Indians 101: The Sioux Sun Dance (museum exhibition)

For many, if not most, of the Northern Plains tribes, the Sun Dance is 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 involves dancing around a pole set inside a specially built dance arbor, a circular open frame structure with a center pole.

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.

The Sun Dance, like most American Indian ceremonies, was offensive to the Christian missionaries and thus, as a Christian nation, the United States outlawed the practice until the late 1930s. As a part of the multi-day ceremony, the dancers pierce the flesh on the chest and attach a rope or leather thong from the pierced flesh to the center. As a part of the ceremony, the dancer faces the pole, and then dances backward to break free. Breaking free, for many of the dancers, bring about a state of ecstasy, of spiritual enlightenment. While the missionaries saw this as a form of self-torture, the dancers see it as the profound truth of being joined in the sacred powers of the world.

An art exhibit organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Portland Art Museum (PAM), Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe highlights one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Oscar Howe (1915-1983) a Yanktonai Dakota, developed a characteristically individual style which departed from traditional American Indian art. Several of the works displayed feature Howe’s artistic interpretation of traditional Dakota ceremonies, particularly the Sun Dance.

According to PAM:

“Over the course of his career, Howe returned to certain subjects he fond intriguing for their design possibilities, the significance of the subject matter, or both. The Sun Dance ceremony—specifically the moment when dancers break free from the pole in a moment of transcendence—held particular fascination. Whether Howe ever participated in the ceremony remains unknown, since the practice was largely suppressed in his lifetime.”

Shown below are some of Howe’s Sun Dance art.

Shown above is *Sun Dance*, ca. 1934-1938, gouache on bristol board.

Shown above is *Sun Dance*, ca. 1949, watercolor on paper.

Shown above is *Sioux Sun Dancer*, n.d., casein on paper.

Shown above is *Sacro-Wi-Dance (Sun Dance)*, 1965, casein on paper.

According to PAM:

“By the 1960s, Howe no longer used conventional perspective in painting the Sun Dane: the viewpoint is that of a participant, looking up from below. The dancers have completely lost their earthly connection as their bodies dissolve into swirls of ecstasy. The pole is viewed at an acute angle, and it, too, appears to sway and bend as the rules of physics slip away.”

Shown above is *Sun Dancer*, 1967, casein on paper.

According to PAM¨

“The dancer in this painting is in a state of rapture, his body limp and floating, and no dance grounds or other people are visible. He has left earthly reality and reached a state of transcendence, as prayer offerings of sage and several painted sticks—his last tie to the physical manifestation of the dance—drop from his hands.”