Wakan Tanka
E100988
Great Spirit
Lakota religious concept
Native American religious concept
deity
sacred power
spiritual concept
Wakan Tanka is the central sacred power or Great Spirit in Lakota (Sioux) spirituality, encompassing the divine force present in all aspects of the universe.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Wakan Tanka canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T855485 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Wakan Tanka Context triple: [Sioux people, traditionalBelief, Wakan Tanka]
-
A.
The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that narrates the legendary adventures of the Native American hero Hiawatha in a rhythmic, chant-like meter.
-
B.
Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a central Plains Indigenous ceremonial ritual involving days of dancing, fasting, prayer, and often physical sacrifice to seek spiritual renewal and communal harmony.
-
C.
The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean
"The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean" is the opening episode of Carl Sagan’s documentary series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage*, introducing viewers to the scale, structure, and wonder of the universe.
-
D.
Inatsisartut
Inatsisartut is the unicameral parliament of Greenland, responsible for making laws and overseeing the autonomous territory’s government.
-
E.
Kigensetsu
Kigensetsu was a pre-World War II Japanese national holiday that celebrated the mythical founding of Japan and the divine origins of the emperor.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Wakan Tanka Target entity description: Wakan Tanka is the central sacred power or Great Spirit in Lakota (Sioux) spirituality, encompassing the divine force present in all aspects of the universe.
-
A.
The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that narrates the legendary adventures of the Native American hero Hiawatha in a rhythmic, chant-like meter.
-
B.
Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a central Plains Indigenous ceremonial ritual involving days of dancing, fasting, prayer, and often physical sacrifice to seek spiritual renewal and communal harmony.
-
C.
The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean
"The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean" is the opening episode of Carl Sagan’s documentary series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage*, introducing viewers to the scale, structure, and wonder of the universe.
-
D.
Inatsisartut
Inatsisartut is the unicameral parliament of Greenland, responsible for making laws and overseeing the autonomous territory’s government.
-
E.
Kigensetsu
Kigensetsu was a pre-World War II Japanese national holiday that celebrated the mythical founding of Japan and the divine origins of the emperor.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Great Spirit
ⓘ
Lakota religious concept ⓘ Native American religious concept ⓘ deity ⓘ sacred power ⓘ spiritual concept ⓘ |
| componentOfWorldview |
interconnectedness of all beings
ⓘ
sacredness of nature ⓘ |
| hasAttribute |
creative power
ⓘ
immanence ⓘ life-giving force ⓘ sacredness ⓘ transcendence ⓘ |
| hasCulturalSignificanceFor | Plains Indians ⓘ |
| hasMeaning |
Great Mystery
ⓘ
Great Spirit ⓘ
linked to:
Gitche Manito
|
| hasNameInLanguage | Lakota ⓘ |
| influences |
Lakota cosmology
ⓘ
Lakota ethics ⓘ Lakota ritual life ⓘ |
| isAssociatedWith |
sacred pipe ceremony
ⓘ
sweat lodge ceremony ⓘ vision quest ⓘ |
| isCentralTo |
Lakota spirituality
ⓘ
Sioux spirituality ⓘ |
| isDescribedAs | divine force present in all things ⓘ |
| isDistinctFrom |
Christian God (in Lakota traditional understanding)
ⓘ
linked to:
God
|
| isInvokedIn |
Lakota ceremonies
ⓘ
Lakota prayers ⓘ Sun Dance ceremony ⓘ
linked to:
Sun Dance
|
| isPartOfTradition |
Lakota religion
ⓘ
Sioux religion ⓘ |
| isReferencedIn |
Lakota oral tradition
ⓘ
ethnographic literature on Plains Indians ⓘ |
| isRegardedAs | ultimate sacred reality in Lakota thought ⓘ |
| isRelatedToConcept |
Great Spirit (pan-Indian concept)
ⓘ
linked to:
Gitche Manito
animism ⓘ monotheism ⓘ panentheism ⓘ pantheism ⓘ polytheism ⓘ |
| isSometimesInterpretedAs |
a collective of sacred powers
ⓘ
a singular supreme being ⓘ |
| isSourceOf |
moral order in Lakota worldview
ⓘ
natural order in Lakota worldview ⓘ |
| isVeneratedBy |
Lakota people
ⓘ
linked to:
Sioux people
other Sioux groups ⓘ |
| languageOfOrigin | Lakota language ⓘ |
| pervades | all aspects of the universe ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Wakan Tanka Description of subject: Wakan Tanka is the central sacred power or Great Spirit in Lakota (Sioux) spirituality, encompassing the divine force present in all aspects of the universe.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.