Native American sand paintings are a very beautiful and popular art form for collectors today. But traditionally, the paintings are created to heal a person during a ceremony. The type of image and ceremony used is determined by the disease which the person is suffering from. The sand painting may contain an image of the Holy People. The tribe medicine man may ask the Holy People to help him paint the image and therefore help heal the person in need. When the medicine man finishes painting, he checks its accuracy. The order and the symmetry  of the painting symbolize the harmony which a patient wishes to achieve in his or her life. The accuracy of a sand painting is believed to determine its healing effects. In some cases, more than one sand painting might be used in a healing ceremony. During the ceremony, the person who needs healing will sit on the Native American sand painting. The sand painting serves as an entrance for the spirits and through the painting, the person can absorb the healing energies from these spirits. The sand paintings were not originally meant to be sold or hung on the wall. Once the ceremony is completed, the sand painting must be destroyed, thus allowing the sand to return to the Earth. This is necessary because the sand painting is now seen as poisonous, having absorbed the illness, and must be destroyed. The entire ceremony, from the painting to the destroying is usually completed within a 12-hour period. The medicine man never wrote down how to perform the healing ceremony, but it was passed down from generation to generation. The Pueblo tribe was the first tribe to create Native American sand paintings, but the art soon spread to many other tribes. Today, it is the Navajos who are the most active in creating Native American sand paintings. It is believed that it was a medicine man named Fred Stevens who was the first person to create a Native American sand painting for sale in the 1950s. A trader, Rex Bollin, recommended Fred to sell sand paintings since they were so beautiful. After working out how to make the sand stick to the canvas , Fred began selling his sand paintings. Why would people destroy the sand paintings after the healing ceremony?
Because the paintings are useless after the ceremony. Because people don't know how to keep the paintings for long. Because the paintings are believed to contain illnesses. Because the paintings are believed to contain the spirit of God.