Deep inside Turkey Creek Ranch there is a small dome hut made of willow branches and covered with heavy blankets and tarps. The Lakotas call it an Inipi, a sweat lodge.
Here, Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, their families and supporters come to pray in a traditional Native American purification ceremony. Inside the Inipi, they leave their inner “pollution” in the hot stones, said Michael Hackwith, a Lakota Sundance spiritual leader and retired U.S. Marine who runs the lodge at Turkey Creek Ranch, about 10 miles south of Fort Carson on State Highway 115.
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