Tópakdinážiŋwiŋ na Waŋbdíȟotena Tȟa-Waníyetu Wówapi
Date
2025
Authors
Tolman, Tipiziwin
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Abstract
Winter counts are traditional record-keeping mechanisms used by many Plains tribes, where pictographs represent significant annual events. My paternal great-grandparents, Mrs. Teresa and Eugene Yellow Lodge, were winter count keepers for our Wicȟíyena band of Dakota people, residing on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Their winter count is housed in collections at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Teresa and Eugene were first-generation boarding school students who integrated their newly acquired literacy in Dakota and English with their responsibilities as winter count keepers. They created an invaluable resource for family, community, culture, and language in the form of a booklet accompanying their winter count, which spanned from 1785 to 1952. This booklet, written entirely in Dakota and Lakota, remains with our family. This project examines the process and significance of sharing my paternal great-grandparents' winter count "key" booklet with my community, employing wise practices rooted in a Lakota and Dakota worldview. I acknowledge the unique role of Topakdinážiŋwiŋ, Mrs. Teresa Yellow Lodge, who took on the duties of winter count keeper after her husband died in 1929, a role traditionally held by men. Given the current status of the Dakota and Lakota languages, this project aims to revitalize these winter count stories by combining photographs of the pictographs with their Dakota and Lakota descriptions, transcriptions into the New Lakota Dictionary Orthography (NLDO), and English translations. Through this resource, I aim to (re)connect our community with the vital cultural narratives within my great-grandparents' winter count. Additionally, I emphasize significant linguistic and cultural insights from their written work. This project, rooted intuitively in the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ worldview of Mitákuye Owas’iŋ, and principles of generosity and reciprocity, strives to maintain and share these stories for future generations.
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Keywords
winter counts, record-keeping mechanisms, Plains tribes, Dakota people, Lakota people, winter count keepers, Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation