This is a two-part blog. Part 1 is a description of what I saw, and Part 2 is my reaction. There are no photographs because cameras are not permitted on the ritual grounds.
Sundance. From the outside, the lodge looks safe enough. Dense brush is woven into six-foot high walls that hide the inner sanctum from the casual observer. The whole thing is a twelve-sided polyhedron, each side about twelve feet long. One side lacks a physical wall, and thus serves as the entrance to the lodge. The interior is forty feet in diameter. A large birch trunk stretches nearly thirty feet into the air. At the top, it is secured to twelve ‘spokes’ that run from the center out to the walls. It is a tent without a top, though each of the twelve spokes has a bright slash of color running the length of it. The center birch pole is wrapped with many colors, and several bundles have been fastened to the pole. There are also a handful of thin ropes that hang from the top of the pole. The base is shrouded in tobacco leaves left as offerings.
The sounds of the lodge can be heard from a bit away, but more importantly, the lodge can be felt before it is heard. The drums are low toned and their vibrations sang through my body long before we reached the lodge. As if to counter these, high pitched whistles sound in time to the drums with no apparent pitch variation. Over all of this, the Dancers in the lodge are singing. Low rhythmic long vowel sounds are the only thing I can identify, though I am told that they do sing in the native language, Blackfoot.
Today is Saturday, and this is the third day of the annual Sundance. It is a ritual that has been adapted to a Christian perspective; I am still trying to discover its origins. The center birch pole represents Christ. The twelve spokes represent the twelve apostles. Each of the colors on the spokes represent different things, one is The Creator (whom they very rarely seem to refer to as anything but this single name). The participants are Dancers. They began a fast on Thursday, the first day of Sundance, taking no food and no water until the ceremony is over on Sunday. The Dancers are in the lodge, on their feet dancing and singing from the early morning until the darkest hours of the night. Their dance is a prayer. The Dancers are in a variety of states of dress, women wearing dresses and wraps, and the most of the men going shirtless. The Dancers have a sort of sage headdress on, with a brightly colored cloth holding it in place.
The entrance to the lodge has no physical wall, but to enter, you must be Smudged. Burning sage sits on the ground, and you must circle each foot through the smoke in a clockwise motion before entering the lodge. You must also wave the sage smoke over your body multiple times; if you wear a hat, it must be removed and pulled through the smoke before being put back on your head. Once you have been smudged, you may enter. The smell of sage and sweet grass is a heady combination that wafts through the air, despite the open sky above.
Inside the lodge, women stand to the right, and men to the left. There is a half wall within the lodge about four feet from the outer edge. The Dancers often stand behind this wall when they are not bringing offerings to the center pole or being pierced. Pierced. Yes. And not the usual body parts. Men are pierced through their chest, a wooden lance woven through the skin to make four one-quarter inch holes spanning about three inches. Women are pierced right around the bicep. Once pierced, the Dancer ties one of the ropes hanging from the center pole to the sword shish kebobbing their skin, and dances toward and away from the pole.
While not out at the pole, the men stand behind their half wall in a sort of trance. Their whistles dangle in their mouths as they blow, their hands remain at their sides. Behind different Dancers large swatches of cloth are tied to the upper poles. These are prayer cloths. They are all tied in the same manner, but with no apparent organization as to when or where in the lodge.
The sights, sounds, and smells were incredible as a cultural experience. I am just not sure where it falls spiritually.
