Topzle Topzle

Okipa

Updated: Wikipedia source

Okipa

The Okipa (Mandan pronunciation: [o'kipa]), sometimes rendered as Okeepa or O-kee-pa, was the most important religious ceremony among the Mandan people in what is now North Dakota. The ceremony was a partial retelling and reenactment of Mandan mythology, and was done to provide good fortune and ensure the tribe had plentiful buffalo to hunt. It took place mainly in a ceremonial clearing at the center of a Mandan village and a large earth lodge, known as the Medicine Lodge or Okipa Lodge, dedicated exclusively for the purpose. It was led by a prominent member of the tribe, known as the Okipa Maker, who had earned the right to host, and two men who represented important figures in Mandan mythology. During the Okipa, young men in the tribe submitted to extreme ritual torture, including scarification and dismemberment, as a rite of passage and to induce supernatural visions. The men starved themselves for as long as all four days before being cut through their bodies, suspended from the lodge ceiling through these cuts, and weighed down with buffalo skulls tied to rope suspended through other cuts on the body. They were then made to run around the central clearing until the buffalo skulls were ripped out of their flesh. The mythological origins of the Okipa centered around a creator figure called Lone Man and his conflict with a supernatural member of the tribe called Speckled Eagle. Its roles were doled out through special permissions earned or sold to certain members of the tribe. The ceremony took place at least once a year and usually during the summertime, though it regularly occurred two or three times a year and was known to be performed during the winter. Throughout the process dancers dressed as male buffalo were painted by the townspeople and performed ritual dances outside the Medicine Lodge as young men inside fasted and submitted to the torture. During the third day, a trickster figure who ritually harassed the women of the tribe with a large symbolic penis was at the center of several of the performances. He was driven away by the tribe's women and the theft of his symbolic penis elevated one of the women to leadership status. At the end, a process known as Walking with the Buffalo took place, wherein the young married women of the tribe performed ritual sex with the Bull Dancers of the tribe, which infused the young women – and by extension their husbands – with a supernatural energy known as xópini. The Okipa was first attested in the writings of the American painter George Catlin, who earned the goodwill of the tribe and was allowed to view the ceremony, though he was not the first non-Indian to observe the event. While some of his account has been criticized as inaccurate or sensationalist, much of it has been corroborated by later independent accounts. While the ceremony kept some continuity, the events in the Okipa changed and altered through time, especially after a devastating bout of smallpox in 1837. The ceremony is thought to have influenced the Sun Dance performed by many Plains Indian tribes, most notably the Cheyenne's. Although the ritual torture receded as a focal point of the ceremony over time, it was formally outlawed in 1890.

Tables

· Organization › Clan and band structure
Waxikena
Waxikena
Buffalo moiety (West)
Waxikena
Buffalo moiety (West)
'Tell Bad News'
Corn moiety (East)
Sipuskanumak
Corn moiety (East)
'Prairie Chicken People'
Tamisik
Tamisik
Buffalo moiety (West)
Tamisik
Buffalo moiety (West)
No meaning
Corn moiety (East)
Ipokanumak
Corn moiety (East)
'Speckled Eagle People'
Tamixixiks
Tamixixiks
Buffalo moiety (West)
Tamixixiks
Buffalo moiety (West)
'Bad Strap'
Corn moiety (East)
Matodomak
Corn moiety (East)
'Bear People'
Three other clans whose names are no longer remembered
Three other clans whose names are no longer remembered
Buffalo moiety (West)
Three other clans whose names are no longer remembered
Buffalo moiety (West)
Masedomak
Corn moiety (East)
'Red Hill People'
Amakadomak
Amakadomak
Buffalo moiety (West)
Amakadomak
Buffalo moiety (West)
'Badger People'
Hoxexakanumak
Hoxexakanumak
Buffalo moiety (West)
Hoxexakanumak
Buffalo moiety (West)
'Crow People'
Manakasanumak
Manakasanumak
Buffalo moiety (West)
Manakasanumak
Buffalo moiety (West)
'People in the Grove'
Buffalo moiety (West)
Corn moiety (East)
Waxikena
'Tell Bad News'
Sipuskanumak
'Prairie Chicken People'
Tamisik
No meaning
Ipokanumak
'Speckled Eagle People'
Tamixixiks
'Bad Strap'
Matodomak
'Bear People'
Three other clans whose names are no longer remembered
Masedomak
'Red Hill People'
Amakadomak
'Badger People'
Hoxexakanumak
'Crow People'
Manakasanumak
'People in the Grove'

