and ought to live in such a way as to fit in with Nature.  “Man’s heart away from Nature becomes hard”, said the Sioux Chief Luther Standing Bear. 

They loved the land, which they called their ‘mother’ – it had been put here by the Great Spirit to support mankind.  The land was eternal and imperishable, beautiful and there to be enjoyed.  It was also holy and to be venerated – Spirits lived in the earth whom it was unwise to anger, and the ancestors were buried there.  Land could not be bought or sold; it belonged to all creatures (imagine someone trying to sell you the wind or the air) and could not be 'owned' by anyone – indeed it needed to be unfenced and unfarmed, because the buffalo needed open land to migrate. 

Circles were particularly important to the Plains Indians, who saw life as a circle (see Source B).  They would put their camps in a circle to remain close to the spirits, their tipi was a circle and the migrating buffalo moved in circles. 

The hunt was dangerous so men often died young, and because there was a need to take care of the women and children, marriage was easy; at 17 a youth paid a dowry of horses and took his bride (aged 12-15).  Since a good hunter would need more than one wife to prepare the many buffalo he killed, most tribes allowed polygamy.

The basis of Sioux society was kinship with the members of their community/clan; to be good kin was to be human, to be civilised, and was the aim and constant ambition of each Sioux.  The Akicita (warrior societies) who returned from the hunt saw it as their sacred duty to feed first the aged and the weak.  In like manner, the very old, when they ceased to be of any use, would simply refuse to move with the tribe and be left behind to die (the practice of 'exposure').

Source A

A photo of 'Sioux Medicine Man' Tatanka Witko ('Fool Bull') in 1900. 
He had fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn – he is holding a buckskin war shield, and the fox pelt in his right hand shows he was a member of the Kit-Fox society..
He is wearing what seems to be a necklace of claws, and holds a whip with a serated edge (representing a lightning bolt) – indicating that he was one of the tribe's 'Whiip-Bearers' who kept order in the village. 
According to one story, he was the last man to be able to make flutes in the shape of a bird's head which had the elk power to entice a woman.