ONE AFTERNOON, the entire party drove across the prairie. They scanned the horizon, measuring the distance to the Missouri River and the buttes. At last they gave the signal for the wagons to stop, and began to search.

In a short time they found the exact spot where the ceremony was held. The scars were still on their bodies. Some of the Indians put on their war bonnets and their jackets of deerskin with the long fringes. One old man said with trembling lips: "I was young then. My wife and children were with me. They went away many years ago. I wish I could have gone with them."

SOURCE: Densmore, Teton Sioux Music and Culture, (1918, originally Teton Sioux Music, reprint, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1992), 93-94.

Picture: Participants in Sun Dance, SI