Lakota Spirituality

Yuwipi....Curing Rituals

Broadly speaking, Yuwipi is a generic term which includes a number of variants of curing rituals, all of which are held in darkened roons and are conducted by specialists known locally as Yuwipi wicaša, 'Yuwipi man'. The term Yuwipi is usually defined as "they wrap him up," indicating a special feature of the ritual in which the Yuwipi man is wrapped in a quilt (wicaĥpi šina, 'star quilt') and bound with leather thongs. During the course of the ritual, spirits of humans, animals, birds, and inanimate objects enter the room and inform the Yuwipi man how a patient's sickness may be cured. While the spirits are present, people other than the patient may also make their requests known to the spirits, addressed as Tunkašila, 'Grandfather', through the medium of the Yuwipi man, who regards himself as ieska, 'interpreter'.

A more adequate definition of Yuwipi is "they roll it up,", yuwi signifying the action of rolling up an object such as a ball of yarn. The term may very well refer to the action of tying up the Yuwipi man: his hands and fingers are first bound together; the quilt is placed over his head and wrapped around his body; the quilt is then tied by means of a long leather thong or rope, which is placed around his neck and then twined around his body in such a way that there are seven half hitches between his neck and his feet. Sage is placed at each of the seven junctures. The term also tefers to the disposition of the rope and tobacco offerings after the spirits have untied the Yuwipi man: the rope and offerings are left next to him rolled up like balls of yarn.

Just when the term Yuwipi came into fashion is difficult to determine, partly because missionaries openly regarded the ritual as the work of the devil, and it is possible that curing ceremonies of the Yuwipi genre were simply being held out in the districts away from the criticism of non-Indians. Properly, Yuwipi is an attenuated form of Yuwipi lowanpi, 'they sing Yuwipi' or 'Yuwipi sing', "sing" being synonymous with "ritual." In the 1920's people would ask, "Yuwipi lowanpi ekta ni kta he?" ("Are you going to the Yuwipi sing?") This was simply reduced to "Yuwipi ekta ni kta he?" ("Are you going to the Yuwipi?"), the former being "too much to say." Yuwipi meetings, or "spirit" meetings as they are often called in English, also may be referred to as simply lowanpi, 'sing'. In addition to identifying the nature of the ritual, Yuwipi is often used as a synonym for "spirit" in a sense such as "Yuwipis (spirits) always come to the meetings."

One or more Yuwipi men live in each of the districts of the Pine Ridge Reservation, and their clientele is found distributed throughout the numerous communities. They are wicaša wakan, 'sacred persons', and derive through visions their power to cure Indian sickness, give counsel on family matters and business affairs, and find lost objects. Throughout the year they conduct rituals upon request from patients who approach them with a sacred pipe and ask them to perform their services. If the Yuwipi man accepts the case, the pipe is smoked and a time arranged for the ceremony. It is stipulated in all transactions between patients or their families and the Yuwipi man that upon a successful cure, the patient must pledge to sponsor a thanksgiving ritual (wopila) within one year after the initial ritual has been performed. The thanksgivings are directed to the supernatural beings and powers which have effected the cures, and should the patients ignore them, harm might befall their families or themselves. In practice, thanksgiving rituals are not structurally different from curing rituals, and a patient suffering from some malaise may well be treated at someone else's thanksgiving.

To maintain his power, a Yuwipi man must go on a vision quest at least once a year. When not conducting rituals or officiating at the sun dance, he prays with the pipe for the welfare of the people. His instructions have geen given to him by the supernaturals and he must do as they bid. However, he must be cautious about the misuse of power, for he is vulnerable to the whims of malevolent spirits. He must observe all the restrictions related to the use of the sacred pipe, and he muist keep herbal medicines and other paraphernalia in a place safe from menstruating women.

