Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a sacred ceremony practiced by several Native American tribes, most prominently the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Shoshone peoples, with significant cultural and historical ties to the Colorado region and the broader Great Plains. As one of the most important religious and social gatherings in Plains Indian culture, the Sun Dance involves fasting, prayer, dancing, and self-sacrifice, serving as a renewal ceremony for participants and their communities. The ritual typically takes place during summer months and can last several days, drawing participants from multiple tribes and bands. While the Sun Dance is not geographically limited to Colorado, the state's Indigenous peoples have maintained this tradition for centuries, and contemporary ceremonies continue to be held on or near tribal lands in northern Colorado and adjoining regions. The ceremony represents a complex blend of spiritual devotion, social cohesion, and cultural identity that has persisted despite historical suppression and continues to evolve in modern times.
History
The origins of the Sun Dance among Plains tribes remain subject to scholarly debate, with some evidence suggesting the ceremony developed or was significantly elaborated between the 17th and 18th centuries, though oral traditions often place its origins in the distant mythological past. The Northern Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne, and other tribes whose ancestral territories encompassed present-day Colorado maintained versions of this ceremony that varied in specific practices and emphases while sharing core elements of prayer, sacrifice, and community renewal. Early ethnographic accounts from the 19th century, including those by anthropologists George Bird Grinnell and James Mooney, documented the Sun Dance practices among Colorado and Wyoming tribes, providing detailed descriptions of the ceremony's structure, symbolism, and social significance.[1]
The arrival of Euro-American settlers and the subsequent displacement of Native American peoples dramatically impacted the practice of the Sun Dance in Colorado. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the federal government actively suppressed Native American religious ceremonies, viewing them as obstacles to assimilation. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and subsequent policy shifts allowed for greater religious freedom, though many tribes had already lost direct access to traditional ceremonial grounds due to reservation confinement and land dispossession. The Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes, whose members had strong historical connections to Colorado's plains and mountain regions, adapted their Sun Dance traditions while maintaining fundamental spiritual and cultural elements. In the latter decades of the 20th century, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendment of 1994 explicitly protected the right to practice the Sun Dance and other ceremonies, leading to a broader revival and public acknowledgment of these traditions.[2] Contemporary Sun Dances in the region have become important annual events that reinforce tribal identity and cultural continuity.
Culture
The Sun Dance ceremony embodies multiple layers of cultural significance within Plains Indian communities, functioning simultaneously as a religious observance, a social gathering, and a mechanism for transmitting cultural knowledge across generations. The ceremony typically centers on a sacred cottonwood tree, which is carefully selected and cut according to specific protocols and installed at the center of a circular arbor constructed by community members. Participants, both male and female in most contemporary versions, undertake fasting, prayer, and continuous dancing over several days, often in the hot sun without food or water. The most visually distinctive feature involves some participants piercing the skin of their chests or backs and connecting themselves to the central pole with leather thongs, a practice representing a personal covenant with the Creator and exemplifying the willingness to endure suffering for community benefit.[3]
The symbolism embedded within the Sun Dance ceremony extends to numerous elements that carry specific meanings within tribal cosmologies. The four cardinal directions, the number four itself, the sun, the earth, and various animal and plant entities all figure prominently in the ceremony's spiritual framework. Songs, prayers, and visual designs communicate relationships between human participants, the natural world, and spiritual forces. The ceremony also serves crucial social functions, including the honoring of individuals who have made significant contributions to their communities, the strengthening of kinship bonds, and the establishment of obligations of mutual support and reciprocity. Contemporary Sun Dances, while maintaining core spiritual practices, have increasingly incorporated modifications reflecting modern tribal governance, health considerations, and the need to balance traditional protocols with changing circumstances. The inter-tribal nature of many modern Sun Dances in Colorado and adjacent regions demonstrates how the ceremony has evolved into a pan-Indian expression of cultural pride and spiritual renewal, even as individual tribes maintain distinct interpretations and practices rooted in their specific traditions.
Geography
The geographic distribution of Sun Dance ceremonies in Colorado and the surrounding region reflects both the historical territories of Plains tribes and the locations of contemporary Native American communities and reservations. The Northern Arapaho, headquartered at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming but with ancestral connections throughout Colorado's plains and mountain valleys, have historically conducted one of the most widely attended Sun Dances in the region. The Northern Cheyenne, based primarily in Montana but with similar historical ties to Colorado territories, also maintain an important annual Sun Dance. The geographic scope of the ceremony's practice has shifted considerably over time, as tribes were forcibly relocated to reservations and as tribal members subsequently dispersed across the country while maintaining connections to traditional ceremonial practices. Contemporary Sun Dances may be held on reservation lands, in designated cultural centers, or at locations specifically prepared for the ceremony, with some tribal communities investing in permanent or semi-permanent ceremonial grounds that can accommodate the hundreds or thousands of participants and observers who attend these events.
The landscape itself holds cultural significance within the Sun Dance tradition, with certain geographic features—mountains, rivers, plains, and specific landmarks—carrying spiritual meaning and historical associations for participating tribes. The Colorado plains, characterized by grasslands and punctuated by rivers including the South Platte and Arkansas, constituted primary hunting and gathering territories for Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples before reservation confinement. Some contemporary Sun Dances held in Colorado or on the borders with Wyoming and Nebraska represent efforts to maintain ceremonies closer to ancestral territories, though practical considerations regarding land access, legal permissions, and tribal governance structures determine where ceremonies can feasibly be held. The selection of cottonwood trees, which grow in riparian corridors throughout the region, remains an important geographic consideration, as the specific characteristics of the tree and the location from which it is harvested carry cultural meaning and ceremonial significance.
Notable People
Throughout the history of the Sun Dance tradition in Colorado and the broader Plains region, numerous tribal leaders, spiritual practitioners, and cultural advocates have played important roles in maintaining, transmitting, and revitalizing the ceremony. Chief Black Kettle of the Southern Cheyenne, while not exclusively associated with the Sun Dance, exemplified the leadership and spiritual authority that extended to oversight of major ceremonial gatherings during the 19th century. In more recent times, tribal elders and spiritual leaders from the Arapaho and Cheyenne communities have become recognized authorities on Sun Dance practices, training younger generations in the complex protocols, songs, prayers, and social responsibilities associated with the ceremony. These individuals often hold titles such as pipe keepers, ceremonial leaders, or cultural specialists, and their knowledge and spiritual authority are crucial to the legitimacy and efficacy of contemporary ceremonies.[4]
Contemporary Native American scholars, authors, and cultural advocates based in or connected to Colorado have also contributed significantly to documenting and promoting understanding of the Sun Dance and related tribal traditions. These individuals, many of whom are themselves descended from participating tribes, have worked through academic institutions, cultural organizations, and community programs to ensure that accurate and respectful information about the Sun Dance reaches broader audiences. Their contributions have helped counter historical misrepresentations and misconceptions, while simultaneously supporting tribal efforts to maintain and strengthen ceremonial practices. Tribal historians and genealogists have also played important roles in reconstructing narratives about the Sun Dance's history in Colorado, using archival records, oral traditions, and archaeological evidence to create fuller understandings of how the ceremony has evolved and adapted over time.