Although just published this year, The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux is a book with a long history; it is the capstone of an academic life for its editor, Daniel Beveridge, and the posthumous realization of a dream from its Dakota contributors. I was first made aware of the manuscript's existence by Raymond DeMallie’s introduction to the reprint of James Howard’s The Canadian Sioux (2014) and have long awaited this publication with high hopes. It does not disappoint.
Contemporary publications dealing with the Dakota Sioux are rare, since most folklorists, ethnohistorians, and anthropologists who work with the Sioux choose to focus their studies on the Teton division. Rarer still are books that investigate the lives of the Dakota who settled as refugees in Canada after the 1862 war in Minnesota. Daniel Beveridge’s work is even more special yet, because it emerges from a rich collaboration with his contributors from the Wahpeton Dakota Reserve (formally known as Round Plain) in remote central Saskatchewan. Most of the source material for the book was collected during fieldwork in the 1960s and 1970s with fluent Dakota speakers who had intimate knowledge of traditional Dakota culture. To my knowledge, only three other academics have worked there in the last sixty years.
This book was originally envisioned before 1962 by its main contributor, Mr. Samuel Mniyo, as a way to pass on the knowledge he had been given by his elders, mostly members of the Dakota Wakan Wacipi (Holy Dance) society. The Wakan Wacipi lasted longer and with greater membership in Canada than in the United States, and so the narratives in this text afford us a look back into an aspect of the Dakota world that is virtually inaccessible south of the boundary line.
The Wakan Wacipi was historically the most prominent and important religious society of the Dakota, and was connected to a larger and ancient Medicine Dance complex in the Great Lakes region shared by many Woodlands peoples. Unfortunately for the Dakota, the 1862 war, the shift away from a hunting economy, the demise of inter-tribal warfare, the effects of Christian missionization, and other historical factors of colonialism all drove a gradual decline of the Wakan Wacipi society to the point that new members were not admitted, and finally, the ceremonies ceased altogether. The last complete Holy Dance held at the Wahpeton Reserve was in 1921. As the last members of the Wakan Wacipi society at Wahpeton passed away, they left behind ritual objects and drawings related to the dance; several of these came into the possession of Samuel Mniyo. The passing of this generation also highlighted the importance of preserving Dakota cultural knowledge that only existed in the minds of certain elders. Mr. Mniyo had always been very interested in traditional cultural beliefs and the Wakan Wacipi; throughout his life he spent much time learning with elders. Mniyo’s chance meeting in 1962 with scholar Daniel Beveridge, and their subsequent life-long collaboration, finally allowed for these old Dakota voices to come to life again and be preserved in this book.
There are five voices woven together in this book. The first is the voice of editor Daniel Beveridge who lays out a history and brief cultural sketch of the Dakota in general and of the Wahpeton Dakota on the reserve near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, specifically. The second voice is that of Samuel Mniyo, a Dakota knowledge-keeper from the Wahpeton Reserve, born in 1929, with a keen interest in the traditions of his people. The third voice is that of Sam’s maternal uncle, Robert Goodvoice, a Wahpeton tribal historian born in 1901. Much of the material from Mr. Goodvoice was recorded during a 1977 Saskatchewan oral history project. Finally, there are contributions from James Sapa and Henry Two-Bears, each a nineteenth-century member of the Wakan Wacipi, in the form of a Wakan Wacipi song-board (a paddle-shaped piece of wood engraved with mnemonic figures to keep track of song-order), and a notebook containing images related to the Wakan Wacipi. Beveridge expertly weaves together these voices in a way that is sensitive to the contributors.
In Part 1, Beveridge utilizes the appropriate academic sources to construct a history and cultural description of the Dakota from their earliest presence in the historical record, through their settlement on reservations in Minnesota, the 1862 war, and their subsequent diaspora across the Dakotas, Montana, and Canada. Unfortunately, Beveridge falls into the trap of trying to prove an ancient Dakota occupancy of Saskatchewan—a narrative that would change the Dakota’s refugee status—the evidence for which is thin.
Scholars of the Dakota will find Part 2, based on Mniyo’s narratives, unique. This is probably due in large part to the isolated nature of the Wahpeton Reserve, and Mniyo’s personal visionary experience that instructed him. Mniyo describes an ancient Dakota migration from the Atlantic seaboard to the south, a stop in Niagara Falls, and a literal journey along the Red Road to the west following a mysterious voice. Also in Part 2 we find highly individualized constructions of Dakota pre-history, including a narrative for the establishment of the Wakan Wacipi, and changes in the layout of Dakota camps (and thus social organization). Sam Mniyo also delves into teachings on the life cycle responsibilities of a Dakota person, and his own personal numerology. Mniyo received these teachings as a child from Ite Wapikida, an other-than-human visionary mentor. Intermixed with these teachings are Mniyo’s syncretic beliefs about Christianity and how the Red Road vision is completed through Christianity. Because so little work has been done at the Wahpeton Reserve, it is difficult to know if these unique perspectives are completely individual to Samuel Mniyo or if they are more commonly held beliefs. Although many of Mniyo’s beliefs do not appear as common cultural knowledge in other studies of the Dakota, they are clearly rooted in Dakota experiences, and they may provide scholars with an interesting view of cultural traditions being innovated, old symbols being recast for modern life. Mniyo’s descriptions of the Wakan Wacipi are more conventional, probably because he draws that knowledge from conversations with James Sapa. Again, Beveridge handles the unique perspectives of Mniyo with great sensitivity.
Part 3 will be of most interest to readers. Tribal historian Robert Goodvoice shares oral narratives rich in detail that cover a wide array of topics, both mythical and historic. Goodvoice’s stories encompass such topics as the origin of the Dakota Sundance and Wakan Wacipi; Unktomi (a benevolent culture hero and non-trickster); the Dakota participation in the 1812 war; and King George medals and British payments to the Dakota. There are heartbreaking stories of the 1862 war and the dispersion of Dakota families, who would never see one another again, across the plains, and finally, of how the Wahpeton came to settle at Round Plain near Prince Albert.
Part 4, although very brief, is an important analysis of three Dakota texts. The first is a song board belonging to Henry Two-Bears, which Beveridge believes could be the oldest Dakota text in existence. The second is a series of Wakan Wacipi songs written down in Dakota by Henry Two-Bears and presented here in interlinear translation. Having these songs in print is truly a treasure for students of the Dakota and for Dakota people themselves, as these are among the rarest and oldest of Dakota cultural creations. Lastly, there is an analysis of colored drawings that relate to the Wakan Wacipi, found in a notebook belonging to James Sapa.
Taken together, the four parts of this book present a rich and complex look at how a handful of Dakota people at the Wahpeton Reserve in the early to mid-twentieth century viewed Dakota culture, history, and their place within it. Unlike other studies of the Wahpeton, this book mostly allows Dakota people to speak for themselves, while Beveridge curates and provides context. The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux is a snapshot in time of a unique place and a unique people. Opening the book is also a bit like opening a time capsule, since much of the material comes to us from over sixty years ago. Dakota interested in the complexity of their culture, students of American Indians, and academics who want an example of how to negotiate between folk explanations and conventional historical narrative will all find something of value here. Those interested in the Medicine Dance complex of the Great Lakes will find a treasure.
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[Review length: 1404 words • Review posted on August 27, 2020]