“Father, the Sun!
May he go safely while traveling afar!
May we live long and continue to be friends!
May we both meet and be happy again!”
As we left the valley for the open plains, I turned in the saddle for a last look, and saw Brings-Down-the-Sun with bowed head, going along the trail to his lodge, leading his horse and followed by his old dog, Kops-ksisse. [[241]]
CHAPTER XXXIV
BEGINNING OF THE SUN DANCE
The Blackfoot Indians did not have a personal God. They looked to the Sun as the source of all power, believing he was everywhere—in the mountains, lakes and rivers, birds and wild animals. They believed that Sun Power could be transferred to man. Any one might be the favored person; an individual was powerless to gain it, but he could put himself in the way of receiving the gift.
If an Indian wanted a religious experience, or to gain supernatural power, he went alone to a remote place to fast and pray, sometimes for many days. The gift came generally through the medium of some wild animal, bird, or supernatural being, whose compassion was aroused by his fasting and by his exhausted condition; often through one of the more powerful animals—the buffalo, grizzly bear, beaver, wolf, eagle, Thunder, or the Maker of Storms and Blizzards. If the grizzly bear bestowed his power, the man who received it was believed to attain the great strength and vitality of the bear.