Summary
In the Wi-yan Is'-na ti (Womanhood ceremony), a young woman reaching puberty learns her role as a Life-giver, receiving lessons on becoming and being a woman. It is a recognition of honor in being a woman, a time of celebration, of knowing that the potential of life exists and the ability to create it. She is taught about the sacred time of the month-called Is'-na ti (camps alone)-that she will experience from then on, known as "cleansing." She learns that during this time, she is able to release tremendous powers. She is taught that this power is not easy to control. She learns what to do and what not to do during this monthly cleansing. During Is'-na ti (camps alone), she may not prepare food, and the other women would make sure she is fed. This gives her time to focus. She can't be around any ceremonies, especially around the C'anupa, or be around medicine and people that are taking medicine. She is taught the four stages of life: from a newborn spirit, to a young woman, to a Mother, to a Grandmother.
The C'anupa and the sacred knowledge must stay in the bloodline. My Grandmother, Lucy Bad Warrior Looking Horse, was the 18th Generation Keeper of the C'anupa. Before she went to the Spirit World, when I was 12, she told my father and me that I was to be the 19th Keeper, as revealed to her in a dream. She said I was the youngest ever to be the Keeper. "The C'anupa chooses the Keeper," she said.She told me I would be forbidden ever to carry a weapon and never to have blood on my hands. I was told to remember the songs that go with the Bundle. She said the People would provide for my needs, and that I would never have to Vision Quest or Sundance unless I had a dream. She said never use foul language, and I have listened. She said the Sacred C'anupa is a Spirit and that the bag it's kept in is just as sacred. The bag is called C'an-te o-j'u-ha (heart bag), meaning we should carry this in our heart with love and compassion. She said that when we offer tobacco to our relatives and to every Spirit, such as our medicines, these energies would help us. I was told that the prayers should only be for health, protection, guidance and wisdom, nothing more. Above all, the C'anupa stands alone! Pte-san Win-van never brought anything more than the pure red willow tobacco medicine with the C'anupa. When the C'anupa is filled, our spirit should be pure, filled with no other influences of other medicines or of bad thoughts toward one another. I learned that there should always be a thank-you ceremony after a healing ceremony. So this is why we return to the Sacred Black Hills, to give thanks to the ''Heart of Everything That Is."See the full content of this document
Extract
Story of Pte-San Win-Yan: White Buffalo Calf Woman
Nineteen generations ago the beautiful spirit we now refer to as Pte-san win-yan (White Buffalo Calf Woman) brought the Sacred C'anupa to our People. She taught the People the Seven Sacred Rites and how to walk on Mother Earth in a sacred manner. She said, "Only the good shall see the Pipe...the bad shall not see it or touch it."
She arrived among us in this way-At that time, not long after the Flood, the People still followed the buffalo, but they had forgotten the Creator and the teachings of the buffalo. They were trying to control one another, be more than who they were. The buffalo disappeared and the People were starving and crying. They gre...See the full content of this document
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