Sun Dance

For other uses, see Sundance (disambiguation).
Sun dance, Shoshone at Fort Hall, 1925.

The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains cultures, as well as a new movement within Native American religions, 1890 the Shoshone people in origin.[1][2][3][4] It usually involves the community gathering together to pray for healing. Individuals make personal sacrifices on behalf of the community.

After European colonization of the Americas, and with the formation of the Canadian and United States governments, both countries passed laws intended to suppress Indigenous cultures and force assimilation to majority-Anglo-American culture.

The Sun Dance was one of the prohibited ceremonies, as was the potlatch of the Pacific Northwest peoples.[5] Canada lifted its prohibition against the practice of the full ceremony in 1951. In the United States, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) in 1978, which was enacted to protect basic civil liberties, and to protect and preserve the traditional religious rights and cultural practices of Native Americans, Eskimos, Aleuts, and Native Hawaiians.[6]

  1. ^ Deloria, Ella Cara (1929). "The Sun Dance of the Oglala Sioux". Journal of American Folklore. XLII: 354–413. doi:10.2307/535232.
  2. ^ Underhill, Ruth M. (1965). Red Man's Religion: Beliefs and Practices of the Indians North of Mexico. Chicago, Il; London: University of Chicago Press. pp. 42–53. ISBN 0-226-84167-7.
  3. ^ Detwiler, F. (1983). The Sun Dance of the Oglala Sioux: A Case Study in Religion, Ritual, and Ethics. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University.
  4. ^ Champagne, Duane (2005). "North American Indian Religions: New Religious Movements". In Lindsay Jones (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion: 15-volume Set. Vol. 10 (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, Mi: Macmillan Reference USA – via Encyclopedia.com.
  5. ^ Powell, Jay; & Jensen, Vickie. (1976). Quileute: An Introduction to the Indians of La Push. Seattle: University of Washington Press. (Cited in Bright 1984).
  6. ^ Cornell.edu. "AIRFA act 1978". Archived from the original on May 14, 2006. Retrieved July 29, 2006.