


My heart was beating out of my chest as we climbed out of the 15 passenger van on the Cree Sundance grounds. We were instructed by Marcus that we could get out of the vans if we wanted but not to go any closer. We had just driven through a forrest of trees that had cloth offerings tied to them. It was an erie and haunting place to drive through. In Native Culture they believe that they must make offerings of cloth and tobacco to the trees surrounding the Sundance lodge in order to protect the sacred ground surrounding it. You would never see a cloth offering in a random forrest.
A cloth offering is very simply a rag that is wrapped around a tree trunk and tied in a knot with a couple feet of cloth left hanging down. Many of the trees had several different colored pieces of cloth tied around them. They call them "prints."
After driving through this forrest, we came into a clearing where we saw the Sundance lodge. There were actually 3 or 4 of them I think. One was the most prominent, and was built up with walls and branches and lots of cloth offerings hanging down. There was at least one place to do a sweat - it was just a little pod-like looking structure made from tree branches stuck in the ground and bent over to stick in the ground on the other side too. It is just big enough for one person to crawl inside and be wrapped up in the fetal position. This makes perfect sense because they believe that a sweat is being in Mother Nature's womb. They put hot rocks inside and pour water on them (it functions like a sauna) and do a sweat for purification.
The Sundance, however is a whole different activity. People will come once a year and do a sundance in order to see visions. They fast from water and food for three days and get themselves into a kind of trance. Marcus explained that they will hold a kind of rattle made from bone and fix their eyes on the center pole of the Sundance tent. (This center pole channels the thunderbird spirit. At the base of the pole are buffalo skulls, and at the top is a next-like structure called the spirit nest.) They bend their knees a little and sway up on their tip-toes and back down again while they shake the bone-rattle, for SIX HOURS. Imagine doing calf raises for SIX HOURS and the kind of pain you would experience. Now, imagine doing that with no food or water for three days, and having to fix your eyes in one place. Now, add the layer of demonic activity and essentially demonic control over a place like that and the people who subject themselves to it.
I couldn't help but cry as we stood at a safe distance away from the lodges. The various colors of cloth hanging from the beams of the structures and wrapped around the spirit nests were like ghosts. The people leave them there to keep praying for them when they are not there.
Late last week, I started praying that the Lord would give me the gift of the discernment of spirits. It seems that you kind of need that gift to be able to do well in a place like this. Although there is something kind of nice about being totally oblivious. The last few days I've had more courage to pray against Satan in the name of Jesus Christ whenever I feel a little "off." I'm not saying that every time you "feel funny" that there's something spiritual going on, however, I think the Lord is teaching me to pray boldly and with authority so if and when He blesses me with discernment of spirits I am ready to pray and speak the name of Christ.
Something weird happened last night, which is part of the practice God is giving me, I think. I was practically asleep when the neighbor's dog barked just once right outside my window. It woke me up and startled me a bit. I was a little bit scared and then I felt my bed shaking a little bit. It felt like it would if someone was sitting on a bed next to you and bouncing their foot on the floor or something. It was slight but very noticeable. And it seemed to be getting more intense. So I started praying and praying and praying, rebuking Satan and commanding him to be gone. And then I started praising Jesus for who He is. The shaking slowly stopped. And what darkness seemed to be filling my room slowly subsided and I was able to sleep.
The road to salvation for a Native is very very rough. They drive on mud roads on the Rez, and when it rains the roads are really bad to drive on. Even if they get grated they are like corduroy. As we drove around all of Hobbema last night on these rough roads all I could think of was how rough the road to Christ is for these dear people.
PLEASE keep praying with me. PLEASE pray for the release of demonic power on the Cree (and all First Nations people across the continent). PLEASE pray for God's glory to reign in our hearts and in this land.
(I'll try to post a few of DH's pics of the Sundance Lodge soon)