Lakota Virtues

The Lakota virtues are Humility, Perseverance, Respect, Honor, Love, Sacrifice, Truth, Compassion, Bravery, Fortitude, Generosity, and Wisdom. These are the different principles that the Lakota people live by in everyday life.

## Love

*"That is why, he would tell them, there will always be a hollow tone of sadness in the voice of each flute to remind everyone that while the flute is played to win love, winning love is also winning the chance of a broken heart, Such is love." (p. 87, the Lakota Way)*

The virtue of love is important to marriage in Lakota culture. To show love in Lakota culture you have love one another to keep a balanced healthy marriage if you don’t and your heart strays somewhere else like in the story of the two cotton wood trees your partner will know and cast you away to live on your own. You can show love by just flat out saying it or being around that person all the time or whenever you can and care for them. You can even serenade them like in the story of the heart broken man who lost his love to another man and was to be wed very soon so he became depressed and learned how to play the flute and when he did it attracted many women to the side of the river where he was playing at and then he found that the woman he loved did not marry the man she was going to.

## Sacrifice

*"Generosity is a necessary virtue, but unless a man has given away all of his money he has not performed an act of sacrifice" (pg 106, the Lakota Way)*

Sacrifice is defined as the act of surrendering a possession as offering to a divine spirit. In Christianity it may be seen as slaughtering a pure calf in repentance of one's sins. Sacrifice can be made in every day lives, too. A person could sacrifice their seat on a bus for someone whom is much older than they are. Sacrifice can come in all shapes, sizes, and forms.

In Lakota culture there are many things that they do to show sacrifice. When hosting celebrations, the host is supposed to give away their possessions to their loved ones. A ritual called the *Sun Dance* was where the Lakota people would pierce their skin with hooks and lean back in the sun for hours. It hurt a lot, but it showed the utmost sacrifice.

In The Lakota Way a mother, a wife, and her child are put in danger due to an act of stupid impulse. Red Shawl’s husband was to marry another, younger, orphaned bride, to take the burden off her grandparents. A Lakota man taking more than one wife was not unheard of and it was quite common for a husband to take the younger sister of his wife or the widowed wife of a friend whom had died in battle. Red Shawl, however, was still jealous that her loving husband would dare to even think of taking another bride. She felt betrayed and replaced, so with her baby strapped to her back in a cradle board, she left the village in search of her cousin’s tribe, hopeful that they would take her in.

After much traveling, a storm hit, carrying a flash flood their way. Red Shawl was washed downstream and her baby was left perched in the crook of a tree. When Red Shawl woke, she saw the path of destruction left in the flash flood’s wake, and followed the trail, praying, hoping that her baby would have been spared.

After a few days of searching for her baby her prayers were finally answered and she fed her famished baby. Realizing her foolishness, Red Shawl made her way back to her village and was welcomed back by her husband. After much discussing, the couple decided that her husband would take on a second wife. Red Shawl’s son grew up big and strong and was given the name 'Brought Back by the Thunders'. Red Shawl lived a long life and would constantly give praise to the gods that lived in the clouds for sparing her son during the flood.

## Truth

*"Truth is the marker along the roads we travel in life ,"*  *(p. 119, the Lakota Way)*

So truth in the lakota culture is something really big it is what we say and do. Its what others are going to know about us it is much like how it is in the american culture we value truth very much. People try and be honest and truthful but not all people can and they do get what the deserve for that. Truth is one thing that we all need without truth there is no way for us to understand and respect ourselves and others.

## Compassion

The definition for Compassion is to have sympathetic concern or pity for someone in unfortunate situations.

"That is compassion, simply and profoundly: the sharing of someone else's dilemma, pain, or loss-caring enough to take some of the burden of provide relief so that the aggrieved or injured person does not have to bear it alone." (p. 134, the Lakota Way)

One of the stories that was in the compassion chapter was "the Story of the Eagle", I think that this story explained the virtue pretty well.

The story of the Eagle was a story that represented the virtue, compassion. The story is about a girl whos village gets swept away by a flood and she ends up being the last of her kind. An eagle sees the village girl and decides to help her and be her friend. She is pretty depressed after what happened and doesn't feed herself. The eagle goes and brings her food and water which she needs to survive and she gets better.Time passes and the eagle is confronted by his grandfather who tells him that there is a better way of helping the girl. The eagle thinks about it for some time and ends up agreeing. Eagle is then turned into a human where he can be with the girl so she is not the last of her kind. The eagle shows compassion for the girl by helping her get food and other things she needs and even to go far enough to change his species so she isnt alone. The most major conflict in the story was just the eagle deciding wheither or not he should change for her sake which he does end up doing.