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

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

From Shaman by Shea, Robert

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

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

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

Besides the communal houses the village contained its "medicine lodge," or council house, and an open area for games and ceremonies.

From The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest by Fiske, John

It will be recalled that Bradbury in 1811 referred to the "medicine lodge," then standing in the center of the large Arikara village.

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