The So-Called Sun Dance of the Gros Ventre

Abstract

The so-called Sun Dance of the Gros Ventre was last held in about the year 1884. Informants living in 1967 have preserved in tribal legends an account of the ceremony in general and the last one in particular. One informant was an eye witness when his adopted father went through the self-torture rite. Factors of hardship, declining numbers, enforced attendance of the children at school, introduction of Christiantiy, and the severity of the rites probably all worked to bring an end to the practice of the aboriginal form of this ceremony.