This week’s message: “Devils Lake - The Name”
This message is written to displace all or at least some of the misinformation centering about the name of Devils Lake in central North Dakota. One can get into trouble when the topics of politics and religion are discussed.
The Indigenous people throughout the world classify water as sacred. No one can live without water along with fire, air, and earth. The big four, the sacred number four. The man of the North (Waziata) and the Man of the South (Itokaga) battle each other in perpetuity. Cold verses hot which are the four seasons (O’maka). Next, we have two other adversaries fire (peta) and water (mini) who again are constantly at war with each other. The bringer of fire is known as the Thunderbirds or simply the Flyers (Wakinyanpi) the leaders of the upper world. The Water Spirits (Unktehi = Terrible Ones) are the lords of the underworld. They jealously guard the water, drowning any living thing that intrudes their domain without their permission. These four are Spirits (Cold, Hot, fire, and water) are male, female, and children. It is the children who are the most dangerous as they have not learned to control themselves. The Thunderbirds bring rain and the Water Spirits hoard the water.
The Battle
If you have ever gone out into a thunder storm, you are in mortal danger. The rain pelts you, there are lighting strikes as the air fills with electricity along with the great noise of the thundering and the force of the wind. This is battle between the Thunderbird and the Water Spirit. The Dakota call these events Hitunkankanpi, traditional tales or stories that are true.
The Unktehi, the difficult ones, sometimes called water monsters, named because their true name is only known to medicine people. These Water Spirits come to the surface of the waters and swim about checking to see that all is well in their watery domain. The Thunderbirds spot the Water Spirits swimming on top of the water. The Thunders leaving their nest in a cedar tree in the west form clouds (mahpiya), to darken the sky and attack the Water Spirits, flying over the water they flap their wings to create the wind (tate), with their eyes they flash lighting (wakanhdi), and with their loud voices make a booming sound (wakinyan hotunpi), the sound of thunder. The Thunderbirds cause the rain (makaju) which comes down to replenish the earth (maka) and make God’s (Wakantanka) creations grow.
The Unktehi, sometimes called Monsters, raise their two horns on their heads and defiantly give their war cry, a loud whistle (Zozotankapi). They stab and impale the Thunderbirds as they fly overhead. Down goes a Thunderbird stabbed to death by the Water Spirits, the Thunders in turn succeeds in killing a Water Spirit with lighting. The battle rages on until they both give up and make a rainbow (Wihnumke) in the sky signaling the end of the battle. All is now at peace with a blue sky and calm waters.
Now you have just read how the name of this Devils Lake is called Miniwakan (Sacred Water) because of the Water Spirits. The Dakota tried to tell the French explorers why the lake is sacred but by mistranslation concluded the Unktehi were monsters and named the lake: Lac du Diable – Lake of the Devils.
Now you are saying to yourselves, this is a true story? I think it is just a legend from the past, A little fairy tale as is told to children. No! it is true story. Why? Because the Dakota and other Indigenous people are explaining the Hydrological Cycle. They were not dumb, they understood what was going on. In the ancient past only special people, Medicine People kept knowledge a secret. The secrets were revealed when you joined the Medicine Dance (Wakan Wacipi) if the Medicine People deemed you worthy to have the knowledge; if you paid for the secret explanation of the story. The medicine People have a secret language (Wohdake Wakan) so they could talk openly, yet not be understood by common people. This is not different from the White World when knowledge was in Latin and only a few knew how to read and write.
Many lakes through out Dakota county are designated as Holy or Sacred. Devils Lake or Miniwakan (Sacred Water) is called by the Sanish (Arikara): CiWaahaawru’uxt, Hidatsa: MirixubaaSh and MirixopaSH, Ojibway: Manito Sagaigun, the Hochunk: Tewakacak, Mandan: W’rixop’riS; all signifying a sacred body of water.
Now match what has just been revealed to you with some of the ignorant knowledge passed on to our present time. The lake is bad, (Minisica), not because some prehistoric monster lives beneath the water. The water is unfit to drink because it is a natural Salt Lake, second only to the Great Salt Lake in the State of Utah. Mauves Coulee, French for Bad Flow, was a translation of the Dakota name Kaksiza Sica a flowing stream which enters Miniwakan from the north. Almost directly opposite on the south side of the lake, is an outlet called Oko Cokam, (Center Aperture or Hole) which drains south from the west side of White Horse Hill past the Cankdeska Cikana Community College, down to the Sheyenne River.
Why was the Dakota not asked for the true story of the naming of the lake? The knowledge was sacred, it was secret. White authors kept printing the same Tatanka Cesdi (misinformation) over and over.
Now check out what Charles Eastman has to say: “Wigwam Evenings”: Sioux Folk Tales Retold. By Charles A. Eastman and Elaine Goodale Eastman (wife). Boston: Little Brown and Company 1909. Page 115 “The Wars of Wa-kee-yan and Unk-tay-hee”. (This book has been reprinted many times and available on line).
Charles or Ohiyes’a (the Winner) was raised in Canada on what is now known as the Bird Tail Reserve, of the Cankagaotidan (Dwell in Log Homes) Mdewakantun Dakota. When Charles was 15 years old his father came from Flandreau, SD to get his son, whom he thought killed in the 1862 war. Charles became educated in the White world and became a medical doctor. His brother Robert became a Presbyterian Minister. Charles went on to become an acclaimed author of nine and now ten books on the Dakota people. A tenth manuscript just released by the Eastman Family and published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, (2023) is now added to his credits.
(Editor’s note: Some of the words and pronunciations in this story may be misspelled because our modern day computers are not able to duplicate Dakota words and translations or pronunciation marks. We apologize for this and ask that you contact the author himself, Mr. Garcia, for the correct spellings. – Louise Oleson, editor)
