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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

1994

Walking the Sky: Visionary Traditions of The Great Plains

Lee Irwin College of Charleston, [email protected]

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Irwin, Lee, "Walking the Sky: Visionary Traditions of The Great Plains" (1994). Great Plains Quarterly. 800. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/800

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. WALKING THE SKY VISIONARY TRADITIONS OF THE GREAT PLAINS

LEE IRWIN

The shared worldviews of the indigenous peo­ The challenge of understanding such a re­ ples of North America are rooted and linked markable and complex worldview, one based in a rich pre-Columbian artifactual and oral on the significance and centrality of dreams past that is still highly active today. One per­ and visions, requires a fundamental reorienta­ spective into these worlds is obtained by un­ tion toward the phenomena of dreaming and derstanding the nature of dreams and visions. its creative role in the formation of cultural In traditional Native American cultures, such values. In turn, this requires a reconfiguration a perspective is an essential part of the search of religious topology and a recognition of the for spiritual knowledge where dreams and vi­ purposeful intent implicit in the dreaming sions represent contacts with primordial sourc­ experience. This essay facilitates this recon­ es of empowerment. To perceive this search figuration with an analysis of ethnographic for empowerment requires an appreciation of materials collected on Plains dreaming over the visionary experience, an experience which the last 150 years, focusing primarily upon the has often been denied or marginalized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. dominant cultures.1 This focus, however, should be seen only as a necessary delimitation on a very widespread and continuing phenomena among contem­ porary Plains peoples.

THE VISIONARY WORLDVIEW Lee Irwin is Director of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston. He has published several articles on religion and folklore of various cultures and has a While a number of classic articles have been forthcoming book, The Dream Seekers: Native written on Plains visionary traditions, little American Visionary Traditions of the Great Plains. has been written on the underlying epistemo­ logical bases for the dream experience and how this experience is integrated into a reli­ [GPQ 14 (Fall 1994); 257-71] gious worldview. 2 To demonstrate the role of

257 258 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994 visions as central to a religious world view, it is This does not mean to imply that all Plains first necessary to develop a comparative anal­ groups constructed their religious world views ysis of the threefold mythic strata of that reli­ in an identical fashion, nor does it mean to gious world and the accessibility of that world suggest that there is a single, overarching reli­ through visionary experience. The vision is gious view that was the same for all Plains fundamental to a shared epistemology as a vi­ peoples. In fact, Plains religions are highly sionary episteme or world view. 3 Such a world­ differentiated, consisting of related or inter­ view is distinct from the Euro-American locking complexes of religious activity and episteme in its fundamental acceptance of the belief, each one uniquely formulated through sacred nature of dreams and visions as a pri­ a combination of practical experiences, eth­ mary form of perception and knowledge. nohistorical encounters and variant features Dreams are neither "epiphenomenal" nor are of social and cultural organization. On the they peripheral to personal growth and em­ other hand, the specific materials recorded in powerment. The centrality of the vision the visionary ethnography show a remarkable throughout Plains religious traditions is at­ consistency with many overlapping features. tested to by each generation of dream seekers Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that who return from a vision quest with new pow­ each Plains group integrated these visionary er and ability given to them by the dream­ encounters into a unique complex of religious spirits. This affirmation of the sacred nature values and practices. This is particularly true of dreams is further enhanced by the many in distinguishing between Plains hunting cul­ spontaneous visions that equal or surpass the tures like those of the Absarokees, frequently experiences of the structured quest. referred to as Crows in history and literature, Each vision or dream contributes to a gen­ or Kiowas and the river-valley agricultural eral Plains epistemology in which visionary peoples like the Pawnees or Hidatsas. Never­ experience is integral to everyday waking con­ theless many shared characteristics of the vi­ sciousness. The dream or vision is not sharply sionary episteme can be noted as a means for distinguished and bracketed from ordinary developing an integrated overview of how the perception as it is in most Euro-American cul­ visionary experience was attained, religiously tures. The visionary episteme develops through communicated, and sought throughout the vision and dream experiences and incorpo­ Great Plains. rates altered states of awareness as normative The richness of the mythic contents and to human potential and ability. This spectrum the vitality of the dynamic powers of the vi­ of awareness includes visions, dreams, trance, sion are its most salient features. Figures which ritually induced states, and various encoun­ appear in visions, called here dream-spirits, ters with sacred beings as normative and de­ inhabit many features of either the waking or sirable. These states are merged and often fade sleeping continuum. To be in a visionary state into and out of each other while yet maintain­ is essentially to have contact with the powers ing continuity with everyday awareness. Thus that inhabit the sacred ecology of the various distinctions between dreams or visions are rare­ world-strata. In this sense, broadly conceived, ly made. The vision experience, however, is a dream-spirits are experienced as inhabiting a primary vehicle for the manifestation of these threefold topology (above, middle, below) that states and is actively sought, sometimes under ranges from the celestial realm of the sun, the guidance and direction of experienced el­ moon, stars and the "winged" to the "grass­ ders, and other times alone and without guid­ eaters" of the human realm, and downward ance. Understanding Native American into the chthonic realm of underground and religions requires a clear recognition of these underwater animals such as bear and beaver. states as intrinsic to the structure and organi­ An excellent example of this is given by E. zation of a religious cosmology. Adamson Hoebel for the Cheyennes: WALKING THE SKY 259

