Lakota Funeral Food: Traditional Wake Meals, Wasna, and Feeding the Community

Why Food Is Central to a Lakota Funeral

At a Lakota funeral, feeding people is not hospitality in the casual Western sense. It is a sacred obligation. The family that hosts the wake must ensure that every single person who walks through the door is fed — no exceptions, no turned-away guests, no matter how many people arrive. A wake that runs short on food brings dishonor to the family and, more importantly, fails to provide the communal sustenance that traditional teaching says the deceased's spirit witnesses and draws comfort from during its four-day journey.

Food also physically sustains a vigil that runs continuously for one to three nights. Visitors rotate through at all hours. Kitchen volunteers work around the clock. The quantity of food required is genuinely staggering by standard event-planning standards — feeding 200–500 people across multiple days is not unusual on Pine Ridge or Rosebud reservations.

Traditional Funeral Foods

Several dishes carry specific cultural and spiritual significance at a Lakota wake:

Wasna (Pemmican) — The most sacred food at a Lakota funeral. Traditional wasna is made from dried buffalo or beef jerky, pounded fine and mixed with rendered fat (tallow) and dried berries, usually chokecherries. It represents spiritual sustenance — a portion is placed in the casket as travel food for the deceased's journey along the Spirit Path, and a portion is served to the living. In contemporary wakes, wasna may be simplified to dried meat mixed with berries and fat, but its presence at the table is culturally non-negotiable.

Chokecherry tea (or juice) — Made from wild chokecherries gathered on the Northern Plains, this deeply traditional beverage appears at nearly every Lakota ceremonial meal. The tart, rich flavor is distinctive. Dried chokecherry patties (wasna berries) can be reconstituted into tea when fresh fruit is out of season. Some families also serve chokecherry wojapi — a thick berry pudding served warm.

Frybread — The most universal and constant presence at any wake table. Frybread is served plain, as a base for Indian tacos, or alongside stews. It is prepared in large batches throughout the wake.

Buffalo or beef stew — Hearty, slow-cooked stews served from large pots. Historically buffalo was the primary protein; today beef is more common, though some families still source buffalo from tribal herds when available.

Taniga (tripe soup) — A traditional dish served at many reservation wakes, made from cleaned beef or buffalo tripe. Not all families serve it, but where it appears, it is considered a mark of traditional authenticity.

The Spiritual Dimension of the Feast

A small portion of the feast food is set aside and buried in the earth as an offering to the deceased. This happens at the graveside and is conducted by the designated spiritual leader or elder during the burial rites. The buried food feeds the spirit on its journey — it is a literal provision, not a metaphor.

Tobacco (kinnikinnik) is smoked in the sacred pipe during funeral rites, carrying prayers upward. The combination of food and tobacco offering creates a complete spiritual circuit: the living feed the community, the community feeds the spirit, and the prayers ensure safe passage.

How to Organize Food for a Multi-Day Wake

The immediate family (tiwahe) is never expected to cook. They are in a state of protected grief and should not be handling logistics. The extended family (tiospaye) and community volunteers bear the entire food burden. Here is how to organize it:

Before the wake begins:

• Designate a head cook — someone experienced with large-scale community meals
• Secure a venue with a commercial-grade or large residential kitchen
• Purchase bulk ingredients: 50-pound bags of flour (frybread), large cuts of beef, cooking oil, canned goods, coffee, and sugar
• Source traditional items: dried chokecherries, dried meat for wasna, buffalo if available

During the wake:

• Run the kitchen in shifts — morning, afternoon, overnight — with at least 2–3 volunteers per shift
• Keep hot food available at all times; stews and coffee should never run out
• Accept all food donations from community members (people will bring dishes without being asked)
• Set up a simple serving line with disposable plates and utensils for easy cleanup

Budget considerations: Feeding hundreds of people for multiple days is expensive. The total food cost for a large reservation wake can easily reach $1,000–$3,000. Tribal burial assistance programs sometimes offset part of this cost, and community donations of food and money help significantly. The family should not bear this alone — this is exactly the kind of communal burden the tiospaye system is designed to distribute.

What Visitors Should Bring

If you are attending a Lakota wake and want to contribute:

• Groceries — flour, oil, coffee, sugar, canned goods, and fresh produce are always needed
• Prepared dishes — soups, stews, casseroles, and baked goods that can be served immediately
• Cash donations — typically given quietly to the family spokesperson or placed in a designated donation container
• Kitchen labor — offering to wash dishes, serve food, or take a cooking shift is one of the most valued contributions

Do not bring alcohol. Sobriety is mandatory from the moment of death through the completion of the four-day post-burial isolation period.

When you sit down to eat at a Lakota wake, accept the food graciously. Eat what is served. The meal is part of the ceremony — refusing food can be perceived as rejecting the family's hospitality and the spiritual purpose it serves.

Our Lakota / Sioux Funeral Guide includes a complete wake food planning checklist — ingredient quantities scaled for different attendance levels, traditional recipes, kitchen shift templates, and a budget worksheet that maps food costs against available tribal assistance.