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The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by a number of native americans. Each tribe has its own distinct rituals and methods of performing the dance, but many of the ceremonies have features in common, including dancing, singing, praying, drumming, the experience of visions, fasting, and in some cases piercing of the chest or back. At many Sun Dance sites it is considered disrespectful to take any pictures, which helps to ensure privacy. Image File history File links Sundance. ...
Image File history File links Sundance. ...
George Catlin (1796 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – December 23, 1872 in Jersey City, New Jersey) was an American painter who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West. ...
Part of the ceremony of the Changing of the Guard in Whitehall, London. ...
For other uses, see Dance (disambiguation). ...
Harry Belafonte singing, photograph by C. van Vechten Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, which is often contrasted with speech. ...
Prayer is an effort to communicate with God, or to some deity or deities, or another form of spiritual entity, or otherwise, either to offer praise, to make a request, or simply to express ones thoughts and emotions. ...
In religion, visions comprise inspirational renderings, generally of a future state and/or of a mythical being, and are believed (by followers of the religion) to come from a deity, directly or indirectly via prophets, and serve to inspire or prod believers as part of a revelation or an epiphany. ...
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. ...
Body piercing is a form of body modification. ...
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: Frederick Schwatka (29 September 1849 – 2 November 1892) was a US Army officer and an explorer of the Canadian North. ...
The Sioux (IPA ) are a Native American and First Nations people. ...
// Invention of the Jacquard loom in 1801. ...
- 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. Medicine man is an English term used to describe Native American religious figures; such individuals are analogous to shamans. ...
Mary Magdalene in prayer. ...
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. System of government Canada is a constitutional monarchy as a Commonwealth Realm (see Monarchy in Canada) with a federal system of parliamentary government, and strong democratic traditions. ...
Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...
This article describes the government of the United States. ...
1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ...
This sacred ceremony is now again fully legal (since Jimmy Carter's presidency in the United States) and is still practiced in the United States and Canada. 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 do pierce at all, such as the Shoshone 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. James Earl Jimmy Carter, Jr. ...
Shoshone around their tipi, probably taken around 1890 Shoshone Indians at Ft. ...
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 Objibwa), as the Rain Dance and the Blackfoot (Siksika, Kainai,& Piikani) as the Medicine Dance. It was also practised by the Canadian Siouxs (Dakota and Nakoda), the Dene, and the Canadian Assiniboines. The Dene are a group of First Nations that live in the Arctic regions of Canada. ...
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). Serving 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 Publishers.
Films - 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]
Thomas Yellowtail was a Medicine Man and Sun Dance chief of the Crow tribe for over thirty years, before his death in 1993. ...
Species See text. ...
Medicine man is an English term used to describe Native American religious figures; such individuals are analogous to shamans. ...
A Man Called Horse was originally published in 1968 as a short story in a book called Indian Country by Dorothy M. Johnson. ...
See also A shaman doctor of Kyzyl. ...
The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ...
Medicine man is an English term used to describe Native American religious figures; such individuals are analogous to shamans. ...
Firekeeper is a ceremonial role in native North American societies. ...
Plastic Shaman is the term used for individuals who try to pass themselves off as shamans, medicine men & women, traditional and alternative healers, spiritual advisors, seers, psychics, or other practitioners of non-traditional modalities of spirituality and healing. ...
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