The universe [Hestenovl is multilayered. Hu­ tains, and rivers, which are the immediate fea­ man beings view the universe from the tures of a complex religious cosmos. Further, Earth's surface. All above the Earth's sur­ the dream-spirits inhabiting the various topo­ face is heammahestonev. All that lies below logical strata are believed capable of changing it is aktunov. Along the surface of the earth their form and are therefore highly metamor­ is a thin layer of air, the atmosphere as per­ phic.s Though human beings occupy the mid­ ceived by the Cheyenne. Called taxtavo, it dle realm, they are generally dependent upon is a special gift of the spirit beings to hu­ the dream-spirits for guidance and inspiration mankind, for it makes breathing and life in all aspects oflife. Animals who have a supe­ possible. Above the air-layer is setovo, the rior knowledge or ability are willing to share Nearer Sky Space ... Above everything their powers with human beings if they are else is the Blue Sky Space, aktovo. Here are petitioned in the correct manner. Or they may visible the sun, the moon, the stars, and the grant their power to someone who is suffering Milky Way. The earth itself consists of two because animals have compassion and pity layers. The first is the very thin strip which human beings. Manifestations of the holy oc­ supports life. It is only as deep as the roots cur through an agent-centered dreaming, in of plants and trees can penetrate. It is known which each dream-spirit has a particular form as votoso. Beneath it is the stratum called and intention-a particular gift of power to aktunov, the Deep Earth.4 bestow on the successful dreamer. Another shared religious conception held by many This sacred topology incorporates all natural Plains visionaries is of a sacred or mysterious phenomena into a unified, multi-layered, vi­ presence which is dynamic and active, capa­ sionary world that expresses a primary orien­ ble of breaking into human awareness through tation widely shared by other Plains groups the vision or dream, whether waking or sleep­ with varying degrees of complexity. The liv­ ing, having a somewhat impersonal and unify­ ing quality of the world is sacralized by the ing character. presence of many animals, sacred objects, and This unitary concept of the holy or sacred mythic beings seen in visions throughout the among most Plains peoples is not systemically Plains. \ or dogmatically defined, nor is it theologi­ The concept of a dream-place, sanctified by cally elaborated in philosophical discourses.9 the use of the pipe and marked out through Knowledge of visionary experience is esoteric ritual processes, is also fundamental to the and has many variable interpretations. Cer­ organization of visionary experience, marking tain religious specialists or experienced vi­ a specially designated area as a primary mani­ sionaries have developed highly complex festation of the holy. This place acts as a point interpretations while others have recorded of organization for perception and contact with only minimal verbal definition. lO While the the empowering presences of the vision and Omahas had a cosmography of upper and low­ can be established anywhere through rites of er realms, they also held a unified concept of sacralization.6 At this center, in a visionary their religious world, as summarized by Alice state, perceptions of space and time are radi­ Fletcher and Francis LaFlesche: cally altered-the visionary moves through the mythic strata of the world, experiencing it as The Wakonda addressed in the tribal prayer sacramentally structured in terms of direction, and in the tribal religious ceremonies covering great distances quickly or the revo­ which pertain to the welfare of all the peo­ lution of whole seasons as part of ritual cycli­ ple is the Wakonda that is the permeating cal patterns.7 life of visible nature-an invisible life and The sacred topography is charged with these power that reaches everywhere and every­ places of special sanctity, such as bluffs, moun- thing, and can be appealed to by man to 260 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994

send him help. From this central idea of a ritual enactments. Visionaries and religious permeating life comes, on the one hand, specialists who have mastered the techniques the application of the word wakonda to any­ of demonstrating power are fully capable of thing mysterious or inexplicable, be it an evoking the presences which are symbolized object or an occurrence; and on the other in ritual action. 14 This personal quality of hand, the belief that the peculiar gifts of an manifesting the sacred is integral to a more animate or inanimate form can be trans­ shamanistic concept that all powers work to­ ferred to man.ll gether in a unified cosmos to sustain human life through the medium of the vision. The reality of the sacred for the visionary thus lies in the direct religious experience, THE VISION QUEST PATTERN grounded in a shared worldview and attained in the form of a visionary dream. As a quality The ethnography of vision seeking reveals of visionary experiences, the sacred can be three motivations for such a quest: a socially conceptualized as expressing variation, cre­ expected obligation usually undertaken at ative transformation, and movement and en­ puberty; the search for greater personal em­ counter through space and time, resulting in powerment and knowledge; and a communal­ remarkable personal power. The vision expe­ ly determined quest to resolve various rience has contextual continuity with normal problems or negative conditions.15 The inten­ life waking experience and is recognizable and tion is similar in all three cases-to acquire congruent with everyday activities. It is nei­ power and to enhance the quality of human ther "transcendent" nor "other-worldly." The life. social structures of normal communal life are Visions occur in both structured and un­ fundamental to the vision. In fact, the most structured forms. The greater majority of the accurate description of the relationship be­ visions reported in the ethnography are spon­ tween the visionary and dream-spirits is one taneous, unsolicited visions. These unstruc­ of kinship.12 Visionaries frequently relate to tured visions are generally reported by those dream-spirits as elders in the kinship network, less central to the religious hierarchy, such as demonstrating normative attitudes of respect women, children and those caught in more and obedience in the fulfillment of the sacred marginal and crisis-oriented situations, such obligations given them in visions. as in times of suffering, loss, or periods of Successful dreamers often form visionary emotional disturbance as during family quar­ societies or join existing societies to consoli­ rels or disagreements. Women also demon­ date and enhance their social standing as suc­ strate a profound sensitivity for vision cessful dreamers. 13 Many of these societies are experience in the context of the death of a secret and the knowledge communicated in family member.16 them is inaccessible to non-members. Indi­ Coyote Woman, a Mandan married to a vidual experience is part of a narrative process man who frequently beat and abused her, was of sharing the dream and in giving dream-re­ sent by her husband to check his pit traps. lated ritual demonstrations in a community There she discovered a wolf that spoke to her setting. Society members engage in perfor­ and coughed up a sacred blue stone to use for mance and individual rites to demonstrate a healing among her people. The wolf also told powerful connectedness with dream-spirits and her that her husband would not return from other agencies which bestow unusual and of­ his hunting expedition because he would be ten remarkable abilities. The sacred as a con­ slain by wolves. The wolf's prediction sub­ cealed presence is agent-centered because its sequently proved correct. 17 Another example most prominent manifestations are through of a female stress-related vision is that of an WALKING THE SKY 261

