The Sun Dance

The quest for visions also played a part in the ceremony common to many Plains tribes and known to most people as the Sun Dance. The name Sun Dance comes from the Sioux tribe. Other tribes had different names. The Cheyenne called it the New Life Lodge; the Ponca called it the Mystery Dance. Moreover, different tribes had different rituals. But for all those tribes who held the ceremony, the overall purposes were the same: to come into contact with the spirit world; to renew nature, including the Sun, the sky, and the Earth; to keep buffalo plentiful, thereby assuring future prosperity; to bring victory in battle; to make marriages successful; to settle old quarrels; and to heal the sick.

Tribes held their annual Sun Dance in summertime. Summer was the season when the various bands of a tribe gathered for communal buffalo hunting. The bands

Plains Indian sacred pipe set up their tipis in a great circle. Men and women of different bands socialized together and courted one another. They held horse races and other games. Tribal leaders smoked tobacco together and reestablished tribal unity. The event usually occurred during a full moon in the latter part of summer when berries were ripe. The entire ceremony lasted from eight to 12 days.

The various Sun Dance rituals were numerous and complex. Every act had a special significance. Many of the rituals involved drumming, singing, and dancing. In the course of the Sun Dance, the Indians found and erected a sacred tree trunk, usually a cottonwood, sometimes as much as 30 feet high, in the center of a sacred lodge of poles and branches. On top of the tree, they placed a figure, usually made of rawhide.

One particular ritual, coming near the end of the Sun Dance, has come to be associated with the entire ceremony above all others. Some men had skewers implanted in their chests that were tied to the sacred pole with ropes. Blowing eagle-bone whistles and dancing to the drumbeat, they danced backwards until the skewers ripped through their flesh. Other men dragged buffalo skulls about the camp, the skulls attached to their flesh with similar skewers. The self-mutilation supposedly brought visions for individual well-being, and the self-sacrifice brought good fortune for the entire tribe.

There is much more to Plains Indian culture than what has been discussed here. For a view of differing tribal customs as well as a view of distinct tribal histories, see the entries for the tribes cross-referenced earlier in this section.