References

  1. Another version of the story relates that Lone Man was given to the Mandan as a representative to his father, a supreme
  2. Fenn (2014) reports that Thunder, using a tornado, obtained the robe.
  3. These were not drums made from turtles, but rather buffalo-hide drums made in such a shape that resembled one. Culturall
  4. Also translated as 'Tell Bad Stories [About]'
  5. Bowers writes that although the word had no meaning, Tamisik clan members were often perceived as "stingy" and treated g
  6. Also known as the Rupta or Nupta. The second translation as 'those who came second' is derived from having lived apart f
  7. The name is probably derived from the term ą́ąwe kaxé ('something everyone has'), a term now associated with all Mandan
  8. It is unclear precisely how the staff was initially broken. Bowers (1950) reports that The Foolish One broke it by tryin
  9. Bowers reports that when night fell on the third day, any faster who had gone through the torture left the Medicine Lodg
  10. Sources are split on whether this was a part of the ceremony itself. Howard L. Harrod (1995, 2000) indicates that it was
  11. Fenn (2014) spells the term as xo'pini. For the modern orthography, see Kasak (2024).
  12. Catlin does appear to believe, however, that he was the first, writing in 1865: "I was the first white man who ever witn
  13. Kasak 2024, p. 369.
  14. National Park Service 2020, ¶1.
  15. North Dakota Department of Public Instruction 2002, pp. 5–6.
  16. Kasak 2024, pp. 4–5.
  17. North Dakota Department of Public Instruction 2002, p. 6.
  18. North Dakota Department of Public Instruction 2002, p. 8.
  19. National Park Service 2020, ¶3.
  20. mw- .mw- For the alliance and a description of the 1837 outbreak, see North Dakota Department of Public Instruction 2002
  21. National Park Service 2020, ¶5.
  22. Fenn 2014, p. 118.Bowers 1950.North Dakota Department of Public Instruction 2002, p. 76.
  23. Wood 1967, p. 156.
  24. Bowers 1950, p. 118.Mitchell 2013, p. 66.Harrod 2000, p. 107.
  25. Bowers 1950, p. 117.
  26. Kasak 2024, pp. 2–3.
  27. Bowers 1950, pp. 24, 113, 351.
  28. Mitchell 2013, p. 66.
  29. Fenn 2014, pp. 117–118.
  30. Fenn 2014, p. 118.
  31. Bowers 1950, pp. 24, 113, 351.Mitchell 2013, p. 66.Fenn 2014, p. 118.
  32. For the role of the conflict in the Okipa, see Harrod 1995, p. 47.For the mythological context of Speckled Eagle, see Bo
  33. Fenn 2014, p. 119.
  34. Risjord 2012, p. 20.
  35. Harrod 1995, p. 47.
  36. Fenn 2014, p. 199.
  37. Harrod 1995, p. 47.Bowers 1950, p. 120.Fenn 2014, p. 119.
  38. Fenn 2014, pp. 119–120.
  39. Fenn 2014, p. 120.
  40. Bowers 1950, p. 120.
  41. That Speckled Eagle was equal in importance to Lone Man during the Okipa but otherwise unimportant, see Bowers 1950, p.
  42. Metcalf 1994, p. 43.Wood 1967, p. 12.Mitchell 2013, p. 189.
