Medicine Man and Sun Dance chief, Thomas Yellowtail is
a pivotal figure in Crow tribal life. As a youth he lived in the
presence of old warriors, hunters, and medicine men who
knew the freedom and sacred ways of pre-reservation life.
As the principle figure in the Crow-Shoshone Sun Dance reli-
gion, Yellowtail has preserved traditional values in the face
of the constantly encroaching, diametrically opposed values
of materialistic modern society. In part one, Yellowtail introduces
us to traditional Indian ways. Part two focuses on the Sun Dance
religion, particularly purification in the sweat lodge, the individual
spiritual retreat known as the "Vision Quest", daily prayer with the
sacred pipe, and the Sun Dance ceremony itself.