Abstract
JoAllyn Archambault and Alice Beck Kehoe explain the essential role of women in the most important Blackfoot ceremony, that of the Sun Dance (okan). Blackfoot tradition requires that a woman vows to lead it. This crucial role was not recorded by Western ethnographers who disregarded the participation of women. Archambault and Kehoe detail the elements of this ceremony illustrating the complementary and absolutely necessary activities of both women and men.
Before her death, Dr. Beatrice Medicine prepared a paper on this topic for this volume. Unfortunately, she had not yet sent it to the editor, and it could not be found among her papers in her home. We have attempted to reflect our dear and esteemed colleague’s views in this chapter and deeply regret that readers will not have her own presentation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Albers, Patricia, and Beatrice Medicine. 1983. The hidden half: Studies of plains Indian women. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
Amiotte, Arthur. 1987. The Lakota Sun dance: Historical and contemporary perspectives. In Sioux Indian religion, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie and Douglas R. Parks, 75–89. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Archambault, JoAllyn. 2001. Sun dance. In Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 13, pt. 2 (Plains), 983–995. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Berman, Tressa. 2003. Circle of goods: Women, work, and welfare in a reservation community. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Brown, Joseph Epes. 1989. The sacred pipe Black Elk’s account of the seven rites of the Oglala Sioux. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Eggermont-Molenaar, Mary (ed.). 2005. Montana 1911: A Professor and his wife among the Blackfeet. Calgary: University of Calgary Press and Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Holler, Clyde. 1995. Black Elk’s religion. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Kehoe, Alice B. 1976. Old woman had great power. Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology 6: 68–76.
La Flesche, Francis. 1930. The Osage tribe: Rite of the Wa-Xo’-Be. 45th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, 528–833. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Lavender, Catherine J., and Nancy J. Parezo. 2008. Ruth Murray Underhill, ethnohistorian and ethnographer for the native peoples. In Their own frontier: Women intellectuals Re-visioning the American West, ed. Shirley A. Leckie and Nancy J. Parezo, 335–371. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Looking Horse, Arval. 1987. The sacred pipe in modern life. In Sioux Indian religion, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie and Douglas R. Parks, 67–73. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
McClintock, Walter. 1910. The old north trail. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1968 Bison Book facsimile reprint).
Medicine, Beatrice. 1987. Indian women and the renaissance of traditional religion. In Sioux Indian religion, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie and Douglas R. Parks, 159–171. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Medicine, Beatrice. 2001. Learning to be an anthropologist and remaining “native”. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Medicine, Beatrice. 1983. ‘Warrior women’ – Sex role alternatives for Plains Indian women. In The hidden half: Studies of Plains Indian women, 267–280. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
Powers, William K. 1977. Oglala religion. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Steinmetz, Paul B., S.J. 1998. The sacred pipe. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Uhlenbeck, C. C., and Wilhemina Uhlenbeck. 1911. Blackfoot reservation donderdag 8 Juni–Zondag 17 September, 1911. Ms. M8116, Glenbow Archives, Calgary. Manuscript translated, January 2002, by Mary Eggermont-Molenaar, published 2005 in Montana 1911: A Professor and his wife among the Blackfeet, ed. Mary Eggermont-Molenaar. Calgary: University of Calgary Press and Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Walker, J. R. 1917. The sun dance and other ceremonies of the Oglala Division of the Teton Dakota. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 17, part 2. New York: American Museum of Natural History.
Walker, J. R. 1980. Lakota belief and ritual, ed. R. DeMallie and E. A. Jahner. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Walker, James R., Raymond J. DeMallie, and Elaine A. Jahner 1980 Lakota Belief and Ritual. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Wissler, Clark. 1912. Ceremonial bundles of the Blackfoot Indians. Anthropological Papers, 7(2), 65–289. New York: American Museum of Natural History.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Archambault, J., Kehoe, A.B. (2017). Women’s Power to Give: Their Central Role in Northern Plains First Nations. In: Joy, M. (eds) Women, Religion, and the Gift. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43189-5_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43189-5_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43188-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43189-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)