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Nez Percé sweat-lodge

The sweat lodge is a ceremonial sauna and an important ritual used by North American First Nations or Native American peoples. There are several styles of sweat lodges that include a domed or oblong hut similar to a wickiup, a teepee, or even a simple hole dug into the ground and covered with planks or tree trunks. Stones are heated in an exterior fire and then placed in a central pit in the ground. Often the stones are granite and they glow red in the dark lodge. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links Wikitext. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x815, 156 KB) Summary Source URL: http://memory. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x815, 156 KB) Summary Source URL: http://memory. ... For the music festival in Finland, see Sauna Open Air Metal Festival. ... First Nations is a Canadian term of ethnicity which refers to the aboriginal peoples located in what is now Canada, and their descendants who are neither Inuit nor Métis. ... This article is about the people indigenous to the United States. ... Apache wickiup Wigwam redirects here. ... Categories: Stub | Buildings and structures | Survival skills ... Close-up of granite from Yosemite National Park, valley of the Merced River Quarrying granite for the Mormon Temple, Utah Territory. ...

Cheyenne sweat lodge frame

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 588 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 752 pixel, file size: 203 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 588 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 752 pixel, file size: 203 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Construction

In the northern part of North America, the sweat lodge is a low dome-like structure built on earth (as opposed to grass or forest brush). Traditionally it is built with a frame of tree shoots or branches, which are long, thin and very flexible. The tree most commonly used is willow although many other species are used such as lodgepole. Lodges range in size, from diameters of nearly 2 m (six feet) to well over 6 m (eighteen or nineteen feet). They range from 1-1.5 m (three to five feet) in height, as the participants sit or lay down during the ceremony. The lodge is aligned with the four directions, and room for a doorway is provided. Species About 350, including: Salix acutifolia - Violet Willow Salix alaxensis - Alaska Willow Salix alba - White Willow Salix alpina - Alpine Willow Salix amygdaloides - Peachleaf Willow Salix arbuscula - Mountain Willow Salix arbusculoides - Littletree Willow Salix arctica - Arctic Willow Salix atrocinerea Salix aurita - Eared Willow Salix babylonica - Peking Willow Salix bakko Salix barrattiana...

The wood structure is then covered with either blankets, canvas, or sometimes animal skins, and the doorway is made on the east or south side. Sometimes permanent walls of clay are built over the wooden frame. The walls must be thick enough for the lodge to be completely dark inside and to keep in as much heat as possible. In some, a shallow pit is dug in the earth in the center of the lodge where the hot stones from the fire pit will be placed. The lodge is also known in Mexico with the name of temazcal. From pre-Hispanic heritage, Mexicans have recovered a ritual ceremony that was celebrated among indigenous cultures as a therapeutic cleansing. ...

During the ceremony, the participants encircle the stone pit inside the lodge. The medicine man, leader of the ceremony, or elder, perhaps better referred to as the pourer, receives the glowing hot stones from the firekeeper and places them in the pit. When enough stones have been placed in the lodge, the medicine man (pourer) closes the door and pours water on top of the stones to fill the lodge with steam. This happens usually four times, with periods of between ten minutes to hours spent sweating in the lodge. Medicine man is an English term used to describe Native American religious figures; such individuals are analogous to shamans. ...

