Lakota Virtue:Honor

Honor
In the snake story the boy had to jump over a snake but failed and was knocked unconscious, it take all his strength to do this and it retained his honor (p.58)  “his fear helped him jump so high he almost would have made it.” This says that even though you’re scared to do some things, you have to, to keep your honor and maybe even to keep you alive. 

Four hunters awoke to see a giant snake blocking the path out of their camp, to escape, they would have to jump over it. The first two hunters jump over it safely, but the nervous young hunter accidentally hits the snake and is knocked out. The snake slithers away and the young hunter wakes up, he says that the snake spoke to him about something that he and the other hunters must do if they wish to not be eaten. They have to find a man in a lodge with a red door that has a scar under his left eye, they then have to escort him to a river that he must cross. When the man is in the middle of the river, he is pulled under and is surely dead. So, the hunters go back to the lodge and tell his wife of the man’s death, she then tells them his story, and why they did that. She tells them that a dark spirit cursed him and he had the choice to not be cursed, but the whole tribe will go crazy, or that he can be banished but the whole tribe doesn’t go crazy. The man chooses to be banished, which the wife believes is very honorable. This story was chose because the man that is cursed shows honor when he choses to basically get himself killed rather than the whole tribe to go crazy. 

Why is Honor important? Honor is important universally because without it their would be chaos and anarchy. What is Honor? Honor is multiple things I believe it is the combination of honesty, respect and fairness. I honor my mother for being great and dealing with all 5 of her children. She is honourable she is very honest and treats us fairly. Honor can lead to great leadership and a great life. The color for honor is red in the lakota culture. 

Honor in the Lakota culture is important. It is important because, when they have honor they sacrifice something important. In the book The Lakota Way, a man sacrificed himself to save his entire village from the curse that the doctor put on him. He knew what was going to happen to him, that he was going to die. But he still gave his life for his entire village, this showed a great deal of honor for this man. The Lakota people believe that to have honor, you have to be honest to yourself.