That feast, in the observance of which the worshippers dip their hands into the boiling kettle and lifting the water in their hands, throw it over each other’s naked bodies with impunity, belongs to this god.
The nature of the Heyoka is not simply supernatural, it is the opposite of nature.
He expresses joys by sighs and groans, and by assuming a most doleful aspect, and sorrow and pain by opposite sounds and aspect. Heat causes their flesh to shiver, and their teeth to chatter, while cold makes them perspire and pant. It is said of them, that in the coldest weather of the Minnesota winter, when mercury congeals, they seek some prominence on the prairie, where they put up some bushes to shelter them from the rays of the sun, under which they sit naked and fan themselves as they swelter with heat, and in the oppressive heat of summer they fold around them robe on robe, and lean over a rousing fire, sniveling and shaking with cold like one in a fit of the ague.
They feel perfect assurance when beset with dangers, and quake with terror when safe. With them falsehood and truth are reversed, good is their evil and evil their good.
Years ago at Lac qui-parle, the mother of the tall, “curly-haired chief,” upizahdeya, was informed that it was required of her to make a feast to the Heyoka. She was so much opposed by some of her friends that she failed to comply with the wakan mandate, but she assured her friends, that as a penalty, they would be mortified by seeing her flesh become black, and her head bald, which came true. By degrees her flesh did become very dark, and her head bald, but to an intelligent observer, it was abundantly evident, that instead of being an infliction of the offended god, it was the result of neglecting to wash, even her face, for several years, and pulling out her own hair by little and little.
THE SUN.
As the sun is visible to all men, and as it has been an object of superstitious regard on the part of almost all pagan nations of past generations, it will not be thought worth while, perhaps, to mention the fact that the Dakota too, worships the sun. It will not, however, be quite out of place to put on record a few facts in relation to this part of Dakota worship, by which they presume to honor this glorious object; facts which evince the sentiments of the deluded worshippers. The following, from the pen of Rev. S. R. Riggs, is to the point.
DAKOTA SUN DANCE.
The Sun is, from many circumstances, a natural object of worship among the unenlightened nations of men. With the Dakotas, the sun is sometimes appealed to as a witness. Sometimes they pray to it, generally with the honorable title of Hunkayapi. Sometimes, as a god, it communicates with men in dreams and visions. But the nature of the communication is that the men should dance the wiwanyagwacipi, with the promise of success in hunting or war. Generally the object of dancing to the sun is to secure victory over enemies. In this aspect it is a waihdusna or self-immolation to the sun; it is an offering up of one’s strength and manhood to secure the aid of the sun in the day of battle. The Bible says, “the stars in their courses fought.”
There are occasions, also, when a man dances the sun dance as a thank-offering. He is sick and apprehends he will die. He makes a vow that if his life is spared he will dance to the sun. Or, he is on the war path and he prays to the great hunkayapi for success, promising in that event to dance to his honor. These are said to be the occasions and reasons for the Wiwanyag-wacipi.