Native American Trickster Essay

The Role of Tricksters in Native American Tradition

In several cultures, tricksters assumes an important role within ceremonial traditions. The epithet has been liberally applied to a wide range of cultural icons and literary characters, but there are fundamental differences between the Western concept of a trickster and the role one plays in Native American oral tradition. Stemming mostly from differences in each culture’s philosophies, the Native American interpretation of a trickster is one that is an integral part of sacred ceremonies, rather than one that arises as a result of circumstances, as witnessed by how non-Native tales tend to portray them as idiosyncrasies of society. More importantly, the Native American trickster is revered

and respected as a powerful deity whose presence is generally not given exposition. Therefore, it can be seen that the Native American trickster plays an essential role in native tradition by ambiguously being a force of destruction and creation, unlike the well-defined roles that other cultures assign to them.

In Oglala Lakota tradition, the trickster is represented by the heyókȟa.

The heyókȟa was a respected part of tradition, and was used as a method to impart moral lessons onto members of the tribe. They also held a much more defined in Oglala life, as they were generally part of ceremonial activities and were physically present in most parts of tribal life. As described by Thomas Lewis in Anthropos, a heyókȟa “…might include day-to-day activities and/or ceremonial, or periodic ones. He could entertain, deride the self-important, deflate the pompus. He had the power to avert disaster for himself and his tribe, to ward off lightning, to propitiate the Sky Spirits and avoid storms…His role was unsought and unavoidable.” (Lewis 18-19). The heyókȟa’s role in Lakota tradition was a marginal one that obscured the boundaries between reality and myth. The trickster, especially in the context of the Lakota tribe, is an unwilling incarnation of spirits, or in this case, a spirit of thunder and lightning. The becoming of heyókȟa was involuntary, and usually involved the witnessing of “…Thunder Beings, the terrifying, anti-natural powers, the god Heyoka, his representatives or totems, or dreams interpreted by the dreamer or his medicine-advisors as symbolic of those deities.” (Lewis 2). Because they were marginal part of tribal society, they do not care for normalcy. Instead, their role was to violate the socially accepted

norms.