In addition to curing rituals, wapiya lowanpi, and thanksgivings, wopila lowanpi (or wopila wohanpi, 'thanksgiving feast'), the Yuwipi man also conducts the sweat lodge rituals and prepares candidates for the vision quest. As part of the curing variant, he may also conduct meetings for the purpose of ensuring the safety of Oglalas who are leaving the community or reservation to go to school, into the military, or on trips to visit friends and relatives.

There are two other kinds of rituals that Yuwipi men conduct which they refard as "emergency meetings." One is called an Iktomi lowanpi, 'Spider [the culture hero] sing', and the other okile lowanpi, 'hunting [literally, 'to search for'] sing'.

Spider sings are often attenuated. Less time is required for the preparation of the meeting, fewer kinds of paraphernalia are used, and they often require less elaborate food preparation. Spider sings are conducted for people in trouble with the law or the federal government, or at the request of relatives who seek immediate solutions to the problems of the persons in question. They are also conducted for the purpose of investing patients or other clientele with a personal spirit called wašicun tunkan (wašicun, 'an immortal, innate power', and tunkan, 'stone'). Each "tunkan" is manifested in the form of a small, round stone which is found near ant hills. It is placed in a small buckskin pouch lined with sage. When a personal spirit is given to a layman, the stone is named after a person who is deceased, and the deceased person's spirit is said to inhere in the stone and may be called upon in time of need. This particular variant of a Spider sing is called caštun, 'naming' (literally, 'to give birth to a name', from caš, attenuated form of caje, 'name', and tun, 'to give birth to').

Hunting sings are held less frequently today. Originally, a person who believed that property had been stolen from him would request a Yuwipi man to find it for him. The Yuwipi man, through the intercession of human or animal spirits or sacred stones would in a matter of days name the thief, or the place where the stolen property could be found. Yuwipi men are reluctant to perform the ritual today because they believe that their divination will ultimately involve the local police and other federal authorities, and they do not want to be responsible for sending another Indian to jail or prison.

Some sacred persons, although they are in a minority, reject the notion of being regarded as Yuwipi men and prefer to be called wapiya wicaša ('curer' [although all Yuwipi men technically are also wapiya wicaša]). Specifically, they refer to themselves according to the source of their visionary power. If it is derived from the eagle or the bear, for example, they are known as wanbli wapiye, 'eagle curer', or mato wapiye, 'bear curer'. They resemble more the members of woihanblapi, 'dream cults', reported by Wissler

Even those who regard themselves as Yuwipi men do not perform identical rituals by any means. Some are regarded, mostly by their own clientele, as being superior to others, and there is a continuing debate about the efficacy of aging Yuwipi men. Although they are not permitted to receive money or payment outside the usual reciprocation of the give-away, most Yuwipi men earn the reputation (from outsiders) of charging their patients exorbitant fees. When a Yuwipi man becomes old, even the members of his own community begin to question his power. If he becomes ill or feeble, it is regarded as a sign that his power is waning. Most Yuwipi men abdicate their ritual specialization when they reach their late sixties or early seventies simply because they lose their following. At the same time, a younger Yuwipi man, possibly someone from another community (read tiyošpaye) begins to attract the attention of the old man's clientele and soon becomes known for his great curative powers. Slowly the old Yuwipi man retreats from community activities and the younger one assumes his responsibilities.

This is a rather generalized description of a Yuwipi ritual, or "sing". Most rituals begin with a sweat lodge, conducted by the Yuwipi man joined by five or six participants. The sweat lodge begins about sundown in a lodge adjacent to the house in which the Yuwipi is held.

While the men are in the sweat lodge, the women are busy preparing the meal which will be served after the Yuwipi, while other men are preparing the ritual site. Yuwipis are held in a one-room house or in a larger house in which a room has been partitioned off from the rest. The site must be ritually sealed: windows and doors are closed, and tarps draped over them and often nailed in place. The room must be sealed in such a way as to ensure total darkness once the meeting has begun. Furniture is removed except for some types which are too awkward to handle, but even these are ritually treated, usually by placing sage on them to render them attractive to the spirits. Metal and glass in particular are covered or removed.

