The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge: History and Contemporary Practice

Raymond A. Bucko. The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge: History and Contemporary Practice. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1998. vii + 336 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index Cloth, $40.00.

Kathleen Pickering Colorado State University

The Lakota sweat lodge ritual, or inipi, is a familiar aspect of Lakota religion, incorporated and appropriated from reservations to urban areas, from traditional native ceremonies to New Age religion. The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge provides an ethnographic, historical, and personal account of the inipi on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The first part of this book traces the history of the sweat lodge ceremony to establish the ritual's tremendous continuity within the face of change. The second part uses the lens of the sweat lodge to present fascinating debates both within Lakota society and externally over religious tradition, ritual legitimacy, and cultural authenticity.

Bucko examines three hundred years of accounts written by missionaries, anthropologists, New Age practitioners, and Lakota individuals "as told to" non-Indians. He painstakingly identifies inipi continuity in the shape of the lodge, the use of stones, the use of singing, and the curative power associated with the ritual. He also shows the ongoing importance of and tolerance toward flexibility, adaptability, and innovation in the practice of inipi...