Evidence is wanting to show that these people divide their _Taku-Wakan_ into classes of good or evil. They are all simply wakan. The Dakotas have another word to represent spirit, or soul, or Jehovah, but the word wakan is never used in that sense, though a spirit might be wakan. Evidence is also wanting to show that the Dakotas embraced in their religious tenets, the idea of one Supreme Existence, whose existence is expressed by the term GREAT SPIRIT. If some of the clans, at the present time, entertain this idea, it seems highly probable that it has been imparted to them by individuals of European extraction. No reference to such a being is to be found in their feasts, or fasts, or sacrifices. Or if there is any such reference at the present time, it is clear that is of recent origin and does not belong to their system. Individuals of them may tell us that the worship of the great medicine-dance is paid to the Great Spirit, but it is absolutely certain that it is not, as will be seen as we proceed. Mr. Carver tells us of a religious ceremony of a very singular nature—very wakan—in which a person is carefully bound hand and foot and mysteriously released by the gods—the performance of which he witnessed, and which he said had reference to the GREAT SPIRIT. Doubtless it had such reference in his opinion, but it will be shown in another place, that in fact, it had not. It is indeed true, that Dakotas do sometimes appeal to the Great Spirit when in counsel with white men, but it is because they suppose him to be the object of the white man’s worship, or because they themselves have embraced the Christian doctrines. Still it is generally the _Interpreter_ who makes the appeal to the Great Spirit, when the speaker really appealed to the _Taku_-wakan, and not to the wakan-_Tanku_. Besides, the great struggle which at the present time exists between the heathen and the Christian Dakotas, is freely _expressed_ to be a strife, between the old system of worship rendered to the _Taku Wakan_, and the new, which is rendered to the _Wanku Tanku_. The Christians are universally distinguished from the pagans, as being worshippers of Wakan Tanku, or as we speak, the Great Spirit. One word more by way of introduction. It is true of all the Dakota gods, or wakans, that they are male and female, are subject to the same laws of propagation under which men and animals exist, and are mortal. They are not thought of as being eternal, except it may be by succession. DAKOTA GODS. THE ONKTEHI. It seems to be proper to allow this wakan object to take the precedence in our arrangement, as he does really in respectability. The literal signification of the name is probably lost, though it may, perhaps, signify extraordinary vital energies.