Absarokee woman captured by the Blackfeet enced shaman or near relative to the wholly who managed to escape and in the process to unsupervised quest which is undertaken secret­ steal a Piegan otter medicine bundle. In iso­ ly by an individual at times accompanied by a lation, under stress and fatigue, carrying a high­ close friend. 21 In all cases, a purification phase ly sacred object, she had a sacred dream in initiates the quest and includes both prayers which the otter appeared to her and gave her and offerings as well as a conscious vow to the gift of instituting a sacred march to the seek a vision. A sweat lodge frequently pre­ tobacco garden during the annual tobacco cedes the actual fasting and is overseen by an planting rites. IS experienced elder. These spontaneous aspects of the female Among the Absarokees and Gros Ventres vision experience, rarely analyzed or studied, the body is bathed and then purified by rub­ express the general Plains Indian belief that bing it with sweet smelling sage. 22 Typically, visionary powers have greater affinity and among the nomadic hunting groups, the hair spontaneous compassion for women in Plains is unbraided as a sign of humility and the only societies. Many visions of women are highly clothing worn is a breechcloth or, often, noth­ complex and' of fundamental importance in ing at all. Nakedness symbolizes the complete the development of social existence. Through dependence of the vision seeker upon the vi­ vision experiences, women are able to es­ sionary powers and among the Lakotas only a tablish vision societies and to learn new robe or blanket was taken to protect the faster techniques in crafts and in other more male­ from storms and cold weather.23 A pipe and a oriented activities, such as hunting or partic­ robe are usually brought to the fasting place. ipation in war parties.19 They have significant This place is then sacralized through the cre­ roles in vision interpretation and in the in­ ation of an enclosed circular space for fast­ struction of vision seekers. Most of these roles ing.24 Alternatively, the faster may choose to have been a consequence of the spontaneous wander freely across the Plains hoping to en­ aspects of the vision experience. However, counter a dream-spirit. The length of time some groups did establish a structured quest spent fasting varies widely and ranges from for adolescent women. For example, young two to ten days. Mandan women sought dreams and visions at Prayer is an inevitable, central aspect of the on-set of puberty by fasting at least once the vision quest and is regarded as such by all on the corn drying scaffolds near the earth­ Plains peoples. Praying and smoking the pipe lodges of their mothers.20 are the primary means of communicating with The male quest is a more strongly structured dream-spirits. The primary ethos of prayer in vision with a procession of events that may be fasting is to become "pitiable" to the dream­ analyzed in five essential stages: purification spirits and to concentrate the mind com­ and preparation; hunger, thirst and depriva­ pletely on attracting their attention.25 This is tion; encounter and presence; instructions and shown through voluntary fasting from food and warnings; and return and integration, gener­ water. ally in the form of a ritual enactment. Such a Fasters may elect various mortifications. description is necessarily synthetic and com­ The offerings range from simply holding up parative, having been drawn from many di­ the pipe in prayer to cutting off a fingertip or verse Plains groups, and represents a general strips of skin from arms or legs. Another type pattern that shares many overlapping features of mortification is dragging buffalo skulls by among males of various communities. The thongs attached to bone pins driven through various phases of the process are variable and the surface flesh of the back or hanging sus­ range from a carefully supervised quest under pended from thongs attached to the flesh over the direct care and instruction of an experi- the chest muscles, as among the Mandans or 262 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994

Cheyennes. Such practices were undertaken life when in fact these emotional qualities are primarily on a voluntary basis. The practice of central and significant to the very heart of the self-injury or extreme mortification was wide­ traditional Plains religious experience. The spread in the northern Plains until the late vision is a very powerful, affective encounter nineteenth century, though piercing at Sun that leaves a life-long impression on the vi­ Dances is still an honorable practice today.26 sionary. The vision is vivid, colorful, multidi­ Engaging in these practices can result in a mensional and dramatic, involving a particular heightened awareness by which the visionary cycle of powerful emotional events. is able to hear or see unusual events. The visionary is frequently taken away from Mortification, fasting, and extreme concen­ the fasting place on an underworld or an up­ tration leads to a threshold experience-an en­ perworld journey, or the visionary is visited by hanced awareness during which the visionary a dream-spirit that demonstrates remarkable suddenly discovers heightened perceptions and transformation and metamorphosis. After fast­ sometimes intense feelings of fear or anxiety ing and praying, the Absarokee holy man, that can lead to the abandonment of the vi­ Plenty Coups, followed a messenger spirit into sion quest. Clark Wissler, noted ethnologist, the sky where he was instructed by the Winds, observed of Blackfeet men " ... that the ma­ Bad Storms and Thunderbeings to become a jority of young men fail in this ordeal as an warrior and leader.50 The journey is a central unreasonable fear comes down upon them the feature of the vision and symbolizes yet an­ first night, causing them to abandon their post. other important aspect of the experience. Even old experienced men often find the trial The manifest appearance of the dream-spirit more than they can bear."27 The successful often shifts several times during the encoun­ vision is frequently marked by this condition ter, changing its size and appearance, and flow­ which manifests as a more emotionally charged ing through animal and human (or sometimes state of increased awareness and anxiety. Shift­ mythic) forms. Such metamorphoses contrib­ ing out of the dynamic equilibrium of every­ ute to the transformative nature of the natural day, ordinary awareness and crossing the and social world, enhancing the visionary's critical threshold meant breaking the symme­ sense of the transmutable nature of personal tries of daily perception and action, thereby and collective existence. This is congruent inducing a potentially higher sense of aware­ with the ability of developed religious special­ ness and empowerment. The visionary realm ists or shamans who take on the qualities and is experienced as a more potent, more com­ remarkable powers of their personal dream­ prehensive, powerful realm, and the threshold spirits and who, in some cases, actually be­ experience is the first sign of crossing into come those dream-spirits. The visionary enters that reality. A faster, for example, hears heavy, fully into the visionary worldview or episteme loud footsteps, the earth shaking-it is a grass­ and experiences a collapse of normal space hopper approaching the vision circle. 28 and time perceptions: time contracts or ex­ However, heightened awareness and an in­ pands, space is intensified by the presence of a creased sensitivity to sounds and sights is not sacred being, and the visionary walks into a the vision proper. It is a preliminary condi­ butte or goes beneath a river into an underwa­ tion, preceding the actual vision. Entry into ter lodge. 31 The continuity of the vision is the vision experience proper is generally ac­ unilinear and moves unbrokenly through the companied by very strong awe, amazement, or experience toward its completion; visionary a profound sense of the sacred. 29 The powerful narrators never present a rupture or break in emotional contents of this experience unfor­ the continuity once the threshold has been tunately are often bracketed by non-native crossed.32 Thus, the unfolding of the visionary analysts as insignificant features of religious reality affirms the religious view of a sacred WALKING THE SKY 263

