For many tribes of Plains Indians whose bison-hunting culture flourished during the 18th and 19th centuries, the sun dance was the major communal religious ceremony . . . the rite celebrates renewal - the spiritual rebirth of participants and their relatives as well as the regeneration of the living earth with all its components . . . The ritual, involving sacrifice and supplication to insure harmony between all living beings, continues to be practiced by many contemporary native Americans. -Elizabeth Atwood LawrenceAs the most important ritual of the nomadic Plains Indians, the Sun Dance in itself presents many ideas, beliefs, and values of these cultures. Through its rich symbolism and complicated rituals we are able to catch a glimpse into these peoples' view of the world. A Sun Dance is held when a man feels the need to be a dancer to fulfill certain wishes, primarily "for his deliverance from his troubles, for supernatural aid, and for beneficent blessings upon all of his people." (Welker) It is this dancer who usually bears the expenses of the Sun Dance (Atwood), including a feast for all that comes to the celebration. (Welker) Motivations behind the Sun Dance varies slightly between tribes. The Crow held the ceremony to seek aid for revenge for family members killed in warfare. The entire event surrounding the Sun Dance generally lasts from four to seven days, though longer events exist. On the first day a tree is selected to serve as the sun-pole, the center pole for the Sun Dance Lodge, or New-Life-Lodge, as called by the Cheyenne. (Atwood) The selection of the tree is usually done by the eldest woman of the camp, who leads a group of elaborately dressed maidens to the tree to strip off its branches. On the next morning, right as the sun is seen over the eastern horizon, armed warriors charge the sun-pole. They attack the tree in effort to symbolically kill it with gunshots and arrows. Once it is dead it is cut down and taken to where the Sun Dance Lodge will be erected. (Schwatka) "Before raising the sun-pole, a fresh buffalo head with a broad centre strip of the back of the hide and tail (is) fastened with strong throngs to the top crotch of the sun-pole. Then the pole (is) raised and set firmly in the ground, with the buffalo head facing ! toward the setting-sun." (Welker) The tree represents the center of the world, connect...
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...mbolism and ritual involved with the Sun Dance we can more fully understand the character of the Plains Indian cultures. The Sun Dance shows a continuity between life. It shows that there is no true end to life, but a cycle of symbolic and true deaths and rebirths. All of nature is intertwined and dependent on one another. This gives an equal ground to everything on the earth. "Powerful animals exhibit both physical and spiritual powers, just as the medicine man and shaman do, and as do the grains of tobacco in the sacred pipe." (Smart p. 527) However, just like the rest of nature, humans must give of themselves to help keep the cycles of regeneration going.
SourcesAtwood-Lawrence, Elizabeth. The Symbolic Role of Animals in the Plains Indian Sun Dance. http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/psyeta/sa/sa1.1/lawrence.html (Feb 3, 1997) Eliade, M. (1975). Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries. New York: Harper and RowKehoe, Alice B. (1992). North American Indians A Comprehensive Account. New Jersey: Prentice-HallSchwatka, Frederick. (1889-1890). The Sun-Dance of the Sioux. Century Magazine. Pp. 753-759.Welker, Glenn. The Sun Dance http://www.indians.org/welker/sundance.htm (Jan 7, 1996)
In the poem “K-Tag”, we see the use of sacred narrative, or rather, the reference to sacred narrative in the body of the poem. Tapahonso makes references to the Holy Ones or ancestors in the poem. “The Holy Ones named our grandbabies as we presented them to the sun, our father their little arms extended to the south and north…” (Tapahonso 83). It is difficult to pick just one cultural lens to analyze anything in Native American spirituality because if the importance of interconnectedness with the earth and other creatures of the earth. While this poem reflects ceremony, it also reflects the importance of place. In ceremonies, it seems direction plays an important role, especially east, the direction of the rising sun. The child in the K-Tag ceremony being described is facing East and would have to be because its arms are “extended to the south and north” (Tapahons...
The Kachinas were and still are an important part of the religion of the Pueblo Indians, but I will focus on Hopi Indians. The Kachinas were friendly spirits much like our Christian Saints; however there were some evil Kachinas that punish those who disobey Hopi law. The Kachinas play an important role in the various religious ceremonies, many of which take the form of dances and chants. When a Hopi man dresses himself in the costume of a particular Kachina, he believes the spirit of that Kachina has replaced his personal identity. The ceremonies ask the Kachinas to bring plentiful crops, or give the people of the village good health and luck.
seed beater that was made of twined openwork baketry (Taylor 56). To store or to place any
Towards the development of the United States of America there has always been a question of the placement of the Native Americans in society. Throughout time, the Natives have been treated differently like an individual nation granted free by the U.S. as equal U.S. citizens, yet not treated as equal. In 1783 when the U.S. gained their independence from Great Britain not only did they gain land from the Appalachian Mountains but conflict over the Indian policy and what their choice was to do with them and their land was in effect. All the way from the first presidents of the U.S. to later in the late 19th century the treatment of the Natives has always been changing. The Native Americans have always been treated like different beings, or savages, and have always been tricked to signing false treaties accompanying the loss of their homes and even death happened amongst tribes. In the period of the late 19th century, The U.S. government was becoming more and more unbeatable making the Natives move by force and sign false treaties. This did not account for the seizing of land the government imposed at any given time (Boxer 2009).
