Blackfeet Dreams

The Sweat

After two weeks on the Blackfeet Indian reservation in Browning Montana, I was sitting around the tiny community health clinic of Heart Butte thinking about community service projects. I knew that I wanted to experience the spiritual side of traditional medicine and had heard that certain tribe members practice sweat lodge ceremonies. The only way to be invited to one of these is through word of mouth, as they are not advertised in the local paper. Also, I wanted the lodge to be a learning experience for all those involved, where I could learn things and also teach others about health. As fate would have it, I worked with a half-blood doctor that day who invited me to a sweat lodge.

The sweat lodge is a ceremonial sauna and an important ritual used by some North American First Nations or Native American peoples. There are several styles of sweat lodges that include a domed or oblong hut similar to a wickiup, or even a simple hole dug into the ground and covered with planks or tree trunks. Stones are typically heated in an exterior fire and then placed in a central pit in the ground. The traditions vary from tribe to tribe, but a few themes remain the same:

1. Orientation- the door usually faces the fire (we faced a lake)

2. Construction- the lodge is built with great care and respect to the local environment (skins, furs, wood)

3. Clothing- native american participants usually wear simple garments: a short dress or shorts (swim trunks)

4. Offerings- various types of plant medicines are used to make prayers (tobacco, sage)

5. Support- one or more participants will remain outside the lodge to provide protection (fire-keeper)

6. Darkness- it is important to provide complete darkness, except for the stones (dark as night)

The doctor told me that I should come with an open mind, swim trunks and a towel. As I approached the lodge, I noticed a man stoking a fire next to a lake, where the setting sun was reflected off the waters and two geese played with each other in the distance. As I entered the lodge I noticed eight other people, grouped by gender, surrounding an open pit. Soon flaming red stones were rolled into the pit and sprinkled with sage, and the door was sealed. I thought to myself that maybe this was a mistake as the temperature continued to rise, Dante’s Inferno had begun. The leader of the sweat was an older chief who spoke mostly in Blackfoot, but occasionally in English for my convenience. Hand carved tobacco pipes were passed around and one by one people prayed for whatever they wanted or just talked about life. Some talked about the need for healing of the earth, praying for a sick friend, stories of old ways, and ways to live by in the future. As the eagle feather was passed to me, indicating my turn to speak, my mind groped for something appropriate. It’s not as easy as it sounds when you’re barely clothed minority in the dead of winter among a group of strangers and drenched in perspiration.

Finally, I took a deep breath and said my thanks to everyone for allowing me to sweat with them, and to the community as a whole for making me feel welcome.

I said that I had learned a great deal from hearing others speak and would like add something to the evening. I decided to speak about metabolic syndrome, a disorder consisting of hypertension, high cholesterol, elevated blood sugar, and obesity. I stated that I was not there to talk about modern pharmaceutical and technological procedures, but simply lifestyle. There was a time that before the white man when there was no need to worry about this epidemic. However, in modern times, as the lifestyle has become more “Americanized” indigenous people around the world were experiencing this disease at higher rates than other ethnic groups. I explained that in the early 1900s, groups of scientist had traveled around the world to societies untouched by modern civilization, and found that little to no hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease, gout, etc. existed. These groups ate a variety of different diets consisting of fish, meat, vegetables, animal milk and blood. The only consensus the scientists could agree on was that as the groups were introduced to civilization, namely processed foods, and their health correspondingly deteriorated.

I defined each component of the disease and stated that each has at its root cause the same element, eating processed foods and lack of exercise. In addition to utilizing the advances of modern medicine, we needed to focus on our eating habits and activities of daily living. With a change in these, we could limit the need for pharmaceutical drugs and expensive testing procedures. Finally, I stated that ceremonies like these, which used to be repressed by the government, where exponentially beneficial to health as body, mind, and spirit were aligned in a holistic way. I ended my ramble with a prayer about the need for two simple commodities that all could agree on, the need for clean air and clean water. With that I passed the eagle feather to the next person and looked around the lodge to see others nodding with approval. Three more rounds of stones were introduced into the lodge, as prayers and songs were sung into the night. .

The heat, darkness seemed to intensify with each round, as one passed between states of unconscious meditation and the discomfort of the flesh. It hard to describe the beauty of the sweat, I guess it’s akin to the struggles of life being the only ones you remember. As I sat there in my swim trunks dripping with sweat, I felt a communal sense of well-being rarely experienced. Why do the simplest things provide the greatest pleasures in life?

Timothy M. Brinker

Blackfeet Indian Reservation

April 9, 2008