Sweat Lodge

Sweat Lodges Clip of the week : This week, meet with Old Buck.

Spending a night in the forest can sometimes be a frightening proposition, with all the noises from the bristling leaves, and the branches cracking under the weight of some unknown animal. On this late summer night ­ which, from time to time, gave the impression of being a doomsday night, with its lower-than-usual sky and its sudden rush of cold air coming in ­ Old Buck was methodically preparing a natural sauna made from branches. As the reporting team was whispering around the camp fire, trying to warm up, Old Buck was telling us stories, all the while building this hermetic hut shaped like an igloo.

"To build a sweat lodge, you must first draw a cross on the ground, that points in the directions of the four points of the compass. This is the sacred circle, an important symbol in native philosophy" said Old Buck. "The structure itself is also made from crosses made by the meeting of two hoops. You lay another hoop on top of that, to symbolize Man's relationship with the universe."

Old Buck, who is of Abenaki ancestry, explained that nowadays, most native people no longer take part in their cultures' ancient rites. He has, however, seen these practices become more popular among his people. "There's a return to spirituality," he said. "But there are also the pseudo traditionalists, those who use the rites for their own personal gain; those are Americanized natives, who don't care about anything. True traditionalists live through their spirituality the way their ancestors did, for the wellbeing of their community and of the nature surrounding them."

Old Buck wanted to prepare us adequately for the experience that we were about to undergo. Going into the sweat lodge is not something one does lightly; it's not like enjoying a sauna in the heart of the forest. Rather, it's a traditional and sacred rite of purification, which is generaly reserved for the initiated. This rite, we were warned, takes people to the limits of their physical and psychological resistance. It's while the participants are in a state of trance from the excruciating heat that the visions, which are so important to the native people, will come, guiding the participants through their destiny. Already exhausted from our expeditions and our numerous reports, it was with a certain level of apprehension that we embarked upon this next adventure. The sweat lodge was slowly being shaped as the rocks at the centre of the fire, the same rocks that were going to heat the hut, were becoming as red as molten metal.

"The reason why I cut short my hunt, why I left my camp by the river today, is because I want this sweat lodge to be a prayer for the Saint Maurice River. We must help the river heal itself and rid it of pollution. Ever since we've started cleaning efforts, algaes have started to grow again. Isn't that great?! Turtles and frogs are going to come back soon" said Old Buck, while putting the final touches on his preparations.

Old Buck, who either lives in his pick-up truck, or in his hunting camp, and makes a living as a native activity counselor at Domaine McCormick, finally opened the doors to the completed sweat lodge. Before entering, he asked each of us to give him an object that was dear to our hearts, he then added a totem to our things. Half-naked, despite the cold, we filed into the sweat lodge, entering from the left and walking around a hole in the sand. Old Buck then started to bring in the first stones, which represent the north wind, for courage; the south wind, for strength; the west wind, for caution; and the east wind, for wisdom. Wrapped in wafts of sage, Old Buck started to sing the traditional guttural songs, which seem to dance through the steam that was formed when we threw water at the scalding rocks.

All during the ceremony, our guide told us a long native legend about purification, with a whole cast of animals and mythic warriors, in which nature played a role as important as that of Man. The silent team endured the ever intensifying heat, and we were taken away to another world, a universe unknown to us until that point. The individual emotional experiences that we went through that night were going to make us closer for the rest of the voyage. We will probably never know who prayed for whom, or for what, who dreamed of peace or of vast, open landscapes. But when it was over, all of us understood Old Buck's wise words.

"Driving out the evil spirits is like driving out Man's anxieties. Our worst enemy is within ourselves and the sweat lodge allows us to free ourselves from its grip."

Ever since that day, on some chilly nights, the spirits of Old Buck, of the warriors, of the river and the forest guide us through our dreams...

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