WAKAN TANKA, THE SUPREME DEITY OF THE DAKOTA

Following are the words of Sword, an Oglala of the Teton division of the Dakota Indians, as recorded by J.R. Walker.

Every object in the world has a spirit and that spirit is wakan. Thus the spirits of the tree or things of that kind, while not like the spirit of man, are also wakan. Wakan comes from the wakan beings. These wakan beings are greater then mankind in the same way that mankind is greater then animals. They are never born and never die. They can do many things that mankind cannot do. Mankind can pray to the wakan beings for help. The word Wakan Tanka means all the wakan beings because they are all as if one. Wakan Tanka Kin signifies the chief or leading Wakan being is Nagi Tanka, the Great Spirit who is also Taku Skanskan. Taku Skanskan signifies the Blue, in other words, the sky.
. . . .Mankind is permitted to pray to Wakan beings. If their prayer is directed to all the good Wakan beings, they should pray to Wakan Tanka; but if a prayer if offered to only one of these beings, then the one addressed should be named. . . . Wakan Tanka is like sixteen different persons but each person is kan. Therefore, they are only the same as one.

J.R. Walker, The Sun Dance and Other Ceremonies of the Oglala Division of the Teton Dakota (American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, vol XVI, part II, (1917) pp.152-3)

THE 'GREAT SPIRIT' OF THE LENAPE

The Lenape (or Delaware) Indians, an important Algonquian tribe, occupied a large area from Ontario southward into the middle Atlantic region, and westward principally in Oklahoma.

All the Lenape so far questioned, whether followers of the native or of the Christian religion unite in saying that their people have always believed in a chief Mani 'to, a leader of all the gods, in short, in a Great Spirit or Supreme Being, The other mani 'towuk for the greater part being merely agents appointed by him. His name, according to present Unami usage is Gicelemu 'kaong, usually translated 'great spirit,' but meaning literally, 'creator.' Directly or through the mani 'towuk his agents, he created the earth and everything in it, and gave to the Lenape all they possessed, 'the trees, the waters, the fire that springs from flint,--everything.' To him the people pray in their greatest ceremonies, and give thanks for the benefits he has given them. Most of the direct worship, however is addressed to the mani 'towuk his agents, to whom he has given charge of the elements, and with whom the people feel they have a closer personal relation, as their actions are seen in every sunrise and thunderstorm, and felt in every wind that blows across woodland and prairie. Moreover, as the Creator lives in the twelfth or highest heaven above the earth, it takes twelve shouts or cries to reach his ear.

M.R Harrington, Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape (New York, 1921) pp 18-19

TIRAWA, THE SUPREME GOD OF THE PAWNEE

Once among the strongest tribes of the Plains Indians, the Pawnee were found from the shores of the Platte River in Nebraska south to the Arkansas River. Today they live mostly in Oklahoma.

'The white man' said the Kurahus, 'speaks of a heavenly Father; we say Tirawa atius, the Father above, but we do not think of Tirawa as a person. We think of Tirawa as in everything, as the Power which has arranged and thrown down from above everything that man needs. What the Power above, Tirawa atius, is like, no one knows; no one has been there.'
When Kawas explains to the Kurahus the meaning of the signs in the East, 'she tells him that Tirawa atius there moves upon Darkness, the Night, and causes her to bring forth the Dawn. It is the breath of the new-born Dawn, the child of Night and Tirawa atius, which is felt by all the powers and all things above and below and which gives them new life for a new day.'

H.B. Alexander, The World's Rim (University of Nebraska Press, 1953) p.132

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