Although the Great Plains Tribes were nomadic in nature, they were and still are very spiritual.  Very little in their lives was done without religious ceremony, prayer, dance or spiritual music.  The Sioux did not dance because it was fun.  They danced to commune with the Spirit World and their ancestors.

The Sioux nation was comprised of three smaller nations and a total of seven tribes within those nations.  There were the Lakota, the Dakota and the Nakota.  The Souix nation still survives today.  At its peak, there were around twenty thousand people in seven different tribes across the Great Plains.  They had adopted the horse when it brought by the Spaniards which gave them a much greater mobility and aided them greatly in their great Buffalo Hunts.

The Sioux have often been depicted in history as bloodthirsty and murderous, which is not a true representation of these great and spiritual people. Yes of course, with great courage, they fought for their land and their way of life.  Yet, they were and still are a very spiritual people. They had problems of the white man taking away their land, their buffalo, and their way of life, which to them was the white man taking away their spirituality.  A famous quote by Chief Red Cloud shows this well: 

"What has been done in my country I did not want.  Did not ask for white people going through my country.  When the white man comes in my country he leaves a trail of blood behind him."

The Sioux depended upon the resources that the Great Spirits provided them for their spirituality, their lives, and their livelihood.  This famous Sioux Prayer gives deep insight into the hearts and souls of their true spirituality and desire for all men to live and understand each other.

SIOUX PRAYER

Grandfather Great Spirit All Over The World

The Faces Of Living Things Are Alike.

With Tenderness, They Have Come Up Out Of The Ground.

Look Upon Your Children That They May Face The Winds

And Walk The Good Road To The Day Of Quiet.

Grandfather Great Spirit

Fill Us With The Light.

Give Us The Strength To Understand And The Eyes To See.

Teach Us To Walk The Soft Earth As Relatives

To All That Live.

Even warring among themselves was a part of their life for deeply spiritual reasons.  It showed the rite of passage from boyhood to manhood.  Through warring, the men gained prestige, which gave them great family honor.  A young man could show that he could protect his family. 

They had strong family bonds.  Interestingly, their name for "children" was "wakanisha", and "waka" meant sacredness.  Their children were their reason for everything they did.  They fought, they hunted the buffalo, they sang and they prayed so that their children would carry their nation forward.

The Sioux communed with the spirit world through their music, their dance and their prayers.  They were deeply spiritual.  The Sun Dance was considered one of the most religious ceremonies of the Sioux Nation.  This dance was actually a twelve-day summer ritual.  There was self-sacrifice and testimony to personal courage and endurance in serving the Great Spirit.  One of the functions of the Sun dance was to bring about a strong sense of unity within the tribe.

Though they were a proud people, they were also a humble people, a message which is best conveyed by a famous quote from one of their Medicine Men, Black Elk.

"I cured with the power that came through me.  Of course, it was not I who cured, it was the power from the Outer World, the visions and the ceremonies had only made me like a hole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds.  

"if I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through.  Then everything I cod do would be foolish."

© TheosEra.com Spiritual Community 2008