From the Guest Editors

From the Guest Editors Sarah Hernandez, Christopher Pexa, and Julianne Newmark "The camp-circle was on the move again." So begins Ella Deloria's novel, Waterlily: in a state of motion, its Dakota characters packing up for a deer hunt or "to gather the fruits in season," with their move ultimately leading to the birth of the novel's title character. It is a fitting opening, too, for this special issue of Studies in American Indian Literatures, as it honors and celebrates the Oceti Sakowin Oyate or "People of the Seven Council Fires" and our/their rich intellectual traditions.1 It is a celebration of dynamic movement not unlike breaking camp, as we look both forward to future generations of Oceti Sakowin writers and intellectuals and to the possibilities of future storytelling that is—that always has been—sustained by its deep roots in a shared past. The Oceti Sakowin consists of seven fires or tribes based on kinship, location and dialect—Dakota, Lakota or Nakota. The traditional names of these tribes are: Wahpekute (Wahpekute), Wahpetunwan (Wahpeton), Sisistunwan (Sisseton), Bdewakantunwan (Mdewakanton), Ihanktunwan (Yankton), Ihanktunwanna (Yanktonai) and Titunwan (Teton). Today, there are many Oceti Sakowin nations descended from the original seven tribes. These tribal nations now reside in South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana in the United States and Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in Canada. We/they each maintain our/their own cultures, languages, land bases and government structures. Since time immemorial, the Oceti Sakowin have relied upon oral stories, histories, songs, and traditions to sustain our/their cultures, languages, and values. The Oceti Sakowin oral tradition still persists today in both oral and written forms. Each tribe's oral tradition is distinctive. Oral stories—and the printed stories that have emerged from them—are unique to each family and community. And yet a common thread [End Page ix] across Oceti Sakowin territory is the intergenerational transmission of knowledge, which Charles Eastman describes in his 1902 autobiography, Indian Boyhood: Very early, the Indian boy assumed the task of preserving and transmitting the legends of his ancestors and his race. Almost every evening a myth, or a true story of some deed done in the past was narrated by one of the parents or grandparents, while the boy listened with parted lips and glistening eyes. On the following evening, he was usually required to repeat it.2 Eastman's use of settler terms like "legend," "myth," and "race" here should not cast doubt on Oceti Sakowin narratives' veracity and historicity. Instead, it points to his and other turn-of-the century Native writers' use of settler framings and vocabularies to convey Native life and experience within the confines of a settler publishing industry. Despite this restriction, the intergenerational experience Eastman describes is one requiring care in many dimensions: in listening, in remembering, and in "repeat[ing]." In this last aspect, Oceti Sakowin storytellers are guided by a principle of owotaŋna wohdakapo, or "telling it straight." And as Dakota historian Waziyatawin observes, "telling it straight" can also mean "telling it well," or "Tanyan wohdakapo!"3 In effect, upholding these principles helps to ensure ongoing dialogue and relational accountability. The essays, reviews, and creative work represented in this special issue of SAIL no doubt uphold this crucial form of relationality. There are many variations and genres of Oceti Sakowin oral storytelling. Some may be accounts of everyday life, while others are stories of origins sometimes called ehaŋna woyakapi or "long ago stories." Waziyatawin, quoting Prairie Island Dakota storyteller Dale Childs, notes that another genre called hitunkankanpi "were given to the people for their survival so they could learn from these stories." Hitunkankanpi include Unktomi or Iktomi stories, stories about animals, and other stories of how things "came to be."4 Within and across these ways of storytelling, there is a dynamic of linking to the past as well as innovating newness—all in the spirit of tanyan wohdakapo. Just as multiple genres of storytelling exist across Oceti Sakowin thought, so too are there many ways of representing them in written form. The editors of this special issue defer to individual authors' orthographic and spelling choices in representing the Dakota, Nakota...

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