The Shoshoni Crow Sun Dance

About 1875 the Crows abandoned their own Sun Dance, but they continued to carry out other traditional rites despite opposition from missionaries and the federal government. In 1941, Crow Indians from Montana sought out leaders of the Sun Dance among the Wind River Shoshonis in Wyoming and under the direction of John Truhujo, made the ceremony a part of their lives. In The Shoshoni-Crow Sun Dance, Fred W. Voget draws on forty years of fieldwork to describe the people and circumstances leading to this singular event, the nature of the ceremony, the reconciliation’s with Christianity and peyotism, the role of the Sun Dance as a catalyst for the reassertion of Crow cultural identity, and the place the Sun Dance now holds in Crow life and culture. Voget’s description includes photographs and diagrams of the Sun Dance.

Excerpt from The Sun Dance of the Crow Indians That the central idea in the performance was indeed the desire for revenge, is proved by the fact that the ceremony closed with the super natural revelation sought. In an exceptional instance referred to by many informants even the vision proved unnecessary: one of the enemy had been caught and killed in camp on the first night of the ceremony proper, and this immediately put a stop to the proceedings. The native interpretation of this case is that the whistler was unusually fortunate in thus having the period of his suffering terminated at the very start. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Medicine man and Sun Dance chief Thomas Yellowtail is a pivotal figure in Crow tribal life. As a youth he lived in the presence of old warriors, hunters, and medicine men who knew the freedom and sacred ways of pre-reservation life. As the principal figure in the Crow-Shoshone Sun Dance religion, Yellowtail has preserved traditional values in the face of the constantly encroaching, diametrically opposed values of materialistic modern socity. Through his life story and description of the Sun Dance religion we can reexamine the premises and orientations of both cultures.

This book offers fascinating insights into the world of the pre-reservation Indians. It is a collection of classic essays that examines the universal characteristics of American Indian culture and tradition. This new edition also offers a personal view of Dr. Brown's life and research through his private correspondence from his time on the reservation and sheds insights into his relationship with old time Indian leaders including the legendary Sioux Medicine Man Black Elk.

The Sun Dance is still performed by some Plains Indians in America, even though it was outlawed by the government in 1904. This bibliography provides a listing of sources on the Sun Dance. The purpose of the annotated bibliography is to serve researchers, including American Indians, in learning more about the Sun Dance religion and ceremony of the Plains Indians. It is intended that this guide will be useful to tribal researchers, college and high school students doing library research for term papers, and to advanced researchers seeking in-depth materials for scholarly publications and field work. It is hoped that this compilation will lead to increased knowledge and appreciation of the Sun Dance -- from Pref.