Reproduction Sun Dance Buffalo Skull

"The Buffalo Dance - While the dancers were being painted, it was customary in former times to present a special Buffalo Dance. For its duration the Holy Woman continued to hold the pipe, because the buffalo skull, upon which it was supposed to rest, was a necessary accessory to the dance. A medicine man feigned to lift the skull three times. On the fourth time he actually picked it up and carried it to a place near the center of the circle, in front of the sacred pole. The Buffalo dancers continually gazed at the skull as they danced. The rhythm was similar to that of the women's dances, in 3/4 time. They scraped their feet on the second, or unaccented, beat, bringing the heel down hard, imitating the defiant actions of an angry buffalo bull. At the close of the Buffalo Dance the skull was replaced behind the altar and the pipe was again rested on its rack..." --Indian Dances of North America, Reginald Laubin, 289-290.

Laubin, Reginald. Indian Dances of North America: Their Importance to Indian Life. University of Oklahoma Press: 1977.