A Study of Siouan Cults: Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1890, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1861, pages 351-544Dorsey, James Owen
Religion
A Study of Siouan Cults: Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1890, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1861, pages 351-544
Dorsey, James Owen
Siouan Indians -- Religion
§ 166. Judging from Mr. Bushotter’s first text, the tents are not
pitched when the people return with the sun pole. But as soon as they
lay the pole in the place where it is to be erected, the tents are
pitched again. Then all the objects that are to be attached to the sun
pole are tied to it, and some of the men take leather straps, such as
the women use when they carry wood and other burdens, and fasten them
to the sun pole in order to raise it into position.
RAISING THE SUN POLE.
§ 167. This raising of the sun pole seems to be symbolic of the four
winds, the tatúye tópa, or “the four quarters of the heavens,” as Dr.
Riggs translates the Dakota term. Those who assist in raising the sun
pole must be men who have distinguished themselves. They raise the
pole a short distance from the ground, and then they shout, making
an indistinct sound; they rest awhile and pull it a little higher,
shouting again; resting a second time, they renew their efforts,
pulling it higher still. They shout the third time, rest again, and
at the fourth pull the pole is perpendicular. Then the men around the
camping circle fire guns, making the horses flee. Those who raised the
pole have a new spade, and they use it one after another in throwing a
sufficient quantity of earth around the base of the pole, pressing the
earth down firmly in order to steady the pole.
BUILDING OF DANCING LODGE.
§ 168. Next follows the building of the dancing lodge. (See Pl. XLVI.
and § 317.) Forked posts are set in the ground in two concentric
circles. Those posts forming the circle nearer the sun pole are a
few feet higher than the posts in the outer circle, thus making a
slant sufficient for a roof. From the inner circle of posts to the
sun pole there is no roof, as the dancers who stand near the pole
must see the sun and moon. From each forked post to the next one in
the same circle is laid a tent pole; and on the two series of these
horizontal tent-poles are placed the saplings or poles forming the
roof. In constructing the wall of the dancing lodge they use the leaf
shields, and probably some poles or branches of trees, the shields and
leaves stuck in the wall here and there, in no regular order, leaving
interstices through which the spectators can peep at the dancers. A
very wide entrance is made, through which can be taken a horse, as well
as the numerous offerings brought to be given away to the poor. Then
they smoke the pipe, as in that manner they think that they can induce
their Great Mysterious One to smoke.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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