In Ojibway or Anishinaabe ceremonies, there are many songs sung with a drum and rattles, prayers given, and attempts to heal the sick. The lodge door is in the east, toward the sacred fire, and there are rattles for each of the directions. A fire keeper or helper outside passes the red hot granite stones, or grandfathers into the lodge, and puts prayer offerings of tobacco into the fire. The grandfathers are placed into the pit at the center of the lodge. Before the ceremony, there is a cedar strip or line along the ground that is not to be crossed. The little boy water drum is often used in the ceremonies, along with certain medicines that are burnt on the hot stones. As each person enters the lodge on hands and knees, they say their name in Ojibway, and crawl, like a baby, into the womb of the lodge. The women sit on one side, and the men sit on the other. The sweat lodge represents birth and being born out of the darkness, the red glow, the warmth, the wetness, and the small space like a womb. One also crawls out of the lodge, humbled, and like a baby. Everything is usually done in a clockwise direction in the lodge, the same way as the sun travels across the sky. One enters in a clockwise direction, passes rattles clockwise, songs and prayers are given clockwise, and each one leaves clockwise. Most people get their traditional names during the ceremony, and offerings are given of tobacco, food, and other things. The little boy drum is ceremoniously prepared before each sweat lodge and tied in a certain way depending on the teaching given. For other uses of Chippewa, see Chippewa (disambiguation). ... Anishinaabe or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek (which is the plural form of the word) is a self-description often used by people belonging to the indigenous Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonkin peoples of North America, who share closely related Algonquian languages. ...

Origins

The claims of origin of the sweat lodge are as many as there are tribal cultures. One general version is that the Creator gave the lodge to the people as a way to directly pray or talk with the Creator. The lodge is often seen as a womb, that gives birth and life, and it provides important teachings to the people. Entering the lodge is a sacred happening that involves important rituals and memories. The lodge provides a cleansing of the body, spirit, heart, and mind. Utmost respect is given to the Creator, the lodge, the fire, the medicines, the animals, the four directions, the elders, the participants, and the ceremonies. Thanks is given for the fire's warmth, the importance of the grandfather rocks, the animals for their skins, and the plants for their medicines. Thanks is given for all the necessary elements of nature that provide us with life and survival.

The lodge is a natural way to bring fire, earth, rocks, water, air, human life, animals, and plants together into one, or close association and contact.

Traditions

Rituals and traditions vary from region to region and tribe to tribe. They often include prayers, drumming, and offerings to the spirit world. Often easier methods and ways are discovered and used, such as using a lighter to start the fire, and using a truck to haul wood and rocks. Even the use of a pitch fork, shovel, and canvas would not be of the oldest traditions. These ceremonies can change over time as certain needs arise. Some common practices and key elements associated with sweat lodges include:

• Orientation – The door usually faces the fire, forming a duality between the lodge and the fire. This duality is, in many traditions, symbolic of the male-female or heaven-earth dualities. Directions usually have distinct symbolism in Native American ceremonies (1). The lodge may be oriented within its environment for a specific purpose; for example, a lodge constructed near a lake could be run with the intention of connecting to the spirit of the lake. Placement and orientation of the lodge within its environment often facilitates the ceremony's connection with the spirit world.
• Construction – The lodge is generally built with great care and with respect to the environment and to the materials being used. Many traditions construct the lodge in complete silence, some have a drum playing while they build, other traditions have the builders fast during construction. Often, tobacco is placed in each hole made into the Earth and prayed over before the willow pole is placed.
• Clothing – In traditional lodges, participants are nude. In more comtemporary lodges participants wear a simple brief garment or towel and nudity is most common with male only lodges. Where aversion to nudity is stronger, and where traditions vary, participants may be more fully clothed.
• Offerings – Tobacco, sweet grass, redcedar, and other plants are often used to make prayers, give thanks or make other offerings. They can be smoked in a stone pipe, sprinkled on the hot stones or offered to the fire. Prayer ties are also made in many traditions to set the intention of the lodge, show gratitude, purify one's self before the lodge, summon support from the spirit world, and other such purposes.
• Support – In many traditions, one or more persons (sometimes called "dog soldiers") will remain outside the sweat lodge to protect the ceremony, and assist the participants. Sometimes they will help tend the fire and place the hot stones, though usually this is done by a designated firekeeper. In another instance, a person that sits in the lodge, next to the door, is charged with protecting the ceremony, and maintaining lodge etiquette.

