SWEATING IN THE JOINT: PERSONAL AND CULTURAL RENEWAL AND HEALING THROUGH SWEAT LODGE PRACTICE BY NATIVE AMERICANS IN PRISON By Emily R. Brault Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion August, 2005 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor Volney P. Gay Professor Leonard Hummel Professor Beth Conklin Professor Bonnie Miller-McLemore Professor Michael McNally Copyright © 2005 by Emily R. Brault All Rights Reserved ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Problem and Significance ................................................................................................................................................ 2 Methodology .................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Outline .............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 II. COLONIZATION, CRIME, AND INCARCERATION....................................................................................... 10 Native Americans and Crime......................................................................................................................................... 10 The Legacy of Colonization .......................................................................................................................................... 15 The Legacy of Law ........................................................................................................................................................ 19 The Legacy of Resistance .............................................................................................................................................. 22 Concluding Remarks...................................................................................................................................................... 24 III. THE SWEATLODGE IN PRISON ........................................................................................................................ 26 A Word about Native Americans and Religion ............................................................................................................ 26 The Ceremony of the Sweat lodge – History and Practice........................................................................................... 30 General History of the Sweat Lodge in Prison.............................................................................................................. 35 Anamosa State Penitentiary........................................................................................................................................... 39 IV. FROM THE INSIDE................................................................................................................................................. 45 General Overview .......................................................................................................................................................... 46 Concepts and Categories of Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 46 Identity....................................................................................................................................................................... 47 Community................................................................................................................................................................. 51 Values ........................................................................................................................................................................ 54 Relationships ............................................................................................................................................................. 60 Effects of Ceremonial Participation......................................................................................................................... 63 Struggles and Conflict............................................................................................................................................... 67 Another Look: The Process of Interaction .................................................................................................................... 69 The Paradigm............................................................................................................................................................ 69 Further Discussion ......................................................................................................................................................... 71 Summary......................................................................................................................................................................... 74 V. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS................................................................................................................... 75 Radical Indigenism as Method ...................................................................................................................................... 78 Community & Identity................................................................................................................................................... 80 Relationship to Ancestry ........................................................................................................................................... 81 Responsibility to Reciprocity .................................................................................................................................... 82 Considering the Ceremony ....................................................................................................................................... 84 Personal Change and Healing........................................................................................................................................ 88 James Waldram and Symbolic Healing.................................................................................................................... 90 Coping in Prison ....................................................................................................................................................... 96 Summary .................................................................................................................................................................. 103 Resisting ....................................................................................................................................................................... 104 The Politics of Identity............................................................................................................................................ 104 The Role of Ritual.................................................................................................................................................... 106 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................................. 108 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................................................ 110 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................................................... 113 iii BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................................... 114 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Indigenous peoples are over-represented in both American and Canadian prisons, especially when compared to the size of their population in general. A number of scholars argue that such high crime rates are not the result of individual behavior alone but stem from a social and historical context of colonization and oppressive race/ethnic relations (Ross 1998, Waldram 1997, Grobsmith 1994). In addition, many assimilationist procedures continue when Natives enter the criminal justice system. Native offenders are not identified in terms of their cultural heritage but are lumped together under the all-encompassing homogenized label of “Native American.” The prison system itself and the rehabilitative ideas therein are based on Euro- American models of criminality, mental health, and rehabilitation that continue to alienate the Native offender from his or her cultural and personal identity and assimilate him or her into the ideals and constructs of a dis-serving dominate culture. Drawing on the work of Reed (1990), Luana Ross suggests that prison programs modeled for Euro-American society may be another way to control Native people. “Rather than focusing on the societal structure as the primary problem, Native prisoners are diverted by rehabilitative programs that search for internal, personal deficiencies” (137). Sweat lodge ceremonies offer one means through which Native inmates