{"id":3338,"date":"2020-10-21T08:06:41","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T13:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=3338"},"modified":"2020-10-21T08:06:41","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T13:06:41","slug":"native-sun-news-today-words-of-wisdom-from-lakota-elders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/10\/21\/native-sun-news-today-words-of-wisdom-from-lakota-elders\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Sun News Today: Words of wisdom from Lakota elders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"jacedecory\"<\/div>
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Jace DeCory, Cheyenne River Sioux, was one of the presenters of the 2020 West River History Conference. Courtesy photo\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n
History holds the lessons between races<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, October 21, 2020<\/div>\r\n
By Talli Nauman<\/div>\r\n
Native Sun News Today Health & Environment Editor<\/div>\r\n
nativesunnews.today<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nDEADWOOD, South Dakota \u2013 Descendants of both the original residents and the settlers of the Great Plains brought their experience and philosophies to bear on contemporary challenges of race relations at the 28th West River History Conference<\/a> here October 8-10.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cHope is the only thing that ties us all together,\u201d former Black Hills State University American Indian Studies Professor Jace DeCory said in her presentation entitled \u201cWords of Wisdom from Lakota Elders.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nA Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member, DeCory shared concepts encompassed in Lakota language that have helped people stay alive and have helped a culture to survive — vocabulary every bit as relevant in this pandemic period as in past times of trouble.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWise words are what I call them, the w words; they help us to heal, as our people have gone through a lot,\u201d she said. She proceeded to explain the terms wolakota<\/em>, wotakuye<\/em>, wicozani<\/em>, wokicunze<\/em>, wicoh\u2019an<\/em>, wiconi<\/em>, wicoyake<\/em> and wokiksuye<\/em>.

<\/P>\r\n \u201cWe lived in balance and harmony \u2013 wolakota<\/em> \u2013 with good hearts, good minds, good bodies,\u201d she said. \u201cAdvice from the elders helped the tiospaye<\/em> stay emotionally strong.\u201d

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From the 2019 West River History Conference: The \u201cDakota Daughters\u201d performance took place at West River History Conference in effort to \u201cspread the word on healing racism and building a shared inclusive future.\u201d Photo by Talli Nauman \/ Native Sun News Today<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\r\nDeCory is a participant in the WoLakota Project<\/a>, a partnership between Technology and Innovation in Education and the South Dakota Department of Education that aims to improve learning opportunities for all students, Native and Non-Native, in South Dakota.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWith the decimation of the buffalo, really on purpose, it almost exterminated us,\u201d she related. From its once vast herds, the American bison population was reduced to only about 1,000 head. \u201cWe almost lost this wonderful, beautiful animal. It almost caused ethnic genocide,\u201d DeCory lamented.

<\/P>\r\nHowever, with careful reintroduction, \u201cthe buffalo remains our relative,\u201d she noted.

<\/P>\r\nBy the same token, she said, \u201cWe lived through diseases, such as smallpox.\u201d \r\n

<\/P>\r\nBoarding schools, with devotion to the cause of cultural collapse, cut children\u2019s hair to \u201cso we could be assimilated; it was taking our identity. Hair holds our memories; that\u2019s why we only trim it in mourning,\u201d she said.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWe also survived confinement,\u201d in the form of being bounded by reservations, she said, recalling the need to learn farming and ranching skills to supplement the \u201csurvival mechanisms\u201d of gathering berries and digging timpsila.\r\n

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