Being Dakota: Tales and Traditions of the Sisseton and Wahpeton

by Amos E. Oneroad, Alanson B. Skinner, Laura L. Anderson (Editor)

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a few members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota community in northeastern South Dakota, while living in the white world, quietly worked to preserve the customs and stories of their ancestors in the face of federal government suppression and the opposition of organized religion.

Amos E. Oneroad, a son of one of those families, was educated in the traditional ways and then sent east to obtain a college education, eventually becoming a Presbyterian minister. For most of his life, he moved in two worlds. By fortunate coincidence he met Alanson B. Skinner, a student of anthropology and kindred soul, in New York City. The two men formed a bond both personal and professional, collaborating on anthropological studies in various parts of the United States. The project closest to Oneroad's heart was the collection and preservation of the stories and traditions of the Sisseton and Wahpeton. Oneroad wrote down the stories and gave them to Skinner. The men intended to polish the resulting manuscript and publish it, but Skinner's untimely death in 1925 thwarted their plans.

Oneroad and Skinner collected descriptions of everyday life, including tribal organization, ceremonies that marked the individual's passage from birth to death, and material culture. Several of the folk tales included relate the exploits of Iktomi, the trickster, while others tell of adventures of such figures as the Child of Love, Star Born, and the Mysterious Turtle.

Laura L. Anderson, who teaches anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, found the neglected manuscript among Skinner's papers in a California library and has edited it for publication. Being Dakota succeeds in fulfilling its authors' original intent by conveying these long-ago stories and traditions to the children and grandchildren, and being true to Amos Oneroad's voice.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Indigenous

214 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is actually a collection of three works by Amos Oneroad and Alanson B. Skinner. They are "Eastern Dakota Ethnology", "Traditions of the Wahpeton Dakota Indians", and "Wahpeton Dakota Folklore." The works are prefaced by thorough, interesting, and necessary introductions by the editor Laura L. Anderson. I had a professor for a course on Scandinavian Myths who insisted that the native american oral traditions contained nothing of value. I knew he was abhorrently misguided at the time due to being familiar with Ojibwe stories and legends, but now I'm given another reason. The stories of Inktomi are often raucously humorous. They've been moralized by Oneroad and Skinner (Oneroad was a Dakota Presbyterian pastor afterall) but we still get faithful tellings, unlike Saxo Grammaticus' "Gesta Danorum" for instance. I found the descriptions of the every day activities,customs, games, ceremonies, and beliefs of these communities to be fascinating and challenging for my own betterment. The fluidity of naming and of identity is much more holistic in the Wahpeton and Sisseton system than our own Euro-American system and it implicitly and explicitly recognizes the fundamental humanity and human experience we all share far better. We are given a name and are tricked into thinking we are only one person or one being. I think depression and other such diseases are purely symptoms of the Euro-American culture; depression doesn't exist in most other cultures and many of the "mental illnesses" of other cultures don't occur in the Euro-American paradigm. This book contains a valuable journey.

[Wolgraugorimilir · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old-school anthropological manuscript, written in the 1800s, with all the dangers and pitfalls that engenders. Fortunately, this work was co-authored by Amos Oneroad (Mahpiyasna, Jingling Cloud) a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota man who could share a considerable amount of firsthand information, in addition to his knowledge and experience as a professional ethnographer. So concludes a dusty review for a dusty book. It was good. lots of good info. Would recommend.

[Rey Dekker · Rating 2 out of 5]

...introduction was 1/2 the book...slow read, a little too textual...good information though...