TASHIYAGMUNKA

Western Meadowlark by Kevin Cole
Source: Wikipedia

TASHIYAGMUNKA
The Return of the Meadowlark

"Omaka teca yelo!" is the refrain sung by the meadowlark as it arrives from the south of Mexico each year. There are other phrases to his songs but this is his favorite tune while in Lakota territories. The lark is more intent in producing the uplifting sounds which he is prone to do, singing while sitting or chirping while flying in the air. Actually his complete lyrics in the opening line is "Oiyokipiya Omaka Teca yelo!" which is translated, "The joyous season of the New Earth is here!" in the lark's discernible Lakota. In the ancient Lakota program, the meadowlark is the forerunner who announces a new season, a new earth and the beginning of the Lakota New Year. And a Happy New Year to you, too! Omaka Teca denotes literally the new earth which connotes the New Year at the spring equinox. In the Lakota time sense, the new year begins at the wetu or spring season, when Grandmother Earth is at its most freshest, its green grass most resurgent. In verbal and symbolic Titunwun Lakota history, the medicine wheel built of large boulders in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming and the other sacred circle built near Sioux Valley, Manitoba, Canada show carbon-dating at 20 to 40,000 years old of man-made structures. Thus this new year is Lakota Year 40,010 as most nearly the correct annual record of our Titunwun Lakota history in this region of the world. In the alternative star knowledge and in the sacred Lakota language, the Lakota people and the tashiyagmunka have always been here. Infused with complexity, then, the meadowlark is of two species in North America, the eastern and western. The easterner's domain is from eastern Canada to Brazil, while the westerner's is from western Canada to Mexico and maybe even into Central America. The easterner makes a simple four-note whistle while the westerner generates more intricate notes with fluting. To call or to sing, the westerner makes a more vibrant and colorful tune than the easterner. The lady lark builds grass-domed nests to hold its white eggs with red dots, hidden among the roots of thick grasses. If approached too closely when nesting, it feigns injury as it flutters away looking as though it may not be able to get off the ground at all, luring any predator farther away from its brood eggs. In size, the lark grows to 8 to 11 inches long plus five inches of the tail. Its coloring is upper parts are brown to brownish-white markings. Its wings and tail are transversed by dark-brown bars across and brightly it is yellow breasted with a black crescent. It has a powerful flight and is the finest singer of the open regions of Lakota prairies.

The lark also has a sweet double call while circling upon fluttering wings, enjoying its field of play in the middle ground in the best of all possible worlds of the spring season. There are those above and below his order such as the Arctic Tern who is the greatest traveler covering 11,000 miles each way from his breeding grounds in the Arctic to his winter home in the Antarctic; the Ostrich who is the largest bird at 8 feet and 300 pounds fully grown; the hummingbird who is the smallest bird at 2 inches and weighs 1/10 of an ounce; but the goose family are the highest flyers, some able to fly over mountain ranges 25,000 feet high, even the Himalayas. Thus the tashiyagmunka the smartest bird stays within the regions where it is always springtime and that is why without the meadowlark there would not be quite the same omaka teca.


Wicahpi Wanjila - Leroy C. Curley
03/22/2010