07/21/2025
💚💙
Did you know the humble cottonwood tree is one of the most sacred beings in Lakota tradition?
This isn’t just any tree—this is a Tree of Life, a voice of the spirits, and a direct bridge between Earth and Sky. 🌌
Here’s why the cottonwood is so important in our teachings:
🌟 There’s a Star Inside
When you cut a cottonwood at a branch joint, you’ll find a perfect five-pointed star. This star represents the Wičháȟpi (stars) and connects us to our ancestors, the Seven Sisters (Pleiades), and the sky beings who guide our prayers.
Lakota Star Story
Long before there were saws or science, our elders knew: the cottonwood holds the stars inside.
They say that five-pointed star hidden in its heartwood reflects the Wičháȟpi Tȟó Wičhíyena—the Seven Sisters—who represent the ancestors watching over us.
These stars are sacred in Lakota star knowledge and linked to the origin of the Sundance and the sacred number seven.
As one elder said:
“The stars live in the trees. When you pray, they hear you. That’s why the Sundance tree reaches up—it carries the prayers to the ones who live in the sky.”
The cottonwood reminds us: the sky lives within the Earth.
The Tree that Speaks
The rustling of cottonwood leaves isn’t just wind—it’s the sound of ancestors speaking, prayers traveling, and spirit messages arriving. Sit under one and listen.
The Sundance Tree
In the Wi wáŋyaŋg wačhípi (Sundance), a cottonwood is selected as the center pole, the axis mundi. It connects the people to the Creator. It's chosen with offerings, songs, and prayers. It becomes sacred, alive with every dancer’s sacrifice and every tied prayer.
It Grows Where Life Gathers
Cottonwoods grow near water, where life begins and heals. They grow fast, adapt, and offer shade, shelter, and sometimes even medicine. They remind us: life finds a way, even through hardship.
It Grows in Circles
Like all sacred things, cottonwood honors the circle. Its growth rings, its branch patterns, its leaf clusters—they mirror the sacred hoop of life.
In our Lakota way, we don’t just take a tree—we pray first, offer to***co or seeds, and ask permission. Relationship comes before harvest. Respect comes before use.
So the next time you walk by a cottonwood, remember:
You are standing before a relative, a messenger, a prayer tree.
One that holds the stars inside.
🌟 Wóphila tȟáŋka (Great Thanks) to our plant and tree relatives.
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