Miracles: Two Lakota Case Studies

Abstract

Using a definition of miracles as extraordinary events, the chapter presents two case studies that function as windows into Lakota worldviews and lifeways. The first case focuses on the Lakota’s remarkable historical rise to a position of political, military, and economic power in the upper Great Plains during the nineteenth century, their subsequent fall from dominance, and their persistent efforts to reassert their sovereignty and control of their lands. It notes the extraordinary leaders who rose to defend the Lakota against concerted efforts by the United States government to destroy their culture and take their lands from them and continued Lakota resilience in the face of those challenges. The second case investigates the extraordinary intervention of Ptesáŋwiŋ or White Buffalo Calf Woman when Lakota survival was threatened by cold and starvation. It connects her protection of the Lakota to the cardinal virtues of Lakota culture. These case studies draw from Indigenous methodologies that emphasize Native perspectives and concerns, particularly as articulated by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s perspectivist approach. Viveiros de Castro argues that the study of Indigenous peoples should proceed from a standpoint that privileges Indigenous worldviews, including those of the nonhuman persons with whom they share their neighborhoods. The chapter begins with an exploration of “miracle” as a concept and then moves to a discussion of Viveiros de Castro’s approach. The following two sections present the two case studies—Lakota sovereignty and Lakota identity—after which I provide concluding remarks.