Visions, both those in dreams and those experienced in a semiwakeful state, played an important role in the religious and spiritual life of Indians all over North America. Visions were thought to have significance for individuals and for the entire tribe. Native peoples thought that through them, people could come in contact with the spirit world and receive power, or “medicine.” The quest for visions usually occurred around some important event, such as passage from boyhood into manhood or preparation for war. There were various ceremonies and means to induce them. Some involved the use of hallucinogenic plants, such as peyote or jim-sonweed. The striving for visions among Plains peoples is usually referred to as the Vision Quest.
In order to achieve visions, a Plains Indian normally first purified himself with a sweat bath in a sweat lodge, stripped himself naked, painted himself with white clay, went off to an isolated place, and fasted for days. If hunger, thirst, and exposure to the elements alone failed to bring on a trancelike experience and resulting visions, the individual sometimes further tortured himself by cutting off a finger or by some other self-mutilation.
The vision usually came in the form of an animal. But it could relate to a plant, place, object, ancestor, or some natural phenomenon, such as a storm. After the experience, a shaman would help the individual interpret the vision. What was seen in the vision would henceforth symbolize the individual’s guardian spirit. The individual would prepare a medicine bundle with sacred objects somehow relating to his vision.
World History