Who really are the Cheyenne Indians? According to historians, they were Indian people who became nomadic and moved to the Great Plains in the 18th century (Berkin 366). Another tribe, the Souix, developed the name of "people of a different language" for the Cheyenne. Some people said that the Cheyenne did not exist until the mid-1600s or at least this is when the earliest known records were found. They are one of the most famous and prominent Plains tribes, too.
advantage of the rich black soil for farming. Corn was their main source of food,
2) There are many rituals carried out by the Indigenous people but in particular there is one called
Sun dace is a dance performed by the Lakota people who belongs to the Native American cultures such as the plains. The sun dance is one of the most important religious ceremonies for the pains Indian. The North American Indians preform this dance in honor of the sun, to prove bravery by overcoming pain, and insure the life of the people for another year. It shows continuity between life and death. Indians believe that there is no true end of life. They believe in rebirth and the cycle of symbolic true deaths. According to Jordan Paper in his book “Native North American Religious Traditions Dancing for Life.” The ceremony brings the community together, heal the sick and renew social harmony. To Indians, dancing is how they
The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. London: University of Nebraska Press, 1991. Neihardt, John G. “The Sun Dance.” 28 Jan 2002 http://www.wayne.esu1.k12.ne.us/neihardt/sun.html> Voget, Fred W. The Shoshoni-Crown Sun Dance. New York: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984.
Their Sundance ceremony surrounds the story of the tai-me, “The Kiowas were hungry and there was no food. There was a man who heard his children cry from hunger, and he went out to look for food. He walked four days and became weak. On the fourth day he came to a great canyon. Suddenly there was thunder and lightning. A voice spoke to him and said, ‘Why are you following me? What do you want?’ The man was afraid. The thing standing before him had the feet of a deer, and its body was covered in feathers. The man answered that the Kiowas were hungry. ‘Take me with you,’ the voice said, ‘and I will give you whatever you want.’ From that day Tai-me has belonged to the Kiowas”(36). This story is used to tell how the tai-me came to be a part of the Kiowa tribe and why they worship it as a part of the sun dance ceremony. Momaday describes that the “great central figure of the kado, or sun dance, ceremony is the taime”(37). It was a small image representation of the tai-me on a dark-green stone. As a symbolic part of this ceremony, it is kept preserved in a rawhide box of which it is never exposed to be viewed other than during this
The Sun Dance was usually performed in a time of great crisis for an individual or a tribe, and involved a considerable amount of goods and a significant physical sacrifice. Performed in a large ceremonial tipi, the dancers would appeal to the Almighty through dance and sacrifice. These dances would be performed for many reasons, but one of the crises could be an illness in the family, in which case the dancers would seek aid from Thunder, voice of the Almighty.
Dance has not left behind physical artefacts that clearly resemble stone tools in order to determine when it was created. Therefore, it is impossible to say when dance became a part of human culture. Ceremony, rituals and celebration entertainment is suggested to have formed from archaeological evidence since the early human civilisations. An example is the Egyptian tomb painting of dancing figures from 3300BC. One of the earliest uses of dance may have been myths. Before the invention of written languages, dance was one of the methods of passing information from one generation to another. As dance was used to tell stories it makes it very appropriate to incorporate dance into schools as all children love stories. Dance was also used to show feelings. An example of a dance ritual still performed today is the raindance. Native American tribes wear unique turquoise headdresses and clothing resembling wind and rain to perform the dance. The ...
The religion of the Ghost Dance started with a man named Wovoka. On January 1, 1889, he had a ‘vision’ during a solar eclipse in Nevada (Peterson 27). It brought a message of hope to the oppressed Indians of only the Indians living. The Indians called Wovoka the ‘Messiah’ (“The Ghost Dance” par. 1) and it was believed that he would bring a “day of deliverance” (Phillips 16) to the Indians. The messiah was said to return to the earth so that all the white men would vanish and the buffalo and their ancestors would return (Peterson 27). Wovoka’s vision was that:
In the 1400’s the Native American people numbered a vast many different tribes such as the Cherokee and the Iroquois. These tribes held similar beliefs such as a high respect for nature but led different day to day lives depending on their location across the early primitive industrialized United States. The Native American people can be considered different than other ethnic groups living in America today because they were born to this continent. Native Americans were the original settlers of the Americas. They did not immigrate here from another place seeking a better quality of life, like many other immigrants did. In the melting pot that is America today many different ethnic groups like the Jewish American or Chinese American people
The American Indians Between 1609 To 1865. Native Americans or American Indians, once occupied the entire region of the United States. They were composed of many different groups, who spoke hundreds of languages and dialects. The Indians from the Southwest used to live in large, terraced communities and their way of sustain was from the agriculture where they planted squash, pumpkins, beans and corn crops. Trades between neighboring tribes were common, this brought in additional goods and also some raw materials such as gems, cooper.