All My Relatives: Exploring Lakota Ontology, Belief, and Ritual

293 Pages·2018·7.056 MB·English

by  David C. Posthumus

all my relatives
New Visions in Native American
and Indigenous Studies
SERIES EDITORS
Margaret D. Jacobs
Robert Miller
All My Relatives
Exploring Lakota Ontology,
Belief, and Ritual
david c. posthumus
co- published by the university of nebraska press
and the american philosophical society
© 2018 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Names: Posthumus, David C., author.
Title: All my relatives: exploring Lakota ontology,
belief, and ritual / David C. Posthumus.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2018]
| Series: New visions in Native American and Indigenous
studies | “Co-p ublished with the American Philosophical
Society.” | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017044990
ISBN 9780803299948 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 9781496205704 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Lakota philosophy. | Lakota mythology.
Classification: LCC E99.T34 P67 2018 | DDC 978.004/975244—
dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017044990
contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Hallowell, Descola, Ontology,
and Phenomenology 19
2. Situated Animism and
Lakota Relational Ontology 34
3. The Living Rock,
Grandfather of All Things 73
4. Persons and Transformation 92
5. Spirits and Ghosts 103
6. Nonhuman Persons in Lakota Mythology 123
7. Nonhuman Persons in Lakota Dreams
and Visions 136
8. Nonhuman Persons in Lakota Ritual 168
9. The Dynamics of Life Movement 206
Glossary of Lakota Terms and Phrases 221
Notes 231
References 251
Index 267
illustrations
maps
1. Mid- nineteenth- century Lakota territory 2
2. Pine Ridge Reservation 3
3. Sioux territory, early to
mid- nineteenth century 7
figures
1. The Lakota model of the person 61
2. Yuwį́ tapi ‘ritual supplication’
and cʿąnų́pa iyáȟpeyapi
‘ceremonial pipe offering’ 88
3. Depiction of the vision quest,
by Amos Bad Heart Bull 182
4. Depiction of the vision quest, by
Stephen Standing Bear 183
5. Dream or Spirit Elk 187
6. Deer and Elk dreamer ritual
performance (káǧa) 190
7. The Bear Dance, Preparing for a Bear
Hunt (1844), by George Catlin 192
acknowledgments
I am indebted to many people for their friendship, encouragement, criti-
cism, patience, and support. First of all I want to thank my Lakota friends
and adoptive relatives for sharing their lives and deep knowledge with
me. I am very thankful for your friendship, acceptance, generosity, and
enduring support, and for allowing me to tag along with you on your
many adventures. I am eternally grateful to each and every one of you.
Thank you to Robert Brave Heart Sr. and the entire Brave Heart fam-
ily; Stanley Good Voice Elk; the late Alvin and Steve Slow Bear; Tom
Cook and Loretta Afraid of Bear; Joe Giago, Richard Giago, and Tyler
Lunderman; Roger White Eyes, Philomine Lakota, Gloria Two Crows,
and Beverly Pipe On Head; John Gibbons and his family; Russ and the
late Foster “Boomer” Cournoyer; Gene Thin Elk; Leon Leader Charge;
Rich Boyd; and the entire Wase Wakpa native community in Vermillion,
South Dakota. Special thanks go to Arthur Amiotte and his wife, Janet
Murray, the late Wilmer “Stampede” Mesteth and his wife, Lisa, Richard
Two Dogs and his wife, Ethleen, and their families. I cannot thank you
all enough. Thank you to the Department of Anthropology at Indiana
University Bloomington (IUB); the American Indian Studies Research
Institute (AISRI) at IUB; the College of Arts & Sciences, Department of
Anthropology and Sociology, and Native American Studies Program at
the University of South Dakota; the American Society for Ethnohistory;
ix