Sacrifice In Joseph M. Marshall's The Lakota Way

In the history of our forefathers and the generations before us we find countless examples of sacrifice, people gave their blood, sweat, and tears in the hope of a better future. One would think that the penance given long ago should be honored, remembered, and carried on in days to come. Joseph M. Marshall certainly believes so and furthers his thoughts through his book, The Lakota Way. Marshall is a descendant of the Lakota tribe, a proud culture with deep roots in American history. Like many of his people before him, Marshall passes on stories meant to teach the proper way of life. Through the telling of “The Story of the Thunders,” recounting the history of the Lakota, and describing his own personal experiences, Marshall illustrates

The employment of such a virtue is not easy and most often not enticing. Sacrifice is demanding and rightfully so considering the requirement of giving oneself. However, consider all the good that has been gained from people sacrificing their time, energy and livelihoods: birth of democratic governments, abolition of slavery, and progress in technology and medicine. The modern world was built on the foundation of others’ sacrifices. Some people may say that in the grand scheme of things few ever had to give everything of themselves and it would be foolish for rest to do the same. These are the same people who think to themselves, “Well, I don’t do it, somebody else will.” However, consider what would happen if everyone thought that way: nothing would be accomplished and many would suffer for it. In “The Story of the Thunders,” Marshall demonstrates the cost of one person being unwilling to sacrifice. “If only she had stayed home. If only she had not gotten angry over her husband’s second wife… The honorable thing to do was to go back to the village, she thought, and tell White Wing that her foolishness had killed their son” (Marshall 100-101). Here, Marshall describes a woman cursing herself for not having swallowed her pride and not having sacrificed a little of her husband’s devotion. As a result of not being fully inculcated with sacrifice she

There is an old phrase that says, “Practice makes perfect,” and in a sense that was the goal of the Lakota with ritual sacrifices. Marshall writes about one such ritual, the Sun Dance, and it gives strict definition to the Lakota expectations: “The piercing is done to male dancers who have pledged to perform the dance. The skin of the upper chest, the pectoral region, is pierced in two places and skewers made of bone are inserted. To the skewers is attached a cord that is tied to a central pole. The participants pole the cord tight as they dance, the object being to tear the skewers through their flesh” (107). Very few people can testify to the amount of pain induced by this practice, but consider the resolve of those who performed it. These men inflicted such strain on themselves in the name of symbolic sacrifice, so the amount of agony they would be willing to endure for true sacrifice would be astounding. On the other hand, quite a few people may look at this sort of routine with skepticism and regard it as a foolish act. Many have characterized the Sun Dance as barbaric, nothing more than self-torture. Well, in a certain respect, this ritual is barbaric and torturous but it is not done so without purpose. Marshall defends his people’s tradition by stating,