world and acts to legitimize the validity of corporated into the visionary's body, but its traditional beliefs. ultimate origin lies with the dream-spirits that communicate it as a gift to the visionary. This THE VISIONARY POWER gift is usually accompanied by certain prescrip­ tions and proscriptions, a distinction that is At the height of the experience, the vi­ essential to the use of power. Prescriptions re­ sionary receives explicit instructions from the fer to the specific means by which the power is dream-spirit. This instruction is both verbal evoked and used; proscriptions refer to the in­ and non-verbal with the verbal aspect being hibition of normally acceptable social behav­ highly abbreviated and symbolic, suggesting ior for the purpose of maintaining power.lS the structural importance of imagistic com­ Power is always accompanied by responsibili­ munication. Various types of speech are de­ ty and by the possibility of its abuse, loss, or lineated in the ethnography which are specific misuse. Prescriptions help to realize the gift, to the visionary context. Three recognizable and proscriptions are followed to prevent its verbal patterns can be identified: dialogical loss or to prevent over-identification with the interactions,. commands or instructions, and dream-spirit. For example, a Canadian Plains sacred songs or chants. All of these are ex­ (Stoney) Assiniboine woman who received ceedingly brief and condensed forms of com­ bear power refused to eat bear meat, but when munication.33 she unintentionally did so, "she came near The most significant type of speech act is being transformed into a bear herself."1Ii Fur­ the dream song, the form of which is very con­ ther dream power can be dangerous and work densed and metaphoric. The function of such against the visionary if the prescriptive or pro­ a song is primarily to invoke the specific na­ scriptive injunctions are ignored or performed ture or presence of the power that has been in a half-hearted manner. 17 given. The more expressive, behavioral aspect Sacred power in Plains Indian ethnography of the vision requires the visionary to imitate is described as dynamic and manifesting the actions and appearance of the dream-spir­ through actual demonstrations in both the it. For example, Walter McClintock described vision and during the ritual re-enactment. It the Blackfoot healer, Rattler, performing an is primarily instrumental, working not only eagle doctor healing. "In his supernatural ex­ through human agency but also through a va­ perience an eagle-helper had appeared in a riety of carefully handled sacramental objects. dream to Rattler," recorded McClintock, "and Qualitatively, power is epitomized as extraor­ bestowed upon him the power to cure. The dinary ability and signified in events that are eagle gave him the songs, showed him the outstanding and remarkable. Its nature is mys­ motions to use in doctoring, and directed him terious. Quantitatively, it is most active and how to proceed." Observed McClintock, Rat­ observable in ritual processes which direct the tler "imitated a flying eagle and swayed his unique abilities of numerous individuals in body rhythmically in time with our chant."l4 such rites as the Sun Dance or the more con­ Such imitation also includes the making of temporary Yuwipi. It manifests through indi­ various objects and their use in a prescribed viduals, who become superordinate agents of manner as well as other types of symbolic ex­ dream-spirits that work collectively to en­ pression through the correct use of paint, feath­ hance the good of the community or to assist ers and other personal adornments. those in need of help. Power is articulated as In no case is the gift of power exclusively a quality of the sacred. The sacred is concep­ identified with the object or the various sym­ tualized by advanced visionaries and religious bols of the power given. The visionary power specialists as a more comprehensive concept, works through the visionary and is often in- a presence that permeates existence and is 264 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994 essentially unknowable in itself. Often the con­ given. However, even in the conscious fast, cept of the sacred in the Plains religious. co~­ the visionary can be selective, accepting some text includes more than its agency, whIch IS aspects of the power and rejecting others. Re­ usually identified with specific powers, ani­ sults which failed to materialize when carry­ mals, or dream-spirits. ing out a vision, such as a vision-induced Power is also recognized as understanding Mandan war party, could also result in the and knowledge which are generally attributed rejection of the dream-spirit if a member of ro the elders of the community, particularly to the party was harmed or killedY elder ritualists or visionaries. Yet not all de­ veloped dreamers are beneficent in their use COMMUNAL INTEGRATION of power, and some might practice varying degrees of sorcery based on more dangerous or Having received the appropriate instruc­ destructive dreams and visions. For example, tions in a successful vision, the visionary re­ Pawnee dreams given by a weasel or mole were turns to the life of the community and must believed to result in the dreamer's having an await the time of realizing the power. For the ability to harm others secretly.38 While such neophyte, this may be many years; for the ex­ powers could result in injuries to others, such perienced visionary, it is simply a matter of visionary abilities are not always recorded as reflecting and acting on the vision. Another "evil" but as an adjunct to a wider array of distinction of importance is the differential powers, many of which could heal or harm. maturity and understanding that exists be­ Such power is described as multi-valent and tween advanced, elder visionaries and young­ intrinsically variable; no dream-spirit is ex­ er, less experienced dream seekers. Between clusively good or bad. This reflects the myste­ these two extremes are a wide variety of vi­ rious nature of the sacred and the complexity sionaries with more or less developed under­ of its manifestations to individual visionar­ standings of religious and visionary matters. ies. Power depends specifically on the indi­ This is a distinction well recognized by vidual's use and intention derived from vision Plains peoples. Only an experienced and ma­ experiences. ture individual could possibly understand and Conversely individuals who ignored or de­ act on the contents of a vision successfully. nied the power given to them could be killed Prescriptive behaviors are part of a shared rep­ by their dream-spirits, often through natural ertoire of symbolic actions that might take events, such as being struck by lightning or many, many years to master and develop. Ef­ attacked by enemies or dangerous animals. For fective action and enactment requires a high example, a woman who had received many degree of symbolic understanding and a genu­ Thunder dreams and refused to become a Hey­ ine knowledge of how to invoke and use vi­ aka was struck while sitting in her tipi and sionary power. Acting on an original, primary killed instantly. Her husband, who was also in vision might require many more visions or the tipi, was not injured.39 Because of the am­ dreams before the full implications of the ex­ biguity of power, it is sometimes rejected. A periences are understood. While the visionary visionary might decide that the power was too usually receives instructions, much in the vi­ strong or dangerous and refuse to accept it.40 sion might also be hidden or obscured.42 Re­ Such a rejection is highly correlated with the flecting on this content is an essential part of spontaneous vision. The rejection of power fully experiencing the potential of the vision, from a spontaneous vision, regarded as a "free particularly for the mature visionary whose gift" of the dream-spirits, had fewer negative calling necessitates an increasingly effective connotations than in visions received in the expertise. structured quest. Conscious fasting for a vi­ Having returned to the life of the commu­ sion means a willingness to accept whatever is nity from the vision fast, the visionary brings WALKING THE SKY 265 back a personalized experience of the holy. ment which recapitulates the events of vision­ Sharing this experience is the final phase of ary encounter. The efficacy of a visionary en­ the quest. The intentional structure is changed actment, such as a healing, success in war, or from the search for power to the task of ex­ foretelling the outcome of distant events, is pressing power for the social and religious val­ attributed to communication with particular idation of the vision. Only after the vision has dream-spirits. Enactment, patterned accord­ been shared and positive results demonstrated ing to visionary experience in the context of will that content enter into the collective dis­ shared symbols and behavior, leads to effec­ course. Sharing the dream or vision is highly tive and meaningful results in which words non-verbal and participates in a broad seman­ play only a minimal symbolic role. tic field of religious signs and symbolic ac­ As a process, a dreamer's power can be en­ tions. Communication is veiled in the hanced by deeper understanding or further visionary context. The translation of the ex­ dreams and visions. While pointing toward a perience into visible signs and acts involves specific type of result, actualization is an on­ the challenge of effectively communicating a going process of self-development in the con­ mastery of the shared repertoire of symbolic text of shared beliefs. Visionary experience forms shaped by other visionary members of enhances the vividness and richness of the the community. The problems of dream shar­ communally shared worldview which in turn ing are partially resolved in the use of tradi­ leads to greater personal empowerment. The tionally recognized forms, color and designs vision can be unfolded and unpacked in ever which all encode meanings. In traditional deeper manifestations of power because man­ Plains life, the ritual enactment is emphasized ifestations of power reflect the inexhaustible over verbal descriptions as the most effective potency of the sacred. As John Fire once com­ means for the communication of a positive mented on his own visionary experiences, "It spiritual experience. took me a lifetime to find out."46 The translation of imagery into action is Visions are not a stereotypical content that highly dramatic and aimed at a social valida­ reflect a static view of culture but a dynamic tion of the vision. A verbal sharing of the and synergistic source of personal and com­ dream is rare, and many visionaries preferred munal empowerment and transformation. Fol­ to keep silent as speaking about the dream is lowing a vision might lead ro wholly new or frequently regarded as tantamount to giving yet to be discovered forms of personal or com­ away its powerY The dream of the neophyte is munal behavior. Culture as process, as revealed the one most likely to be discussed, yet, among through the visionary ethnography, requires a the Omahas, a young dreamer must wait four re-definition of the basic nature of the vision days before discussing a vision with a qualified experience as central to traditional Plains In­ interpreter.44 More mature dreamers rarely dian religious life. Not only do visions affirm communicate their dreams except in the con­ the correctness of the religious worldview, they text of secret dream societies to which they also amplify, amend and transform that world belong or to other, usually kin-related, re­ through visionary enactment. spected dreamers. Dream knowledge is con­ sidered esoteric and inaccessible to the DISCOURSE AND ENACTMENT uninitiated. Further, some groups, like the Lakotas, might use a special visionary lan­ A limited number of verbal contexts can be guage, hanbloglaka, to refer to their dreams delineated for dream sharing or dream-telling. while concealing the actual contents of the They include between husband and wife, vision.45 Because visions tend to be directed among close relatives, to a qualified shaman, toward specific results, the real communica­ to the sponsor of a ceremony, as a validation tion of the vision is through a vivid enact- for curing the sick, when opening a bundle or 266 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994 handling certain medicine objects, or when tions, and the frequency with which particu­ transferring or selling a dream or vision. For lar dream-spirits are invoked or encountered. example, the Absarokee Two-Leggings was The role of dreams and visions, then, in this told of the vision experience of White Bear process is to provide an experiential basis for Child as