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WHITE BUFFALO STANDS is
from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. He
is the Hereditary Chief of the Council of 44, 6th generation singer,
drum keeper for family and tribe, healer, spiritual leader, carrier
of sweat lodge ceremony, and instructor and guide for Suhta way of
fasting ceremonies (four days + four nights).
 A
MESSAGE FROM WHITE BUFFALO STANDS To disconnect self from Mother Earth is to disconnect self from the Creator. This disconnection results in disrespecting nature. It also leads to mankind's unawareness of nature's needs, thus misguiding mankind's treatment of Nature. To reconnect with self through song and with Mother Earth prayers to our Creator will awaken our senses within us to truly be in tune with Natures need to heal through songs in sweat lodge ceremonies bringing physical healing, spiritual, emotional and mental healing to make one whole again. It is our purpose to respect self to create a closer relationship with Nature and Mother Earth through fasting and discipline, and by nurturing ourself. We learn to respect Nature's forces and learn teachings that will allow us to be in tune with Nature. To bring a human back to their center of peace with Creator through songs of calling our personal spirits back to us. Some of these spirits may have left us because we feel uneasy, or are afraid of not thinking right, or have no direction in life. However, Sun-Dance songs we sing will appease and heal self and connect you with Earth's spirituality. The sweat lodge's healing heat and songs will let you see life on life's terms with deep humility. To actually witness the healing of disease (cancer, etc...) and change or alter one's psychs to be in harmony with Nature Spirits allows you to become a calmer human being through ceremony. At the end of the ceremony you will know and feel the Cheyenne's native beliefs of prayer and spirituality and realize that we are all brothers and sisters of Creator's creation. In this path and prophecy our journey inspires us to transform and harmonize our energies and prayer to help each other and Nature by coming together. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe has been chosen to lead this ceremony because of its spiritural and leadership roles throughout the centuries. The spiritual and ceremonial leadership and knowledge is all born from within and under Bear Butte which is our most sacred Mountain in South Dakota. We go there to give homage, as this is our origin and birth place where we go to fast and to pray. We go here for this knowledge and to be with the Spirits of the underground. For together we can be in peace with ourselves, with each other and Nature through the teachings and wisdom that will be shared and that has been given down through the generations through the oldest form of prayer and teachings.
WHITE BUFFALO STANDS SWEAT LODGE CEREMONIES
White Buffalo Stands is enmeshed in this way through his maternal grandfather's ways, as he was a Pledger and carrier of the Northern Cheyenne and a Sundance Priest. His grandfather, Tom Old Bull was also a Chief and got his gifts of healing and knowledge of ceremonials through his dad, Old Bull. Old Bull was known as a Ceremonial healer who doctored human beings that had vanished but remains in the family. Old Bull was a ceremonial Sundance Priest and helped people through Sundances and also was a Chief. As Buffalo Stands was given his place as the carrier of the drum of the six generations of his family, so too is it this way from his maternal side with the ceremonials. This is the makeup of his lineage of his ancient insight to this way. With respect to the Northern Cheyenne Sweat Lodge and how to build it compared to other Tribe's Sweat Lodges - there are two types of Sweat Lodges that are built by the Morning Star people. The young man's Sweat Lodge is for sharing of feelings, concerns and prayer. There is singing of different types of healing songs, drumming, and prayer. The other is the Traditional, Ceremonial Sweat Lodge. This is more intense, where doctoring, healing and more protocol is adhered to and the pouring of the water of life is mandated in which the healing heat is healing. There are certain songs sung and Ceremonial doctoring and healing is performed by White Buffalo Stands. The White Buffalo skull is used and the pipe carrier's pipes are set on the outside of the Sweat Lodge to be used after the Sweat Lodge Ceremony.
The other difference is where the one that is leading the cermeonial sits in the Sweat Lodge, with some sitting on the left side of the Sweat Lodge by the door, and some sit in the back of the Sweat Lodge facing East and the door. The other difference is where the pit is inside the Sweat Lodge where you put in the grandfather rocks. Most have it in the center but some have it on the right side of the door. The songs that are sung, instruments used and protocol is most evident. For the Northern Cheyenne, the singing, chanting, and drumming brings the spirits that help creator and praying to Ma'heo (Creator) comes through the energy you feel, the power that is felt and the things you feel, see, and the total well being that is experienced is that of a natural high afterward. You also see your prayers and intentions answered in time always happens. The Sweat Lodge Ceremonial is the oldest form of prayer with our tribe, and songs and protocol are passed down through the centuries.
The Northern Cheyenne fasting Ceremonial (Suh'ta) way is the most difficult way of prayer but is the most rewarding. Four days and four nights gets you to the point of your weakest but in turn you are opened up to truly receive creator's help and spirit's guidance. To truly make a vow for your self or for a loved one truly makes your vow answered - to be centered with your enriched spirituality is awesome. White Buffalo Stands has gone through this four times and has guided other human beings through this way of prayer as they were seeking a closer relationship with their Creator. Through this process many people were healed with illnesses as to why they made this vow to fast - for themselves or for their loved ones.
A CALENDAR FOR THE SWEAT LODGES WITH WHITE BUFFALO STANDS * Ashland Mountain, WY (7 miles North of Ashland, Hwy 212, go North at St.Labre, turn off left of County Rd., by blue house) * Sheridan, WY (4200 5th Street) * Casper, WY (Vista II, Sweetgrass Rd.) * Casper, WY (Mountain Rd.) * Pinedale, WY Please reserve the space by calling Burton's cell phone: 406-794-2673. Thank you.
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The Northern Cheyenne Sweat Lodge history is that the Morning Star
people have always been in tune with prayer, nature and their spirituality
for their direction and survival. This is a way of life for Human Beings
and was given to our grandfather's and grandmother's (prayer lodge)
ceremonial by our prophet Sweet Medicine, who was given his power and
knowledge that are the skeletal backbone of all our ceremonial's protocol
from the creator and his holy spirit from our beginningless beginning
in our home of 
The way the willows are erected and weaved and which direction they
are placed is the difference between a Northern Cheyenne young man's
Sweat Lodge and a Northern Cheyenne's Ceremonial Sweat Lodge and the
protocol for each is different. The difference from other tribe's Sweat
Lodges, is which direction the Sweat Lodge faces - the Northern Cheyenne
face theirs East as do most tribes, and some face theirs South. The
willows used are also different. The Northern Cheyenne use four willows
facing each direction and tie them together. Some tribes face North
and South and tie them together, and two facing East and West and then
tie them together. Other tribes also use willow, chokecherry branches, 
