Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1889 — THE SUN DANCE. [ARTICLE]

THE SUN DANCE.

Fxcrnclatlng Torture# S.lf-Infllcted bj the Crow Indian*. The Crows have a sun dance of theii own. The dance originates in a spirit oi revenge, and through it they seek to se cure the assistance of the Supreme Being in carrying out their plans for vengeanci and in prosecuting their wars and horse stealing expeditions Besides the strings by which the dancei is fastened through the sinews of the chest and back to a long pole, the brave en deavore to produce good luck by mutilat ing himself with knives in many parts of the body. Some of the young men fasten buffalo heads to the muscles of the back and dance themselves free, and througl and about the camp Their legends say that God made their first of all human beings, the other In dians next, and the white man at the lasi as a punishment for some offenses. How much bodly pain one of these Crow warriors can undergo I witnessed it 1880, near this post. It was in the fall oi thas year when Hon. Carl Schurz (the then Secretary of the Interior) visited the captured Sioux and Cheyennes near Fori Keogh. The honorable gentleman desired to observe the natives at one of theii dances and feasts, and Gen. Miles, oui commanding officer, conducted him to the neighboring encainpm nt. The writer accompanied the party, which went on horseback. As we neared th< spot we beheld several hundreds of Indians squatted down on the grass, singing, shouting and drumming. They were not dancing just then, but were en joying a star performance by a solitary warrior—a Crow Indian —something of an excruciating humorous character—a highly seasoned and palatable side dish in the fens , so to speak. Th’e stalwart crow stood in the center of the circle entirely naked with the excep tion of the proverbial breech-cloth; the blood was streaming from a hundred gashes which he was self-inllicting upon chest, shoulders, abdomen, arms and legs with sharp edged knives, handed to him alternately by some of the Sioux and Cheyenne braves. The sight was too much for the somewhat sensitive organization of the fastidious secretary. and, giving his horse the spurs, he soon escaped from the disgusting spectacle. The attending Indians enjoyed the performance hugely, for they were chatting away and laughing gayly while the horrible and certainly very painful mutilation was going on. The interpreter informed me that it was an atonement ceremony on the part of the Crow, who had in the preceding winter killed a Sioux. From the same source I learned afterwnrd that the very height of the festivity was reached by the audience when the performer flhally permitted his body to be washed with vinegar. after which he indulged in fits and convulsions.