650 



SUN DANCE 



[B. A. E. 



when present, is chanted, and consists of 

 groups of songs, generally eight in num- 

 ber. As a rule these songs are sung on 

 the night of the entrance into the lodge 

 of the Sun dance. 



The time of the ceremony is summer, 

 varying from early to late in the season, 

 and it may even be held in the autumn. 

 Among some tribes, as the Siouan, the 

 ceremony is annual, and is in charge of a 

 self-perpetuating priesthood, apparently 

 under the control of the war chief. In 

 other tribes, especially those of Algon- 

 quian stock, the performance of the cere- 

 mony is dependent on a vow or a pledge 

 made by an individual who hopes by 

 such performance to ward off sickness 

 from himself or from some member of 

 his family, although other reasons for 

 making the vow exist, the most common 

 of these being to avert lightning. 



The participants in the ceremony 

 among the Siouan tribes, besides the 

 priesthood, are selected and compelled 

 to perform by the priests. In other 

 tribes, as for examj^le the Arapaho, the 

 participants, other than the priests ( who 

 are those that have vowed the ceremony 

 in former years), are those who have 

 made minor vows, and whose participa- 

 tion is hence voluntary. Among such 

 tribes the chief priest is chosen by the 

 friends of the votary of the ceremony. 



The duration of the ceremony varies 

 among the different tribes, 8 days being 

 the most common period. The period 

 is largely dependent, however, on the 

 number of fasting and dancing days, the 

 preliminary days being 3 or 4 in number, 

 and the dancing days from 1 to 4, though 

 formerly, it would seem, 4 was the com- 

 mon number. 



Among all tribes there is a 'division of 

 the ceremony into secret rites and a public 

 performance. The secret rites, occupying 

 from 1 day to 4 days, are held in a tipi of 

 preparation, which occupies a position 

 alone in the camp circle. In at least one 

 tribe there are four such tipis of prepara- 

 tion, each in charge of a leader. By the 

 time of the erection of the secret tipi or 

 tipis the camp circle has been formed in 

 the shape of a horseshoe with the open- 

 ing to the E. ; here is camped the en- 

 tire tribe, the arrangement of the family 

 tipis being according to a fixed system. 

 Within the secret tipi the priests congre- 

 gate each day and spend their time in the 

 performance of certain rites, consisting of 

 smoking, feasting, praying, and the prep- 

 aration of objects that are to be used 

 upon the altar or worn during the public 

 performance. On the last day of the 

 secret rites a great lodge is built in the 

 center of the camp circle, the selection of 

 the site being the office of a special in- 

 dividual and attended with rites. The 



gathering of suitable timber for the lodge 

 and its erection are usually done by one 

 or more warrior organizations. The 

 selection of the center pole is accompanied 

 with special rites and usually is in charge 

 of the most noted warrior or warriors of 

 the tribe. The lodge varies from a roof- 

 less inclosure with a tall center pole, as 

 among the Siouan tribes, to a partially 

 covered structure, consisting of an outer 

 row of forked uprights connected by cross- 

 bars, from which rafter poles extend to 

 the fork of the center pole. The lodge is 

 from 60 to 100 ft. in diameter, and is 

 always provided with an opening toward 

 the E. On the completion of the lodge, 

 generally late in the afternoon, the priests 

 formally abandon the secret tipi of prep- 

 aration, and reside until the termination 

 of the ceremony in the Sun-dance lodge 

 proper. On this night the lodge is form- 

 ally dedicated, often with elaborate rites; 

 the warrior societies parade, and the 

 chiefs signalize the bravery of certain 

 young men of the tribe by specially des- 

 ignating them by name. On the morning 

 following the erection of the lodge the altar 

 is set up near its western side. The altar 

 varies from the simple buffalo skull and 

 pipe on a cleared circle of earth, as among 

 the Ponca, to an elaborate arrangement of 

 a buffalo skull, an excavation with a dry 

 sand-painting, upright sticks with rain- 

 bow symbols, and various bushes and 

 young trees, as among the Cheyenne. On 

 the completion of the altar the priests dec- 

 orate the bodies, naked except for a loin 

 cloth, of those who are to dance; these, to- 

 gether with the priests, have taken neither 

 food nor drink since the preceding night. 

 After the dancers have been painted, 

 and decked with sage or willow wreaths 

 about the head, neck, waist, wrists, 

 and ankles, the dancers, forming in line, 

 dance toward the center pole, represent- 

 ing the sun, blowing whistles made of the 

 wing-bones of eagles to accompany Sun- 

 dance songs, which are sung by musicians 

 seated about a large drum at the southern 

 side of the entrance. After an interval, 

 which may be a day, the paint is removed 

 and renewed, and the ceremony is re- 

 sumed, and to the end the dancers thus 

 alternately dance and rest. At the close 

 of the performance the dancers in some 

 tribes take an emetic, drink medicine- 

 water, break their fast, and then enter 

 the sweat-lodge. In all tribes, so far as 

 known, the lodge with its accompanying 

 altar is abandoned to the elements, for it 

 is considered sacred and may not be dis- 

 turbed. Among several taboos of the 

 ceremony, one most frequent and almost 

 universal is that forbidding the presence 

 of menstruating women. 



In the majority of tribes one of the 

 most common rites of the public perfor- 



