Post by mdenney on Jul 22, 2007 18:49:28 GMT -5
II. Roots
Monday, June 18, 2007
By Scott Richard Lyons
We are the Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate, but what does that mean? Let’s start with an examination of the words themselves.
Minnesota obviously refers to the state, but long before the state boundaries were set, the appellation referred to a less defined geographic area. Mni means water and, according to some accounts, sota refers to the color of the sky, so Minnesota can be translated as “sky-colored water.” [1] In other words, perhaps the old Hamm’s Beer jingle wasn’t that far off when it sang “from the land of sky-blue waters….”
Today’s Minnesota was once the homeland of all “Sioux” people. The Mdewakanton are the original group of the “Seven Council Fires” (Oceti Sakowin) that historically comprised the “Great Sioux Nation.” The Oceti Sakowin include Mdewakanton, Wahpetowan, Wahpekute, Sissetowan, Ihantowan, Ihanktowanai, and Tetonwan. These people speak mutually intelligible dialects (Dakota/Lakota/Nakota) of the same language.
When I was at Rosebud for the 2007 MMDO Convention, I had a chance to meet with Mr. Duane Hollow Horn Bear, a respected elder and traditionalist who lives in Spring Creek, and he confirmed that “the Mdewakanton are the grandfathers of us all. We all come from Minnesota, and we all come from the Mdewakanton.”
Translated as “spirit lake community of people,” the word Mdewakanton breaks down like this: mde means lake, wakan means spirit or holy, and “ton” is a shortened version of otonwan, signifying a community of people.
Dakota is a variation on koda meaning “friend” and understood as “ally.” The names of today’s big three Siouan language groups—Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota— all possess this meaning of friends or allies.
Oyate has an interesting history of use and meaning, in general and in our own particular context. The word is often translated as “people” but can also refer to a “nation.” For example, Little Crow’s name Te Oyate Duta is typically translated to “His Red Nation.” Further, as we can see in the cognate word oyasin, as in mitakuye oyasin (“all my relations”), the people or nation described in the word oyate are known by their essential relatedness. An oyate is really one large family.
The MMDO began as the MMDN (Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Nation), as we see in the language of our present constitution. However, in 2004 our group replaced “Nation” with “Oyate” in order to remove the only English word in our group’s moniker and to more precisely capture this distinctively Dakota sense of oyate.
In Standing in the Light, Severt Young Bear wrote that the original meaning of oyate is connected to wièoti (wi means “sun”, èan ohan ti means “trees, among, live”). “People in the sun living among the trees,” then, might be the fullest way to translate oyate wièoti. The reason for this might be due to the people’s desire to find a camp that would provide protection from enemies and elements, fuel for their fires, and a higher elevation that would allow them to see a long way (hence the reference to the sun).
Mr. Young Bear also tells how the oyate eventually organized into smaller groups of tiyošpaye or extended families. Ti means to live, and špaye invokes a circle drawn around a smaller group of people. When we meet at our MMDO conventions, exchange photographs and stories about common relatives and ancestors, and feel good in the process, what is really happening between us is the emotional reformation of the tiyošpaye, our extended families, and these all add up to constitute the oyate.
In sum, the linguistic roots of “Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate” – a phrase that is 100% Dakota – says a great deal about who we used to be, who we are today, and, perhaps, who we can be once again in the future. We are the people of the sun who camped near the trees, next to a holy lake in the land of plenty sky-colored water: a nation, a people, a family—friends and allies to others in times of need. Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate.
That’s a grand identity that speaks of a very noble past. But what of the present? Will it define us in the future? That’s a discussion we must have now. Please send me your thoughts at srlyons@syr.edu and check back later for new postings. Pidamayapi!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] According to others, Minnesota means “Plenty Water”. Mni means “water” and Ota means “plenty”. Non-Dakota speakers added an “s” to Mni in order to pluralize the word.
view comments (1) post comment permalink 11:42 AM (UTC -4)
I. The Question
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
By Scott Richard Lyons
A funny thing happened at the 2007 Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate Annual Convention. We asked ourselves who we wish to be. In the long run, this may be the most important question we will ever ask.
We already know who we are. We are the lineal descendents of the 208 Mdewakanton who pledged not to fight in the 1862 war against the Americans, who were in return promised land with hopes for a better tomorrow, but who were ultimately betrayed. We are the inheritors of that betrayal.
We know who we are through the pain it caused, although we feel this common injury in our own particular ways. Some of us live in perpetual poverty initiated by the federal government’s unfulfilled promises. Most mourn the sad, difficult lives endured by our ancestors in the aftermath. Many of us wonder who – even what – we are today. We know who we are by our shared historical trauma.
