The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge
The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge

Author: Raymond A. Bucko

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1998-04-01

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780803264526

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For centuries, a persistent and important component of Lakota religious life has been the Inipi, the ritual of the sweat lodge. The sweat lodge has changed little in appearance since its first recorded description in the late seventeenth century. The ritual itself consists of songs, prayers, and other actions conducted in a tightly enclosed, dark, and extremely hot environment. Participants who “sweat” together experience moral strengthening, physical healing, and the renewal of social and cultural bonds. Today, the sweat lodge ritual continues to be a vital part of Lakota religion. It has also been open to use, often controversial, by non-Indians. The ritual has recently become popular among Lakotas recovering from alcohol and drug addiction. This study is the first in-depth look at the history and significance of the Lakota sweat lodge. Bringing together data culled from historical sources and fieldwork on Pine Ridge Reservation, Raymond A. Bucko provides a detailed discussion of continuity and changes in the “sweat” ritual over time. He offers convincing explanations for the longevity of the ceremony and its continuing popularity.

The Sweat Lodge Is for Everyone
The Sweat Lodge Is for Everyone

Author: Irene McGarvie

Publisher: Nixon-Carre Limited

Published: 2009-01

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9780973747065

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McGarvie presents a non-native guide to understanding, participating in, and benefiting from Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremonies. She covers how to build a Sweat Lodge, and explains the basics of Native American religious practices, including the significance of totem animals.

The Sacred Pipe
The Sacred Pipe

Author: Joseph Epes Brown

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780806121246

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During the winter of 1947, Black Elk, the Oglala Sioux holy man, related to Joseph Brown seven of the sacred Oglala traditions, including such revered rites as "The Keeping of the Soul", "The Rite of Purification", and "Preparing for Womanhood". The San Francisco Chronicle calls The Sacred Pipe "a valuable contribution to American Indian literature".

All My Relatives
All My Relatives

Author: David Posthumus

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2022-05

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1496230396

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All My Relatives demonstrates the significance of a new animist framework for understanding North American indigenous culture and history and how an expanded notion of personhood serves to connect otherwise disparate and inaccessible elements of Lakota ethnography.

The Native American Sweat Lodge
The Native American Sweat Lodge

Author: Joseph Bruchac

Publisher: Freedom [Calif.] : Crossing Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9780895946362

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Explains the history, the meaning and the use of the sweat lodge.

The Price of a Gift
The Price of a Gift

Author: Gerald Mohatt

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2002-10-01

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780803282827

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Joseph Eagle Elk (1931?91) was an effective and highly respected traditional Lakota healer. He practiced for nearly thirty years, treating serious physical and mental illnesses among the people of the Rosebud Reservation and elsewhere. In 1990 he began collaborating on his memoir with Gerald Mohatt, a close friend and cross-cultural psychologist. Eagle Elk?s story of his life, practice, and beliefs provides a uniquely introspective, demystified, and informative look at the career of a traditional Native American healer. We learn how a persistent vision and recurring visits by thunder spirits led Eagle Elk long ago to become a healer. On a more general level, we gain valuable insights into how Lakota healers practice today. Eagle Elk?s story and teachings also demonstrate the importance of community support and consensus in the development of traditional healers. Gerald Mohatt?s perspective as a cross-cultural psychologist enables him to highlight the psychological dimensions and efficacy of Eagle Elk?s healings and place them within a cross-cultural context. Eagle Elk?s life and career are presented in a way that brings together formative episodes from his life, selected teachings that emerged from those experiences, and case studies in healing. This arrangement allows readers to grasp the close relationship between the personal and cultural dimensions of traditional healing and to understand how and why this practice continues to affect and help others.

Yuwipi
Yuwipi

Author: William K. Powers

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1984-01-01

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780803287105

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A profoundly spiritual book, Yuwipi describes a present-day Oglala Sioux healing ritual that is performed for a wide range of personal crises. The vivid narrative centers on the experience of a hypothetical father and son in need of spiritual and physical assistance. The author combines the Yuwipi ceremony with two ancient Sioux rituals often performed in conjunction with it, the vision quest and the sweat lodge. Wayne Runs Again, suffering from alcoholism and worried about his father?s health, seeks out a shaman who, while bound in darkness, calls on supernatural beings to free him and to communicate. While the young man undergoes purification in a sweat lodge and waits on a hill for a vision, the community prays for him and his father. The ceremony serves not only to cure the sick but also to reaffirm the continuity of Oglala society.

Meditations with the Lakota
Meditations with the Lakota

Author: Paul Steinmetz

Publisher: Bear

Published: 2001-04-01

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 9781879181571

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• Native American meditations that help the reader find spirit in everyday life. • Intimate meditations offer insight into the symbology of the Lakota religious experience. • Lakota elders present the ancient prayers that weave together psyche and spirit. • New Edition of Meditations with Native Americans. The Lakota, people of the sacred buttes of the Black Hills, hold a rich tradition that connects the world of visible creation to the world of spirit. A century after the battle at Wounded Knee, Lakota elders are beginning to speak their belief that this spirituality is indigenous to every man and woman. By inviting all nations to recognize their interdependence with one another and with the earth, Native Americans can help modern man and woman find a personal relationship with nature and a willingness to view creation as sacred. Many feel that this spirituality is not a luxury but a necessity. From impressions and teachings gathered over decades of living with the Oglala Sioux and participating in their ceremonies, author Paul Steinmetz has compiled a book of provocative meditations centered on creation spirituality. Lakota elders join the author in evoking the essence of the sweat lodge ceremony, the vision quest, yuwipi meetings, and the teachings of Buffalo Calf Woman and the sacred pipe, offering the reader a focus for prayerful intention in finding spirit in everyday life. This insider's view reveals the Lakotas' profound interconnectedness with all matter, a weaving of psyche and spirit that is the call to consciousness so crucial at this time.

Lakota Society
Lakota Society

Author: James R. Walker

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1992-02-01

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780803297371

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As agency physician on the Pine Ridge Reservation from 1896 to 1914, Dr. James R. Walker recorded a wealth of information on the traditional lifeways of the Oglala Sioux. Lakota Society presents the primary accounts of Walker's informants and his syntheses dealing with the organization of camps and bands, kinship systems, beliefs, ceremonies, hunting, warfare, and methods of measuring time.

Wakinyan
Wakinyan

Author: Stephen E. Feraca

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13:

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Wakinyan is an excellent overview of Lakota religious thought and practice, introducing readers to its essential components. Through finely detailed descriptions of rituals and various types of religious figures, Stephen E. Feraca explains the significance of such practices as the Sun Dance, sweat lodge ritual, vision quest, Yuwipi ritual, and peyote use. He also discusses the significance of herbs and religious artifacts and objects and explains the roles and responsibilities of medicine men and other religious practitioners. First written as a report for the Department of the Interior in 1963, Wakinyan has long been recognized as a classic study of Lakota religion. This edition retains most of the original text, with its first-rate ethnographic descriptions of religious practices. The author's new endnotes bring the reader up to date on changes in Lakota religion during the last three decades.