Indians 101: The Sun Dance among the Siouan-speaking Plains Indian tribes

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 Sun Dance among some of the Siouan-speaking tribes of the Northern Plains.

Sioux

In the traditional Sioux Sun Dance, an individual would make a vow to participate in the ceremony and the physical ordeal of participation was the fulfillment of the vow. In preparation for the ceremony, the elders would carve two figures out of rawhide: one of a man and the other of a buffalo. The figure of the man would be painted red and the figure of the buffalo would be painted black. These would then be suspended on a crossbar about two feet from the top of the pole. Sioux physician Charles Eastman, in his book Light on the Indian World: The Essential Writings of Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa), reports:

“The paint indicated that the man who was about to give thanks publicly had been potentially dead, but was allowed to live by the mysterious favor and interference of the Giver of Life. The buffalo hung opposite the image of his own body in death, because it was the support of his physical self, and a leading figure in legendary lore.”

Concerning the timing of the Lakota Sun Dance, Arthur Amiotte, in his chapter on the Sun Dance in Sioux Religion, reports:

“The Northern Lakota tradition, that of the Hunkpapa and Sihasapa (Blackfoot Sioux) bands, is to have the Sun Dance take place around the summer solstice, when the juneberries are ripe.”

Part of the Lakota Sun Dance involves piercing the skin and attaching leather thongs to the center pole. Arthur Amiotte reports:

“So in the Sun Dance, when the dancer’s flesh is cut and the thongs are attached, the man perceives this not as torture but rather as the embodiment of the profound truth that the entire four parts of him are literally being joined to the sacred power inherent in the sun, the tree, the zenith, and the nadir, all of the forces of the earth that are centered there.”

The four parts are, of course, the four souls that each human has.

Writing about the changes in the Lakota Sun Dance, Stephen Feraca, in his book Wwakinyan: Lakota Religion in the Twentieth Century, reports that:

“during the nineteenth century it was essentially a warrior ceremony, in which the participants prayed for power to achieve success in battle and to capture horses or fulfilled vows made in thanksgiving for such success.”

With regard to the origin of the Lakota Sun Dance, Stephen Feraca writes:

“The Sun Dance was adapted from the medicine-lodge ceremony of the Cheyennes. The activities and artifacts connected with the ceremony were borrowed whole and subjected to the individualism of the Lakotas.”

With regard to the Sun Dance today, law professor Charles Wilkinson, in his book Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations, writes:

“Sun Dance continues to be a defining symbol of Sioux culture.”

Assiniboine

The Assiniboine Sun Dance—Medicine Lodge Dance—lasts for two nights and one and a half days. The dancers fast—no food and no water—during the entire ceremony. Traditionally, the men would pierce their breasts. If the fasting and piercing is done correctly, then the dancer receives a favorable vision while in a trance.

During the dance, the Assiniboine make prayers and offerings to Thunder Bird, the one who controls the rain. According to James Long, in his 1924 book Land of the Nakoda: The Story of the Assiniboine Indians:

“It is said that when a Medicine Lodge Dance was over a dark cloud usually came up in the west late that evening. This was followed by rain accompanied by much thunder and lightening.”

This signifies that the Thunder Bird and his helpers are coming for the offerings.