Introductory Note. 3 



Thihduchhawkan (Straight-Crazy) had "pledged" the ceremony for 

 his tribe, and asked that I be notified of the date as soon as the time 

 of the ceremony should be determined. This information was sent to 

 me at the request of an Arapaho Sun Dance priest, and I again visited 

 the reservation in December, arriving on the fifth, and remaining until 

 the conclusion of the ceremony. 



Immediately after the ceremony I returned to Chicago, taking 

 with me, Ilawkan (Crazy), director of the ceremony, and Cleaver 

 Warden, interpreter. With Hawkan I spent two weeks, going over 

 the details of the ceremony, inquiring especially into the symbolism. 

 From him I learned also the sequence of events which transpired on 

 the two days previous to my arrival at the camp. 



Learning that the ceremony was to be performed also in 1902, I 

 went to Oklahoma, arriving at the camping ground on the morning 

 following the announcement, and remained at the scene of the dance 

 until the evening of the last day. I was thus enabled to observe the 

 performances on two days not witnessed by me in 1901. During these 

 two days, and in fact, throughout the entire ceremony of 1902, I made 

 extended notes, and obtained much information, supplementary to my 

 observations of the preceding year. 



The narrative of the ceremony contained in the following pages is 

 based on the performance of 1901. Many observations, and additional 

 information gathered during the subsequent year, however, have been 

 added. 



The performance of the ceremony for the two years was, as might 

 be expected from the fact that the more important personages of the 

 ceremony were the same, in every essential respect, similar. The 

 performance of 1902, however, was much more spirited than that of 

 the previous year. This was probably due to three reasons: In the 

 first place, two or three days of extreme cold weather during the per- 

 formance of 1901, owing to the lateness of the season, had a tendency 

 to cause the priests to hurry in their operations, especially as the hours 

 of daylight were few. In the second place, there was considerable 

 uneasiness in 1901 on the part of the Indians, lest the performance 'be 

 interfered with by the agent. This fear, of course, was entirely 

 groundless, but it had its effect in hastening the ceremony. In the 

 third place, the number of participants in the performance of 1902 was 

 considerable larger than that of the preceding year, and this of course 

 added much to the enthusiasm of the occasion. In fact, the Arapaho 

 themselves declared that they did not remember having had a Sun 

 Dance which was entered into with so much enthusiasm and happiness 

 by the whole tribe as the one held in 1902. Indeed the spirit shown 