  43. Fenn 2014, pp. 118, 122.
  44. Harrod 1995, p. 46.Bowers 1950, p. 122.North Dakota Department of Public Instruction 2002, p. 76.Harrod 2000, p. 107.
  45. For its needing to be held once a year, see Harrod 1995, p. 46, Harrod 2000, p. 107 and Fenn 2014, p. 118.For its common
  46. Harrod 1995, p. 48.
  47. Bowers 1950, p. 130.
  48. Kasak 2024, p. 21.
  49. Mitchell 2013, p. 189.
  50. Bowers 1950, p. 122.
  51. Bowers 1950, pp. 113–114.
  52. Bowers 1950, p. 113.
  53. Bowers 1950, p. 30.
  54. Kasak 2024, p. 4.
  55. Kasak 2024, p. 3.
  56. Harrod 1995, p. 34.
  57. Bowers 1950, p. 116.Kasak 2024, p. 3.Harrod 1995, p. 34.
  58. Bowers 1950, pp. 117–118.
  59. Bowers 1950, p. 111.
  60. Bowers 1950, p. 111.Harrod 1995, p. 46.Harrod 2000, p. 108.
  61. Harrod 1995, p. 46.
  62. Bowers 1950, p. 123.
  63. Fenn 2014, p. 122.
  64. Bowers 1950, p. 124.
  65. Mitchell 2013, p. 195.
  66. Bowers 1950, p. 121.
  67. Bowers 1950, p. 118.
  68. Bowers 1950, p. 125.
  69. Harrod 2000, p. 108.
  70. Bowers 1950, pp. 120–121.
  71. Harrod 1995, p. 49.Harrod 2000, p. 108.Fenn 2014, p. 125.Bowers 1950, pp. 132, 138.
  72. Bowers 1950, p. 145.
  73. For the description of The Foolish One's clothing and paint symbolism, see Bowers 1950, pp. 144–145.For the general desc
  74. Harrod 1995, p. 51.
  75. Harrod 2000, p. 109.
  76. Harrod 1995, p. 49.
  77. Fenn 2014, p. 125.
  78. Fenn 2014, p. 126.
  79. Bowers 1950, pp. 145–146.
  80. Wood 1967, p. 101.
  81. For the concentricity of the earth lodges, see Schuetz-Miller 2012, p. 368.For everything else, see Bowers 1950, p. 111,
  82. For its being colored red and the name of the boards, see Schuetz-Miller 2012, p. 368.For the earth lodges having their
  83. For the name of the ceremonial area, see Bowers 1950, p. 116.For everything else, see Wood 1967, p. 15 and Mitchell 2013
  84. Bowers 1950, pp. 115–116.
  85. Bowers 1950, pp. 111, 124.
  86. Wood 1967, p. 15.
  87. Schuetz-Miller 2012, p. 368.
  88. Schuetz-Miller 2012, pp. 368–369.
  89. Harrod 2000, p. 107.
  90. Bowers 1950, pp. 114–115.
  91. Fenn 2014, p. 123.
  92. Bowers 1950, p. 114.
  93. Harrod 1995, p. 46.Bowers 1950, p. 121.Mitchell 2013, p. 189.
  94. Bowers 1950, pp. 124–125.
  95. Bowers 1950, p. 126.
  96. Bowers 1950, p. 128.
  97. Bowers 1950, pp. 128–129.
  98. Bowers 1950, p. 129.
  99. For a description of the hides worn and the pairing, see Harrod 1995, p. 48.For the buffalo mimicry, see Bowers 1950, p.
  100. Harrod 1995, pp. 48–49.
  101. Bowers 1950, pp. 129–130.
  102. Bowers 1950, pp. 130–131.
  103. Fenn 2014, pp. 123, 125.
  104. Bowers 1950, pp. 132–133.
  105. Bowers 1950, pp. 133–134.
  106. Bowers 1950, pp. 134–135.
  107. Bowers 1950, p. 132.
  108. Bowers 1950, p. 135.
  109. Bowers 1950, p. 135.Harrod 1995, p. 51.Harrod 2000, p. 108.
