Negligent Scholarship

An American Portrait by Fritz Scholder
Source: www.firstpeople.us

*Note From The Editor: Greetings, Dear Reader, and thanks once again for visiting the One World In Concert blog. The following post (submitted by the esteemed Lakota elder and regular OWIC blog contributor, Wicahpi Wanjila - Leroy C. Curley) details the traditional Lakota Way of Life with special respect paid to Frank Fools Crow. Not to be confused with the fictional character of the same name, Frank Fools Crow was a Lakota Sioux spiritual leader, Yuwipi medicine man, and the nephew of Black Elk. Widely travelled and well respected, Fools Crow was often sought for his wisdom and prayer. And so it is with privilege and humility that OWIC presents to you, "Negligent Scholarship."

The book Fools Crow, 200 pages, published by Council Oak Books, Tulsa in 1991, written by Thomas E. Mails, a Lutheran pastor, is truthful in one sense in that it acknowledges an outstanding shortcoming of any composition having to do with native Lakota themes. Illustrating this fault is the following quotation by Mr. Mails in the same book:

"So then, this book - even when quotation marks are used - is seldom precisely what Fools Crow said, but rather what I helped him to say. Even as I write now, I am forced to edit and choose words. That fact may disturb some readers since it suggests that I might have shaped what is written to fit my own ideas."

It should be noted that Mr. Dallas Chief Eagle, a Roman Catholic and interpreter for Mr. Mails, is implied in the book that he is fluent in Lakota but not literate. Mr. Chief Eagle, if he were careful, could have transcribed the words of Fools Crow in the English alphabet by phonetic spelling. Thus both Messrs. Mails and Chief Eagle are negligent in their scholarship. And since in important passages the exact words of Fools Crow are not available then I will have to assume what is shaped to fit Mr. Mails' viewpoint.

An example of Mails' miscomprehension of even relatively recent Lakota events is in his own words on pages 28 and 29:

"...ever since the Sioux traded it (the Black Hills of South Dakota) to the United States Government in 1868 for a pittance of reservation land, things have gone steadily downhill for them."

The fact is that the Lakota Nation (Sioux Indians) never relinquished the Black Hill in 1868, the year of the Fort Laramie Treaty between the United States and the Sioux (Lakota Nation) which guaranteed to the Lakota people the greater part of five states in the 1851 Treaty but reduced in the 1868 Treaty where the Paha Sapa Black Hills are centrally located.

In that way, by too much or too little, Mails stretches almost out of recognition the real substance of the Lakota Way of Life. And when Mr. Mails has Fools Crow say, "...WakanTanka, Grandfather, and Jesus are one and the same," inevitably I knew I had to ask for response from present-day traditional people.

To this extent as I read the exact words quoted above to Mr. Stanley Looking Horse, the Headman of the family entrusted with the Sacred Pipe at Green Grass, his reply was, "Hecel wakesni.'" (or in English, "That's not what I mean.") Further, Stanley went on to explain that "...Wakantanka Tunkasila hena Jesus itokabtu lila ehani..." Or in English, "Wakantanka Tunkasila are prior to Jesus, an immeasurably long period of time before."

And briefly in Lakota-English dictionary terms, Tunkasila is Grandfather, and Wakantanka is the Great Holy Spirit and the Supreme Being of Lakota Theology.

Alas, Mails goes on to write in the hierarchical mode of his culture:

"I know absolutely that, as of my last visit with him (Fools Crow), he had not found anyone he felt he could entrust with the entire responsibility of being the Sun Dance Intercessor."

To which Mr. Chauncy Dupris, a traditionalist of long-standing of Cherry Creek, responded, "Ecel ecunpi hantans tuwekeyas okihi... hanbleceyin na inikaga na iyuha...," which in English translation states, "If done in tradition accordingly, anyone is enabled to be intercessor of the Sun Dance, to first undergo the ceremonies of the vision quest (hanbleceya) and the life-renewal (inikaga) completely."

In the country of the Mnikoju, Itazipco, Owohenumpa, and the Siha Sapa of the Cheyenne River Reservation, Sun Dances ongoing for the most part annually have been held at eight separate locale over the years: Red Scaffold, Ash Creek, and two places each at On The Tree because I didn't get the word soon enough and the one at Cherry Creek. But of those I have seen, each one had a different intercessor as well as different Sun Dancers.

To the point, Mr. Romanus Bear Stops, who is a sponsor and intercessor of nine seasons this year of Sun Dancing near his home about 4 miles west of Red Scaffold, states, "eshe he wicake Chauncy eye kin he." Which in English says, "correctly what Chauncy says is true" (of anyone being able to qualify to lead a Sun Dance Ceremony).

Thus, all three gentlemen quoted above, Messrs. Looking Horse, Dupris and Bear Stops do speak Lakota primarily and fluently and are also bilingual, establishing their present contribution to the discussion herein much more weightier than others who are not so favorably situated.

Mr. Mails however did write one memorable conclusion, "Fools Crow did not attempt to make a Native American traditionalist out of me, and I did not seek to influence him in Christian things," actually describing the original and ideal setting several hundreds of years ago when each tradition thrived in its own socially homogenous neighborhoods on their homelands.

Only Mails fails to mention how he or his interpreter acquired their competence to re-word Fools Crow. The standard today is higher. One must not be only bilingual but bi-literate since the scientific 41-letter Lakota alphabet was created in 1982 so that one may write original, authentic letters into the future.

But in the practice of native traditions everyone within the nation is expected, at some level of experience, to participate in the cycle of the ceremonial year. In fluent Lakota, prayers with the sacred pipe are what governed throughout all the rituals. To be spiritually native Lakota is to word fluent Lakota prayers. The spoken word defined the sacred concepts and set the morality of the people. As he or she is moved, each practitioner of the Lakota Way is free to vary the form of the ceremony, except for the fixed symbols and the sacred concepts.

After all, that native spiritual legacy is originally communicated in the most fluent Lakota.

Of ancient times, it is a great religious tradition truly predating all known calendar systems of today that Mr. Mails touches upon lightly, although appreciated.

The Lakota Way is a 40,000-year religion and spirituality when Buddhism, Christianity, Islamic Muhammad, the Dalai Lama, L. Ron Hubbard and others were not even born.

My own prayers are addressed to - Wakantanka Tunkasila, Iyotan Waka - Grandfather, The One Creator, Infinite Spirit, Most Holy.

"To incorporate Indian Religions into other religions that are absolutely different is wrong." - Dr. Bea Medicine in Lakota Times, 7-29-92.

In this statement today, there is no thought of disrespect or argument and so on. The Lakota Way teaches understanding and peace; therefore, each spiritual path can go on without conflict, no problem.

Wicahpi Wanjila - Leroy C. Curley
02/08/2010

P.S. I wrote parts of this years ago and kept it for the right moment. But now is the Lakota moment. WW-LCC