medicine dance

American  

noun

1. a ritual dance performed by some North American Indians to invoke supernatural assistance as for driving out disease.

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Etymology

Origin of medicine dance

First recorded in 1800–10

Example Sentences

Then we danced the medicine dance; and Kasiascall went alone to the country of the Chinooks, to the fort of the Boston men.

From The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems by Victor, Frances Fuller

After two days the Indian doctors held a medicine dance for her benefit.

From Fifty Years In The Northwest With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes by Folsom, William Henry Carman

The medicine dance is a sacred rite, in honor of the souls of the dead; the mysteries of this dance are kept inviolable; its secrets have never been divulged by its members.

From Dahcotah Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling by Eastman, Mary H. (Mary Henderson)

It may be the boy’s medicine dance, part of the ritual which will keep harm away from him.”

From Boy Scouts in Glacier Park The Adventures of Two Young Easterners in the Heart of the High Rockies by Eaton, Walter Prichard

One of the wonderful things done by this man was at a medicine dance.

From Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales With notes on the origin, customs and character of the Pawnee people by Grinnell, George Bird