Lakota Prayers - ‘Great Mystery Prayer’ and ‘Great Spirit Prayer’
This is an untitled ledger drawing in pencil and colored pencil by a Lakota tribe artist and leader named Black Hawk, born ca. 1832. This work also appears in Janet Catherine Berlo's ‘Spirit Beings and Sun Dancers: Black Hawk's Vision of the Lakota World.’
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“Wakan Tanka” — Great Mystery
Teach me how to trust
my heart,
my mind,
my intuition,
my inner knowing,
the senses of my body,
the blessings of my spirit.
Teach me to trust these things
so that I may enter my Sacred Space
and love beyond my fear,
and thus Walk in Balance
with the passing of each glorious Sun.
~Lakota Prayer
“The Great Spirit Prayer”
Oh, Great Spirit,
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength, not to be superior to my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes,
so when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit will come to you
without shame.
— translated by Chief Yellow Lark
