Dakota Dream Read Online Free PDF

mumbling; I guess at his age, there’s not much difference. The only words I could make out were Wakan Tanka , the Great Spirit, and Inipi , which means purification rite.
    Donny told me that he didn’t understand every single word Delbert Bear was saying, but basically he was appealing to Wakan Tanka so that my purification rite would be a good one. “Sweating in the lodge will purify your body,” said Donny. “But it will take Wakan Tanka to purify your soul.”
    This was all stuff I knew from reading about it, but I felt so honored and privileged, I was getting a head rush. There was Delbert’s prayer and the smell of the burning sage and the pine limbs overhead with the background of the blue sky. Was this authentic or what? If Mrs. Bluefish or Mr. Saberhagen or Mrs. Grice could see me now, they’d be laughing out of the other sides of their faces.
    We came to a clearing where a couple of women were putting the final touches on getting the sweat lodge ready by throwing extra buffalo hides over it. It was a small structure in the shape of a dome, built out of willow saplings. “The sweat lodge is not always ready,” Donny explained, “because hanblecheyas are not that common anymore.”
    I didn’t know where the two women disappeared to, but all of a sudden it was just Donny and Delbert and me in front of the lodge. Still chanting, Delbert held up burning sage to the north, south, east, and west. I didn’t need Donny to tell me—Delbert was offering the prayer of sage to the four corners of the universe; there was no limit to the domain of Wakan Tanka. Delbert Bear kept burning the sage and offering it to the four corners so many times, I began to wonder if he was losing his concentration. But when he finally pulled back the flap, I didn’t need any instructions; I knew it was time for me to enter.
    Inside, the lodge was dark and hot. Hot as hell, in fact. Because the sides were so sloped, there was only room at the center to stand up straight. The buffalo hides left a few small gaps, so there was some light coming through, but not much.
    Delbert and Donny were still on the outside, with the flap pulled halfway. Delbert was saying something to me in Dakota.
    â€œWhat’s he saying?” I asked Donny.
    â€œHe said you need to get naked now.”
    I wasn’t sure I heard it right, so I asked him to repeat it; there was already sweat popping out on my forehead and my temples.
    â€œThe tradition is to go through Inipi without any clothes on. Besides the fact that it frees all your pores, it symbolizes leaving the things of the world behind.”
    This was the unexpected. Maybe along the way I’d skipped a chapter I should have read. I was a little self-conscious, especially with the two of them standing there looking at me. I finally said, “It sounds logical, but would you mind closing the flap and I’ll just throw my clothes out?”
    They closed the flap, which made the hut real, real dark, which made it easier for me to take off my clothes. I tried not to think about what I was doing.
    I heard Donny’s voice from the outside: “You’ll be glad you’re not wearing any clothes. You’ll be sweating so hard, clothes would just make you miserable.”
    I rolled up my blue jeans, moccasins, and underwear and pitched them outside. I could hear Donny say, “I’ll put these in your backpack. We’ll be back in a couple of hours. Are you okay in there?”
    After a few moments I said, “I’m okay.”
    After a few moments’ pause of his own, I heard Donny say, “Don’t think.”
    Then I heard their footsteps fade and I knew they were gone. I turned around. Even though this was real Dakota ritual, the authentic Inipi , and I felt real honored, I also felt real weird. I was standing there naked, in this semidark hut of a sweat lodge, in a different world. There was all this heat and so