Circle the wagons...

"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that this is because the Power of the World works in circles. The sun comes up and goes down in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle and always come back to where they were. The life of a man is from childhood to childhood."
Black Elke, of the Oglala Sioux, who was born in 1886.

"The golden spiral of healing energies... The artistic spiral circling inward... The double helix of DNA... The spiral of the water being channelled down from the bath... The spiral construction of the Milky Way galaxy... All around us is movement. Nothing is ever completely still. And within this continuous spiral dance, we are all connected, all part of the web of life. The Lakota have a saying - Mitakuye Oyasin. It means - All Our Relations. We are all related. The people. The animals. The trees. The air. The water. The stones. We are all ... linked. Connected.

The Sun Dance can be performed by both sexes in June or July when there is a full moon. The performance takes place in a large tipi with a carefully chosen cottonwood tree placed in the centre. This tree becomes a central feature within the rite of the Sun Dance. This is illustrated through the actions of the dancers. They make pledges of self-sacrifice on the first day, and then dance around the tree wearing a symbol made specifically for the ritual.