110 INDIANS 01 l III. PLAINS 



gated to a few tribal shamans each of whom exercised 

 his own special formulae. The Crow, the Blackfoot, 

 and perhaps a few other tribes had elaborate tobacco 

 planting ceremonies. The Pawnee formerly sacrificed 

 a captured maiden in a ceremony to the Morningstar, 

 the procedure showing close parallels to Aztec practices, 

 and some of the maize-growing tribes in this area are 

 credited with a " green corn" or harvest dance, a 

 characteristic of the tribes east of the Mississippi. 

 The Pawnee also maintained some curious ceremonies 

 in which shamans performed remarkable tricks and 

 demonstrated their magical powers. Turning from 

 these rather exceptional practices, we find certain 

 highly typical ceremonies. 



The Sun Dance. One of the most important tribal 

 ceremonies is the so-called sun dance. The name as 

 used in literature is probably derived from the Dakota 

 who speak of one phase of the ceremony as sun-gaze- 

 dancing: i. e., the worshipper gazes steadily at the sun 

 while dancing. To a less extent, this is one of the 

 objective features of the ceremony wherever performed 

 and is occasionally associated with a torture feature in 

 which skewers are thrust through the skin of the breasl 

 and back and the devotee suspended or required to 

 dance until the skin gives away, all the time supplicating 

 the sun for divine guidance. 



Another feature is that in the center of the cere- 

 monial place is set up a tree, or sun pole, which is scouted 

 for, counted coup upon, and felled, as if it were an 

 enemy. Upon this, offerings of cloth are made 1 to the 