a precedent for his own search for cultural affirmation or for the introduction of dream experienceY These patterns of verbal­ transformative cultural practices in the con­ ization are part of a larger religious context text of religious experience. The visionary eth­ that provides a contextual frame for evaluat­ nography fully supports the thesis that dreams ing the significance of the vision. The reli­ and visions are a primary means for the vali­ gious context for dream-sharing is not a matter dation of cultural innovation. Visionary ex­ of a fixed corpus of rigidly defined beliefs or periences become integrated into mythic dogmatic ideas dependent on written texts. narratives and serve as a validation for new The interactive structures of discourse are part practices and perspectives. In this sense, the of a more spontaneous, interactive, and mul­ Plains world view must be seen as emergent tifaceted exchange of creative ideas and expe­ and transformative, not as static or rigidly riences. Religious beliefs and personal conventional. visionary experiences form a larger field of The most archaic aspects of technical in­ shared interactive meanings, a web of related novation in hunting and warfare as well as in ideas, non-verbal images, acts, objects and healing, hunting and war practices have their artifacts, all of which provide a wider context roots in dreams and visions. For example, fire­ for dream-sharing. The narrative structures of making among the Sioux or the use of flint as oral culture are also central to this broad dia­ a source for tool making among most Plains logical context of personal and communal in­ Indians, or the use of the piskan (buffalo-sur­ terpretation. Such dialogues take place round) among the Blackfeet are all attributed through the sharing of stories and tales heard to dream origins of great antiquity.48 The ap­ of other dream experiences, held in memory pearance of dream-spirits to the needy vision but not rigidly defined through a single au­ seeker developed and strengthened a world­ thoritative synthesis, which further assists the view consistent with primary religious experi­ dreamer in providing a richer context for dream ences. These foundational visions of others interpretation. are remembered and passed through oral tra­ Contradictory and divergent interpreta­ dition into the religious lore of shared belief, tions and meanings also exist. The stable fea­ forming an essential experiential core at the tures of any mythic world are those elements heart of Plains religious narratives. This is that reflect the shared religious environment particularly true for sources of ritual enact­ and communally enacted ceremonial life. Vi­ ments and healing, many of which derive from sion quests are part of that ceremonial life and visions or dreams.49 contribute considerable narrative content to Such discourse serves an integrative func­ communal discourse. Plains religion cannot tion for vision experience and forms a coher­ be accurately described as a static, dogmati­ ent narrative basis for communal identity. cally uniform structure of beliefs or actions. Dreams and visions both confirm and elabo­ Meaning is constantly being negotiated as part rate this discourse, each contributing its own of a continual processing of religious experi­ characteristic elements to the pattern of an ence in relationship to mythic narratives de­ emerging worldview. Visions both validate scribing the inhabitants and their interactions culture and serve to transform it through a within the religious world. This negotiation process of sharing and interpretation. This is of meaning is structured through religious so­ usually a gradual, subtle process that extends cieties, cyclical ritual practices, kinship rela- over generations and serves as a convergent WALKING THE SKY 267 movement in the maintenance of communal snake around the base, forty-five buffalo cow identity. It allows for both variation and dis­ heads, an owl, sun, crescent moon and a agreement. In counterpoint, religious spe­ seven-star constellation-all contribute to the cialists insist that individuals who falsely mythic nature of religious discourse. 53 attribute dream origins to social behavior en­ The symbolic nature of these objects re­ danger themselves and others. The primary veals that the object or image is an essential means for the validation of the vision is not means for the communication of visionary in its verbal congruency with other oral tradi­ experience. These symbols tend to function as tions but in the dramatic demonstration of its unifying visible expressions of the visionary sacred character. world, objects that symbolize the cosmos as an Another complementary aspect of enact­ integrated whole. The various world strata are ment is the use of visionary imagery and the reflected in the use of color, design and form construction of sacred objects. Objects are an to express the complexity of the visionary essential means for gaining power. They are world in a single object. The image serves to constructed in imitation of the appearance and unify perception and organize the diversity of actions of the dream-spirit. They are a means the world order into a meditative and power­ for a direct contact with the source of empow­ ful instrument of the dream-spirits. 54 Here erment, though the object is not a substitute culture is encoded in the form of a perishable for that power, only a perishable means for its object expressing an imperishable cultural invocation, and often called the "dwelling truth about the holistic nature of the vision­ place" of a specific power.50 For many Plains ary experience.55 In the vision experience of peoples, these objects could be replaced or the individual, the image acts to organize renewed without losing their instrumentality. thought and perception with regard to other For example, among the Blackfoot, the song types of religious activity and involvement. was seen as irreplaceable but the object used The image serves as a template that effects while singing could always be replacedY Such the perceptions of others and assists the indi­ objects and symbols are mutually determined vidual by providing a visionary continuity and participate in an interactive repertoire of with other non-verbal expressions of religious shared symbolic forms. belief. An essential part of mythic discourse is the contribution made by the non-verbal imagery CONCLUSION of visionary symbols and appearances. The painted lodge, body paint, and sacred objects, In many ways the sacred hoop of Black Elk's such as the pipe, the stone, the feather kept in vision serves as an excellent example of a uni­ the medicine bundle, or the sacred shield or fying image or metaphor that summarizes the hoop, all represent powerful images that shape role and significance of the vision in Plains an interactive meaning to religious discourse. Indian religions. \6 The vision is highly con­ The mythic structures of belief are enhanced densed and concentrated in its communica­ through a vivid recreation of the vision in tion of power though it is often exceedingly the context of shared imagery. As non-verbal rich in detail. Like the hoop, it has many im­ components of communal expression, they plied and hidden meanings but as a single im­ represent a sacred art which is mysterious age it reflects the whole. The vision can be and dangerous if not handled correctly.sz developed to express varied ends but always Such objects as a medicine bundle hung on participates in the affirmation of the sacred. a tripod outside the owner's lodge or a paint­ Like the hoop, it communicates the presence ed tipi like one owned by the Cheyenne holy of the holy wherever it is used, painted or man, Old Spotted Wolf, that featured a great constructed. The vision offers views of the 268 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994 world through a powerful emotional experi­ NOTES ence initiated by a sacred encounter that evokes the unity of the whole. Metaphorical­ 1. For a review of the dominant theoretical perspectives in the interpretation of visions by non­ ly, the hoop represents the whole but does not native interpreters, see Lee Irwin, The Dream-Seek­ embody all possible manifestations of the ers: Native American Visionary Traditions of the Great whole. It is part of a shared repertoire of imag­ Plains (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1994). es, the significance of which cannot be limit­ 2. Primary works on nineteenth-century and ed to a single object or interpretation. The early twentieth-century Plains visionary traditions include Patricia Albers and Seymour Parker, "The vision, like the hoop, captures the attention Plains Vision Experience," Southwestern Journal of of the individual and directs it toward a mys­ Anthropology 27 (Autumn 1971): 203-33; Ruth terious power that cannot be fully articulated Benedict, "The Vision in Plains Culture," Ameri­ or analyzed-only symbolized and used. Each can Anthropologist 24 (January-March 1922): 1-23; use of the symbol, like each vision, contrib­ Ruth Benedict "The Concept of the Guardian Spirit in North America," American Anthropological As­ utes to a variation that works to keep memory sociation Memoirs, No. 29 (Menasha, Wisconsin: flexible and fluid in a context of intergenera­ Banta Publishing Company, 1923); Joseph Epps tiona 1 knowledge. While the vision may act to Brown, The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the enhance a particular aspect of cultural memo­ Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux (Baltimore: Penguin ry, it also contains other aspects. The integra­ Books, 1973); John Fire and Richard Erdoes, Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions (New York: Simon & tive function of the vision, like the hoop, is to Schuster, 1972); George Horse Capture, The Seven provide a basis for cultural transformation in a Visions of Bull Lodge (Ann Harbor: Bear Claw Press, context of creative innovation that contrib­ 1980); David E. Jones, Sanapia: Comanche Medi­ utes positively to the maintenance and trans­ cine Woman (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Win­ formation of cultural identity. ston, 1972); Frank B. Linderman, Plenty-Coups: Chief of the Crows (Lincoln: University of Nebras­ Every religious world offers a richness of ka Press, 1930); Walter McClintock, "Saitsiko, the action, experience and cultural construction Blackfoot Doctor," The Masterkey 15 (May 1941): which needs to be clearly apprehended and 80-86; John R. Walker, Lakota Belief and Ritual positively valued. As members of a global com­ (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980); munity, the development of mutual percep­ Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel, The Co­ manches: Lords of the Southern Plains (Norman: tions requires an increasing sensitivity and University of Oklahoma Press, 1952); William respect for the differences of other cultural Wildschut, Crow Indian Medicine Bundles (New values and practices. To respect the dreams York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foun­ and visions of others means to recognize the dation, 1960); Clark Wissler, "Ceremonial Bun­ validity of entirely unique alternatives in hu­ dles of the Blackfoot Indians," Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History (New man life and experience.57 This valuation of York: The Trustees, 1912),7: 65-298. The present human potential only enriches our own possi­ article briefly summarizes a much more extensive bilities and allows for a world in which many analysis of the subject involving over 350 dreams worlds co-exist. The Plains visionary world­ collected from the visionary ethnography; see ir­ view offers an alternative perspective on win, The Dream-Seekers (note 1 above). 3. Episteme means, generally, the underlying dreaming and religious experience. It demon­ infrastructures or conceptual organizations by strates an agency for cultural transformation which the world is perceived and through which through dreaming and a cultural aesthetics of motivation and action are initiated. Thus an religious communication. It is neither rigid episteme is a complex, culturally conditioned and nor formalistic, and it offers a blend of custom learned organization of beliefs, actions and per­ ceptions shared within a particular community of with creativity. It helps open minds to a wider people and sanctioned through symbols, images, spectrum of human experience, and it shows objects, appropriate behaviors and recognized how variability and multivocality can func­ modes of discourse. For a further discussion of tion in the maintenance of communal coher­ episteme, see J. G. Merquior, Foucault (Berkeley: ence and change. University of California Press, 1985). WALKING THE SKY 269

