Browsing by Subject "Lakota"
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Delphine Red Shirt(Voices from the Gaps, 2003) Peterson, Abbey; Taylor, MariaItem Myth as True History: Medicine Wheels and Landmarks as Boundary Markers of the Lakota World(2016) Burley, Paul DThis investigation examines physical, spatial and temporal characteristics of Native American medicine wheels located on the Northern Great Plains of the Unites States. Direct evidence for date and purpose of construction and use of medicine wheels is limited. As architectural symbols of native science, the structures are understood to be metaphors for native knowledge and creative participation with the natural world in both theory and practice, serving as bridges between the inner and outer realities. However, reasons for the respective location, meaning of architectural design, date of construction, and identification of people who constructed each medicine wheel generally remain unknown. An exception is Cloud Peak medicine wheel located on the west flank of the high point of the Bighorn mountain range in Wyoming, and shown to have been constructed by the Lakota tribe no earlier than about 1700 AD. Documented Lakota migration onto the Great Plains beginning during the early 17th century was reviewed to trace the timeframe and areal extent of the tribe's occupation of the region. Major regional and local physiographic features of the 2 Northern Great Plains were identified as they relate to Lakota traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). The tribe's history and culture, including mythology, cosmology, were reviewed from ethnographic records and documents addressing tribal history and sacred lifeway. Field observations were made of medicine wheel sites and physiographic features on the Northern Great Plains and adjoining regions of known import to the Lakota and other tribes which occupied the region during late prehistory. Observations and measurements of Cloud Peak medicine wheel, the Jennings site in east central South Dakota and additional archaeological sites of significance on the Northern Great Plains, and proximal relationships between those sites and major topographic and hydrogeologic features of the region suggest these features share common spatial, cosmographic and mythological relationships with the spiritual center of the Lakota world at Bear Butte, South Dakota. Based on locations of Cloud Peak medicine wheel and the Jennings site, physiographic and ecological characteristics of those locations and two additional sites of archaeological significance, and ethnographic records of Oceti Sakowin and Lakota TEK it is concluded these features compose primary elements of an Earth-scale sacred hoop delineating the physical boundaries of the traditional Lakota world. This sacred hoop was conceived, designed and built to include most of the Northern Great Plains region and traditional territory of the Lakota in particular. The hoop is interpreted to have been constructed soon after Lakota occupation of the Northern Great Plains by the late 18th century.Item Reconstructing Lakota ritual in the landscape: the identification and typing system for traditional cultural property sites.(2009-11) LeBeau II, Sebastian C. (Bronco)This Lakota methodology and taxonomy for identifying traditional cultural property sites was developed from understanding how the Lakota view the land and how a place produces a tangible social meaning that directs how the Lakota use it in order to perform a culturally significant traditional activity. It identifies sites by making an association between a specific kind of place with a specific kind of activity. The taxonomy uses Lakota designators to identify site types in order to reveal their quality of traditional cultural significance and create the appropriate cultural context for relating to them.Item Traditional Lakota Concept of Well-Being: A Qualitative Study(2015-12) Noisy Hawk, LyleMost psychological research from which treatments are developed has typically been from the majority population overlooking American Indian/Alaskan Native racial/ethnic groups. This qualitative study examines how traditional Lakota healers conceptualize well-being from their unique perspectives. Seven healers were interviewed using a 3 question semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were transcribed into the Lakota language then translated from Lakota to English. The interviewed were then analyzed inductively using a grounded theory method. From the data, a central theme emerged: the traditional Lakota concept of well-being (Wicozani). The healers identified five distinct way that well-being (Wicozani) may be achieved. These are that: (1) well-being is attained and maintained through one's prayerful awareness and experience with religious beliefs or the sacred/the holy - the Wakan; (2) well-being is attained and maintained through maintaining healthy relationships with family, tribal structure and all of creation; (3) well-being is attained and maintained through consistent practice of prayer through rituals and traditions; (4) well-being is attained and maintained through successful recovery from traumatic experiences; (5) the need to enact the values to attain and maintain an integrated sense of well-being. The results suggest that there are similarities across the Lakota culture and the majority culture despite epistemic difference. Based on the findings, implication and recommendations were made.Item Vietnam Akíčita: Lakota And Dakota Military Tradition In The Twentieth Century(2020-05) Little, JohnThis dissertation examines the impact of military tradition among Native Americans, embracing many of the twentieth-century wars but with particular emphasis on Vietnam. In total over 42,000 Native Americans served in Vietnam. For the majority of this dissertation, I have centered the experiences of Lakota and Dakota veterans. In using the Lakota and Dakota as a microcosm, I demonstrate how military service has innovated throughout the twentieth-century but also how Indigenous people have strategically used it to continue culture, language, and traditions in everyday life. A variety of factors influenced the high per capita rates of Native service in the twentieth century. For some Native soldiers, military service provided the opportunity to continue and connect with earlier warrior traditions. Those connections included the protection of traditional homelands, their People, and their communities as well as for the survival of their cultural traditions. Other Native veterans turned to the military as an opportunity to leave their isolated and impoverished reservations communities. This dissertation combines oral interviews, autobiographies, Native literature, vinyl records, and powwow music to demonstrate the complexities of Native military service and move beyond stereotypical assumptions.