The old Lakota language was different than that of today
By Ivan F. Starr For nearly thirty years I sang at a drum that tried to maintain the old traditional songs within the context of the modern powwow. However, that scene has changed a bit too much for comfort. The popular new songs held no meaning for me and they are beginning to sound alike. Today, I find greater pleasure in listening to older Lakota powwow and ceremonial songs. Having retreated to the comfort of my home, I enjoy songs by the Sons of the Oglala, Matt & Nellie Two Bulls, Marty Makes Room, Wilmer Mesteth, and others. One day while listening to a CD by Valentine Blue Thunder, I realized that the various songs he sings are very old and have significant historical and educational value. I attempted to translate those songs and found a huge difference in the language of that time period and today. It was difficult for me to understand exactly what the words meant. I spent more than a year mulling over one song in particular until its meaning finally came through. This song, as with all the old Lakota songs, is a history lesson. This particular song describes a historical era in our past. Obviously, it was composed during a time of extreme adversity, more so than the hardships we endure today. It’s anybody’s guess as to the date it was composed. My best guess is that it was during the latter half of the 1800s into the 1900s. I present it here in Lakota. The brackets indicate my own insertions which helped me to understand what the words and sentences mean. Many songs contain certain syllables that were omitted for acoustical reasons: “Wayawapi ki blih[e]iciyapo, wounspe ki ecela [tka], nake [nu] la yaunpelo. Anpetu iyohila Wasicu ki tehiya unkaupelo. (Wicacaje) nagiksapayo, Oyate ki waciniyanpelo.” Its English translation: “Students, motivate yourself and work hard, education is all that’s left, yet you live carefree. Each day the White man brings us more hardship (person’s/student’s name) be alert, the Nation is depending on you.” The difficulty portrayed here was real for Lakota people of that time as well as for us living today. It is my opinion that this oppression is the result of a corrupt or “evil” Pope’s declaration of war on all non-Christians of the world 560 years ago. Nonetheless, modern society still holds the belief that “Indians” are sub-human pagans and heathens and must be “saved” or destroyed. Interestingly, I found this same mind-set or conviction in a famous document, the Declaration of Independence of 1776. The document establishes Native people as “merciless Indian savages” whose only purpose in life is to wage war. It accused King George III of enticing “Indians” to war against the colonists. I found it stimulating to learn that this perpetual hardship is not of our own doing. In other words, we did not bring this upon ourselves. I am merely stating historical fact when I say that this debilitating adversity was forced on us by the Vatican. Anyway, my translation helped to answer a multitude of questions for me. I have always wondered why this country tried to hide the fact that the U.S. Constitution is Indigenous or why America’s so-called “Indian” is not among those faces on Mount Rushmore or why the Discovery Doctrine is not taught in America’s schools. I have often wondered as to why the federal government, the Interior Department and the Bureau of Indians Affairs in particular, reduced “Indians,” with the stroke of a pen, to “incompetent” creatures or why the United States government refuses to honor the treaties it made with Indigenous sovereign nations or why the Wasicu so readily oppresses the so-called “full-blood.” I have often wondered why a Wasicu motorist speeds up, even going over the posted speed limit, when they see that it is an “Indian” in the passing lane or why the Wasicu people, after 500 years, possess only biased, erroneous, and stereotypical information about “Indian” peoples while the “Indians” know plenty about them. I have often wondered why retail business owners and employees follow their “Indian” customers around as if they were going to steal their merchandise or why restaurant owners or employees have fed their “Indian” customers food they were ready to toss out or why Wasicu justice system tends to imprison “Indians” more often than their Wasicu citizens. I have often wondered why “I” always stood for “Indian” in English alphabet books while all other letters represented inanimate objects or animals or why texts books always portrayed “Indians” as ugly, lurking sub-humans bent only on killing and scalping innocent and righteous settlers or why Thanksgiving is celebrated as a strictly Wasicu holiday. These questions are a mere handful of that multitude I mentioned earlier. I use them here to help illustrate the unwarranted and adversarial life I endured since I was six years old. What our ancestors meant with “education” was to learn the ways of the newcomers. This includes academics and character traits. They realized that this is the best and only avenue of survival for their people. Unfortunately, too many of us failed to heed their advice or direction and spent far too much time doing the exact opposite. The song uses the Lakota word “nakenula,” which means to live carefree. Young warriors lived according to this because they knew their lives could end almost any time defending their country. This became an excuse for us to live a relaxed off-the-cuff life. My recent realization does not change or erase my past, but it does make it more understandable and gives me the freedom to live life as opposed to merely surviving. In that perspective, I am free. I am no longer a captive or prisoner of my own misunderstandings. I don’t need to confront those uncouth Wasicu gawkers anymore. I don’t have to risk the possibility of going to jail for standing up for my very basic human right to live according to God-given human and civil rights. I don’t have to feel oppressed anymore. Of course this doesn’t mean I will allow every other wayward individual to run over me. I encourage every young Lakota person, especially those in junior and high school, to rethink their view of “education.” (Ivan F. Starr, P.O. Box 147, Oglala, SD 57764; 605-867-2448; mato_nasula2@yahoo.com) Copyright permission by Native Sun News
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