The Sun Dance of the Blackfoot Indians Part 6

You may also make offerings to me in the sun dance lodge." He covered Scar Face's face with the "seventh" or red paint, drew a black circle around his face and a black dot on the bridge of his nose, and a streak of black around each wrist. He said to Scar Face, "This is the way the people must paint when they make offerings to me in the sun dance lodge. For the victory or scalp dance they must paint their faces black." The Sun also gave him a necklace, in the center of which were strung two small sh.e.l.ls and a pendent lock of hair, flanked on either side by four beads. This is the necklace worn by the husband of the woman owning the natoas. The Sun's lodge was made of white buffalo robes and some the color of beaver skins.

The door of the Sun's lodge faced the east. For this reason, tipis were always turned so the doors faced east. Now Scar Face decided to return to the place where Spider waited.

The narrative then proceeds in the usual way, except that the hero calls all the men of the camp to take revenge on the young woman after which he by magic turns her into a cripple.

THE BLOOD AND NORTH BLACKFOOT.

The writer has upon two occasions seen the ground where a Blood sun dance had been held. The dancing lodge, the sweathouse, etc., were still standing and all these were just as noted among the Piegan. The Blood lodge was a little larger, but the Piegan said that it was formerly so with them, they now having very poor timber to work with. We have in addition two brief published accounts of eyewitnesses.[19] The chief difference we could detect was in the secondary dances of the society where the Horns and the Matoki[20] took a very prominent part. As there are now no such organizations among the Piegan, this gives merely an outward appearance of difference.

The Northern Piegan, as may be expected, also had the same form. As to the North Blackfoot, we have only the statement of other Indians that the sun dance was the same. The Sarsi[21] also had the very same form and we may suspect the Kutenai as well. At least, my Piegan informants a.s.serted that the Kutenai had the sun dance from them. The problem here, however, must rest until we have more data, though Hale is of the opinion that the Blackfoot gradually displaced the Kutenai and took over many Plains traits from them.[22]

FOOTNOTES:

[19] McLean, _ibid._, 231-237; McQuesten, _ibid._, 1169-1177.

[20] This series, volume 11, 410-418, 430-435.

[21] G.o.ddard, Pliny Earle, "Sarsi Texts" (_University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology_, vol. 11, no. 3, Berkeley, 1915), 192-195.

[22] Hale, H., "On the North-Western Tribes of Canada" (_Report, Fifty-seventh Meeting, British a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Sciences_, 173-200, London, 1888), 198.