Roughly
translated from Lakota American Indian means sacred clown.
Heyoka,
thought of as being upside-down, backward forward, contrary,
says things like yes when he actually means no. They teach,
philosophize and communicate backwards through nonsense,
jokes satire and threats. *When it is baking hot during a
heat wave, a Heyoka will shiver with cold and put on mittens
and cover himself with a blanket. Build a big fire and
complain that he is freezing to death. When it is
subfreezing at 40 degrees below, he will wander around naked
for hours complaining it’s too hot.
There was a
clown called the straighten outner, he was always running
around trying to flatten round and curvy things, making them
straight, things like soup, dishes, eggs, rings or wagon
wheels.
Heyoka
portray and symbolize aspects of the sacred in a special
way, a way in which their teachings get through to us
without even thinking about them. Sacred clowns in their
actions don’t seem to care about concepts and definitions
taboos or boundaries, but paradoxically and simultaneously
define the concepts at the root of societal guidelines for
moral and ethical behavior, and the theories of balance and
imbalance.
They are the
ones who can ask why of dangerous subjects, and ask why of
people who are specialists in advanced knowledge and
positions of authority. They ask in their satire by fooling
around. They ask the difficult questions and say things
others would like to say but are too afraid to speak.
By reading
between the lines, the audience is able to think about
things not usually thought about or cause them to look at
things in a different way.
*For people
who are as poor as us, who have lost everything, who had to
endure so much death and sadness, laughter is a precious
gift. When we were dying like flies from white mans disease,
when we were driven into reservations, when the government
rations did not arrive and we were starving, watching the
pranks and capers of heyoka were a blessing.
The Heyoka
have many functions, like healing through laughter and
opening people’s eyes to deeper meaning and underlying truth
and first and probably foremost is to prepare the people
with laughter for disaster
*John (Fire)
Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes / Lame Deer Seeker of Visions
