Preface

Traditional ways and traditional leaders are stronger than most people thought, and are gaining strength with every passing day… and the traditional faith has remained the cohesive cultural and moral force of the people, in spite of the adoption of, or accommodation to, non-Indian ways.

Ethel Nurge in her book The Modern Sioux

During the spring of 2009, as she was being treated for cancer, at a New Brunswick hospital in Canada, our Women’s Sun Dance Leader, Evangeline Francis (1950-2009), said to me, ‘We need more documentation of the Sun Dance…’ Neither of us realized then that this would be our final conversation in this world, but her words had the ring of authority which the dying speak with, when making last requests of the living.

At the time I was still hoping and praying she'd be cured. Her cancer had been reversed once before, a dozen years ago, when she first went out West to Sun Dance, with the Lakota Sioux. Her request that day began to galvanize the old journalist within me, since she was asking for a kind of help I knew I could offer. Being an irrepressible journal keeper, for more than 30 years, I'd certainly taken plenty of notes over the years we'd danced together. 

My ten hour drive home to Rhode Island after that visit with Evangeline gave me time to reflect upon the nine years we’d known each other, and all the good that had come, for so many others, from those shared ceremonies. Our relationship started in May of 2001, when another woman Sun Dancer, Two Feathers (aka Diane Jeffries), took me up to the Elsipogtog reserve, (Big Cove in English), in New Brunswick, for a four day spring fast, for my pipe. (I'd already done two four day fasts under the guidance of Two Feathers, in Connecticut at that point; one that autumn and the other during the wintertime.) Two Feathers was the teacher who'd come into my life, after my initial medicine wheel teacher, Susan Grace Lawton, had gifted me a pipe, which I'd first refused to accept...

Every time I touch my heart now, I can feel Evangeline’s smooth, wooden pipe stem, and the pipe stem of our Blackfoot Women's Leader, Karen Russell, resting upon my chest again. The combined energies of these powerful women had vividly penetrated my entire being, during the summer of 2001, when I returned to Elsipogtog to support the first Sun Dance I’d ever seen. During the 'dance out' blessing, these women had leaned their pipes on my heart and zapped me, in a good way, with a bright flood of energy. I have yet to fully understand that moment but I treasure it, and these women, whose blessings and teachings brought many to turning points just as significant as mine was.

These memories bring tears to my eyes, along with a sense of divine purpose, which powers my fingers to type these words. Unbeknownst to me, that first time in 2001, the Sun Dance is seen as the spiritual highlight of events on the Elsipogtog reserve calendar. The faithful gather in the July heat on those Sunday afternoons when the Sun Dance ceremonies are ending. All the supporters, family, friends and spectators encircle the Arbor, along with the sick and the lame, to await the final dance out ceremony, and the blessings of the Sun Dancers. After four hard days without food or water, the dancers touch their pipes and fans to each person present, freely bestowing their blessings, without hesitation or discrimination of any kind. 

Since that day in 2001, when they blessed me, I have never missed a White Eagle Sun Dance. And thanks to the invitation, from Karen and Evangeline that year, I became one of the Sun Dancers, still dancing faithfully a dozen years later. 

As Evangeline continued receiving her cancer treatments in 2009, I took out all my journals and searched the pages, to see how much I actually written about the Sun Dance. I realized then that the ‘documentation’ she'd asked for already existed, if I'd just excavate it and reassemble it, in book or blog form, that others could share.    

So this is my humble attempt, to honor Evangeline's final request, and to honor the Sun Dances. Here you will find records from my journal notes, taken during the years we danced together, at the White Eagle Sun Dance. For clarification purposes, some introductions and explanations will be included, to orient readers to a subject and a culture too few are familiar with. 

It is my hope that this documentation helps to protect and preserve some of the history and the teachings from our White Eagle Sun Dance leaders; Evangeline Francis, William (and Connie) Nevin, and our Blackfoot sponsors, Keith Chief Moon and Karen Russell. May Evangeline’s final request continue to be fulfilled, as others come forward to add their accounts, so the documentation of the Sun Dance can grow. The Sun Dance ceremonies strengthen us, and we can strengthen them and our communities, by saving such positive stories for all the people who need the medicine and the wisdom these ceremonies offer to everyone under the Sun.

Since starting this project, I have learned that the name Evangeline comes from the Latin word "evangelium" meaning "gospel" which came from the older Greek words "eu"—"good"—and "angela"—"news". These meanings certainly fit our Evangeline, the ceremonial leader we knew and loved, who helped bring forth the good news of the Sun Dance.