of the tribe took part. 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
morningstar; the head is topped with a 
profusion of plumes. The rawhide en- 
velope in which the doll was kept also 
contained a number of subsidiary articles, 
including skunkskin regalia worn by the 
pledger of the Sun Dance, rawhide 
effigies, beaded bags and bunches of 
feathers —none of them of ostensibly 
great intrinsic value. Why then was 
this medicine bundle so highly regarded 
by the natives? In order to understand 
this, we must understand the character 
of the Crow Sun Dance. 
By the several Plains tribes the Sun 
Dance was celebrated for a variety of 
reasons. Among the Western Algonkin, 
for example, it was performed mainly in 
order to ward off disease or other danger 
from the pledger and his family. But 
among the Crow the motive was quite 
different from that of their neighbors: 
a Crow promised to undergo the expense 
and hardship of the ceremony only when 
some near relative of his had been slain 
by the enemy and for the sole purpose of 
wreaking vengeance on the guilty tribe. 
Any military operation whatsoever was 
supposed to be the result of a super- 
natural revelation that ensured success, 
and accordingly such a revelation was 
sought in the Sun Dance, but in this case 
the end could be secured only through 
the hypnotic action of a particular type 
of object, the sacred doll. By fixedly 
gazing at the doll during the dance, a 
man could make himself go “out of his 
head,” that is, go into a trance. When 
in this condition he would see an enemy 
lying bleeding on the ground, and this 
vision was taken as a promise by the 
supernatural powers that his quest for 
revenge would be crowned with success. 
Hence the mourner who undertook a Sun 
Dance was obliged to seek out some man 
This sacred doll (about six inches long) was thought to give a vision at the close of an 
elaborate ceremony called the ‘‘Sun Dance,’’ which lasted several days and in which all members. 
The last Crow Sun Dance was celebrated some thirty-five years ago 
