Indians 101: The Sun Dance among the Crow and Hidatsa

For many, if not most, of the Northern Plains tribes, the Sun Dance was the central ceremony and often served as a unifying force to bring together the various hunting bands. Usually held when the tribe came together for the annual summer buffalo hunt, it involved dancing around a pole set inside a specially built dance arbor. While the actual ceremony and the frequency with which it was traditionally conducted varied among the tribes, there are several basic themes that are associated with the Sun Dance: (1) seasonal renewal, growth, and replenishment, and (2) the acquisition of spiritual power. In spite of attempts by Christian missionaries and the United States government to suppress the Sun Dance, it has continued. For many Indian people today, participation in the Sun Dance is an affirmation of their Indian cultural identity.

Briefly described below is the Crow Sun Dance and the Hidatsa Hidebeating Ceremony.

Crow

Among the Crow, the Sun Dance was not traditionally an annual ceremony (though it is today), nor was it a demonstration of piety. It could be used, for example, as a way of calling for spiritual assistance in seeking revenge. Ethnographer Robert Lowie, in his 1915 report The Sun Dance of the Crow Indians, writes:

“It was pledged only whenever a mourner was especially eager to avenge the killing of a close relative by a hostile tribe.”

In his 1935 book The Crow Indians, Robert Lowie describes the Sun Dance this way:

“Essentially, the Crow Sun Dance was a prayer for vengeance. A man overcome with sorrow at the killing of a kinsman resorted to this as the most effective, if most arduous, means of getting a vision by which he might revenge himself upon the offending tribe.”

Anthropologist Fred Voget, in his chapter on the Crow in the Handbook of North American Indians, writes:

“The entire tribe united to focus their medicine powers to gain victory over the enemy.”

Thus, the ceremony was conducted as needed and it was not uncommon for three or four years to pass between ceremonies.

The traditional Crow Sun Dance involved five stages. First, a man in mourning for a loved one slain by an enemy would make a vow to start the Sun Dance cycle.

Second, there would be a public announcement of the vow and the consecration of the tribal venture through four buffalo hunts. The buffalo tongues would be distributed to twenty warriors. Anthropologist Fred Voget, in his book The Shoshoni-Crow Sun Dance, reports:

“The distributors of the tongues dramatized their entrance into the camp as if they were a returning war party, and they called out the names of the distinguished pipe holders and other warriors whose virtuous wives would cook the tongues.”

Third, a Sun Dance bundle owner would be selected to supervise the ceremony.

Fourth, the Sun Dance lodge would be constructed and consecrated.

Fifth, the dance for power would be held in the Sun Dance lodge.

In his book The World of the Crow Indians as Driftwood Lodges, Rodney Frey reports:

“Unlike the contemporary Sun Dance, the buffalo-day Sun Dance had only a few participants, all of whom were men and all of whom had themselves pierced and tethered through the breast or shoulders to the lodge structure.”

This piercing is a sacrifice, a personal gift in exchange for the spiritual favors or powers which were being sought.

Among the Crow, the Sun Dance traditionally required that a virtuous woman serve as the tree notcher. To find a woman willing to serve in this role, a cooked buffalo tongue with a long stick run through it would be carried from tipi to tipi until a woman accepted the offer. In accepting the offer, the woman vows that she will not remarry if she becomes a widow.

The Crow Sun Dance pole (cottonwood) would be symbolically struck by the virtuous woman and then it would be cut down by berdaches. In addition to the Sun Dance pole, a small pine tree was also erected in the dance arbor. A Sun Dance doll fastened to a willow hoop would be tied to the top of the pine tree facing east and seven eagle feathers hung from the hoop.

While a Sun Dance bundle is often an important part of the ceremony, among the Crow there is no tribally owned Sun Dance bundle. Instead, the bundles are individually owned. It is also possible for a woman to own a Sun Dance bundle. Anthropologist Fred Voget, in his book The Shoshoni-Crow Sun Dance, writes:

“Sun Dance medicine bundles were especially dedicated to killing the enemy. Warriors sought protection by giving a horse or other valued goods to the bundle owner for a replica of the little man.”

With regard to variations in the Crow Sun Dance over time, anthropologist Fred Voget writes:

“Crow attitudes toward religious ceremony did not require that every performance of the Sun Dance should be just alike. Although they were sensitive to ceremony, the Crows were not strict ritualists, and historically speaking, no ceremony was without variations.”

While the pledge for the traditional Crow Sun Dance stemmed from the death of a loved one at the hands of an enemy and sought power for vengeance, today’s Crow Sun Dance is focused on curing sickness, preventing sickness and early death, preventing accidents, and obtaining good luck and wealth for the pledgers and their families.

Anthropologist Fred Voget reports:

“Following Crow convention, a man and wife may dance as a team in order to change their luck or to forestall disaster.”

However, the women do not take part in the ceremonial sunrise greeting.

In his book The Crow Indians, Robert Lowie summarizes the ceremony this way:

“The Sun Dance looms as the grandest of Crow ceremonies, and it is also the one best integrated. The unification does not, however, consist in the adoration of a particular supernatural being. The Sun, to be sure, is recurrently mentioned, yet most of the ritualistic performances are not connected with him.”

The Crow Sun Dance appears to have originated from the Hidatsa Hidebeating Ceremony. At one time, the Crow and Hidatsa were one people.

Hidatsa

Among the Hidatsa the Sun Dance ceremony is called the Hidebeating Ceremony and is directed to the “people above” and particularly to the Moon. The ceremony was traditionally performed so that a son could acquire his father’s ceremonial rights. Since the Hidatsa are a matrilineal people, the son belongs to a different clan than his father which means that the sacred bundle involved in the ceremony is also transferred from the father’s clan to the son’s clan.

On the first day of the Hidatsa Hidebeating Ceremony, the pledger would have his entire body painted with white clay. Then black paint would be used to draw a new moon on the forehead. In his book Hidatsa Social and Ceremonial Organization, Alfred Bowers writes:

“A tanned leather apron was tied around the pledger’s waist and extended to his knees. Then his wrists were painted black, an enemy’s scalp was tied to his left wrist and a dried human hand to his right. He wore a jackrabbit skin cap. A hoop of willow wrapped in otterskin to look ornamental was tied to his back; this hoop represented the moon.”

On the second day of the Hidatsa Hidebeating Ceremony, young men wishing to increase their spiritual power would have the skin on their chest pierced, small wooden sticks placed in the incision, and then a rawhide thong attached each stick to the center pole. Each young man would run around the pole, swinging at times from his attachment, until exhausted. He would then be untied. Alfred Bowers reports:

“As each candidate completed the torture ordeal, he picked up his sacred bundle and robe and left the ceremonial grounds to eat, bathe, and rest. He frequently sought a quiet place beyond the village limits to rest in the hope that he would receive a good dream.”

On the fourth day, the ceremony concluded with a special sweat lodge ceremony attended by the pledger, his wife (or wives), and others.