[Dakota wakaŋ ‘a spirit, something consecrated; taku wakaŋ and wakaŋ tanka, the Great Spirit’; subst. use of wakaŋ adj., ‘spiritual, sacred, consecrated’ (Riggs, Gram. & Dict. Dakota Lang.). J. F. Cooper (Prairie, xxviii.) has the form wahcondah.] Among some American Indians, a spiritual being that is the object of religious reverence; also, a fetish: = MANITOU.
1778. J. Carver, Trav. N. Amer., xiii. 381. The Chipéways call this being Manitou or Kitchi-Manitou; the Naudowessies, Wakon or Tongo-Wakon, that is, the Great Spirit.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 299. They believe … in the spirits, gods, or manitos, whom they denominate wakons.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind., II. liv. 166. On the surface of the rocks, [are seen] various marks and their sculptured hieroglyphics—their wakons, totems and medicines.
b. Comb.: Wakon-bird, a fabulous bird venerated by the Indians.
1778. J. Carver, Trav. N. Amer., xviii. 472–3. The name they have given it is expressive of its superior excellence, and the veneration they have for it; the wakon bird being in their language the bird of the Great Spirit.
1806. Moore, To Lady Charl. Rawdon, 75. Swift upon the purple plume Of my Wakon-Bird I fly Where [etc.].
