Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo15amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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24 THE AM ERIC AX MUSEUM JOURNAL
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morningstar; the head is topped with a profusion of plumes. The rawhide en- velope in which the doll was kept also contained a number of subsidiary articles, including skunkskin regalia worn by the pledger of the Sun Dance, rawhide effigies, beaded bags and bunches of feathers — none of them of ostensibly great intrinsic xalue. Why then was this medicine bundle so highly regarded l)y the natives? In order to understand this, we must understand the character of the Crow Sun Dance. By the several Plains tribes the Sun Dance was celebrated for a variety of reasons. Among the Western Algonkin, for example, it was performed mainly in order to ward off disease or other danger from the pledger and his family. But among the Crow the motive was quite different from that of their neighbors: a Crow promised to undergo the expense and hardship of the ceremony only when some near relative of his had been slain by the enemy and for the sole purpose of wreaking vengeance on the guilty tribe. Any military operation whatsoever was supposed to be the result of a super- natural revelation that ensured success,^ and accordingly such a revelation was sought in the Sun Dance, but in this case the end could be secured only through the hypnotic action of a particular type of object, the sacred doll. By fixedly gazing at the doll during the dance, a man could make himself go "out of his head," that is, go into a trance. When in this condition he would see an enemy lying bleeding on the ground, and this vision was taken as a promise by the supernatural powers that his quest for revenge would be crowned with success. Hence the mourner who undertook a Sun Dance was obliged to seek out some man This sacred doll (about six inches long) was thought to give a vision at the close of an elaborate ceremony called the "Sun Dance," which lasted several days and in which all members, of the tribe took part. The last Crow Sun Dance was celebrated some thirty-five years ago

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