Sundancing: The Great Sioux Piercing RitualTo the Plains Indians, the Sun Dance has traditionally been a profound religious ceremony, the highest form of worship of the Most Holy One. Thomas E. Mails was invited to attend and record in detail the Sioux Sun Dances at Rosebud and Pine Ridge. This was a singular honor no white man has been accorded before or since. The result is this groundbreaking work, illustrated with rare photographs and stunning four-color paintings. |
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Page 4
... sun - dance pole , which was usually about twelve inches in diameter at the base and twenty feet in length , was selected with much ceremony . After being carefully prepared , the larger end was set in the ground a sufficient depth to ...
... sun - dance pole , which was usually about twelve inches in diameter at the base and twenty feet in length , was selected with much ceremony . After being carefully prepared , the larger end was set in the ground a sufficient depth to ...
Page 13
... Sun Dance has a lead dancer who is experienced and which will be meaningless ... sun. two TERMINOLOGY AND SOURCES Thomas E. Mails In addition to the Mystery ... Pole . Just west of the tree is an altar , which consists of a pipe rack and ...
... Sun Dance has a lead dancer who is experienced and which will be meaningless ... sun. two TERMINOLOGY AND SOURCES Thomas E. Mails In addition to the Mystery ... Pole . Just west of the tree is an altar , which consists of a pipe rack and ...
Page 57
... Sun Dance of August 1956 Eagle Feather uring the years I went to school to ... pole was . It was a cotton- wood tree , about fifty feet tall , and its ... Sun Dance was to be held . Eight men , including the three of us that were going to ...
... Sun Dance of August 1956 Eagle Feather uring the years I went to school to ... pole was . It was a cotton- wood tree , about fifty feet tall , and its ... Sun Dance was to be held . Eight men , including the three of us that were going to ...
Page 75
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Page 95
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Almighty altar Black Elk Blackfeather Brulé buffalo skull bundle Bushotter camp circuit cloth color dancers Delbert Densmore Eagle Feather earth east feet flags flesh offerings Fools Crow Frances Densmore Frank Fools Crow George Eagle Elk ground healing ceremony held hole holy Indian Intercessor Jesse White July Keeper leader live lodge male pledgers medicine medicine men moved Mystery Circle non-Indian Oglala Old Man Four painted participants Peace Pipe pierced Pine Ridge Pine Ridge Reservation pipe rack pledgers facing pledgers rested prayed prayers Preparations Tipi pulled rawhide red power religion rocks ropes Rosebud Reservation Sacred Pipe sacred pole Sacred Tree sage side singers skewer skin smoke songs South Dakota spectators Spirit stick Sun Dance Sun Pole sweatlodge sweet grass Teton Sioux things tied Titus Smith touch the Tree tribe vision quest Wakan-Tanka whistles White women Yellow Hawk Yuwipi
Popular passages
Page 114 - These men must be selected from those who are known to be brave, men acquainted with the war path, men who have overcome difficulties, men who have been wounded in battle, men of considerable experience. § 154. The men selected to fell the mystery tree ride very swift horses, and they decorate their horses and attire themselves just as if they were going to battle. They put on their feather war bonnets. They race their horses to a hill and then back again. In former days it was customary on such...
Page 140 - The young men were scarified in the following manner: Their attendants, whom I have called esquires, seized and laid them on a bed of some sagebrush at the foot of the sacred tree. A short address was made by one of the medicine men ; then another, taking up as much of the skin of the breast under the nipple of each dancer as could be held between his thumb and forefinger, cut a slit the length of the thumb, and inserted a skewer to which a rope was fastened, the other end of the rope being tied...
Page 23 - It is certainly the greatest nation of Indians ever yet found. Not above two thousand of them were ever armed with fire-arms, the rest depending entirely on bows and arrows and darts, which they use with, more skill than any other Indian nation in ]STorth America.
Page 144 - Those who have once made the feast become the privileged guests at every such feast, occupy the feast tent, and are served first. A prominent feature in the feast is the feeding of these privileged persons, and the girl in whose honor the feast is given, with choke cherries, as the choicest rarity to be had in the winter. The feast can be held at any time. Bull berries, or, as the Dakotas call them, " rabbits' noses, " may be substituted, or finely pounded meat mixed with fat, in case no berries...
Page 106 - After this there is set up within the camping circle a good tent known as the tent of preparation.1 When the managers wish to set up the tent of preparation, they borrow tent skins here and there. Part of these tent skins they use for covering the smoke hole, and part were used as curtains, for when they decorate the candidates they use the curtains for shutting them in from the gaze of the people and when they finish painting them they throw down the curtains. In the back part of this tent of preparation...
Page 140 - This dancing was done in the manner of a buck jump, the body and legs being stiff and all movement being upon the tips of the toes. The dancers kept looking at the sun, and either dropped the hands to the sides in the military position of "attention" with the palms to the front, or else held them upward and outward at an angle of 45 degrees, with the fingers spread apart, and inclined towards the sun.
Page 141 - ... He is not afraid to look the poor women and children in the face! Come up some more of you people! Do not be ashamed to give! Let all the people see how generous you are!
Page 140 - ... second followed precisely the same program on the south side ; the third, on the west side, and the fourth, on the north side, each cutting one gash and no more. $ 201. They were succeeded by a young maiden, against whose personal character, it was asserted, not a breath of insinuation could be brought, and she was decked in all the finery of a long robe of white antelope skin almost completely covered with elks' teeth, as well as with beads. She seized the ax, and, with a few well-directed blows,...
Page 140 - ... the Tree to the camp it was placed upon skids, no one being allowed to place a hand upon the Tree itself. Upon reaching the summit of the knoll nearest the camp the Tree was left in charge of its immediate attendants while the rest of the assemblage charged at full speed upon the camp itself. When the Tree had been erected in place, it was noticed that each of those who were to endure the torture had been provided with an esquire, while there was also a force of men, armed with guns to preserve...
Page 125 - He tills his pipe, which is a new one ornamented with porcupine work, and he holds it with the stem pointing in front of him. Thus do all the candidates appear as they come out of the tent of preparation. As they march to the dancing lodge the leader goes first, the others march abreast after him. He who acts as leader carries a buffalo skull painted red. All cry as they march, andón the way they are joined by a woman who takes the place of her "hakata," or cousin; and sometimes they are joined...