Sun Dance
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[edit] The Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by a number of Native Americans. Each tribe has their own distinct rituals and methods of performing the dance, but many of the ceremonies have features in common, including building a circular wooden structure, a sacred fire, sweat lodges, dancing, singing, praying, drumming, the experience of visions, fasting, and in some cases piercing of the chest or back. Most notable for early Western observers was the piercing many young men endure as part of the ritual. Frederick Schwatka wrote about a Sioux Sun Dance he witnessed in the late 1800s:
- Each one of the young men presented himself to a medicine-man, who took between his thumb and forefinger a fold of the loose skin of the breast—and then ran a very narrow-bladed or sharp knife through the skin—a stronger skewer of bone, about the size of a carpenter's pencil was inserted. This was tied to a long skin rope fastened, at its other extremity, to the top of the sun-pole in the center of the arena. The whole object of the devotee is to break loose from these fetters. To liberate himself he must tear the skewers through the skin, a horrible task that even with the most resolute may require many hours of torture.
In fact, the object of being pierced is to sacrifice one's self to the Great Spirit, and to pray while connected to the Tree of Life, a direct connection to the Great Spirit. Breaking from the piercing is done in one moment, as the man runs backwards from the tree at a time specified by the leader of the dance. A common explanation, in context with the intent of the dancer, is that a flesh offering, or piercing, is given as part of prayer and offering for the improvement of one's family and community. Though only some Nations' Sun Dances include the piercings, the Canadian Government outlawed some of the practices of the Sun Dance in 1880, and the United States government followed suit in 1904. However, the ceremony is now again fully legal (since Jimmy Carter's presidency in the United States) and is still practiced in the United States, Canada and in New Zealand. Women are now allowed to dance but do not pierce their skin in the same manner as men. A woman's piercing is in her upper arm, and an eagle feather is attached until the piercing is removed. Some men do not pierce at all, such as the Shoshone in Wyoming. They may pierce if they desire to. A Sun Dancer must commit to dancing for four years, for the four directions. In some ceremonies, buffalo skulls are dragged around the Sun Dance lodge.
Prior to the Sun Dance there are many meetings and sweat lodge ceremonies. The Sun Dance lodge is built by all the dancers and other helpers. Large trees are used to build the circular structure. Hundreds of volunteer hours go into the many aspects of the entire ceremony that takes place for over four days. There is wood to cut, fires to make and maintain, natural medicines to pick and use, holes to dig, food to cook, pipes to maintain, and endless other details. The Sun Dance leader helps to co-ordinate all the responsibilities.
[edit] The Sun Dance in Canada
Although the Government of Canada, through the Department of Indian Affairs, officially persecuted Sun Dance practitioners and attempted to suppress the Sun Dance, the ceremony was never legally prohibited. The flesh-sacrifice and gift-giving features were legally outlawed in 1895 through a legislated amendment to the Indian Act, but these were non-essential components of the ceremony. Regardless of the legalities, Indian agents, based on directives from their superiors, did routinely interfere with, discourage, and disallow Sun Dances on many Canadian plains reserves starting in 1882 until the 1940’s. Despite the subjugation, Sun Dance practitioners, such as the Plains Cree, Saulteaux, and Blackfoot, continued to hold Sun Dances throughout the persecution period, minus the prohibited features, some in secret, and others with permissions from their agents. At least one Cree or Saulteaux Rain Dance has occurred each year since 1880 somewhere on the Canadian Plains. In 1951 government officials revamped the Indian Act and dropped the legislation that forbade flesh-sacrificing and gift-giving (Brown, 1996: pp. 34-5; 1994 Mandelbaum, 1975, pp. 14-15; & Pettipas, 1994 p. 210).
In Canada, the Sun Dance is known by the Plains Cree as the Thirst Dance, the Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwa), as the Rain Dance and the Blackfoot (Siksika, Kainai,& Piikani) as the Medicine Dance. It was also practised by the Canadian Sioux (Dakota and Nakoda), the Dene, and the Canadian Assiniboine.
There are many Sun Dance ceremonies across the country. They range in size, from a few dozen to hundreds of people, and many more attending in support or to observe. The growth of interest and participation in the ceremonies has been extensive in the last few decades. Today there is little or no opposition to the ceremonies and traditions.
[edit] References
- Brown, Randall J.(1996). A Description and Analysis of Sacrificial Stall Dancing: As Practiced by the Plains Cree and Saulteaux of the Pasqua Reserve, Saskatchewan, in their Contemporary Rain Dance Ceremonies. Master thesis, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.
- Mandelbaum, David G. (1979). The Plains Cree: An ethnographic, historical and comparative study. Canadian Plains Studies No. 9, Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center.
- Pettipas, Katherine. (1994). Severing the ties that bind: Government repression of Indigenous religious ceremonies on the prairies. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
- Weekes, Mary (1939). An Indian Sun Dance. In: The Last Buffalo Hunter (As told by Norbert Welsh). Chapter 18, p. 132-138 Fifth House YEAH BOII
- Yellowtail: Crow Medicine Man and Sun Dance Chief, an autobiography as told to Michael Oren Fitzgerald, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
[edit] Film/TV
- Native Spirit and the Sun Dance Way, World Wisdom 2007. Thomas Yellowtail, a revered Crow Medicine Man and Sun Dance Chief for over thirty years, describes and explains the ancient ceremony that is sacred to the Crow tribe.[1]
- Although not performed, many Native Americans shown shirtless in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman have scars which are identified as Sun Dance scars by Dr. Quinn's love interest Byron Sully, who has adopted the Cheyenne way of life.
