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The Jordan Trading Post
HAKIKTA NAJIN JORDAN - SICANGU LAKOTA AMBASSADOR TO DENMARK
& MARIANNE TRETOW - LOOF JORDAN, CEO

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LAKOTA THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHY
  
       
 
   
 
LAKOTA THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHY
by Hakikta Najin Jordan
    
       
LAKOTA THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHY is not a mystery or a religion. It is a grass roots way of life, showing the basic respect for every living thing on Mother Earth and presenting you with the possibility of finding your own inner peace, harmony and balance.

The traditional Lakota people believe that everything living on Mother Earth is related, and we look at everything as WAKAN, (has the power).

MITAKUYE OYASIN means (For all my relatives). This phrase is how the traditional Lakota people live their lives. We give thanks ( Wopila) to the four directions and our grandfathers and grandmothers in the spirit world. We also thank our mother earth for every day that she gives to us.

As we enter the sweat lodge or inipi, a place where we cleanse our spirit and our hearts, we say mitakuye oyasin, because we have good feelings and thoughts and wish only good health and safety for all our relatives. Some people call it the time to talk to your relatives; others choose to call this time for meditation or prayer.

When I cleanse my spirit, I feel that I think more clearly and the feelings in my heart and my mind are in balance, then I am grounded and much closer to Mother Earth, I can think clearly and appreciate the beauty that comes from Mother Earth. Then I feel the freedom of my mind and spirit, and look at every day as a new experience and I really feel the meaning and simplicity of life.

 
       
 
   
       
My guidance in LAKOTA THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHY began when I was six years old in 1947, I was taught by my grandfather Stephen Brave Bird until 1951. At the age of 10, I was taken from my grandfather and forced to attend a catholic boarding school on the reservation. I refused to cooperate after they cut off my braids and beat me because I would not learn their religion or speak English. I burned their catholic church to the ground at the Holy Rosary Mission School and ran away, because in my heart I was still a young warrior trained by my grandfather.

I continued running for 36 years living and working in the white society. I did not return to the Lakota lifestyle until 1989, when my brother found me and asked me to return to the reservation to help him, he was dying of cancer. At the age of 47, I finally returned to the Rosebud reservation to Sundance for my brother.

Joe Eagle Elk – the heyoka medicine man who lived on the Rosebud Reservation helped me return to the old ways and remember the language. Joe helped me remember the traditions and during that first year in 1989 he also prepared me for my first Sun-dance and I began sun dancing in 1990, and I completed the first four-year-pledge in 1993.

In 1993, during the fourth day of sundance, a naming ceremony was announced, then I was given the name of my great-grandfather Hakikta Najin by my aunt Elizabeth Stands and Looks Back.

In 1999, after Sundance, a Tokala ceremony was performed by Leonard Crow Dog and Harry Blue Thunder designated me as a leader of the Tokala Society, the time honored traditional veteran society.