  110. Bowers 1950, p. 148.
  111. Bowers 1950, pp. 135–137.
  112. Bowers 1950, pp. 138–139.
  113. Bowers 1950, p. 144.
  114. Fenn 2014, pp. 125–126.
  115. Fenn 2014, pp. 126–127.Harrod 1995, p. 49.Harrod 2000, p. 109.Bowers 1950, p. 145.
  116. Fenn 2014, p. 127.
  117. Bowers 1950, p. 146.
  118. Bowers 1950, p. 146.Fenn 2014, p. 127.Harrod 1995, p. 49.Harrod 2000, p. 109.
  119. For breaking his staff into many pieces, see Fenn 2014, p. 127.For the theft of his symbolic penis, see Fenn 2014, p. 12
  120. Bowers 1950, pp. 146–147.
  121. Bowers 1950, p. 147.
  122. For the number of dances, see Harrod 1995, p. 48 and Fenn 2014, pp. 127–128.For everything else, see Bowers 1950, pp. 14
  123. Bowers 1950, pp. 114, 148.
  124. Bowers 1950, pp. 147–148.
  125. For a description of the masked figure, see Harrod 1995, p. 51.For the removal of the left little finger, see Fenn 2014,
  126. Bowers 1950, p. 149.
  127. Fenn 2014, p. 129.
  128. For the name, see Harrod 1995, p. 118.For the description of the members who carried them into the clearing and the dire
  129. Harrod 1995, pp. 51–52.
  130. Bowers 1950, pp. 149–150.
  131. Bowers 1950, p. 150.
  132. Fenn 2014, p. 130.
  133. Harrod 1995, p. 9: "Among the Mandans, the custom was sometimes associated with symbolic intercourse with the buffalo, k
  134. Harrod 2000, pp. 109–110.
  135. Harrod 1995, p. 50.
  136. For the spiritual transformation of the women, see Harrod 2000, p. 109.For everything else, see Fenn 2014, p. 130.
  137. Harrod 2000, p. 110.
  138. Kasak 2024, p. 170.
  139. Kehoe 1970, p. 100.
  140. Harrod 1995, pp. 50–51.
  141. Fenn 2014, p. 121.
  142. Catlin 1865, p. 1.
  143. Fenn 2014, pp. 121, 370.
  144. Wood 2011, p. 8.
  145. Denver Art Museum n.d.
  146. For where the event took place, see Mitchell 2013, p. 66.For everything else, see Wood 2011, p. 8.
  147. For the year Catlin first observed the ceremony, see Fenn 2014, p. 121.For the details of his 1841 publication, see Bell
  148. Bellin 2008, pp. 26–27.
  149. Wood 2011, p. 23.
  150. Ackerman 1970, p. 165.
  151. Bellin 2008, p. 203.
  152. Bellin 2008, pp. 21–22.
  153. For Curtis's account, see Fenn 2014, p. 370.For Wood's defense, see Wood 2011, p. 8.
  154. Bellin 2008, pp. 22–23.
  155. Flores 2016, p. 119.
  156. Harrod 1995, p. 118.
  157. Harrod 1995, pp. 118–119.
  158. Harrod 1995, p. 119.
  159. For the date of the last ceremony, see Harrod 1995, p. 63.For the date of its being outlawed, see Denver Art Museum n.d.
  160. Fenn 2014, p. 100.
  161. Bowers 1950, pp. 116–117.
  162. Bowers 1950, p. 115.
  163. Bowers 1950, p. 134.
  164. Fenn 2014, p. 99.Liberty & Wood 2011, p. 163.Liberty 2005, pp. 76, 81.
  165. Liberty 2005, p. 77.
  166. Prats 2002, pp. 130–131.
Image
Source: —
Tip: Wheel or +/− to zoom, drag to pan, Esc to close.