One World In Concert: The Titunwun Lakota

*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) provides valuable details on the Lakota Way of Life. To read Mr. Curley's original post in this series, The Titunwun Lakota - Part 1, please click here.

Titunwan Lakota is the formal name for ourselves for thousands of years prior to the arrival of the white man in Lakota territories approximately 1700-1800’s, when suddenly the white man referred to us as “Sioux Indians” without much forethought.

This is understandable in those days of single-language only speakers and writers. English-only speakers could not understand each other then except through language after a fashion.

But today, many Lakota people have become fluent in English as well as keeping their own language intact. Thus bilingually fluent Lakota is ready to review the whole range of U.S.-Lakota relations since the first treaty between the two peoples. The last Treaty of Peace between the United states and the Lakota written in English-only is the 1868 Treaty of Peace, which will definitely be reviewed from bi-lingual competency.

Titunwun Lakota defined in summary will follow the natural sequence in spoken and written discourse. Titunwun has three meanings: Ti=nation; Tun=birth; wun=the, or Birth of the Nation. Thus Titunwun Lakota declares the Birth of the Nation Lakota, which then is also known as The Seven Council Fires. Of course, the small unit in the Titunwun is the tiwahe - the family and all the individual members.

All the members of the Titunwun Lakota spoke Lakota as the defining standard of who is Lakota. Speaking the language gave them their identity and a whole world view, because it contains a world of important ideas and values and virtues. These virtues are taught in the religious, spiritual life of the people as written in this series on the Lakota ways. The Lakota respects all religions of the world where other faiths have seen conflicts escalating into violence of all misunderstandings. Lakota faith is in prayers to Wakantanka Tunkasila: Grandfather, Infinite-Spirit-the-One-Creator.

Also, it is through the Lakota language that one needs to learn to live in the present.

What is lost to the Lakota people now in English-only mode is tremendous. In one word their Tawacin is gone and this is devastating and here is why: In the word tawacin, cin is the main part - cin means want and the basic question is taku wacin hwo? What do I want? And when you answer that question to the best of your ability, other parts of tawacin come into play. Waciniyoyake is when your feelings and your heart come into play, which also calls for your will or will power or your complete physical, mental and spiritual powers. Thus, the Lakota person without the Lakota language is like an automobile in neutral with the motor running but nobody to drive it.

Writing and speaking in Lakota, the identity and the world view of the Lakota will be re-established for all Lakota. The Titunwaun Lakota, Peta Sakowin, Seven Council Fires, are as follows: Hunkpapa Lakota, Oglala Lakota, Sicangu Lakota, Itazipco Lakota, Owohenumpa Lakota, and the Sihasapa Lakota.

As the rule of law embodied in Wolakota Wootape (woope in abbreviated form will be honored) Woope is law in Lakota. Correspondingly the Lakota language has its own 41-letter alphabet, which fits its own spoken language better than the 26-letter alphabet of English, which does not cover all the unique sounds used in spoken English. In this sense, Lakota letters are more scientific than English letters. For these and many other reasons the rule of law and the spoken Lakota, Lakota society produced a full-employment economy, of course, with no hungry and no homeless people. It is a civilization, which had no need for jails, insane asylums and other negative institutions.

In this reawakening, the Lakota Spirit will prove to be what is missing since 1934-35 when the Indian Reorganization Act was instituted.

But this is a short introduction as to who we truly are as a nation. Our national and international identity is proven by the Treaty of 1851 and 1868 between the United States and the Lakota Nation. The United states, without a clue as to the identity of the Lakota, assumed without basis “Sioux Indian” to label the Lakota. And this is fraud from the beginning. The truth is the Titunwun Lakota is the nation in the 1851-1868 treaties between the United States and the Lakota Nation.