Learning About The Lakota Culture

By Ruth Ross


The beliefs and history of these amazing people is something that is always passed down in the form of oral tradition. This means that people in the Lakota culture will pass down these life lessons and vital information by telling stories, often around the fire, and usually it will be the elders telling the stories to the young ones. This might sound like a strange way to learn things for those of us who are more used to reading books or reading about them online, but when you consider how long these people's ways have endured for, there must be something to it that works well.

It is an unfortunate thing that when Europeans were settling across North America, they were trying to get Native Americans to live the way they do. This led to countless cases of genocide and stamping out a beautiful culture. Because of these settlers' actions, many great pieces of history have been lost forever.

This is something that has lasted a long time. It is still alive to this very day, in fact, which is something that the people who are still living and teaching this lifestyle are certainly quite proud of. This is just a merit of how effective their oral tradition is, and that is why the people who carry it on are so serious about continuing it and not deviating from what their ancestors have done.

Traditionally, one of the best times to hear these types of stories is in the wintertime. This is mainly because there is not a lot else to do in the winter. It is too cold to work or play outside, so most of the time people would be huddled around the fire telling stories of the past.

It might seem like the elders have a shortage of stories because they tend to repeat the same ones over and over again. This is actually something that is very intentional, though, because it helps the young ones retain the stories better. Otherwise, it would be hard for all the details to be passed down.

One thing that was lost to European settlers trying to assimilate these people were pictorial diagrams. These were not mere doodles, rather, pieces of history. Every year, they would record the events this way.

These people's oral tradition dates back as far as they do. This is the benefit of having a system that cannot be broken or lost. This is thanks, of course, to the devoted people who carry on the tradition.

An interesting story from these people is that the first of them to arrive in this world were actually tricked by a divine force. They were then turned into buffalo. It is an interesting origin story for an iconic creature.




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