Archives of aboriginal knowledge. Containing all the original paper laid before Congress respecting the history, antiquities, language, ethnology, pictography, rites, superstitions, and mythology, of (14762220711)

Sioux: Worship of the Sun
Identifier: archivesofaborig03scho (find matches)
Title: Archives of aboriginal knowledge. Containing all the original paper laid before Congress respecting the history, antiquities, language, ethnology, pictography, rites, superstitions, and mythology, of the Indian tribes of the United States
Year: 1860 (1860s)
Authors: Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864. dn United States. Bureau of Indian Affairs. cn
Subjects: Indians of North America United States
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & co.
Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation



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. The following is a sample. Spirits or ghosts, havemercy on me and show me where I can find a deer or bear, (as the case may be,) andso with all things. Their prayers are to the creature and not to the Creator. I oncewas travelling witli some Indians by water. We came to a lake. The Indians tooktheir pipes and smoked, and invoked the winds to be calm, and let them cross the lakein safety 138.— Do they fast that they may acquire mental purity, or cleanliness tocommune with him ? Are the general feasts at tlie coming in of the new corn, andat the commencement of the general fall hunts, of a religious character ? Are thesefeasts of the nature of thanksgivings? Are any of the choruses, or songs of theprie.sts, sacred, or of a hieratic character? Is the flesh of the bear or dog which issacrificed, used to propitiate favor? Is it true, that all the flesh, bones, and the purtenance of the animals sacrificed in the feast, must be eaten or burned, as inthe institution of the paschal supper?
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HISTORY, AND GOVERNMENT. 227 I never knew any of the Dacotahs to fast on religious principles, but for one or twothings; that is, the worship of the sun and moon. I have known them to fast twoand three days. The worship of the sun, (Plate 27,) is caused by some one havingdreamed of seeing the sun. Tlie worship is performed at intervals of about four orfive minutes, by two young men in a most singular attitude. The two worshippersare almost in a state of nudity-; only a piece of cloth about their loins. Theworshippers have each of them a small whistle in their mouths, and foce the sun.The mode of dancing is a kind of hitch of first one leg and then the other; but theykeep time to the singing and beating upon raw hides or parchment. In their singingthere are no words used, nothing but the chorus appropriate to such occasions. Thenearest and best comparison that I can make of them when worshipping, is a frog heldup by the middle, with its legs about half drawn up. This dance is kept up t