If you want to know more about the sweat lodge, first you must know about the four directions and the four doors.  Let four coordinates point you in the right direction and give each its due.  Let the sun rise in the East and let its bright yellow set the day ablaze.  Let the start of the day give rise to a new beginning and allow our relatives to see the world clearly for what it is. Let the East bring us the wisdom and let that wisdom show our relations the right way to live, the good way.  

  Let the wide, open prairie lead you home and let your travels bring you to the lodge.  Let your gaze wander and let your heart open to the knowing.  Let the willow trees form a cage of ribs and let those ribs form a dome.  Let that dome be a circle and let the earth form an altar to its East.  Let that altar be flanked by the sacred fire and let that fire house the grandfathers as they prepare for their journey to the center of the lodge.  Let the flames of the fire rise higher and higher and cause the grandfathers to glow red and smolder.  If you want to understand the inipi you must examine where all life begins.  Let the moment swaddle you and send you back to the place where life began.  Let us gather here at the altar and let us lay our pipes1 on that sacred mound.  Let those pipes, those chanupas, become agents of Wakan agency.  Let the chanupa serve as an instrument in maintaining good relations.  Mitakuye oyasin. 

Let your eyes drift back to the lodge and take note of the circular, sacred pit in its center.  Let the geometry of the lodge capture your attention and let that circle remind you of the interconnectedness of life.  Let that shape bring to the forefront of your mind the Medicine Wheel and let that sacred hoop represent the four directions.  Let those four directions lead you on the sacred circle of life and let the circle bring you to Eastern door of the lodge. 

Let our relations enter the lodge and sit within that circular dome.  Let us cross that threshold and let that threshold be the barrier between cultural expectations and the cold clutch of the legal realities.  Let the darkness of the inipi enshroud our ways and hide them from the outside world.  Let silence descend as the firekeepers bring in the sacred stones, the grandfathers, and let them come to rest in the sacred pit.  Let life-giving water be brought into that space and let the door be closed.  Let the darkness of the sweat lodge encompass you and let that darkness remind you of the womb.  Let that womb be of the mother of Earth as she cradles you and let that earthen womb be the root of all life. Let the first door close and let it signify the beginning.   Let us raise our voices in prayer and let us welcome the spirits into this sacred space.   

Let the darkness of the lodge encompass you and remind you of your journey through that dark tunnel that leads to life.  Let the enclosed willow trees and glowing tunkas mimic the time before your first breath and call to your mind a time where no burdens or worries were yours yet to bear. Let the sweltering heat of the steam released from the splash of the mni as it is slowly poured over the volcanic rock envelope you in that moist heat and invoke in you the safety and security originally encountered in your mother’s womb.  Let your worries and stress disappear amongst the darkness and release your burdens into that pitch black void.  Let the heat and steam have a voice and let that voice speak.  Let the lodge be its own rhetoric and let that rhetoric allow its people to feel safe.  Let that safety abound in this womb of the earth and bid the eyes of the law to look away.  Let the illegal laws of a ninety-five-year span be reduced to nothingness and let the people maintain their ways in and under the darkness of the womb of mother earth. Let the old ways be the new ways.  Let the circle begin its inward motion once more.   

Let the sun stand high in the sky at midday and recognize that this is the South.  Let the South sun at high noon spread warmth and let that luminous, white sunlight give rise to life of all varieties.  Let the warm blowing winds from the South serve to remind us of where all of life begins.  Let the South be the beginning and also the end.  Let that same wind bring knowledge of the Milky Way and its spiritual path.  Let the South serve as the origin of life in the flesh and let the Milky Way lead your spirit back to whence it all began.  

Let the flap open and let the second door close. Let your voice be heard in song welcoming the ancient spirits into that shadowy realm to hear and be witness to your prayers and take heart in knowing that your ancestors too walked similar paths as the one you tread now.  Let their presence give you peace of mind and notice how your heartbeat matches the beating of the sacred drum.  Let the spirits heal you and let them guide you.  Let these winds from the South remind us of that space where all life converges.  Let the heat obliterate the English of the 1883 report and let it reason with your skin.  Let that heat and steam release the management of our souls and let it return us to the spiritual path.Let the shadow realm be a place of healing and let it become a place of therapeutic release. Let it return us to that which serves as both the beginning and the end.   

Let the sun chase its way across the sky and come to rest in the West.  Let the daylight come to a close and the dark, black sky of night take its place.  Let the end of the day signal the Sun to take its rest and let that sunset remind us that one day too we will come to rest when the sun sets on our final day of life.  Let the great bird of Thunder rise from the West and let it bring forth water, rain and thunder.  Let the West be the source of all water and let us remember that without water there is no life. 

Let the darkness of the lodge hold the misery and suffering of those present and for those who came before.  Let not the night obscure that genocide of the people and let it not be forgotten.  Let the people remember that the genocide was physical and spiritual and let them know the cost paid by their ancestors.  Let them understand the need to keep these practices alive under the assimilating gaze of the colonizer.  Let those who came after know that maintaining these practices led to starvation, imprisonment and let those who follow recognize the sacrifice of their predecessors. Let those who came before know that the heartbeat of the lodge remains and let them know that their silent and secret struggle cleared the way for those who followed.  Let all know that this era of genocide tried to kill the Indian by killing his culture. Let all know that the colonizer failed.  Let those who tried and failed realize that these teachings and healings still remain.  Let those who know the sacred healings and teaching continue to bring them back.  Let them return to the past to save the future.   

Let our gaze wander North and let that direction direct us to a season of discomfort and growth.  Let the fall of the red leaves of autumn float to the ground and let the biting, harsh North winds blow.  Let that tempest from the North drive us into the frigid temperatures of winter and let Mother Earth come to rest beneath a heavy blanket of snow.  Let those bitter winds teach us endurance and let us learn patience.  Let ourselves stand like the buffalo, tall and proud, with its head facing the storm and let us learn from this.  Let us learn to endure hard times by facing them and let the snow cleanse us in the same manner it does the earth.  Let us prepare to exit to the East and let us leave the inipi.  Let us remember that we leave the inipi reborn.  Let us remember that the laws of man cannot control the heartbeat of a culture.  Let the people realize that an act of law cannot turn traditions into offenses and cannot make these offenses permissible under the guise of allowance.

Let the doors open to the East and crawl towards the entrance on hand and knee.  Let your physical body emergefrom the inipi.  Let us crawl past the door and leave our worries and fear in the lodge.  Let us continue crawling past the sacred pipes and altar.  Let us be reborn. 

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