---
title: "Wakan Tanka"
artist: "Nick Barbachano"
key: "C"
tags: ["medicine song", "chant", "sacred", "participatory"]
description: "A Lakota-inspired medicine song of gratitude, prayer, and healing plants."
language: "lkt"
tradition: "Medicine song"
date_added: "2026-07-19"
---

## About this song

The lyrics mix Lakota phrases, vocables, and plant names; the repeated final chorus is expanded from the source's closing chorus marker.

```chords
[Verse 1]
      Cmaj7
Wakan Tanka
Gmaj7      Cmaj7
Pilámaya yeló

[Verse 2]
Tunkašila
Ómakiya yo

[Chorus]
Ya-na he-ne-ne
Ya-na hu-ya-na-yo
Ya-na he-ne-ne
Ya-na hu-ya-na-yo he

[Verse 3]
Ayawaska
Pilámaya yeló

[Verse 4]
Yagecito
Pilámaya yeló (he)

[Chorus]
Ya-na he-ne-ne
Ya-na hu-ya-na-yo
Ya-na he-ne-ne
Ya-na hu-ya-na-yo he
```