My mother is Bah kho' je. The translation to English is "Grey Snow People." Our official government name is the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, but we like to pronounce our name Ioway; as in "Ioway or the highway." We are often referred to as the southern Ioway.

The Iowa and the Otoe-Missouri people are very closely related, and we are also connected through kinship with the Omaha of Nebraska. There is a word we use to refer to the Great Spirit, or Creator. This word is Wakanda, or Wakonda. I've seen other tribes use this word as well to represent a supreme being.

A book was written in 1911 by Alice Fletcher and Francis LaFlesche titled The Omaha. This was pointed out to me by a relative by the name of Lance Foster, a member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, who are often referred to as the northern Ioway. He's an anthropologist and historian who keeps many Ioways informed about current tribal issues and also researches historical subject matter.

He recently sent me this e-mail:

"People sometimes say the Indians worshipped various gods before the coming of Christianity, or that Wakanda was simply our name for God, the same concept as in religion today," Foster wrote. "In researching these things, I came across an interesting passage from The Omaha by Fletcher and LaFlesche, talking about the idea of Wakanda (the Omaha spelling is Wakonda) in a different and more ancient understanding before the white man came."

Here's an excerpt from the book The Omaha:

"An invisible and continuous life was believed to permeate all things, seen and unseen. This life manifests itself in two ways: First, by causing to move — all motion, all actions of mind or body are because of this invisible life; second, by causing permanency of structure and form, as in the rock, the physical features of the landscape, mountains, plains, streams, rivers, lakes, the animals and man. This invisible life was also conceived as being similar to the will power of which man is conscious within himself — a power by which things are brought to pass. Through this mysterious life and power all things are related to one another and to man, the seen (and) the unseen, the dead to the living, a fragment of anything to its entirety. This invisible life and power was called Wakonda."

"Thus, Wakanda is within all things, both visible and invisible, things that are matter/structure/solid and things that are movement/energy/power," said Foster. "Wakanda is like our will, our spirit, and in this way it is similar to when the Bible says God created man in his own image, as both God and man have mind/will/spirit, not necessarily both having a physical appearance (two legs etc.) the same.

"And therefore it is also so that the Indian saying 'All My Relations' — that we are all related through Wakanda, is also true. We are connected to our ancestors, though they are no longer living. And a physical piece of something is connected to that as well, as when people save a lock of hair to remember people by. This is all connected through Wakanda.

"Thus, while the Great Mystery Wakanda was above, beyond, within everything, this is the idea that Mother Earth and Father Sky, Moon and Sun, Night and Day sustained our lives, and life of everything on earth, that we might live," Foster explained. "And our arts, ceremonies, clan structures and all were to remind us of this interrelationship and keep us connected, and behaving rightly and ethically to each other, and everything on this earth that we depend on, so that Life on Earth, including we human beings, will continue to live."

I'm thankful to my northern relative and his compassion to keep our traditional beliefs relevant. Aho.

Harlan McKosato, a Sauk/Ioway, is host of the syndicated radio show Native America Calling, which airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on KUNM, 89.9 FM.