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

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

When they prepared their medicine lodge for the sun dance, the Mandans put one of their curious, turtle-shaped, skin water-drums at each of the four world quarters.

From American Indians by Frederick Starr

One man goes to the medicine lodge and digs out the smudge place.

From The Sun Dance of the Blackfoot Indians by Clark Wissler

In groups of four, sixteen medicine lodge songs are sung.

From The Sun Dance of the Blackfoot Indians by Clark Wissler

Then they built the medicine lodge and got all things ready for the new rites and for the purification of the one who had returned.

From The Mountain Chant, A Navajo Ceremony Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 379-468 by Washington Matthews