Sun Dance

[1][2][3][4] Members of otherwise independent bands gather to reaffirm beliefs about the world and the supernatural through rituals of personal and community sacrifice.

Typically, young men would dance semi-continuously for several days and nights without eating or drinking; in some cultures self-mortification is/was also practiced.

In the United States, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) in 1978, which was enacted to protect basic civil liberties, and to protect and preserve the traditional religious rights and cultural practices of Native Americans, Eskimos, Aleuts, and Native Hawaiians.

[8] Typically, the Sun Dance is a grueling ordeal for the dancers, a physical and spiritual test that they offer in sacrifice for their people.

According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, young men dance around a pole to which they are fastened by "rawhide thongs pegged through the skin of their chests.

Indian agents, based on directives from their superiors, routinely interfered with, discouraged, and disallowed sun dances in many Canadian plains communities from 1882 until the 1940s.

[citation needed] The Canadian government outlawed "any celebration or dance of which the wounding or mutilation of the dead or living body of any human being or animal forms a part or is a feature" in an 1895 amendment to the Indian Act.

- Mesteth, Wilmer, et al (1993)[13][14]In 1995, efforts to continue practicing the ceremony on a tract of unceded Secwepemc land led to an armed confrontation known as the Gustafsen Lake standoff.

Many First Nations people believe that when money or cameras enter, the spirits leave, so no photo conveys an authentic ceremony.