Notes on the Customs of the Dakotahs

The Great Spirit confers so much power on medicine men that they can kill, resuscitate the dead, and cure. Several healing cérémonies are described, as is the traditional sun dance. Mortuary practices conducted at the death of Gray Thunder, deceased in 1874, consisted of the widow having a box built at the Fort Totten Agency, placing her husband's remains in it for the next four years, and having it carted more than 100 miles, lest the skeleton should fall into the hands of the white doctor.