The road to the sundance

"During the Sundance, Native Americans experience a spiritual awakening and make a commitment of self-sacrifice for others. Over four days, under a hot sun, abstaining from all food and water, men and women undergo rigorous supplication rites to pull down the blessings and direction of the Grandfather - through dancing, praying, and physical suffering, each seeks to become One with the Creator, the Earth, the Tribe, and the Family. It is a ritual few non-Native Americans have ever seen or understood. Until now."--BOOK JACKET. "In his stunningly candid and powerful book, spiritual elder Manny Twofeathers gives us a rare glimpse into the scared rituals of the Sundance, including Lakota piercing and buffalo-skull dragging, the use of the sacred pipe and the sweat lodge purification ceremonies, the mystery of the eagle bone whistle, and erecting of the Sacred Arbor."--BOOK JACKET. "A personal memoir of universal scope, The Road to the Sundance is also the story of one man's spiritual journey toward rediscovering his Native American heritage. Born in Arizona, Manny Twofeathers was raised a Catholic. As a child, he was dissatisfied with his contradictory experiences in the church, and as a young man, he felt a sense of spiritual emptiness and briefly flirted with Buddhism. Through a series of coincidences, he soon found himself participating at a Sundance, where he discovered the power of personal sacrifice and the special energy generated in that arduous ceremony."--BOOK JACKET.