The blanket drops over the only opening, and it’s now pitch black in a small space with 20 others consumed in deep meditation and prayer. The heat becomes increasingly intense as the sound of water evaporating off the red-hot stones emerges. The smell of sage, cedar and sweet grass fills the air while spiritual songs, prayers and drum beats can be heard throughout.

DeKalb resident Frank Blazquez has been through hundreds of “sweats” during his lifetime, and each experience has been different.

“Every single ceremony in the lodge is different,” Blazquez said. “The people are different; the spirit of the people and the prayers are different. What everyone is going through is different, and all these elements combine to make the lodge different every time you go in.” Blazquez and his son-in-law built a lodge, Wichokapi-Yollot, when they moved to DeKalb from Aurora in 2006. Wichokapi means star in Lakota, while Yollot means heart in Aztec.

“Native American sweat lodge, in its basic meaning, is a purification ceremony,” Blazquez said.
The sweat lodge is a way to purify oneself as well as a right of passage in many tribes.

“The essence of it is a purification,” Blazquez said, “wiping away your past and anything in your life, mind, body, spirit.”

Sweat lodges provide a spiritual refuge as well as serve as guidance to whatever issue one might be feeling. The lodge is a time to open up and search for answers from within.

“I tell people, when you’re in there don’t hold back emotionally or anything that’s going on in your head, because what you want to do is let it out, let it out into the pit,” Blazquez said.

In the center of the sweat lodge there is a pit of hot stones which are referred to as grandfathers.
Blazquez’s lodge consists of 16 wooden poles and four cross poles folded in a geometric pattern that forms an eight point star on the top of the lodge.

“[The next generation] has been our emphasis, because traditionally, young people were ignored in the traditional sweat lodge ceremonies, usually you only see adults,” Blazquez said.

What is a “sweat”?

The ceremony can vary in length.

“On average, each round lasts 20 to 30 minutes depending on the heat and what’s going on,” Blazquez said. “There have been times where one round has lasted two hours and another time that’s lasted 10 minutes because the heat was so intense. So [sweats] vary, but if you want to give it an estimate: two hours.”

A normal sweat lodge houses 25 to 30 people at one time, and the ceremony usually separates people by sex.

The lodge is about the individual and self improvement.

“It helps you appreciate yourself more,” Blazquez said, “While you’re working on yourself the collective becomes stronger because you have become more total relating to Mother Earth and Father Sky.”

When leaving the lodge one must crawl out symbolizing a baby coming out of a mother’s womb.

NIU presence has also been felt at Wichokapi-Yollot.

“We’ve opened it up to NIU students such as Supporting Opportunities for Latinos, and we’ve also had two professors come to a sweat,” Blazquez said.

In Arizona earlier this year, three people died in a plastic-covered lodge. This ceremony lasted for eight rounds and the participants were not let out.

A traditional lodge is covered with the hide of a buffalo, bear or moose, according to www.barefootsworld.net/sweatlodge, but today lodges can be covered with blankets or, in the case of Frank Blaquez’s lodge, an army canvas.

Blaquez said the Arizona incident misrepresented the true nature of the ceremony because the thing that stands out of the native lodges is the word compassion.

“You don’t want people to suffer,” Blazquez said. “If you’re hurting and need to come out, we’ll let you out, but we are also going to ask what’s hurting you. If it’s something emotional or mental we can help you, but if it’s something physical, well then you need to come out.

If at anytime during the ceremony a person can no longer take the heat, that person can say, “A’ho! Mitakuye O’yasin,” which is a Lakota phrase meaning “To all my relations,” or they can just simply say they need to leave.

At the end of the interview Blazquez had a message to the students about the importance of forgiveness.

“Be true to yourself, find out who you are and learn to forgive the past,” Blazquez said.
He holds this philosophy very dear and he even shared a similar quote: “Forgive all those who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself.”

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