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WoLakota Project & Teachings of Our Elders

The Medicine Wheel with Demus McDonald

Explore The Medicine Wheel with Demus McDonald with available transcripts, learning questions and source alignments in the South Dakota and North Dakota Elder archive.

Interview · North Dakota · Demus McDonald · NDNAEU 7

Themes: Education & learning, Values & generosity

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Learn About questions

What is a medicine wheel? What are the colors of the medicine wheel and what order are they placed? What does each color represent? How does a medicine wheel help to represent the four Dakota Values?

Learn From questions

How familiar am I with the medicine wheel? In what ways might the medicine wheel help me to think about balance in my life? Are there other symbols in my life that are important to the values that guide me?

Transcripts

The Medicine Wheel with Demus Mcdonald NDNAEU 7

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Where is the color of mother it’s also the color of wisdom so in a medicine will bracket West where is north yellows east white is the south so raised the color of the north it’s black red yellow white and where’s the color with them so that’s what house would wider and now you will see where the number of values went up do you think it’s up to eight now but here’s what did the college-educated Indians there take care world braved their finite rosary to source and there’s another way of saying briefs there Adam and generous there look another way of saying general that now it’s up to eight and they all kind of mean the same thing but originally it’s the for Indian values and that’s where I go by in the Medicine Wheel each of the colors and what they what value they stand for well the black red yellow white the black is Freddy are for the West the direction West and that’s for respect and red is for the north and that with the yellow is the East and that’s our generosity and waited for the south and that is bravery so that colors that and I go by and I have charts that I use in school

Resource text

NDNAEU Alignment:

Affiliation sources

NDNAEU document credits: Demus McDonald — Spirit Lake (Dakota).

Source materials

Supplied transcript documents. Text and transcription uncertainties are preserved as supplied.