The Native American Sweat Lodge : History and Legends

by Joseph Bruchac

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Paperback - 146 pages (October 1993) Crossing Pr; ISBN: 089594636X

From Booklist , October 15, 1993 Bruchac has written many books about Native American legends both for adults and children, although more successfully for the latter than the former. In spite of the fact that this succinct history of the sweat lodge is written in Bruchac's characteristically simplistic style, it will hold the interest of adult readers. Bruchac presents a thrifty and cogent explanation of the function and role of sweat lodges both historically and in the present. Sweat lodges are part of nearly every native North American culture and have always played an important role in rituals of healing, preparation, and prayer. Bruchac discusses the repression of "sweats," first by the Spaniards and later by the U.S. government, and notes the hypocrisy of these bans, since saunas and other therapeutic steam baths were popular across Europe for centuries. It is with considerable irony that Bruchac then describes the current fad for sweat lodges among non-Indians, particularly in the men's movement. To deepen our understanding of the significance of sweat lodges within Native American cultures, Bruchac shares 25 relevant traditional tales from the Lakota, Blackfeet, Nez Perce, Seneca, Navajo, Hopi, Huron, and others. Donna Seaman Copyright© 1993, American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title