The Sweat Lodge

The sweat lodge is a key healing and spiritual practice of most, if not all, Native American cultures. A variant of the sweat lodge is seen in those cultures from the artic to South America. It can be seen as a form of water therapy as it uses extreme heat and water to produce its effects. Specifically I will explain my personal journey and experience as a participant of a Mohawk sweat lodge. Each tribe has its own unique way of performing the sweat even if they all share the same base upon which to personalise it.

The Mohawk sweat lodge that I attended on Thanksgiving last October is an experience I will not soon forget. It was an interesting blend of people coming together to share in a sacred experience for the spiritual healing of a friend. My friend is Mohawk and he gathered his five closest friends to join him; all of us Caucasians, the shaman/medicine man, the shaman's wife (a medicine woman in here own right), the fire keeper and the woman in Hudson who graciously allowed us to use her land for this occasion. Names have purposely been omitted for the sake of anonymity as the type of sweat was one of personal healing and not a general sweat.

The figures in the sweat are the shaman who directs and explains the procedure of the sweat and conducts it. The next figure is the fire keeper who tends the fire on which the stones for the sweat are heated and transfers them with the help of a pitchfork which he hands to the person closest to the entrance of the lodge as he does not enter the lodge. The final figure is the person being healed, in this case my friend.

As this sweat was a personal healing we all had to be intimately involved in the preparations, we did not have to build the lodge only cover it with skins and tarps. The frame of the lodge had been built for a previous sweat. Before we could cover the lodge we had to lay down cedar on the floor of the lodge in an intricate manner based on the traditional beliefs of the Mohawk. This task is normally done by the women and those men who are attuned with their feminine energy, as such I was asked to join in this task. Laying down the cedar branches that have been cut into small pieces was a very calming exercise; it also provided me with a chance to learn about some herbal lore from the other women. They taught me a few things such as the properties of cedar and I taught them some of my herbal lore from my grandmother. I was later told that that was a sign of trust and that my willingness to share my own knowledge was a sign of friendship. In essence the laying of the cedar is a form of sewing circle, where women can trade secrets and feel a sense of camaraderie.

While the women lay the cedar, the men go find wood and kindling in the forest. Once these two tasks are finished the lodge can be covered. During this time the fire keeper starts the fire and heats the stones. As the fire heats the stones the last touches are given to the lodge to protect it and those who are to enter. This involved showing reverence to the spirits sacred to the particular shaman.

Then we enter the lightless lodge and begin the four rounds of the sweat. At the beginning of each round freshly heated stones are brought in thus the temperature keeps rising. As this sweat is for personal healing each round is tailored to my friend to help him with his particular issue, in this case a spiritual one. Sweats can also be performed for physical healing.

Throughout the entire sweat, tobacco plays a major role as an offering to the spirits. The shaman yells out "Tobacco" and the fire keeper, who never actually enters the lodge except when passing the pitchfork with the hot stones through the opening, then throws some into the fire.

I wish I could share more about this sacred experience within the sweat but they are all very personal in nature and keeping with the promise I made I can not say more. Knowing I would like to recount the process at some point I talked with the shamans present and they told me had it been a general sweat I could have talked more about the process. Suffice it to say it was a spiritual journey for all from start to finish. It was an honour to be chosen to partake in this spiritual healing process. Once the four rounds were completed and my friend had dealt with his hardship we had a feast. We also had to set some aside in the forest for the spirits.

The things I learnt from this experience that I can share are as follows. The cedar tree is a male plant and is usually laid out as a mat in a lodge. It being male it can be manipulated to ones work in the spirit realm, thus praying while holding a piece of cedar and then throwing it in the fire helps in the prayer. The next thing I learnt was that the stones that break when water is poured on them are known as grandfather's bones and those that do not are known as grandmother's bones because women are seen as being stronger in the face of pain than men in this tribe. Also from start to finish the whole experience lasted from 10am to 5pm, this includes set up time and cleaning up time.

Once the sweat was done I was very thirsty as one could imagine after sweating for close to four hours without anything to drink. I had to be careful not to drink to quickly or else I was informed that I could get cramps if I did. The other benefit from the sweat aside from the spiritual healing and feeling a connection with the universe but still worth is the effect on my skin. My skin was never so soft and glowed for days, the steam helps clear most complexion irregularities. My skin never looked nor felt so healthy.

It is interesting to note that in the United States sweat lodges were outlawed during the nineteenth century when reservations were being created. Yet due to the simplicity of building the lodges, it was assured that these practices would be carried on though underground till the laws were repealed. The Americans were not the only people who feared and misunderstood the sweat lodge; the European settlers from South America also attempted to exterminate this tradition. During the early years of Spanish conquest both the Spanish government and the Christian missionaries in the Americas saw the sweat lodge as a threat because of its religious and sacred status to the Native Indians. The greater they felt threatened by a particular tribe the more they would attempt to crush and stop the sweat lodges from happening. In Mйxico the tribes just removed the offending sections of sweat bathing and they were left alone by the Spanish conquerors. One tribe that has consistently fought off Europeans and kept the traditions alive and unchanged are the Sioux. They were punished greatly for their defiance but nonetheless they have maintained their traditions unchanged.

In the past sweat lodges were used by men and women separately until times changed and both sexes