Learning About The Lakota Culture

By Ruth Ross


One of the main things that you will hear people talk about whenever they mention this group of people is the fact that their stories are passed down orally without many exceptions. This is something that people in the Lakota culture take very seriously, and it is easy to understand that when you've grown up around people your whole life who do things this way, you're going to follow that same tradition. You have probably heard of or even seen this tradition in action when an elder or a group of elders are telling the younger people a story so that they can learn it and one day pass it on to their children, and that is how the oral tradition perpetuates itself for as long as the people who tell the stories are around for.

When settlers were coming to North America from Europe, they were not exactly sure what to do about all the troublesome people who already lived on this land and were very different from them. One of the ways that these Europeans tried to cope, besides just committing mass genocides, was to try to force these Native Americans to abandon their own traditional ways and start doing things the European way, which they considered civilized. In the process of doing this, they ended up destroying a lot of beautiful artifacts and traditions.

There have been many hardships that have caused this way of life to be hindered in some way. In spite of all of these things, the ways of these people have survived even to this very day. This is a wonderful thing that all of this wasn't lost forever, and the people who still live and learn this way of life are very proud of the fact that they have kept it alive this long, and they don't show any signs of stopping what they're doing anytime soon.

When it is the wintertime, it is often too cold to get much done outside that is productive, and it is often too cold to even play or have fun outside. It is also darker for longer during this time of the year, so one of the only things to do is sit around the fire and hear what the elder folks have to say. This is the best time to hear the stories that these people will tell time and time again.

When a story is told to you over and over again, you tend to remember it a lot better. This is definitely the theory behind the oral tradition. The elders will repeatedly tell the same stories, much like most people's parents do, but in this case, it is intentional.

One of the older ways that these people would record a year in the life is with pictorial diagrams. Unfortunately, this was one of the many things that were destroyed by European settlers. It just goes to show how traditions other than oral ones are more vulnerable.

An amazing thing about the stories of these people is that they have been keeping track of their histories and beliefs as far back as their people go. This means they can have some pretty hard-to-find historical information. It is interesting to hear things from their perspective.

According to their many stories, these people came into this world via a range of hills. The first people to arrive were turned into buffalo. After hearing this, you'll probably never look at that animal the same way again.




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