Cultures in Conflict: Inside the sun dance
BY MARTY TWO BULLS
Argus Leader
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
www.argusleader.com/cultures/Sundayarticle5.shtml
published: 7/20/2003
Crow ceremony integrates Lakota rituals
CROW AGENCY, Mont. - The German's knees waver as two thin lines of blood trickle down his chest. He closes his eyes and redoubles his efforts.
Two wooden dowels pierce his chest and are attached to a tree by a long rope as thick as a man's thumb. He is at the part of the sun dance ceremony when he should tear himself free.
Leaning back hard, his head rolls back, his outstretched arms quiver and he seems to get whiter. Slowly his mouth opens but no sound comes out. He faints, tearing the dowels free as he falls.
Slowly, groping for his crown of sage, he stands up sobbing. The power happily returns to his stride. In this brief moment, he is an Indian.
That was the scene during a sun dance I attended on the Crow Agency in June.
This particular ceremony belongs to an extended Crow family who are part Lakota. Their ancestor, a Lakota, entrusted his sun dance vision with the great-grandfather of the medicine man with whom I attended. That centuries-old vision is a guideline for this four-day sun dance.
The Crow Agency was hot in late June and the sun showed little mercy to the small group of dancers. Most of the dancers were Indian but there was a group of non-Indians with their pale skin covered in red paint to ward off the sun's rays.
They are Germans tourists who normally come here once a year to participate in an Arapaho-style sun dance the Crows hold which involves fasting and dancing but not the chest and back piercing common in the Lakota ceremony.
This year, the tourists got more than they bargained for. This year, they went home scarred for life.
They are lucky the Crows pierced the skin shallow, the wounds were slight and breaking away is a lot easier.
The Lakota-style sun dance is not unique in Crow country but rarely is it done according to tradition. It must be said, the Crow Indians are the traditional enemies of the Lakota, and to some tribal members the feud is still alive today.
Crow medicine men say their old form of sun dance was lost after it was outlawed in the 1890s. That style was more militant in tone and advocated success in battle.
Lakota Sun dances are used in healing and prayer.
Unfortunately, Crow elders took their sacred ceremonies with them to their graves, favoring the adaptation of the dominant society for their children. Today, Crow bloodlines are a mix of Caucasian, Lakota, Arapaho, Shoshone or Cheyenne. The last full-blooded Crow died sometime in the 1950s.
But they still have their native language. The Crow Tribe has one of the highest percentages of native speakers in the country. A powerful link with their culture that few tribes can boast today.
My own tribe, the Lakota, are losing our grasp of this most basic element of our traditional past.
As I was watching two little girls argue over a chair at the Crow ceremony. I noticed they were speaking in their Crow dialect. Imagine the ability to think in your native language instead of English. In some respects, we Lakota have a long way to go.
At the sun dance, the entire dance area was surrounded by a shade, constructed of rough-hewn trees lashed together making a crude circular framework.
Topped with freshly cut cottonwood branches, the leaves gently clapped at each breeze. At the center was a tree covered with bright flags that are there to hold the dancer's prayers. Ropes hung from different levels of the tree trunk, tied there by the dancers for the piercing. Over it all was the beat of the drum.
I have never sung at the drum before, but I was expected to pick it up and help out for the next four days. Surprisingly, it takes a great deal of work and skill to beat the drum.
I would later find out that it is vital to the dancers pace. Endurance is lost if the beat doesn't match the heart rate, if you slow it down the dancers will start to drop.
There was a Crow drum group there eager to learn the songs. They are used to singing at slower tempo and their translations sometime fail to match the melodies. But it was still powerful all the same.
The pain of piercing is sudden and the soreness is temporary, but fasting is another matter. Hunger pains are quickly replaced with thirst.
Cool, clear water occupies all your thoughts. At some point you swear you can even smell it. You will never take it for granted again.
It's predicted that the Lakota may lose its traditions if we fail to learn our language. If that happens, then we will have to ask a different tribe to come teach us their ways. It may never come to that, but knowing what could happen makes this sharing between tribes all the more vital.
The Sun dance is about prayers, should we ever stop dancing, legends say it would mean the world is about to end.
Graphics Editor Marty Two Bulls is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe.
Reach him at 331-2334 or m2bulls@argusleader.com.
