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Show dance's spirituality ( Jorgensen 1972: 5, 25, 189- 194, 265; Smith 1974a: 174- 215; Jones 1955: 252- 3, 239). On the Uintah- Ouray Reservation, those who participate directly in the ceremony for the entire four days are mostly young Indian men and male elders over 60. Jorgensen ( 1974: 258, 261) reported that the average age of the Sun Dancers was 28 in 1966 at the Uintah- Ouray Sun Dance, although fifty percent were between the ages of 16 and 26, and he argued that those under 30 ( or over 60) were more likely to be available for full participation because they did not have the same employment obligations as those of middle age ( Jorgensen 1972: 262). Besides the direct participants, there are many other Ute men and women who assist the dance in various capacities. Today, one consultant estimates that at least one- quarter of the Uintah- Ouray Utes are active in the Sun Dance and that another quarter of the population support and respect the dance ( 4.4). The Sun Dance is a source of a vitalizing spiritual " medicine" or " power." Through its various ceremonial enactments, it creates the conditions in which powerful spiritual forces are gathered and released that can bless, heal, and strengthen those who participate. According to Jorgensen, part of the dance's power comes out of a dynamic tension between the hot- dry state of hunger, deprivation, and death and the cool-wet condition of nourishment, fulfillment, and life ( Jorgensen 1972: 209). It is through the combination of being hot and dry ( without food and water) and using that which is an embodiment of wet- cold ( sacred water, willows, sweet sage, etc.) that a spiritually " thirst quenching" vision and its power comes in the dance ( Jorgensen 1972: 206- 8). Various elements of the earth are necessary and indispensable to the conduct of the Sun Dance and its realization of " power" including water, plants ( including wood), earth ( soils and clays), animals ( mostly birds), and fire. Many of these come from sources and locales along the Uinta River and its drainage systems which span the area between Big Springs and the Sun Dance grounds at Hayden. For the Northern Utes, the Sun Dance ritual originates at Big Springs or " chi'peka" ( 4.1). This is the source of the sacred water drunk at the Sun Dance ( 4.1), either at the beginning ( Smith 1974a: 182) and/ or at the completion ( Jorgensen 1972: 193) of the dance. The particular steps followed here vary and may change according to the guidance the Sun Dance chiefs receive in their visions ( 4.1; Jorgensen 1972: 184). For this reason and others described in a later section ( see Appendix E. 3.3), this spring and its surroundings should not be disturbed ( 1.2; 2.1; 3.1; 4.1). This spring symbolizes a place of emergence where " life" comes forth and abundance follows. Given the richness and variety of the plant and animal life in the Uinta Canyon and its high bench drainage area, it is not difficult to see the connection being made here and its application to the 104 |
