Wakonta pilahuk for tobacco

This is some tobacco (nicotiana rustica) I harvested with my three year old daughter. When I harvested it I left some on the ground as an offering. I said ‘wakonta pilahuk’ – what I understand to be ‘Great Spirit thank you’ from the Tutelo-Saponi Language group on Facebook. Here we also say ‘megweetch natowinon’ (spelling?) which is the same thing in Ojibwe (Anishinaabe/Algonquin). My daughter asked me what that meant? I told her we were thanking the great spirit for the tobacco. She picked some leaves and said ‘thank you great spirit’. In that moment I felt like I was successful in rebuilding some of our lost tradition. It was good.

My mother taught me about growing nicotiana. My grandmother’s grandfather, Dora MCS Smith who passed our oral tradition, had a tobacco store in Richmond Indiana. This is one of the few traditions I can see surviving in our family. Keeping tobacco traditions alive is something I hear about frequently at powwows and other events. I don’t think the importance of giving thanks and offering tobacco should be underestimated. I don’t claim to fully understand why it’s important, but I try to respect it in my way.

Redfox posted some more traditions regarding spirit plates and offering of Tobacco in the Saponi United Facebook group. Pilahuk to her for sharing these traditions!