Let me offer an example: my great-grandmother, Mabel Leith, whose mother Sarah Dow and grandmother Mary Rock were both listed on the 1886 census. My father tells me that Grandma Mabel always used to talk about her “promised land.” It was coming any day now, she always insisted, and it would improve everyone’s lives.
Meanwhile, Mabel lived a hard life, frequently on the move following jobs at a time when her skin color and gender prevented career stability or upward mobility. To survive in the Twin Cities, for a time she put her beading skills to work for the Minnetonka Moccasin company. Her love of family led her to unions with men who were often unkind. One family story tells of a time when Mabel lived alone in remote northern Minnesota and walked over forty miles in the middle of winter to get medicine for her sick baby. The next morning, her baby was dead. Hard years.
But Mabel persevered, kept her dignity, and showed strength. When I was a baby, she used to watch me while my parents were away at work. She called me “Chaske.” One day she fell down some stairs and broke her ribs, but she stayed and cared for me through all that pain until help arrived several hours later. I have often wondered what it feels like to lift and rock a baby when one’s ribs are broken.
Grandma Mabel never saw her promised land; her ship never came in. Today, four decades after her premature death, I ask myself what it might mean to see that promise finally fulfilled.
The Wolfchild case is a question of justice asking how the federal government should rectify a terrible mistake it made in the not-so-long-ago past. This original mistake was not made in regard to individuals but to the “Loyalist” Mdewakanton and their descendents. Mabel Leith was one such descendent. So am I. So are you.
This legal question will be answered one way or another and then the government will wash their hands of us. My question is, what will happen to the Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate at that point?
Will we continue as an oyate or say goodbye as plaintiffs? Will we rebuild what was taken from our ancestors – as Mdewakanton Dakota – or follow our own pursuits as individuals? Will the identity that presently unites us become more meaningful or less?
Mdewakanton Notes is a blog that will address these kinds of questions, all of which add up to one big question: who do we wish to become? Barbara Buttes asked me to write this blog after our public discussion at the 2007 convention on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. It was a good talk raising a number of important issues, and I think Barbara said it best: “What we ultimately want to become is up to the people. It’s up to us.”
We know who we are, but who do we wish to become? That’s the question. It’s up to no one but ourselves to answer, so let’s start talking. Please contact me with your thoughts at srlyons@syr.edu, and check back every week or two for new postings. Pidamyapi!
from this link below-
www.freewebs.com/oyate/blog.htm
Monday, June 18, 2007
By Scott Richard Lyons
We are the Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate, but what does that mean? Let’s start with an examination of the words themselves.
Minnesota obviously refers to the state, but long before the state boundaries were set, the appellation referred to a less defined geographic area. Mni means water and, according to some accounts, sota refers to the color of the sky, so Minnesota can be translated as “sky-colored water.” [1] In other words, perhaps the old Hamm’s Beer jingle wasn’t that far off when it sang “from the land of sky-blue waters….”
Today’s Minnesota was once the homeland of all “Sioux” people. The Mdewakanton are the original group of the “Seven Council Fires” (Oceti Sakowin) that historically comprised the “Great Sioux Nation.” The Oceti Sakowin include Mdewakanton, Wahpetowan, Wahpekute, Sissetowan, Ihantowan, Ihanktowanai, and Tetonwan. These people speak mutually intelligible dialects (Dakota/Lakota/Nakota) of the same language.
When I was at Rosebud for the 2007 MMDO Convention, I had a chance to meet with Mr. Duane Hollow Horn Bear, a respected elder and traditionalist who lives in Spring Creek, and he confirmed that “the Mdewakanton are the grandfathers of us all. We all come from Minnesota, and we all come from the Mdewakanton.”
Translated as “spirit lake community of people,” the word Mdewakanton breaks down like this: mde means lake, wakan means spirit or holy, and “ton” is a shortened version of otonwan, signifying a community of people.
Dakota is a variation on koda meaning “friend” and understood as “ally.” The names of today’s big three Siouan language groups—Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota— all possess this meaning of friends or allies.
Oyate has an interesting history of use and meaning, in general and in our own particular context. The word is often translated as “people” but can also refer to a “nation.” For example, Little Crow’s name Te Oyate Duta is typically translated to “His Red Nation.” Further, as we can see in the cognate word oyasin, as in mitakuye oyasin (“all my relations”), the people or nation described in the word oyate are known by their essential relatedness. An oyate is really one large family.
The MMDO began as the MMDN (Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Nation), as we see in the language of our present constitution. However, in 2004 our group replaced “Nation” with “Oyate” in order to remove the only English word in our group’s moniker and to more precisely capture this distinctively Dakota sense of oyate.
