BULL. 30] 



WAKONDA 



897 



Wakonda ( Wa-kov^-da), A term em- 

 ployed by the Omaha, Ponca, Osage, 

 Quapaw, Kansa, Oto, Missouri, and Iowa 

 tribes of the Siouan family when the 

 power believed to animate all natural 

 forms is spoken to or spoken of in suppli- 

 cations or rituals. The dialects of the 

 first five tribes are closely related; the 

 Omaha and Ponca speak practically alike; 

 the Osage, Quapaw, and Kansa differ 

 somewhat from the former in pronuncia- 

 tion, while the Oto, Missouri, and Iowa 

 have so far changed their speech as to be 

 unintelligible to the others. The word 

 wakoyda, spelled wukayda by Riggs in 

 his Dakota Dictionary, is given by him 

 as a verb signifying ' to reckon as holy 

 or sacred, to worship'; the noun is 

 wakay, and is defined as ' a spirit, some- 

 thing consecrated.' The same authority 

 gives the meaning of wakay, as an ad- 

 jective, as ' spiritual, sacred, consecrated, 

 wonderful, incomprehensible, mysteri- 

 ous.' The same general meaning that runs 

 through the Dakota words waknyda and 

 wakay inheres in the word vjakoyda as 

 used by the Omaha and their cognates; 

 with the latter the word may be regarded 

 as an appellative, for while it is the name 

 given to the mysterious all-pervading 

 and life-giving power to which certain 

 anthropomorphic aspects are attributed, 

 the word is also applied to objects or 

 phenomena regarded as sacred or mys- 

 terious. These two uses of the word are 

 never confused in the minds of the 

 thoughtful. When during his fast the 

 Omaha sings, ^^ Wakoyda, here needy he 

 stands, and I am he!" his address is to 

 "the power that moves," "causes to 

 move," that is, gives life; for the ability 

 to move is to the Omaha mind synony- 

 mous with life. In this prayer the 

 Omaha is not crying to those forces or 

 forms spoken of as wakoyda in songs that 

 relate to objects seen in dreams or to sym- 

 bols of magic. This distinction is some- 

 times difficult for one of another race to 

 follow, but that there is a distinction to 

 the native mind is not to be doubted. 

 The wakay tayka, the great wakay or 

 spirit of the Dakota, is not quite the same 

 as that which the Omaha means by 

 wakoyda. The term 'great' in imkay 

 tayka implies a comparison, and such an 

 idea does not seem to belong to wakoyda, 

 for wakoyda stands by itself, unlike any 

 other, and represents a concept that 

 seems to be born of the Indian's point of 

 view toward nature and natural phenom- 

 ena, including man himself. To the 

 Omaha nothing is without life: the rock 

 lives, so do the cloud, the tree, the ani- 

 mal. He projects his own consciousness 

 upon all things, and ascribes to them ex- 

 periences and characteristics with which 

 he is familiar; there is to him something 



3456— Bull. 30, pt 2—07 57 



in common between all creatures and all 

 natural forms, a something which brings 

 them into existence and holds them in- 

 tact; this something he conceives of as 

 akin to his own conscious being. The 



Eower which thus brings to pass and 

 olds all things in their living form he 

 designates as wakoyda. That he anthro- 

 pomorphizes this power is evident from 

 his supplication, made with fasting and 

 symbols of humility, by which he seeks 

 to awaken pity or compassion, human 

 attributes, as "here needy he stands," 

 and thus expects to win some kind of 

 recognition. He is taught that when he 

 fasts and prays he must not ask for any 

 special favor or gift; that which he is 

 able to receive will be given him. This 

 teaching throws a side-light on his con- 

 cept of wakoyda, showing that it implies 

 intelligence as well as power; but the 

 concept seems to be vague, and ideas dis- 

 solve into indefiniteness in the "mys- 

 terious," the "incomprehensible" at- 

 mosphere that surrounds the unseen 

 power denominated wakoyda. 



That there is a creative aspect to wa- 

 koyda is made clear from the use of the 

 word xvakoydagi: gi ia the sign of posses- 

 sion, therefore the phenomena termed 

 wakoydagi evince something belonging to 

 or of the power denominated wakoyda. 

 For example, when a child is first able to 

 walk, this new manifestation of ability to 

 moveaboutiscalled wakoydagi; butshould 

 a person, from sickness or other disability, 

 lose the power to walk, but recover it, 

 the act of resumption would not be called 

 wakoydagi. The first speech of the child 

 is the manifestation of a new power, and 

 is wakoydagi. Wakoyda is invisible, and 

 therefore allied to the idea of spirit. 

 Objects seen in dreams or visions par- 

 take of the idea or nature of spirit, and 

 when these objects speak to man in an- 

 swer to his entreaty, the act is possible 

 because of the power of wakoyda, and the 

 object, be it thunder-cloud, animal, or 

 bird, seen and heard by the dreamer, 

 may be spoken of by him as a wakoyda, 

 but he does not mean that they are wa- 

 koyda. The association in which the 

 term wakoyda is used determines the 

 character of its meaning. Wakoyda, the 

 power addressed during the fast as hav- 

 ing power to help the one standing " in 

 need," is not the same tvakoyda as the 

 thunder that speaks to a man in a dream is 

 sometimes called; yet there is a relation 

 between the two, not unlike that signified 

 by the term wakoydagi when applied to 

 the first manifestation of an ability; for 

 all power, whether shown in the thunder- 

 storm, the hurricane, the animals, or 

 man, is of ivakoyda. Whatever is mys- 

 terious and beyond ordinary experience 

 or effort approaches the realm of the con- 