4. E. Adamson Hoebel, The Cheyennes: Indi­ 10. For a more systematic overview of the way ans of the Great Plains (New York: Holt, Rinehart in which an individual shaman constructed a uni­ and Winston, 1978), pp. 87-89; see also Alice fied religious world view, see Raymond J. DeMallie Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, "The Omaha and R. H. Lavenda, "Wakan: Plains Siouan Con­ Tribe," Bureau of American Ethnology, 27th Annual cepts of Power," in The Anthropology of Power: Eth­ Report (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, nographic Studies from Asia, Oceania, and the New 1911), p. 589. World, ed. Raymond D. Fogelson and Richard N. 5. Arthur Amiotte, "Our Other Selves: The Adams (New York: Academic Press, 1977). How­ Lakota Dream Experience," Parabola 7 (no. 2, ever, Plains ethnography seems to support the the­ 1982): 26. Amiotte, an outstanding Lakota artist, ory that systematic organization of a religious summarizes the interactive and transparent quality worldview was an individual (or possibly societal) of the Plains religious world: accomplishment, and shamans within a single com­ munity might have highly divergent interpreta­ The mythologies of the tribes affirm for the tions. Native the synchronous existence of various 11. Fletcher and La Flesche, "The Omaha Tribe" planes of reality in which both linear time and (note 4 above), pp. 597-99. physical geography are only one level. ... This 12. Howard Harrod, Renewing the World: Plains capacity of the Native to sustain the mytholog­ Indian Religion and Morality (Tucson: University of ical presenoe of the transparent world, to inte­ Arizona Press, 1987), pp. 157-72. grate sacred time and geography with the 13. Alanson Skinner, "Societies of the Iowa, ordinary time and space, gives rise to a unique Kansas, and Ponca Indians," Anthropological Papers view of self in relation to all things. of the American Museum of Natural History (New York: The Trustees, 1915), 11: 707. 6. Frances Densmore, Teton Sioux Music, 14. Dorsey, "Siouan Cults" (note 8 above), p. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Eth­ 433; Goodbird, Goodbird the Indian (note 9 above), nology Bulletin 61 (Washington, D.C., 1918), p. pp. 21-22; Paul Radin, "The Winnebago Tribe" 214. Bureau of American Ethnology, 37th Annual Report 7. Linderman, Plenty-Coups (note 2 above), (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1916), p. pp. 63, 300-301; Robert Lowie, "The Assiniboine," 286; Fire and Erdoes, Lame Deer (note 2 above), Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of pp. 155-56. Natural History (New York: The Trustees, 1909), 15. Fletcher and La Flesche, "The Omaha Tribe" 4: 48. (note 4 above), pp. 129-31; George B. Grinnell, 8. James Owen Dorsey, "A Study of Siouan The Cheyenne Indians: Their History and Ways of Cults," Bureau of American Ethnology, 11 th Annual Life, 2 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Report (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, Press, 1923), 1: 80; Bowers, "Hidatsa" (note 9 1890), p. 494. above), p. 59. 9. The influence of Christianity has made a 16. Other references to the vision experiences tremendous impact on the conceptualization of the of women are as follows: John M. Cooper, The Gros "sacred" among many Plains peoples, but the actu­ Ventres of Montana: Religion and Ritual (Washing­ al ethnography of dreams shows little of this im­ ton: The Catholic University of America Press, pact. While many have come to equivocate the 1957), pp. 273-74; Alfred Kroeber, "The Arapa­ "mysterious presence" with a Judeo-Christian God, ho," Anthropological Papers of the American Muse­ the entire theology of western civilization is re­ um of Natural History (New York: The Trustees, markably absent in actual dream records. Never­ 1904),18: 434; Lowie, "The Assiniboine" (note 7 theless, there is a degree of Christian symbolism above); James W. Schultz, Friends of My Life As An and syncreticism in the texts. For example, see Indian (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, David G. Mandelbaum, "The Plains Cree," An­ 1923), pp. 170-76; Grinnell, The Cheyenne (note thropological Papers of the American Museum of 15 above), 2: 92-93; Wallace and Hoebel, The Natural History (New York: The Trustees, 1940), Comanches (note 2 above), p. 168; Wilbur S. Nye, 37: 256; Alfred W. Bowers, Hidatsa Social and Bad Medicine & Good: Tales of the Kiowas (Nor­ Ceremonial Organization, Smithsonian Institution, man: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), p. 47; Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 194 Skinner, "Societies" (note 13 above), p. 784; John (Washington, D.c., 1965), p. 311; Edward Good­ R. Murie and Douglas R. Parks, Ceremonies of the bird, Goodbird the Indian: His Story as Told to G. L. Pawnee, Part 1 and 2, Smithsonian Contributions Wilson (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, to Anthropology 27 (Washington: Smithsonian 1985), p. 28. Institution Press, 1981), pp. 156-57,319. 270 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994

