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Native American Sun Dance. By Julia Thao Intercultural Speech 1730-01. Overview. What is the Native American Sun Dance? General facts When and where is it celebrated? Who celebrates it? How is it celebrated? Sitting Bull’s Sun Dance (video clip). What is the Native American Sun Dance?.
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Native American Sun Dance By Julia Thao Intercultural Speech 1730-01
Overview • What is the Native American Sun Dance? • General facts • When and where is it celebrated? • Who celebrates it? • How is it celebrated? • Sitting Bull’s Sun Dance (video clip)
What is the Native American Sun Dance? • A ceremony practiced differently by several North American Indian Nations. • Many of the ceremonies have features in common, including dancing, singing and drumming, the experience of visions, fasting, and, in some cases, self-torture. Photo credit www.4qf.org/_SunDance/index.htm
General Facts • Lasts from four to eight days starting at the sunset of the final day of preparation and ending at sunset. • Shows a continuity between life and death - a regeneration. Represents no true end to life, but a cycle of symbolic and true deaths and rebirths. • The buffalo/bison makes up the main theme of the Sun Dance. Photo credit www.4qf.org/_SunDance/index.htm
When and Where is it celebrated? • Ordinarily held by each tribe once a year usually at the time of the Summer Solstice • It is celebrated throughout North America and into Canada. • The U.S. government outlawed the Sun Dance in 1904. • The ceremony is now again fully legal (since Jimmy Carter's presidency) and is still practiced in the U.S. and Canada.
Who celebrates it? • The Native American tribes who practiced the sun dance were: • The Arapaho, Arikara, Asbinboine, Cheyenne, Crow, Gros, Ventre, Hidutsa, Sioux, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibway, Sarasi, Omaha, Ponca, Ute, Shoshone, Kiowa, and Blackfoot tribes. • Their rituals varied from tribe to tribe. Photo credit http://www.crystalinks.com/sundance.html
How is it celebrated? • A tree with a fork is used to create a center pole for the lodge. Symbolizes the sun pole. • The buffalo skull is used as an alter during the Sun Dance. Offerings are presented to the skull. • Buffalo songs, dances, and feast commonly accompany the Sun Dance. • During the dance the buffalo also has a great role in the visions.
Sitting Bull’s Sun Dance • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLOw8CHjpzg&feature=related