Interview · South Dakota · David Bald Eagle · OSEU 1
Themes: Land & stewardship, Language & revitalization, Spirituality & ceremony, Values & generosity, Listening & observation, Children & young people
Learn About questions
1. How are the European “Man-made” laws different from the “Law of Nature”?
2. How do you learn the Laws of Nature?
3. What does Oceti Sakowin mean?
4. When was the flag with the seven stars created?
5. How are the stars in the sky connected with the seven campfires?
6. What does “prayer” look like for the people of the Oceti Sakowin?
7. What are the different dialects of the Oceti Sakowin?
Learn From questions
1. What are the laws or rules that I follow or come in contact with on a daily basis? Where do they come from?
2. Are there laws or rules that I have trouble understanding or following?
3. Was there ever a time when I found myself suddenly having to follow brand new rules that I knew nothing about? What was that like?
4. What lessons have I learned from Nature?
5. What experiences have I had in connection with the stars or constellations?
6. What is my own concept of prayer?
7. When have I interacted with people who speak my language, but with a different dialect? How does that effect my perceptions and interactions with them?
Transcripts
The Law of Nature
Watch this interview on YouTubeThe Law of Nature - David Bald Eagle - OSEU 1
I'll tell you what I do believe in and see the past generations. During our life in the past
generations, we realize, I realized, that the laws, the laws, regulations, religion,
everything that was brought here. We're not used to that. We're used to the Indian way
of prayers or life or ways of life. And we never were used to European laws, man made
laws. These are man made laws that we could never understand. Our law, the Indian
way of life, our law is the law of nature. And you never could go wrong in the law of
nature. We know that without being written, we know that by heart. And we know that
we know what's right and wrong. And like we always tell our children what is right and
wrong in birth. Everything, everything that we do, there's a prayer for everything. We call
it Oceti Sakowin. The reason we call it that is because you look up in the sky at night,
there's a dipper that's got seven stars. Each star represents our seven campfires. That's
our flag. Or the blue. Blue background. And so, we have that. And that's the meaning of
our seven campfires. Each one has a dialect. We speak Indian together. We speak, but
we each understand each other.
Resource text
Additional Related Resources:
The Oceti Sakowin by Victor Duville
The Dakota Way of Being
Some indexed text was extracted from scanned material. Check the original source for exact wording and spelling.
Source materials
Transcripts from supplied documents and the current WoLakota source pages. Text preserved as published.