Once the sweat lodge is over, the men dry off and move into the houses. The laymen arrrange blankets and pillows around the outer perimeter of the room on which to sit. They leave the center of the room vacant, and it is here that the Yuwipi man will prepare the sacred altar, called the hocoka, 'camp circle'.

The construction of the altar constitutes one of the major indices of variation between Yuwipi men. The altar is constructed in the center of the free space on the floor, and is delineated as a square. The square is demarcated at least quadratically; that is, four coffee cans containing earth are placed at the four directions of the altar (northwest, northeast, southeast, and southwest corners). Into these cans are placed wanunyanpi, 'offerings', colored cloths, attached to slim willow canes (sagye). Most often the directional color symbolism is expressed by black for the west, red for the north, yellow for the east and white for the south. Similar colored offerings, it should be noted, are also tied to the top branches of the sun dance pole and appear as demarcations of the vision quest site.

To the four, some Yuwipi men add a fifth container, located between the west and north, in which a single or as many as five canes are placed, each bearing a colored cloth or personal object such as eagle feathers, shells, sacred hoops (cangleška wakan), roots, and other symbolic objects. Again, some Yuwipi men employ seven cans, one for each of the four directions, one personal offering, and two representing the Above and Below. Green represents the earth, and blue, the sky. Some younger sacred persons assert that the four essential colors red, white, black, and yellow also symbolize the four races of man.

Connecting the cans and offerings is a string of minute tobacco particles called canli wapaĥte, 'tobacco bundles'. Each bundle is made by placing a pinch of tobacco in a square inch of cloth and tying it to a long cotton string. The final strings contain on the average four hundred such bundles and represent the number of spirit helpers that the Yuwipi man employs in the ritual. Although the construction of the altar varies widely, the number of tobacco bundles is rather consistent. When the spirits finally enter the meeting, they take the essence of tobacco. Each time a Yuwipi man names a sacred stone, his total number of spirit helpers is reduced by the number of names he has given away to his clientele. When his power eventually begins to wane, it is attributed to the fact that he has given away too many of his helpers and there are not enough left to assist him. Yuwipi men often refer to these tobacco offerings as rosaries because each offering is prayed over as it is attached to the string. This has led some to conjecture that the tobacco offering is a sign of Christian influence. However, tobacco offerings of this kind predate the Christian missionaries.

Another variation in altar decoration is the manner in which certain ritual objects are arranged in the center of the hocoka. Most Yuwipi men construct a circular earthen subaltar upon which they draw various symbolic designs: the sun, moon, morning and evening stars, pipe, four directions, spider, lightning, or face (wicite) of the person to be cured. Around the altar is a short strand of tobacco offerings, and alongside it the Yuwipi man places rattles (wagmuha), sacks of Bull Durham, sacred stones, the pipe and pipe bag, a bed of sage, an eagle bone whistle, and other paraphernalia he needs to conduct the ritual in accordance with his vision.

Before the altar is completed, the clientele enter the room and take their seats around its periphery. At least one lead singer is required, although eventually everyone in attendance will join in the songs that play an integral part in the Yuwipi ritual. The Yuwipi man's assistant hands each adept a sprig of sage, which is placed behind the right ear so that the "spirits may know them." The door is closed, usually nailed shut, and covered with a tarp. One light is left on in the room, and is extinguished at the command of the Yuwipi man to ensure that the room is entirely dark. Once that is ascertained, the light is turned on again and the Yuwipi man fills the pipe:   four pinches of tobacco for the four directions, two for the Above and Below, and one for the Spotted Eagle. Once filled, the pipe is capped with a sprig of sage.

