Healed Through the Sun Dance
Sandra Frazier, from the Cheyenne River Reservation attributes her recovery from cancer to the power of traditional ceremonies: "In 1990, the doctors told me that I had female cancer. By the time it was diagnosed, the doctors thought that it had spread, and they scheduled me for surgery.
"I have a good friend, named Dorothy, living at Standing Rock Reservation. She asked me if she could sponsor, a sweat lodge ceremony for me, and I said that she could. So, she had a sweat lodge ceremony and prayed for me.
"Right after that, there was to be a sun dance on the Standing Rock reservation. Dorothy asked the sun dance leader if I could be taken to the tree. He said that I could, since my bleeding was not from a regular menstrual period. So, I went to the sun dance, and they took me up to the tree, where I prayed for my health. I prayed that I would be able to raise my children, and not be taken from them. I prayed that I would be able to be with my grandchildren.
"Afterwards, I went through the surgery, and there were no problems at all, absolutely none. I really believe it was because I had gone to the sweat lodge and that I had gone to the sun dance where the sun dancers prayed with me.
"A year later, I went back to the sun dance and did what we call a wopela, a thanksgiving. What I did was feed the people with traditional food.
"The next year, my youngest daughter was pregnant. She had a normal pregnancy, and delivered a baby girl. But the next day she had terrible, terrible pain in her chest, and was taken to a hospital, where she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The placenta cells traveled and grew in her body cavity, her female parts, and her lungs, but fortunately, they hadn't grown in her brain. She immediately started on chemotherapy.
"As soon as the cancer was diagnosed, I contacted my family, and they immediately went into ceremony for Sandra Frazier. All the time that she had cancer, there were ceremonies for her. At the same time, there were prayers all around the world for my daughter. I sincerely believe that my daughter was cured of that cancer because of prayer and medicine. I sincerely believe in these ways. I know they work."
 |
Return from Sandra Frazier to Sun Dance |
