NAAIN-021 - ethnographic attestation
Sicangu Lakota, Rosebud (South Dakota)
United States - South Dakota - Rosebud Sioux Reservation - North America - Plains
Play / practical
Tateka yumunpi Lakota / English
Source term: Tateka yumunpi; Wind Buzzer (Bull Roarer)
Lakota name glossed in the source as "Wind Buzzer (Bull Roarer)."
Etymology. Sicangu Lakota, glossed in the SDSU Extension source as "Wind Buzzer (Bull Roarer)." The name joins tȟaté 'wind' with the stem yumni 'to whirl, turn round' — the same root as in tȟaté-iyumni, 'whirlwind' — and the plural -pi, so it reads roughly as 'they whirl the wind.' It names a boys' toy spun by a handle until it buzzes; the source records no ritual use. (medium confidence)
A Sicangu Lakota boys' game in which a rectangular wooden plank, tied by a leather thong to a wooden wand, is gripped by the handle and spun vigorously until it buzzes, with players competing to keep the sound going longest. The entry comes from the Lakota artist Mike Marshall, born on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, who records that cedar is the best wood for a toy meant to make sound and that the tip of the plank can be beveled to cut the wind and pull a louder note from it. Most buzzers are left plain, though some are decorated with burned-in designs. The same Lakota name was set down more than a century earlier in Stewart Culin's survey of North American games, where a thin rectangular plank on a thong, collected at Pine Ridge by Louis L. Meeker, is recorded as a boy's plaything called tateka juihmunpi. The recent source notes no ritual or weather use, only that the effort of keeping the plank buzzing strains and tightens the arm.
This game was traditionally played by boys. They held it by the handle and spun it around vigorously, thus creating a buzzing noise. Participants can compete to see who can keep it buzzing for the longest duration.
Red Eagle & Marshall, Dakota & Lakota Traditional Games Resource (SDSU Extension, 2019), "Tateka yumunpi / Wind Buzzer (Bull Roarer)," p. 17
- Object
- A rectangular wooden plank joined by a leather thong to a wooden handle or wand; pierced for the thong, the plank may be beveled at the tip.
- Function
- Sicangu Lakota boys' traditional game / wind buzzer; players spin it vigorously by the handle to make a buzzing noise and can compete for duration. No ritual or weather-magic function is stated in the source.
- Map confidence
- high - Representative Rosebud / Rosebud Sioux Reservation community anchor. The SDSU resource identifies Mike Marshall as Sicangu Lakota, says he was born on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, and gives a Sicangu Lakota games source context, but it does not give a specific play, collection, or teaching-event locality.
- Source location
- PDF p. 17; SDSU Extension landing page
- Toy / secular survival