The "_Dakota Friend_," for December, 1850. (Minn. Hist. Col.)
[65] The meteor--_Wakan-denda_--Sacred fire.
[66] _Me-ta-win_--My bride.
[68] The _Via Lactea_ or Milky Way. The Dakotas call it _Wanagee
Tach-anku_--The pathway of the spirits; and believe that over this path
the spirits of the dead pass to the Spirit-land. See _Riggs' Tah-koo
Wah-kan_, p. 101.
[69] _Oonk-tay-he_. There are many _Unktehees_, children of the _Great
Unktehee_, who created the earth and man, and who formerly dwelt in a
vast cavern under the Falls of St. Anthony. The _Unktehee_ sometimes
reveals himself in the form of a huge buffalo-bull. From him proceed
invisible influences. The _Great Unktehee_ created the earth.
"Assembling in grand conclave all the aquatic tribes he ordered them to
bring up dirt from beneath the waters, and proclaimed death to the
disobedient. The beaver and otter forfeited their lives. At last the
muskrat went beneath the waters, and, after a long time, appeared at the
surface, nearly exhausted, with some dirt. From this _Unktehee_
fashioned the earth into a large circular plain. The earth being
finished he took a deity, one of his own offspring, and, grinding him to
powder, sprinkled it upon the earth, and this produced many worms.
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