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The Lakotas are well known historically for their role in the so-called Sioux Wars of the nineteenth century and for the famous leaders counted among their ranks, including Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Black Elk. The Lakotas are also known for their relatively well-documented religious traditions preserved in classic works by Black Elk, James R. Walker, Frances Densmore, Clark Wissler, and Luther Standing Bear, to name a few.
In 1883 the United States government banned American Indian religious expression and ritual. Although traditional spiritual practices were observed in secret during the ban period, roughly spanning from 1883 to 1934, a great amount of religious knowledge was lost as elders passed on and members of the younger generations were raised as Christians. However, the Lakotas have long served as a model for other tribal groups in the retention of traditional values. The Oglalas of Pine Ridge are often considered the most traditional, a discursive term tied to conceptions of ethnic identity. Many beliefs and practices are perpetuated among the Oglalas that have become dormant on other Sioux reservations.
During my fieldwork at Pine Ridge I participated in the ritual networks of four practitioners, representing a broad spectrum of contemporary practice. I examined religious belief, ritual behavior, social networks, and the lives and practices of modern practitioners, trying to fit them into the broader picture of reservation life and the dynamics of tradition. Transmitting Sacred Knowledge examines historical and contemporary Oglala belief and ritual and how they shape identity and ethnicity. Based on ethnohistorical and linguistic sources and over twenty months of fieldwork, my dissertation traces the development of Lakota religion from the pre-reservation period to the present, exploring key concepts and themes, Lakota disease theory, and positing a topology of nineteenth-century practitioners. Examining shifting and contested understandings of tradition, Transmitting Sacred Knowledge explores contemporary Lakota identity politics, practitioners, and the social organization of twenty-first century Lakota religion. Although the patterns of interaction have changed since the establishment of Pine Ridge Reservation in 1869 there remains a distinct and undeniable continuity with and fidelity to past traditions, beliefs, and practices. |
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