Myth as True History: Medicine Wheels and Landmarks as Boundary Markers of the Lakota World

Abstract

This 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.