17. Alfred W. Bowers, Mandan Social and Cere­ their religious structure and content has been stud­ monial Organization (Chicago: University of Chi­ ied primarily by Francis Densmore in Teton Sioux cago Press, 1950), p. 175. Music (note 6 above) and in The American Indians 18. Robert Lowie, "The Tobacco Society of the and Their Music (New York: Woman's Press, 1926). Crow Indians," Anthropological Papers of the Amer­ For an extensive bibliography on Native Ameri­ ican Museum of Natural History, Part 2 (New York: can music and folklore, see William M. Clements The Trustees, 1919),21: 182. and Frances M. Malpezzi, Native American Folk­ 19. Bowers, Mandan (note 17 above), p. 175; lore, 1879-1979: An Annotated Bibliography (Chi­ Nye, Bad Medicine (note 16 above), p. 47. cago: Swallow Press, 1984), pp. 28-32, plus index. 20. Bowers, Mandan (note 17 above), p. 174. 35. Kroeber, "The Arapaho" (note 16 above), 21. Walker, Lakota Belief (note 2 above), p. 79. p.436. n. Robert Lowie, "The Religion of the Crow 36. Robert Lowie, "The Assiniboine" (note 7 Indians," Anthropological Papers of the American above), p. 47. Museum of Natural History (New York: The Trust­ 37. Deward Walker, "Nez Perce Sorcery," Eth­ ees, 1947),25: 326; Cooper, The Gros Ventre (note nology 6 (January 1967): 70. 16 above), p. 277. 38. Weltfish, The Lost Universe (note 31 above), 23. Walker, Lakota Belief (note 2 above), p. 85. p.406. 24. Ibid., 85; Wallace and Hoebel, The Co­ 39. Wilson D. Wallis, "The Canadian Dakota," manches (note 2 above), p. 157. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of 25. Wissler, "Ceremonial Bundles" (note 2 Natural History (New York: The Trustees, 1947), above), p. 104; Brown, The Sacred Pipe (note 2 41: 82. A Heyoka is a Thunder dreamer and a cen­ above), p. 58. tral participant in the ceremony to enact a Thun­ 26. Unfortunately, the concept of injury or der-being vision. See Raymond ]. DeMallie, The mortification is often referred to in the ethnogra­ Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to phy as "torture." This seems to be a particularly John G. Neihardt (Lincoln: University of Nebraska biased attitude toward what is for many Native Press, 1984), p. 105. Americans an experience of great courage, often 40. Cooper, The Gros Ventre (note 16 above), regarded as highly honorable. Men with Sun Dance pp. 266-67; Kroeber, "The Arapaho" (note 16 scars on their chest today are by no means ashamed above), p. 434. of them and having them is often interpreted as a 41. Bowers, Mandan (note 17 above), p. 170. sign of spiritual accomplishment. 42. Walker, Lakota Belief (note 2 above), pp. 27. Wissler, "Ceremonial Bundles" (note 2 134-35. above), p. 104. 43. Raymond]. DeMallie, The Sixth Grandfa­ 28. Walker, Lakota Belief (note 2 above), p. 152. ther: Black Elk' s Teachings Given to John G. N eihardt 29. Cooper, The Gros Ventre (note 16 above), (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), p. p. 278; Wissler, "Ceremonial Bundles" (note 2 126; Frances Densmore, The Belief of the Indian in a above), p. 104. Connection Between Song and the Supernatural, 30. Linderman, Plenty-Coups (note 2 above), Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Eth­ pp. 36-42, 61-65, for an excellent and detailed nology Bulletin 151 (Washington, D.C., 1953), p. example of Plenty Coups' visionary journeys no. through the sky and into the earth. 31. 44. Fletcher and La Flesche, "The Omaha Tribe" Gene Weltfish, The Lost Universe: The Way of Life (note 4 above), p. 131. of the Pawnee (N ew York: Ballantine Books, 1965), 45. Walker, Lakota Belief (note 2 above), p. 94; pp.404-06. Stephen R. Riggs, Dakota Grammar, Texts, and 32. The qualitati ve flow of visionary experience Ethnography (Washington: Department of the In­ has been recognized as a constant feature of dreams terior, U.S. Geographical and Geological Survey in contemporary research. It was first noted by of the Rocky Mountain Region, 1893), p. 166. Allan Rechtschaffen, "The Single-Mindedness and Further work has been done by William Powers, Isolation of Dreams," Sleep 1: 1 (1978): 97-109, in Sacred Language: The Nature of Supernatural Dis­ his discussion of "single-mindedness" in dreams course in Lakota (Norman: University of Oklahoma and the way in which dreams tend to have a low Press, 1986), p. 25, in which he discusses differ­ degree of awareness beyond the immediate dream ences between several variations in sacred language context and have thematically similar content with­ as used by a Sioux shaman. out the intrusion of alternative images and 46. Fire and Erdoes, Lame Deer (note 2 above), thoughts. p.137. 33. Walker, Lakota Belief (note 2 above), p. 86. 47. Peter Nabokov, Two Leggings: The Making 34. McClintock, "Saftsiko" (note 2 above), p. of a Crow Warrior (N ew York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 85; the nature of Plains and Prairie songs and 1967), p. 24. WALKING THE SKY 271

