by Simi Brown

Created on: June 19, 2007   Last Updated: May 05, 2010

Many Native American tribes are known to have performed elaborate ceremonies around the sun and the summer solstice.

One such ceremony is called the sun dance. Sundance is a new years ceremony celebrated in the summer in June or July, usually on a full moon. The actual sundance lasted 28 days, but the last four to eight days were the ones in which the most intense festivities took place. Though the ceremonies varied in form from tribe to tribe, many had features in common, such as dancing, singing and drumming, prayer, meditation, the experience of visions, fasting, and self-torture. Some of the Native American tribes who practiced 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.

Legend has it that the sundance began with the Lakota tribe. The ceremony was first revealed in a vision to a Lakota Indian named Kablaya. "Wakan Tanka told him that his People had become lazy in their prayers, so he sent them a new way of praying-the Sun Dance. In a Sun Dance, dancers offer their bodies as a sacrifice on behalf of all the people. Through their sacrifice, the people gain strength and understanding." (1)

The highlight of many sundance came when the sun dancers were pierced. Though there were several variations on the piercing, typically the dancer was pierced through the skin and connected by ropes and pegs to either a tree or a stake. The dancer would then dance around until the pegs or the piercings broke. The self-inflicted torture was thought to symbolize death and rebirth. The sun dancer was reborn, mentally, spiritually, and physically. The ceremony as a whole symbolized the continuity between life and death. It conveyed that there is no true end to life, but a cycle of regeneration and that all of nature is intertwined and dependent on one another.

There are currently several stone structures scattered throughout North America that appear to have been used (and are still used today) for some form of sun worship by Native American tribes.

One of the most famous is the "Medicine Wheel" located on the Big Horn Mountains of northern Wyoming. The structure, which is only reachable during the warm summer months, was constructed by a group of Plains Indians between 300-800 years ago. The wheel has a diameter of 80 feet. At the center of the circle is a doughnut-shaped pile of stones (called a cairn) connected to the rim by 28 spoke-like lines of stones. Each cairn orients a person to certain places on the distant horizon. These points indicate where the Sun rises or sets on summer solstice.

Another famous structure located in Chaco Canyon is Fajada Butte. Rising 135 meters above the canyon floor, the structure includes three slabs and spiral petroglyphs which mark the cycles of both sun and moon. These slabs cast shadows and shafts of light to indicate both solstices and equinoxes. According to Navajo tradition, Fajada Butte is sacred ground. No one is allowed on top of the butte nor even allowed to lean against its sides.

Sources:
1. http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/celestialsisters/sunda nce.html
http://www.angelfire.com/co/MedicineWolf/lakota/sund ance.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/sundance.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/summersolstice.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/summer_solstice.ht m

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