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A5
U.S. NEWS Monday 9 March 2020

Native Americans scramble over

shutdown of Fargo sweat lodge

By DAVE KOLPACK vations, but less so in urban a Fargo community health
Associated Press areas such as Fargo, which clinic.
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — In is the biggest city in North When the city decided
the decade since Fargo Dakota, with slightly more to close the sweat lodge,
agreed to host a sweat than 100,000 residents. Mayor Tim Mahoney, a
lodge for the many Native Snyder, who belongs to the longtime supporter of the
Americans who live in the Three Affiliated Tribes, said lodge who founded the
area, the simple structure the shuttering of the Fargo Native American Com-
and its users have suffered sweat lodge in Decem- mission, cited reports that
a series of indignities: The ber has caused an emer- there had been uncon-
land set aside for the lodge gency for its diverse users, trolled heat during cer-
is in a gritty industrial area, including some who come emonies that could have
a shirtless user was mistak- from as far away as South injured participants. A city
en for a vagrant and ar- Dakota and Canada. The memo in January also said
rested, and police mistook ceremonies, which are of- some ceremonies lacked a
the lodge for a homeless ten referred to as "sweats," helper and water pourer,
encampment and had it are important rituals that as required by the Native
bulldozed. are meant to purify mind American Commission's
Now, the city has shuttered and body and that serve rules.
the lodge because of con- various other functions, de- "A variety of people take
cerns over its safety and pending on the tribe. The part in the sweat and we
supervision, and the Native ceremonies are typically just haven't had a consis-
Americans who use it are broken into rounds, with tent group or committee to
worried about how they will singing, praying, talking manage it," Mahoney said.
be able to carry out their and drumming. The city's fears are not un- A Native American sweat lodge located on city property in an
sacred healing ritual, even Whitney Fear, a member founded. In 2009, three industrial area of south Fargo, N.D., is pictured on Thursday, Feb.
if many of them agree that of the Oglala Lakota Tribe people died from heat 27, 2020.
changes were needed. who serves with Snyder on exposure during a sweat Associated Press
"It would be equivalent to Fargo's Native American lodge ceremony in Arizona
the Catholic Church shut- Commission, said time in run by a non-Native Ameri-
ting down its location here a sweat lodge — referred can self-help author who
in the Fargo-Moorhead to in the Lakota culture as eventually served nearly
area because they real- Inipi — "takes us to a place two years in prison for negli-
ized they had issues they that is reminiscent of the gent homicide. He was crit-
needed to fix," Chalsey womb." She credits it with icized by Native American
Snyder, a member of the helping her mother stave leaders for desecrating a
city's Native American off Stage 4 breast cancer sacred ceremony through
Commission, said recently, two decades ago when carelessness that reflected
referring to Moorhead, Min- an oncologist told her that poorly on sweat ceremo-
nesota, which is across the her chemotherapy and ra- nies run safely by experi-
Red River from Fargo. diation treatments weren't enced lodge leaders.
"Our traditions and our cer- working. The Native American Com-
emonies are extremely re- "The medical professional in mission requires that each
vered." me probably could not ex- spiritual or lodge leader
Sweat lodges are typically plain that with science, but have proper training and
built low to the ground, with the Lakota woman in me rights from their respective
frames made of saplings can explain that it was the tribes, but both Snyder and
that are covered with ani- strength of what happens Fear said they haven't been
mal hides, blankets or even in Inipi that helped save comfortable with some of
tarps to keep in the steam. her life," said Fear, a mental the people participating in
They are common on reser- health nurse practitioner at ceremonies. q