The chief, for generations, seems to have had but little authority except that which he derived from the support of some medicine-man, who attached himself to him, or from the fact that government officers and traders transacted business with the clans through them. The name Dakotah signifies much the same as confederacy. The word is often used as the opposite of enemy. These divisions and subdivisions of Indians are all embraced under the comprehensive name DAKOTA, the name by which they call themselves. The Assinnaboines are said to have belonged originally to the Dakota family. A few years ago, these Dakota tribes occupied the country along the Mississippi river, from about Prairie du Chien, to far above the Falls of St. Anthony, the whole of the Minnesota valley, and the immense plains extending westward to, and beyond the Missouri river. The language of all these tribes is the same, with unimportant dialectic differences, and seems to be entirely distinct from that of the tribes around, except, perhaps, that of the Winnebago tribe. Being one in language they are alike in their civil polity, if indeed it can be said that they have any, alike in their religious belief and practice, and alike in all their manners, allowing for the modifications which have been produced by diversity of circumstances. It is to the superstitions of these Dakotas that the following paper relates. In the first place it seems to be necessary to define the very significant Dakota word _wakan_, for, in it is contained the quintessence of their religion. It is an epitome of the whole, containing its pith and marrow. The word _wakan_, signifies anything which is incomprehensible. The more incomprehensible the more wakan. The word is applied to anything, and everything, that is strange or mysterious. The general name for the gods in their dialect is this, _Taku-Wakan_, i. e., that which is wakan. Whatever, therefore, is above the comprehension of a Dakota, is God. Consequently, he sees gods everywhere. Not Jehovah every where, but _Taku-Wakan_. This is the starting point in their superstitions, but it is not with ease that one can arrive at the other end of the subject. It runs out like the division of matter, to divinity. To use an expression of one of their own most intelligent men, “there is nothing that they do not revere as God.” _Wakan_ is the one idea of divine essence. The chief, if not the only difference that they recognize to exist, among all the tens of thousands of their divinities, is the unessential one of a difference in the degree of their wakan qualities, or in the purposes for which they are wakan. _We_ speak of the _medicine_-man, _medicine_-feast, _medicine_-dance, and the great-_spirit_ of the Indian, while he speaks of _wakan_-man, the _wakan_-feast, the _wakan_-dance, and the great-_wakan_.