In Standing in the Light, Severt Young Bear wrote that the original meaning of oyate is connected to wièoti (wi means “sun”, èan ohan ti means “trees, among, live”). “People in the sun living among the trees,” then, might be the fullest way to translate oyate wièoti. The reason for this might be due to the people’s desire to find a camp that would provide protection from enemies and elements, fuel for their fires, and a higher elevation that would allow them to see a long way (hence the reference to the sun).
Mr. Young Bear also tells how the oyate eventually organized into smaller groups of tiyošpaye or extended families. Ti means to live, and špaye invokes a circle drawn around a smaller group of people. When we meet at our MMDO conventions, exchange photographs and stories about common relatives and ancestors, and feel good in the process, what is really happening between us is the emotional reformation of the tiyošpaye, our extended families, and these all add up to constitute the oyate.
In sum, the linguistic roots of “Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate” – a phrase that is 100% Dakota – says a great deal about who we used to be, who we are today, and, perhaps, who we can be once again in the future. We are the people of the sun who camped near the trees, next to a holy lake in the land of plenty sky-colored water: a nation, a people, a family—friends and allies to others in times of need. Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate.
That’s a grand identity that speaks of a very noble past. But what of the present? Will it define us in the future? That’s a discussion we must have now. Please send me your thoughts at srlyons@syr.edu and check back later for new postings. Pidamayapi!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] According to others, Minnesota means “Plenty Water”. Mni means “water” and Ota means “plenty”. Non-Dakota speakers added an “s” to Mni in order to pluralize the word.
view comments (1) post comment permalink 11:42 AM (UTC -4)
I. The Question
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
By Scott Richard Lyons
A funny thing happened at the 2007 Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate Annual Convention. We asked ourselves who we wish to be. In the long run, this may be the most important question we will ever ask.
We already know who we are. We are the lineal descendents of the 208 Mdewakanton who pledged not to fight in the 1862 war against the Americans, who were in return promised land with hopes for a better tomorrow, but who were ultimately betrayed. We are the inheritors of that betrayal.
We know who we are through the pain it caused, although we feel this common injury in our own particular ways. Some of us live in perpetual poverty initiated by the federal government’s unfulfilled promises. Most mourn the sad, difficult lives endured by our ancestors in the aftermath. Many of us wonder who – even what – we are today. We know who we are by our shared historical trauma.
Let me offer an example: my great-grandmother, Mabel Leith, whose mother Sarah Dow and grandmother Mary Rock were both listed on the 1886 census. My father tells me that Grandma Mabel always used to talk about her “promised land.” It was coming any day now, she always insisted, and it would improve everyone’s lives.
Meanwhile, Mabel lived a hard life, frequently on the move following jobs at a time when her skin color and gender prevented career stability or upward mobility. To survive in the Twin Cities, for a time she put her beading skills to work for the Minnetonka Moccasin company. Her love of family led her to unions with men who were often unkind. One family story tells of a time when Mabel lived alone in remote northern Minnesota and walked over forty miles in the middle of winter to get medicine for her sick baby. The next morning, her baby was dead. Hard years.
But Mabel persevered, kept her dignity, and showed strength. When I was a baby, she used to watch me while my parents were away at work. She called me “Chaske.” One day she fell down some stairs and broke her ribs, but she stayed and cared for me through all that pain until help arrived several hours later. I have often wondered what it feels like to lift and rock a baby when one’s ribs are broken.
Grandma Mabel never saw her promised land; her ship never came in. Today, four decades after her premature death, I ask myself what it might mean to see that promise finally fulfilled.
The Wolfchild case is a question of justice asking how the federal government should rectify a terrible mistake it made in the not-so-long-ago past. This original mistake was not made in regard to individuals but to the “Loyalist” Mdewakanton and their descendents. Mabel Leith was one such descendent. So am I. So are you.
This legal question will be answered one way or another and then the government will wash their hands of us. My question is, what will happen to the Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate at that point?
Will we continue as an oyate or say goodbye as plaintiffs? Will we rebuild what was taken from our ancestors – as Mdewakanton Dakota – or follow our own pursuits as individuals? Will the identity that presently unites us become more meaningful or less?
Mdewakanton Notes is a blog that will address these kinds of questions, all of which add up to one big question: who do we wish to become? Barbara Buttes asked me to write this blog after our public discussion at the 2007 convention on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. It was a good talk raising a number of important issues, and I think Barbara said it best: “What we ultimately want to become is up to the people. It’s up to us.”
We know who we are, but who do we wish to become? That’s the question. It’s up to no one but ourselves to answer, so let’s start talking. Please contact me with your thoughts at srlyons@syr.edu, and check back every week or two for new postings. Pidamyapi!
from this link below-
www.freewebs.com/oyate/blog.htm
