In most tribe's the vision quest was a boy's initiation into manhood.
What he experienced during this lonely vigil often determined the
image he formed of himself and his future role in life.
At the heart of all Indian beliefs was the urge to find a mystical
reality beneath the surface of life. As Crow Dog has
expressed it, the Indian wanted "to see with the eye in one's heart,
rather than the eyes in one's head."
Experiencing a vision was an intensely personal event, a direct encounter with the Great Mystery Power that might appear
in the most outlandish guise, such as a dawrf, a bird whose clapping wings made thunder,
or even a mosquito. A vision quest, during which a boy "cried for a dream", was an initiation rite
only in the sense that it was usually undertaken at puberty. Unlike a girl's introduction to womanhood, which happened only once in a lifetime, vision quests
were repeated again and again- as often as an individual felt the need from the spirit powers. This might
be before a raid, or during a child's illness, or at a time of personal doubt. While women also went on vision quests, they
did so less often and under less severe conditions than men.
Among the Sioux, to seek a vision meant having to go naked, except for a breechcloth and moccasins, to a lonely hilltop
and staying there for four days and nights without food while crouched in a vision pit. One did not face this ordeal
without help and instruction from a medicine man who invoked the spirits to bring the quest to a successful conclusion. "All the Powers of the world," the shaman might intone, "the heavens and the star peoples
and the red and blue sacred days: all things that move in the universe, in the rivers...all the waters, all trees that stand
, all the grasses of out "Grandmother", all the sacred peoples of the universe: Listen! A sacred relationship with you all will be asked by this young man, that his generations to come will increase and live in a holy manner."
A vision quest was preceded by purification in a sweat lodge. A sweat bath could be a ceremony in itself, but more often it was only the first step in the larger ritual. The sweat lodge was a small, beehive-shaped frame of willow sticks covered with buffalo skins.
While the boy and his helpers sat naked in the darkness of this structure, rocks were heated outside and passed, one by one, into the sweat lodge while those inside prayed and sang. The entrance flap was then closed, and cold water was
poured over the stones. In the enveloping cloud of steam the worshippers heard the voice of the spirit and felt its hot purifying breath, The bathers
then rubbed themselves dry with the sage leaves, and the youngest now had to walk up the hilltop.
Given the emotional pitch at which a boy entered the vision pit, his over whelming desire for a sign, and his mortification of the flesh through starvation and, sometimes self-flagellation, it is not surprising that most were granted the vision they sought.
And when the questor came down the hill, a medicine man was to interpret his vision. It would give clues to the grown up name the boy now recieved and would provide the youth with a protector from the spirit world. Through his vision the spirits had given the boy some of their power, and now he was ready to face life as a man.
In a sense life was one long ceremony that transformed day-to-day existance into a mystical adventure. The Sioux god is "Wakan Tanka", the Grandfather Spirit, the Mystery Power without beginning or end. Wakan Tanka manifested itself in the rays of the sun as well as in the crawling ant and the stinging mosquito. Sky, sun and the winds were
all part of Wakan Tanka, though they were also gods in themselves. The religion of the Sioux was intensely personal, guided by voices heard, powers felt, and visions seen. His religion grew out of the soil on which he walked, and faith was intimately tied with every aspect of nature he experienced.
A man might have power from an elk, which made him a great lover, the bear, which would give him healing skills ,or the wolf, which would make him a great hunter and leader.
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