Description
2021 Scholarly Writing Award in the Saskatchewan Book Awards
This book presents two of the most important traditions of the Dakota people, the Red Road and the Holy Dance, as told by Samuel Mniyo and Robert Goodvoice, two Dakota men from the Wahpeton Dakota Nation near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. Their accounts of these central spiritual traditions and other aspects of Dakota life and history go back seven generations and help to illuminate the worldview of the Dakota people for the younger generation of Dakotas, also called the Santee Sioux.
"The Good Red Road," an important symbolic concept in the Holy Dance, means the good way of living or the path of goodness. The Holy Dance (also called the Medicine Dance) is a Dakota ceremony of earlier generations. Although it is no longer practiced, it too was a central part of the tradition and likely the most important ceremonial organization of the Dakotas. While some people believe that the Holy Dance is sacred and that the information regarding its subjects should be allowed to die with the last believers, Mniyo believed that these spiritual ceremonies played a key role in maintaining connections with the spirit world and were important aspects of shaping the identity of the Dakota people.
In The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux, Daniel Beveridge brings together Mniyo and Goodvoice's narratives and biographies, as well as songs of the Holy Dance and the pictographic notebooks of James Black (Jim Sapa), to make this volume indispensable for scholars and members of the Dakota community.
About the Author
Samuel Mniyo (1929-99) (Dakota) was raised in the Wahpeton Dakota Reserve. Robert Goodvoice (1901-86) (Dakota) was a tribal historian (known as a knowledge keeper). Daniel Beveridge is an emeritus assistant professor of education at the University of Regina.
Reviews
"The Red Road is a reference, a memoir, a history lesson, and a spiritual journey written for the next generation of the Dakota nation and published for all who are interested to enjoy."-Brandi Hilton-Hagemann, Ethnohistory Journal
"Dakota interested in the complexity of their culture, students of American Indians, and academics who want an example of how to negotiate between folk explanations and conventional historical narrative will all find something of value here. Those interested in the Medicine Dance complex of the Great Lakes will find a treasure."-Paul Eells, Journal of Folklore Research
"This is an important contribution that will appeal to scholarly and general audiences alike, both Native and non-Native. Documenting the oral traditions of four members of the Wahpeton Dakota Nation, The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux offers unique perspectives on Dakota philosophy and spirituality and contributes to the continuity of Dakota culture, tradition, and identity through time."-David C. Posthumus, assistant professor of anthropology and Native American studies at the University of South Dakota
"A source book for Dakota culture and spirituality, these carefully curated narratives succeed in fulfilling the wishes of Mniyo, Goodvoice, and others that future generations will benefit from Indigenous knowledge of the complex, changing relationship between ceremony, belief, and life."-David G. McCrady, author of Living with Strangers: The Nineteenth-Century Sioux and the Canadian-American Borderlands
"In The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux Samuel I. Mniyo (Sam Buffalo) and Robert Goodvoice record their people's history and traditional principles for right living, pictured as the Red Road traversed from east to west. Both Elders hoped their detailed descriptions of the Holy Dance, the heart and embodiment of their nation, would enable their younger people to persevere in the ceremony and way of life. Daniel Beveridge's collation and notes to the narratives bring this true Dakota knowledge to a wide readership."-Alice B. Kehoe, anthropologist and author of The Ghost Dance: Ethnohistory and Revitalization
Book Information
ISBN 9781496214621
Author Samuel Mniyo
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint University of Nebraska Press
Publisher University of Nebraska Press
This book presents two of the most important traditions of the Dakota people, the Red Road and the Holy Dance, as told by Samuel Mniyo and Robert Goodvoice, two Dakota men from the Wahpeton Dakota Nation near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. Their accounts of these central spiritual traditions and other aspects of Dakota life and history go back seven generations and help to illuminate the worldview of the Dakota people for the younger generation of Dakotas, also called the Santee Sioux.
"The Good Red Road," an important symbolic concept in the Holy Dance, means the good way of living or the path of goodness. The Holy Dance (also called the Medicine Dance) is a Dakota ceremony of earlier generations. Although it is no longer practiced, it too was a central part of the tradition and likely the most important ceremonial organization of the Dakotas. While some people believe that the Holy Dance is sacred and that the information regarding its subjects should be allowed to die with the last believers, Mniyo believed that these spiritual ceremonies played a key role in maintaining connections with the spirit world and were important aspects of shaping the identity of the Dakota people.
In The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux, Daniel Beveridge brings together Mniyo and Goodvoice's narratives and biographies, as well as songs of the Holy Dance and the pictographic notebooks of James Black (Jim Sapa), to make this volume indispensable for scholars and members of the Dakota community.
About the Author
Samuel Mniyo (1929-99) (Dakota) was raised in the Wahpeton Dakota Reserve. Robert Goodvoice (1901-86) (Dakota) was a tribal historian (known as a knowledge keeper). Daniel Beveridge is an emeritus assistant professor of education at the University of Regina.
Reviews
"The Red Road is a reference, a memoir, a history lesson, and a spiritual journey written for the next generation of the Dakota nation and published for all who are interested to enjoy."-Brandi Hilton-Hagemann, Ethnohistory Journal
"Dakota interested in the complexity of their culture, students of American Indians, and academics who want an example of how to negotiate between folk explanations and conventional historical narrative will all find something of value here. Those interested in the Medicine Dance complex of the Great Lakes will find a treasure."-Paul Eells, Journal of Folklore Research
"This is an important contribution that will appeal to scholarly and general audiences alike, both Native and non-Native. Documenting the oral traditions of four members of the Wahpeton Dakota Nation, The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux offers unique perspectives on Dakota philosophy and spirituality and contributes to the continuity of Dakota culture, tradition, and identity through time."-David C. Posthumus, assistant professor of anthropology and Native American studies at the University of South Dakota
"A source book for Dakota culture and spirituality, these carefully curated narratives succeed in fulfilling the wishes of Mniyo, Goodvoice, and others that future generations will benefit from Indigenous knowledge of the complex, changing relationship between ceremony, belief, and life."-David G. McCrady, author of Living with Strangers: The Nineteenth-Century Sioux and the Canadian-American Borderlands
"In The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux Samuel I. Mniyo (Sam Buffalo) and Robert Goodvoice record their people's history and traditional principles for right living, pictured as the Red Road traversed from east to west. Both Elders hoped their detailed descriptions of the Holy Dance, the heart and embodiment of their nation, would enable their younger people to persevere in the ceremony and way of life. Daniel Beveridge's collation and notes to the narratives bring this true Dakota knowledge to a wide readership."-Alice B. Kehoe, anthropologist and author of The Ghost Dance: Ethnohistory and Revitalization
Book Information
ISBN 9781496214621
Author Samuel Mniyo
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint University of Nebraska Press
Publisher University of Nebraska Press
