Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by several North American Indian Nations.
The Sun Dance is practiced differently by different Nations, but many of the ceremonies have features in common, including dancing, singing and drumming, the experience of visions, fasting, and, in some cases, self-torture.
Most notable for early Western observers was the self-torture 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 but 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.
Though only some Nations' Sun Dances include this feature, the Canadian Government outlawed the practice of the Sun Dance in 1880, and the United States government followed suit in 1904.
This sacred ceremony is now again legal (since Jimmy Carter's presidency) and is practiced in the United States and Canada. Women are now allowed to dance but are not required to pierce their skin as the men are, in the dances where they pierce (some do not do it at all, such as the Shoshoni in Wyoming). They may pierce if they desire to. A Sundancer must commit to dancing for four years, for the four compass directions. It is a prayer of great self sacrifice for one's community and the people.
Caution in the New Age
There are many fraudulent groups selling Sun Dance and other Native American ceremonies on the Internet. These should be avoided as they only seek to deceive people for personal gain. They do not accurately reflect a traditional Sun Dance or any other tradition they might pretend to represent. People who sell fraudulent versions of ceremonial traditions are called plastic shamans. Also, plastic shamans selling an extensively unrealistically charming or 'sweetened' version of Native American traditions (or indeed any spiritual or shamanic traditions) are referred to as twinkies.
See also
External link
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