Progressive Era: 1890–1920s: Native Americans Fight for Land, Identity, & Education
Click image to zoom in.Or view larger version. Photograph of Indian sweat house, Pecwan. ca. 1900. A. W. Ericson, Photographer. Photograph. Collection of Oakland Museum of California. Gift of A. W. Ericson.
This is a photograph of an Indian sweat house that was used by the Hupa tribe. The sweathouse served as a gathering place for the men of a village where they would purify their bodies through sweating. This practice was particularly important before a hunt, when the smell of a person could give away a hunter’s position. Sweating was used for cleansing and purifying one’s spiritual self as well as one’s physical self.