§ 94. Pond writes:
Evidence is also wanting to show that the Dakotas embraced in their religious tenents the idea of one supreme existence, whose existence is expressed by the term Great Spirit. If some clans at the present time entertain this idea it seems highly probable that it has been imparted to them by individuals of European extraction. No reference to such a being is found in their feasts, fasts, or sacrifices. Or if there is such a reference at the present time it is clear that it is of recent origin and does not belong to their system. It is indeed true that the Dakotas do sometimes appeal to the Great Spirit when in council with white men, but it is because they themselves have embraced the Christian doctrines. Still, it is generally the interpreter who makes the appeal to the Great Spirit, when the Indian speaker really appealed to the Taku Wakan, and not to the Wakantanka. It is true that * * * all the Dakota gods * * * are mortal. They are not thought of as being eternal, except it may be by succession.[88]
The author agrees with Pond in what he says about the average Indian interpreter of early days, who seldom gave a correct rendering of what was spoken in council. But at the present time great improvement has doubtless been observed.
It should be remembered that Messrs. Riggs and Pond were missionaries to the Dakotas, while Messrs. Say, Shea, and Lynd must be classed among the laity. Yet the missionaries, not the laymen, are the ones who make the positive statements about the absence of a belief in one Great Spirit.
RIGGS ON THE TAKU WAKAN.
§ 95. Riggs remarks:
The religious faith of the Dakota is not in his gods as such. It is an intangible, mysterious something of which they are only the embodiment, and that in such a measure and degree as may accord with the individual fancy of the worshiper. Each one will worship some of these divinities and neglect and despise others; but the great object of all their worship, whatever its chosen medium, is the TA-KOO WAH-KON, which is the supernatural and mysterious. No one term can express the full meaning of the Dakota’s Wakan. It comprehends all mystery, secret power, and divinity. * * * All life is Wakan. So also is everything which exhibits power, whether in action, as the winds and drifting clouds, or in passive endurance, as the bowlder by the wayside.[89]
MEANING OF “WAKAN.”
In the mind of a Dakota * * * this word Wah-kon (we write, wa-kan) covers the whole field of their fear and worship. Many things also that are neither feared nor worshiped, but are simply wonderful, come under this designation. It is related of Hennepin that when he and his two companions were taken captive by a Sioux war party, as they ascended the upper Mississippi one of the men took up his gun and shot a deer on the bank. The Indians said, “Wah-kon chi?”—Is not this mysterious? And from that day * * * the gun has been called Mah-za wah-kon, mysterious iron. This is shortened into Mah-za-kon. The same thing we may believe is true when, probably less than two centuries ago, they first saw a horse. They said “Shoon-ka wah-kon,” wonderful dog. And from that day the horse has been called by the Sioux wonderful dog, except when it has been called big dog, Shoon-ka tonka. These historical facts have satisfied us that the idea of the Great Spirit ascribed to the Indians of North America does not belong to the original theogony of the Sioux, but has come from without, like that (sic) of the horse and gun, and probably dates back only to their first hearing of the white man’s God.[90]
Taku Wakan.—This is a general term, including all that is wonderful, incomprehensible, supernatural—what is wakan; but especially covering the objects of their worship. Until used in reference to our God, it is believed that the phrase was not applied to any individual object of worship, but was equivalent to “the gods.”[91] As tuwe, who, refers to persons, and taku, what, to things, the correctness of Riggs’s conclusion can hardly be questioned, provided we add that the Dakota term, Taku Wakan, could not have conveyed to the Dakota mind the idea of a personal God, using the term person as it is commonly employed by civilized peoples.