medicine lodge

American  

noun

1. a structure used for various ceremonials of North American Indians.

2. (initial capital letters) the most important religious society among the central Algonquian tribes of North America.

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medicine lodge British  

noun

1. a wooden structure used for magical and religious ceremonies among certain North American Indian peoples

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Etymology

Origin of medicine lodge

First recorded in 1800–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

medicine lodge

I see the medicine lodge tremble and hear voices; they are not the voices of Indians.”

From Rodney, the Ranger With Daniel Morgan on Trail and Battlefield by John Goss

The ceremony of his installation followed, and was conducted within a medicine lodge, erected for that especial purpose.

From Seven and Nine years Among the Camanches and Apaches An Autobiography by Clark Johnson M.D.

The four formed a semicircle, backs to the medicine lodge, faces toward the crowd of curious people.

From Shaman by Robert Shea

At the close of the dance it was stuck, forks up, in the ground in the center of the medicine lodge, and left until the next year.

From Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women by Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand) Sabin

As she was not a wicked woman and only lived with Morningstar as her husband, she gave her digging-stick to the medicine lodge woman and the natoas was named for the turnip she dug up.

From The Sun Dance of the Blackfoot Indians by Clark Wissler