North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler.

  • Clark Wissler
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    correct. It is true that anything strange and mysteri¬ ous is pronounced wakan, or as having attributes analogous to wakan tanka; but this seems to mean supernatural. The fact is, as demonstrated by Dr. J. R. Walker, that the Dakota do recognize a kind of hierarchy in which the Sun stands first, or as one of the wakan tanka. Of almost equal rank is the Sky, the Earth, and the Rock. Next in order is another group of four, the Moon (female), Winged-one, Wind and the “Mediator” (female). Then come inferior beings, the buffalo, bear, the four winds and the whirlwind; then come four classes or groups of beings and so on in almost bewildering complexity. So far as we know, no other Plains tribe has worked out quite so complex a conception. The Omaha wakonda is in a way like the Dakota wakan tanka. The Pawnee recognized a dominating power spoken of as tirawa, or, “father,” under whom were the heavenly bodies, the winds, the thunder, lightning, and rain. The Blackfoot resolved the phenomena of the universe into “powers,” the greatest and most universal of which was natosiwa, or sun power. The sun was in a way a personal god having the moon for his wife and the morningstar for his son. Unfortunately, we lack data for most tribes, this being a point peculiarly difficult to investigate. One thing, however, is suggested. There is tendency here to conceive of some all-pervading force or element in the universe that emanates from an indefinite source to which a special name is given, which in turn becomes an attribute applicable to each and every manifesta-