The Sun or Thirst Dance as a Threat to Canada's Colonization of the West

Sam Steele, superintendent of the North-West Mounted Police (renamed Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920), was one of the first government officials to regard the continuation of the sun or thirst dance as a potential threat to Canada's colonization of the West. After attending the ceremony at a Kainaiwa (Blood) encampment in 1889, he warned headquarters: "Old warriors take this occasion of relating their experience of former days counting their scalps and giving the number of horses they were successful in stealing. This has a pernicious effect on the young men; it makes them unsettled and anxious to emulate the deeds of their forefathers."

--Arthur J. Ray, An Illustrated History of Canada's Native People: I Have Lived Here Since the World Began, 4th ed. (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016), 230.