written language was changing Lakota religion

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In "Intertribal Communication, Literacy, and the Spread of the Ghost Dance," Justin Randolph Gage wrote, "The use of written Native language also changed the spoken language. George Sword, an Oglala Lakota at the Pine Ridge Agency, thought that the white missionaries’ written version of Dakota eventually altered the way his people spoke. Before the younger generations began using the written language, each syllable in the Lakota language had a distinct meaning, but missionaries combined those syllables to form English words, not compound phrases. Because of the written language, those monosyllabic words were, over time, formed into compound words when spoken. According to Sword, the “young people” began to speak “as the white people have written it.” [...] Sword also noted how the written language was changing Lakota religion, because the old “holy” language was only know by the “holy men” and there were no “holy men among the young people,” “the people do not understand the meaning of any words in the holy language. They [sic] holy language is used by the holy men in holy songs and ceremonies. This is the language of Wakan Tanka. All animals understand this language.”

Intertribal Communication, Literacy, and the Spread of the Ghost Dance by Justin Randolph Gage
scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2417&context=etd

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One of the most important tenants of my own spiritual belief is based on the phrase “convicted by conscience,” found in chapter eight, verse nine of the Book of John. The verse reads, in part, “And they which heard, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: …”

In reference to these words, Matthew Henry wrote, “Conscience is God’s deputy in the soul, …” and that, “What he said frightened them by sending them to their own consciences; he had shown them to themselves, ...”

Thus, imagine my confusion when I searched through the newly delivered New Lakota Dictionary (NLD) and could find no entry for the word “conscience.” The most important word in any language (to my mind) was not in the new official document of the Lakota language. I was truly shocked by the fact that the concept of conscience had been put out of existence.

And yet I knew that the word had once existed in the Lakota language because I had read in “Lakota Myth” (page 397) the words spoken by George Sword that referred to the existence of the concept, “The word sicun is from the sacred language of the shamans. It signifies the spirit of a man.”

In “Lakota Belief and Ritual” (pages 72,73) James Riley Walker wrote of the concept as follows, “The Lakota concept of sicun is very complex. That of the sicun pertaining to mankind is that it is is an influence that forwarns of danger, admonishes for right against wrong, and controls others of mankind.”

To my mind the word “sicun” was the perfect analog for the concept of conscience ("admonishes for right against wrong") but very its existence seemed to have disappeared from the new official version of the Lakota language.

Then, when the Buechel Dictionary was delivered, I took heart when I eventually found two entries (!) for the word. And though its spelling and origin seemed to be somewhat in doubt, its existence and supernatural meaning was confirmed.

The first entry listed in the Buechel Dictionary is for the noun “si- čúŋ” meaning, in part, “that in a person or thing which is spirit or spirit-like and guards one from birth against evil spirits …” where the syllable “si” is a noun having the meaning “the foot,” and where the syllable “čúŋ,” though used in numerous words, has no meaning listed.

The second entry listed is for the noun “ši-čúŋ” meaning “the group of powers, possessed by nature or attained by effort peculiar to each being,” where the syllable “ši” is an active verb having the meaning “to command, bid,” and where, once again, the syllable “čúŋ,” though used in numerous words, has no meaning listed.

In an attempt to rectify the lack of a formal definition in the New Lakota Dictionary (NLD), I parse the word “sicun” as used by George Sword and James Riley Walker with the first syllable “ší” listed in the NLD as an auxiliary verb meaning “to command or order someone to do something,” and the second syllable “čʼuŋ” listed in the NLD as a definite article meaning “the aforesaid, the past.”

Thus, I tentatively define the word “Šíčʼuŋ” as a proper noun meaning “the guardian, the familiar, the Intellect; a supernatural spiritual influence that forwarns of danger, admonishes for right against wrong; the concept of the word Šíčʼuŋ has a meaning that is equivalent to and an analog of the word 'conscience' in the English language.”

That some Lakota speakers could be ignorant of the existence of certain words in their language is confirmed in “Lakota Belief and Ritual” (page 35) by the words of James Riley Walker, “My interpreter was an educated man, and well informed, but he had never before this interview heard the words Skan [Škáŋ], Wohpe [Woȟpá], sicun [Šíčʼuŋ], or ton [Tȟúŋ], used to convey the concepts as given by Finger, though he recalled having heard them used with an allusive sense.”