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Native American Legends: Wakan Tanka (Wakataka)

Name: Wakan Tanka
Tribal affiliation: Lakota, Dakota
Alternate spellings: Wakantanka, Wakan-Tanka, Wakataka
Pronunciation: wah-kahn tahn-kah
Also known as: Great Mystery
Type: High god, Creator
Related figures in other tribes: Wakanda (Omaha), Earth-maker (Ho-chunk), Gitche Manitou (Ojibway)

Wakan Tanka is the great Creator power of the Lakota and Dakota tribes. Wakan Tanka is an abstract, omnipresent creative force who is never personified in traditional Siouan legends, and in fact did not even have a gender before the introduction of English with its gender-specific pronouns.

Wakan Tanka Stories

*Wakantanka:
    Wikipedia article about the Great Mystery.

Recommended Books of Related Native American Legends
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The Sons of the Wind:
    Good collection of Sioux legends told by a Lakota author.

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Additional Resources

 Sioux mythology
 Sioux Indians
 Dakota language
 South Dakota tribes
 Native American Plains Indians
 Lakota words
 Sioux language family



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