Shredded tobacco leaf for pipe smoking Tobacco can also be pressed into plugs and sliced into flakes Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in genus Nicotiana. ... Binomial name Hierochloe odorata (L.) P. Beauv. ... Redcedar is an alternative name for two North American species in the cypress family Cupressaceae: Eastern Redcedar or Eastern Juniper (Juniperus virginiana) Western Redcedar (Thuja plicata) It is also the name of an Australian species in the mahogany family Meliaceae: Australian Redcedar (Toona australis) Neither is a true Cedar (Cedrus... Firekeeper is a ceremonial role in native North American societies. ...

Etiquette

The most important part of sweat lodge etiquette is respecting the traditions of the lodge leader. Some lodges are done in complete silence, while others involve singing, chanting, wailing, drumming, or other sound. It is important to know what is allowed and expected before entering a lodge. Traditional tribes hold a high value of respect to the lodge. In some cultures, objects, including clothing, without a ceremonial significance are discouraged from being brought into the lodge. The tenet is: enter the lodge as you came into this world. Alternately, other traditional tribes place a high value on modesty as a respect to the lodge. In clothed lodges, women are usually expected to wear skirts or short-sleeved dresses of a longer length. In some traditions, nudity is forbidden in mixed sex sweats. In other traditions mixed gender sweats are forbidden. Still others encourge, if not require mixed gender sweats. Many lodge leaders do not allow menstruating women (these women are often referred to as being on their moon-time) to participate in ceremonies. Some will run a separate lodge for menstruating women. Still others allow them into the lodge after they have completed a purifying ritual, such as making a belt of prayer ties. Perhaps the most important piece of etiquette is gratitude. It is important to be thankful to the people joining you in the lodge, and those helping to support the lodge.

Risks

Wearing metal jewelry can be dangerous as metal objects may become hot enough to burn the wearer. Contact lenses and synthetic clothing should not be worn in sweat lodges as the heat can cause the materials to melt and adhere to eyes, skin, or whatever they might be touching. Cotton clothing is recommended for lodges.

Although the temperature in a sweat lodge can exceed that of a traditional sauna, partakers in a ceremony can stay inside for several hours at a time. Some argue that this is due to the ceremonial nature of the lodge. However, emphasis is placed on knowing one's own limits and knowing when to leave. There have been reports of lodge-related deaths resulting from overexposure to heat, dehydration, and smoke inhalation. Even people who are experienced with sweats could suddenly experience problems due to underlying health issues. It is recommended that a physician check people intending to have a sweat lodge experience.

If rocks are used, it is important not to use river rocks, or other kinds of rocks with air pockets inside them. Often igneous basalt is the best type of rock to consider. Rocks must be completely dry before heating. Rocks with air pockets or excessive moisture will most likely crack and possibly explode in the fire or when hit by water. This can result in razor-sharp fragments and splinters striking participants with sufficient force to injure or blind. Even rocks used before may absorb humidity or moisture leading to cracks and or shattering.

There is also a risk posed by modern chemical pesticides. When sweet grass, cedar, or certain other plants are sprinkled on the hot rocks, any pesticides accumulated on them can be turned into airborne toxins. These toxins can then be inhaled by the participants. In the past, the potential for the inhalation of carcinogenic (cancer-causing) chemicals was not well known. This risk should be considered before participating in a sweat lodge. Binomial name Hierochloe odorata (L.) P. Beauv. ... Species Cedrus deodara Cedrus libani    var. ...

See also

• Sauna
• Kiva
• Yurt
• Long house
• Temazcal

For the music festival in Finland, see Sauna Open Air Metal Festival. ... Reconstructed kiva at Bandelier National Monument. ... A Yurt is a portable felt dwelling structure used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. ... A longhouse at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. ... From pre-Hispanic heritage, Mexicans have recovered a ritual ceremony that was celebrated among indigenous cultures as a therapeutic cleansing. ...

External links

• Adapted from the notes of Hopoyv Fekseko (D. Joseph Alderson)