Sun Dance
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
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The get ready by setting up their camps and getting the ground ready for the ceremony. Then they select a large cottonwood tree to be used as the center pole. The pole will be placed in the outside where the dancers could feel the heat of the sun. The men prepare the buffalo skull and placed them around the circle they created for the dance. On the fourth day, depending on the pledge, some dancers chose to be attached to the thong hanging from the pole by having the bone pierced through their back and the buffalo skulls attached. The dancer lean against the thongs until the skewers are torn from their chest. Other dancers, chose to dance around the perimeter of the arbor dragging the heavy skulls round as they dance. By the sundown of the fourth day, if the dancer haven’t been released the holy men remove the bones in reverse to the initial piercing. The men then go to their family and friends for medicine and food, and the holy men sing their praises to the Gods and praying for the dancer to recover shiftily. The once- a year ceremony ends hoping to gather again next year.
According to Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, in the late 1800s, missionaries and the U.S. and Canadian governments prohibited the ceremony. The participant were a subject to arrest that’s why they used to practice it in secret. Because The Dance requires an offering of flesh which is obtained through self-torture, it considered to be barbaric. IN 1934, the Indian Religious Freedom and Indian Culture Act passed a law that Native Americans in the United States could hold a Sun Dance
The ceremonies are very sacred and are done by a shaman. A shaman in our culture is someone who can speak to spirits like a witch doctor. A pig or chicken is sacrificed depending on whether the ceremony performed is large or small.
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Many Indians saw hope in the Ghost Dance religion. The Ghost Dance movement was supposed “to invoke the spirits of the dead and facilitate their resurrection” (Phillips 1). It was created by the son of Paiute shaman Wovoka who was, “known as the messiah to his followers” (Wovoka 1). Wovoka believed that the Ghost Dance would revive their loved ones, make the whites disappear, and the buffaloes would roam the Wild West once again (The Wounded Knee Massacre 1). Leaders such as Sitting Bull, Kicking Bear, and Short Bull preached Wovoka’s religion which helped it gain immense popularity. This belief gave hope to the Indians and more than 3,000 Indians gathered in the badlands of the Pine...
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The expensive gift of jewelry he had left with the note was nowhere to be seen. “Why,” he asked his daughter “is this worthless piece of paper hanging on the wall?” “Because,” his daughter replied, “it’s the only thing I have that is really from you.” The most sacred of Lakota spiritual practices is the Wiwanyang Wacipi or the “looking at the sun and dancing, more popularly known as the Sun Dance. The ceremony is a symbolic act of sacrifice. The participants pierce their upper chest in two places and skewers made of bone are inserted.
Before dropping the bones into the pit they waited the signal of the master of the ritual. After the signal has been giving they can finally place the bones of their loved ones in the pit and have a sense of peace for their loved
“The Sun Dance was the most spectacular and important religious ceremony of the Plains Indians of 19th-century North America” (Lawrence 1). The Sun Dance became a time of renewal and thanksgiving for Native Americans. Everyone had a role to play either in the preparation leading up to the dance, or within the dance itself. The entire tribe was expected to attend the ceremony. There were also some social aspects to the dance, such as powwow dancing in the afternoon and evening.
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:
Dance is an ancient human practice, however the earliest record of human dance remains a mystery. By