hó'pini (“to be holy”)
Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied, in his notebooks, translated hó'pini as “medicine,” an English noun that Wied-Neuwied used to describe all Native spiritual practices that he encountered in his travels.[1] His blanket use of the term likely reflected the term’s usage among non-Native fur traders, but in reality, each Native community would have had their own unique cosmologies and spiritual practices.
Among Numak'aki peoples, hó'pini was a verb, better translated as “to be holy.” The term expresses both a state of being and the work associated with that state. A pipe, for instance, could hó'pini'sh (“inhabit holy”) in and of itself. Such a pipe could also depart a to-be-holy-ness to those who possessed or accepted the rights and the rites associated with the hó'pini object, provided that one kept the object (becoming the object’s ka-ka, or keeper) in the correct manner. Early depictions of calumets on painted buffalo hides sometimes show them with hó'pini individuals specially appointed to use them.
All Plains warriors “sought their god” in the process of young adulthood.[2] This god could later be depicted on their hide shields or clothing, and this depiction then bathed such objects in hó'pini. Many óhate (society) objects were understood to hó'pini'sh, such as those that Mató-Tópe specifically brought to Fort Clark shortly after the Europeans arrived. Smoking tobacco, burning sweetgrass, or marking with sé (be-red) could also make something or someone hó'pini'sh.