48. DeMallie, The Sixth Grandfather (note 43 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, above), p. 311; Schultz, My Life (note 16 above), 1978); for the war shield, see Wissler, "Ceremonial pp. 26-28, 184. Bundles" (note 2 above); for medicine bundles, see 49. Walker, Lakota Belief (note 2 above), p. 260. Wissler, "Some Protective Designs of the Dakota," 50. Goodbird, Goodbird the Indian (note 9 Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of above), p. 23; Nabokov, Two Leggings (note 47 Natural History (New York: The Trustees, 1907), above), p. 25. 1: 21-53; and for the sacred pipe, see Jordan Paper, 51. Wissler, "Ceremonial Bundles" (note 2 Offering Smoke: The Sacred Pipe and Native Ameri­ above), p. 104. can Religion (Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 52. Dorsey, "Sou ian Cults" (note 8 above), pp. 1988). 395-96. 55. Anna T. Dolan, "Eidetics: Unexpurgated 53. Grinnell, The Cheyenne (note 15 above), 1: and Unshackled," Journal of Mental Imagery 6: 1 234. (1982): 43. 54. The repertoire of Plains religious objects 56. DeMallie, The Sixth Grandfather (note 43 which symbolize the unitary structure of the reli­ above), p. 129. gious world are particularly expressed by the paint­ 57. Stanley Krippner, "Dreams and the Devel­ ed lodge. See John Ewers, Murals in the Round: opment of a Personal Mythology," Journal of Mind Painted Tipis of the Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache Indians and Behavior 7: 3 (1986): 449-61.