From here, it is best to describe the features of the Yuwipi ritual by dividing it into ritual events which correspond to actions and sets of songs employed to accompany each action. For the musical part of the ritual, there are seven sets of songs, each classified by the Oglalas. Although there are many variations of the Yuwipi ritual, there are consistantly seventeen songs distributed over the seven ritual sets. A set is determined not only by the action, but by the lack of a pause between songs accompanying each ritual event; that is to say, in each set, one song flows into the next; between sets songs are separated by discourse. Before the ritual begins, the Yuwipi man removes his shoes and shirt and takes his place in the center of the hocoka, facing west. His assistant closes off the sacred place by laying sprigs of sage end to end from the end of the string of canli wapah'te at the northeast can to the can at the southeast direction.

Set 1.   With the light still on, the Yuwipi man begins the hanbloglaka, 'vision talk', in which he explains the source and nature of his power. He then fills the pipe while the lead singer, beating on a small tambourine-like drum, begins the opagipi olowan, 'filling the pipe song'. After the pipe has been filled, the Yuwipi man's assistant and one of the singers wrap the Yuwipi man in a quilt and tie him. They lay him face down on a bed of sage. This action is called wicapaĥtepi, 'they bundle him up'.

Set 2.   The light is extinguished and the singers begin the tatetopakiya olowan, 'toward the four winds song', also called wicakicopi olowan, 'they call them song'. This is a particularly interesting song in that it has seven verses, the first addressed to kola, 'friends', a term used to address spirits, the other six directed to each of the four winds, the Above, and the Below in the following way"

This is regarded as the most powerful of all songs because it is directed at the entire universe and requests the spirits of all the directions to enter the meeting place. It is followed by three more songs, called wocekiye olowan, 'prayer songs'. On the fourth, the spirits arrive,and their presence is indicated by the sometimes violent shaking of rattles, thumps on the floor and walls, and the emission of the blue sparks (peta) from each place the rattles strike.

Set 3.   During this set the singers sing another wocekiye olowan, after which there is a lengthy discourse by the patient and other clientele. It is during this portion that the Yuwipi man communicates with the spirits that are present and determines the proper cure for the patient(s). Among the prescribed remedies are placing tobacco offerings (a strand of seven canli wapaĥte) on a sacred butte or in a sweat lodge, simple prayers offered to the spirits, or "doctoring" by the spirits in which they touch the patients on the affected parts of the head or body. Often a Yuwipi is held in conjunction with a vision quest, and during this set the Yuwipi man may request the spirits to go to the sacred butte where the supplicant prays and report on his progress.

Set 4.   During this segment, those who wish to be doctored stand up in the darkness and hold on to the nearest flag offering with their backs facing the sacred place. The singers sing wapiye olowan, 'curing songs', while the rattles dance and touch those who wish to be cured.

Set 5.   After the patients have been cured, the singers begin a series of ceĥohomni olowan, 'around the kettle songs', commonly known as kettle dance or pot dance songs. This set is sung only if traditional dog meat is going to be served as part of the subsequent feast. The kettle dance was originally performed as part of the Heyoka Kaga, 'clown makers', and during the dance the contraries danced around a kettle full of boiling dog meat, thrusting their hands into the kettle and exclaiming that the water was too cold. The meat was eventually distributed to the older people attending the ceremony. The kettle dance songs sung at the Yuwipi are the same as those sung for the present version of the kettle dance. They are omitted when dog meat is not served.

Set 6.   During this set there are four songs sung, two while the Yuwipi man is being untied by the spirits (wicayujujupi olowan, 'they untie him song'), one while the people dance (wacilowan, 'dance song'), and one (unclassified) when the spirits pick up the tobacco offerings.

Those clientele who wish to dance simply stand up in the darkness and dance in place. Some of the spirits also dance while the others are untying the Yuwipi man. As the spirits untie him, sparks are emitted from the seven junctures in the rope where sage has been placed. As they pick up the tobacco offerings from the long string of canli wapaĥte, sparks are emitted rapidly along the perimeter of the sacred area where the offerings were placed.

Set 7.   During this set, two songs are sung while the spirits depart. The songs are called wanagi kiglapi olowan, 'spirits go home song', and inakiyapi olowan, 'quitting song'.

