The Dakota Genesis in the Dakota Sun Book

Record summary

Nineteenth-century Dakota-language and translated materials record traditions concerning the sun, stars, lightning, fire, and the creation of the world. Among the identifiable documentary trails are texts produced or circulated through Dakota mission and ethnographic networks in the late 1800s, including materials associated with Joseph N. Bourassa. These sources matter because they show how luminous motifs were rendered in print during colonial translation. Exact titles, versions, and informant identities must be established from catalogues and manuscript collections rather than assumed from later anthologies.