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

In more secret spots in the rugged walls of a cañon, about half a mile from the medicine lodge, other shelters were erected, where visiting performers were to prepare themselves on the last night.

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 Matthews, Washington

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

From The Sun Dance of the Blackfoot Indians by Wissler, Clark

As he left the circle before Owl Carver's medicine lodge, Wolf Paw glanced at White Bear, and White Bear saw the light of triumph in his eyes.

From Shaman by Shea, Robert

A large number of earth-covered lodges, of varying sizes, were placed without order but rather close together, often with a "medicine lodge" in the center of the group.

From Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi by Bushnell, David Ives

The smudge place in the medicine lodge on the first day and for the first sweathouse is a square marked in the soft earth with a crescent in the middle of it.

From The Sun Dance of the Blackfoot Indians by Wissler, Clark