In all there are seventeen songs in the seven sets. After the spirits have departed, the lights are turned on and the Yuwipi man is found in the middle of the altar, which has been mostly destroyed. The quilt which enveloped him is neatly folded next to him, and the thongs which bound him as well as the long string of canli wapaĥte are rolled up, either near him or in the lap of one of the participants. The earthen altar is obliterated and the other ritual paraphernalia disheveled. The freeing of the Yuwipi man and the condition of the altar are attributed to the spirits, who have now returned to the west and to the place between the sky and the earth where they live until they are summoned by the Yuwipi man. The light is turned on and the filled pipe is smoked by everyone.

Women and children may either smoke or touch the pipe. After each of the participants smokes or touches the pipe, he says, "mitak' oyas'in" (All my relations). A bowl of water is then handed around to each participant, who drinks and again says, "Mitak' oyas'in." The Yuwipi man's assistant is required to finish whatever water remains in the bowl. With this the formal part of the ritual is over.

The door is opened and the women bring in the food, which is distributed to all the participants, who are expected to take home with them any leftovers. The Yuwipi man and his assistant pick up the ritual paraphernalia and place them in a suitcase or other container. Often the flag offerings and canli wapaĥte are given to the patient or one of the other adepts. The flags may later be cut up to make star quilts which are especially efficacious in curing rituals or in herbal curing. The star quilt made from Yuwipi offerings is especially helpful when placed over the head and used in conjunction with inhalants. The people eat the food together and the atmosphere is congenial. After the meal, the person on the south side of the door says, "Mitak' oyas'in", and each in turn repeats the formula, ending with the Yuwipi man. This concludes the Yuwipi ritual.

The prayers and songs employed in the Yuwipi rituals are the same as those used in the sweat lodge and in preparation for the vision quest. At the local community level, these three rituals, despite their variations, are related structurally and functionally. The sweat lodge is both a ritual preliminary to the vision quest and Yuwipi and a ritual in its own right. Often a Yuwipi meeting is held at the same time a person is on a vision quest so that the participants may together pray for the safety of the lone supplicant. Yuwipi men themselves must embark on the vision quest to maintain their powers.

The pervasive theme in these three rituals is one of unity, especially among kin. The formula "Mitak' oyas'in" conveys more than the simple defintion "All my relations." It signifies the desire to live harmoniously with one's relations. This idea is further enunciated in the recurring song text "Mitakuye ob wani kta ca lecamun welo" (I do this [take part in the ritual, the songs, and the prayers] so that I may live with my relations). The rituals bridge the gap not only between the relatives living in the community but with the deceased, who reappear as spirits at the rituals. There is communication over time and space, and the remedies for curing the symbolic illness of the present are made available through the wisdom of the past. The Yuwipi man and other sacred persons serve only as intermediaries; the knowledge comes from another time and another place, both irrevocably Oglala.

At a tribal level, the rituals of the sun dance are in many ways replications of the community rituals. Again, the vision quest and the sweat lodge are integral to the success of the sun dance, only now the participants symbolize the unity of all the communities, not just one. The sacred persons from the outlying districts come together and perform their services collectively for the people. Together these four rituals symbolize the life and continuity of the Oglalas. It is through thses rituals that the Oglalas recognize themselves as distinct from the white man and other non-Oglalas.

Religion has conciously been separated from other aspects of contemporary Oglala social organization because those other aspects have become the domain of the white man. Religion has become an institution which is synonymous with Oglala identity. That the memorial feast is regarded as transitional and does not fit into the structure of other Oglala rituals is understood best perhaps because it is a celebration of death and departure from the community and tribe. The ritual still displays characteristic traits of the ghost-keeping ritual, but it survives because it underscores the old sociopolitical organization of the tiyošpaye, now subsumed unde such appellations as Catholic and Episcopalian, rather than Itešica or Kiyaksa.

The Oglalas bemoan their fate in a white man's world, The honor song to the old chief Red Cloud, still sung today at large celebrations, says it poignantly: