On April 20, 2011, the Mille Lacs Messenger published an
article
of mine that presents a
Lakota (Sioux) story about the Mille Lacs area. This Minnesota area includes
Mille Lacs Lake and the land around it.
THOMAS DAHLHEIMER
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A Lakota story about Mille Lacs
Unktehi is the name for the powerful underwater beings known also to the Dakota and Lakota as Taku Wakan.
On the nature of Unktehi, there is plenty of evidence in James R. Walker's Lakota work about the multiple nature
of Unktehi as a power for good and ill for the Lakota.
One remarkable account that is included in his book Lakota Myth (p. 130-33) was
obtained from an Oglala man named Left Heron. It tells of "the Mysterious Lake,"
the place known as Mde Wakan or Mille Lacs, around which many Dakota and Lakota
communities were located for centuries.
The account tells of the Unktehi who lived in the lake and wished to marry the daughter
of the chief of the people who lived there.
The Unktehi said: "I have nothing to give you but if you will put the seed
of things that are good in the water and in the earth, they will grow and
you can have plenty to eat." The Lakota chief agreed and as a result the
Unktehi taught the Lakotas about how to grow things on the shore of the lake:
Unktehi taught: "When I push the ice from the waters, then I will appear to you.
When I do [this], then the next moon, put the seed in the earth and I will put
the seed into the water."
When the Unkehi was seen in the lake, the people planted and things grew well.
But if the Unktehi was not seen, then the things planted did not grow.
So the people made sacrifices to the Unktehi to pleas him that he might appear
in this lake. The Unktehi planted the seed in the water, (psa, rush; psin wild rice)
and he also planted some seed near the waters (psin ca, water turnip; psin cala
ca or timpsila, turnip). And he taught that these were good to eat.
According to the one legend, it was for this reason that they called Mille Lacs "the Mysterious Lake."
An article in the Dakota Friend, published by the missionaries Samuel and Gideon Pond, and
reprinted in the March 3, 1852 Minnesota Democrat, contained a detailed discussion about
Oanktayhee, as the Pond’s spelled the name of that powerful being. The author of the
article, probably Gideon Pond, wrote:
"The form of the Oantayhee, Onkteri, is like that of the ox, and he is covered with a
similar coat of hair. His eyes are like the moon in size and his horns he can instantly
extend at his pleasure, so that they will reach the sky. This is also true of his tail.
Awful destructive powers – wakan powers, are in the horns and tail. There are many of
them both male and female, and propagate their kind like animals. The earth is
animated by the spirit of the female, while the dwelling place of the male
is in the water. It is on this account that the Dakotas address their prayers to
the earth as their Grandmother, and the water as their Grandfather."
Thomas Dahlheimer lives in Wahkon
