A Sioux Prayer

  Ate Wankantanka, Mitawa ki,

Wazi ya tanhan, ka te na Wa ska ki u ya ye ki, Hena un taku ya kage ki, ya glu ska kta, he ca nu, He iye cel, Wakantanka, Anpetu ki le, Micante Ki Mi ci yu ska ye,

He cel tohanl, nitokab woyasu ki el, wahinajin ki, ima ya cu kta.

  Ate Wakantanka,

Wiyohiyanpatan, wi hin nape, ki,He ciya tanhan Wiconi oyasin, hin na pe ki,

Wiconi mitawa ki el, anpetu wanji a ke mi qu, Heon wo pi la eci ci ye, micante ki eciya tanhan.

Chantema Waste

White Feather





English Translation

  My Father, Great Spirit,

Who send'est the wind and the White Snow from the north,To make thy creation clean and pure,

Father, make me clean and pure within my heart, That I may be accepted in thy sight and judgement.

  Father, Great Spirit,

To the east from whence cometh the rising of the sun, and all thy living creation,

Thou hast added another day to my life,for which I give thee Thanks with all my heart.





Wocekiye



O' Tunkasila Wakantanka

Ho naho tuwa mis tate el kin,

Niya tuwa ku wiconi makaowacaga kilyuha kin,

Naho mis. Mis cistila na hokesni.

Mis cin nita wasake na woksape.

Ayusta mis mani el hopa, na kagemita ista

Iho kin luta wimaheliyaya.

Kagemita nape younihan kin wa uskekiya mis yuha

Kage na nugemita pestola naho honita.

Kagamis pksape he ugnasmis okahnige takunlnis ospe kiyemita oyate.

Ayusta ospewakiyemis wouspenis inahme el iyohile canwape na iya.

Nita ola wasake el un isom taka isammita ciyawayasni, tka kize isomtakamita toka-misnala.

Kagamis ohinni winiyela el hi el nita kici sapesni hapena owotala ista.

Ca conj wiconi oiyokpaza, el oiyokpaza wimcheliyaya, woniya wakamita ugnas hi el nis cola istelya.

Chief Yellow Hawk, Sioux









English Translation

O, Great Spirit

Whose voice I hear in the winds,

And whose breath gives life to all the world,

Hear me.

I am small and weak.

I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things I have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every rock and leaf.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy-myself.

Make me always ready it come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.

Chief Yellow Hawk







Hear me, four quarters of the world-- a relative I am!

Give me the strength to walk the soft earth. Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you.

With your power only can I face the winds. Great Spirit...all over the earth the faces of living things are all alike. With tenderness have these come up out of the ground. Look upon these faces of children without number and with children in their arms, that they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet.

This is my prayer' hear me!

Black Elk, Oglala Sioux







The Offering of the Pipe, from Black Elk Speaks:

Hey hey! Hey hey! Hey hey! Hey hey!

Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have been always, and before you no one has been.

There is no other one to pray to but you.

You yourself, everything that you see, everything has been made by you.

The star nations all over the universe you have finished.

The four quarters of the earth you have finished.

The day, and in that day, everything you have finished.

Grandfather, Great Spirit, lean close to the earth that you may hear the voice I send.

You towards where the sun goes down, behold me;

Thunder Beings, behold me!

You where the White Giant lives in power, behold me!

You where the sun shines continually, whence come the day-break star and the day, behold me!

You where the summer lives, behold me!

You in the depths of the heavens, an eagle of power, behold me!

And you, Mother Earth, the only Mother, you who have shown mercy to your children!

Hear me, four quarters of the world - a relative I am!

Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is!

Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you.

With your power only can I face the winds.

Great Spirit, Great Spirit, my Grandfather, all over the earth the faces of living things are all alike. With tenderness have these come up out of the ground.

Look upon these faces of children without number and with children in their arms, that they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet.

This is my prayer; hear me!

The voice I have sent is weak, yet with earnestness I have sent it.

Hear me!

It is finished. Hetchetu aloh!

Now, my friend, let us smoke together so that there may be only good between us.

Black Elk, Oglala Sioux








"Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived first, and you are older than all need, older than all prayer.

All things belong to you -- the two-legged, the four-legged, the wings of the air, and all green things that live.

"You have set the powers of the four quarters of the earth to cross each other. You have made me cross the good road and road of difficulties, and where they cross, the place is holy. Day in, day out, forevermore, you are the life of things."

Black Elk, Oglala Sioux







An Indian Prayer

My Grandfather is the Fire
My Grandmother is the Wind
The Earth is my Mother
The Great Spirit is my Father

The World stopped at my birth and laid itself at my feet.

And I shall swallow the Earth whole when I die, and the Earth and I will be one.

Hail The Great Spirit, my Father, without him no one could exist because there would be no will to live.

Hail The Earth, my Mother, without which no food could be grown and so cause the will to live to starve.

Hail the wind, my Grandmother, for she brings loving, life-giving rain nourishing us as she nourishes our crops.

Hail the fire, my Grandfather, for the light, the warmth, the comfort he brings without which we be animals, not men.

Hail my parent and grandparents without which, not I, nor you, nor anyone else could have existed.

Life gives life which gives unto itself a promise of new life.

Hail the Great Spirit, The Earth, the Wind, the Fire praise my parents loudly for they are your parents, too.

Oh, Great Spirit, giver of my life please accept this humble offering of prayer, this offering of praise, this Honest Reverence of my love for you.





A Prayer

Grandfather, Mysterious One, We search for you along this Great Red Road you have set us on.

Sky Father, Tunkashila, We thank you for this world. We thank you for our own existence. We ask only for your blessing and for your instruction.

Grandfather, Sacred One, Put our feet on the holy path that leads to you, and give us the strength and the will to lead ourselves and our children past the darkness we have entered Teach us to heal ourselves, to heal each other and to heal the world.

Let us begin this very day, this very hour, the Great Healing to come.

Leonard Peltier






Chantema Waste

Toksa ake,
White Feather



The Ghost Dance


The Sundance


The Legend of The White Buffalo


The Lakota Story of The Flute


The Lakota Story of The Creation of The Universe


White Feather The Giant-Killer A Dakota Story


Words of Wisdom From Great Indian Men


Sioux History


Page 1 of my Tunkasila


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