Plains Indians Essay -- essays research papers

For some clans of Plains Indians whose buffalo chasing society prospered during the eighteenth and nineteenth hundreds of years, the sun move was the major public strict service . . . the ritual commends reestablishment - the profound resurrection of members and their family members just as the recovery of the living earth with every one of its parts . . . The custom, including penance and request to safeguard congruity between every single living being, keeps on being polished by numerous contemporary local Americans. - Elizabeth Atwood LawrenceAs the most significant custom of the traveling Plains Indians, the Sun Dance in itself presents numerous thoughts, convictions, and estimations of these societies. Through its rich imagery and confused customs we can get a brief look into these people groups' perspective on the world. A Sun Dance is held when a man wants to be an artist to satisfy certain desires, basically "for his redemption from his difficulties, for powerful gui de, and for useful endless supply of his people." (Welker) It is this artist who for the most part bears the costs of the Sun Dance (Atwood), including a dining experience for such goes to the festival. (Welker) Motivations behind the Sun Dance fluctuates marginally between clans. The Crow held the function to look for help for retribution for relatives slaughtered in fighting. The whole occasion encompassing the Sun Dance for the most part keeps going from four to seven days, however longer occasions exist. On the principal day a tree is chosen to fill in as the sun-post, the inside shaft for the Sun Dance Lodge, or New-Life-Lodge, as called by the Cheyenne. (Atwood) The choice of the tree is normally done by the oldest lady of the camp, who drives a gathering of intricately dressed ladies to the tree to take off its branches. On the following morning, directly as the sun is seen over the eastern skyline, outfitted warriors charge the sun-post. They assault the tree in exe rtion to emblematically execute it with discharges and bolts. When it is dead it is chopped down and taken to where the Sun Dance Lodge will be raised. (Schwatka) "Before raising the sun-shaft, a new wild ox head with an expansive focus segment of the rear of the stow away and tail (is) secured with solid crowds to the top groin of the sun-post. At that point the shaft (is) brought and set immovably up in the ground, with the wild ox head confronting ! at the setting-sun." (Welker) The tree speaks to the focal point of the world, interface... ...mbolism and custom engaged with the Sun Dance we can all the more completely comprehend the character of the Plains Indian societies. The Sun Dance shows a coherence between life. It shows that there is no evident end to life, however a pattern of representative and genuine passings and resurrections. All of nature is entwined and subject to each other. This gives an equivalent ground to everything on the earth. "Powerful creatures show both physical and otherworldly powers, similarly as the medication man and shaman do, and as do the grains of tobacco in the sacrosanct pipe." (Smart p. 527) However, much the same as the remainder of nature, people must give of themselves to help prop the patterns of recovery up. SourcesAtwood-Lawrence, Elizabeth. The Symbolic Role of Animals in the Plains Indian Sun Dance. http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/psyeta/sa/sa1.1/lawrence.html (Feb 3, 1997) Eliade, M. (1975). Legends, Dreams, and Mysteries. New York: Harper and RowKehoe, Alice B. (1992). North American Indians A Comprehensive Account. New Jersey: Prentice-HallSchwatka, Frederick. (1889-1890). The Sun-Dance of the Sioux. Century Magazine. Pp. 753-759.Welker, Glenn. The Sun Dance http://www.indians.org/welker/sundance.htm (Jan 7, 1996)