Lodging & Leisure

Pamper yourself the Oneida way at Skaná Spa

By EMILY SACHAR

Web exclusive

In the middle of James Fenimore Cooper Last of the Mohicans country, a new spa offers pampering the Native way.

This is New York state's Leatherstocking District, the setting of Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales around the French and Indian War period of the mid- to late-1700s on what was then the frontier. This might be the same location, but the conflict of those days could not be further removed from the serenity of Skaná Spa.

The 33,000-square-foot state-of-the-art spa, salon, and fitness facility on the 17,000-acre grounds of the Oneida Indian Nation's Turning Stone Resort — AAA four-diamond luxury lodge, fine dining, and hopping casino — shows what a difference 250 years can make.

One of six tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy and now a community comprising some 1,000 members, the Oneida mainly make their fortunes from casino gambling. The tribe cut its gaming teeth on a small bingo operation that took off here in the '80s and eventually became the Turning Stone Resort & Casino that now draws millions of visitors annually. But for their latest venture, the Oneida sought something different.

With Skaná, which opened in December 2006, the Oneida strayed far from their nation's agricultural roots — the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash — to create a spa. "We were determined to study the resort business and to do it right," says Chuck Fougnier, executive liaison to the Men's Council, which, with the Clan Mothers, is the governing body of the Oneida Indian Nation.

To that end, tribal officials traveled the country visiting spas. And they came to a painful, though crucial, realization.

"We didn't have the expertise to run a spa," Fougnier says. "We had to go outside." So, the Oneida elders authorized the hiring of any expert who could make Skaná the best spa in the country. Having accomplished that, Fougnier says, the hope is that the next generation of Oneida youth will be able to master the skills, at business schools and other institutions of higher learning, to "come home" and run Skaná and the resort's myriad other operations (including the Atunyote Golf Club, which kicked off the PGA's fall 2007 tour).

For the spa visitor, the sense of homecoming is a welcoming and centering excursion into Native ways. Skaná takes for its inspiration the traditions of the Native American cultures. Healing and calming aromas of witch hazel, sweet grass, and cedar. Therapeutic essential oils and herbs. Natural décor of wood and stone. A waterfall cascading outside the 12-treatment-room spa. And after your treatment, the Native ambience carries over to the 94-room lodge.

Everything seems geared to connecting mind to body, senses to spirit, whether it's lavender permeating a Leaves and Flowers "balancing remedy" or gourmet chocolates poised on a pillow at turndown.

"It's all designed to pay homage to the American Indian culture," says assistant spa manager Nicole Nucifora. "You'll find American Indian-inspired treatments and décor at many other spas around the country, but nothing like what we offer here. It is truly Native culture at its core."

The most truly Native American of experiences here would have to be the traditional sweat. In a lodge structure not even a story high — amid fire-hot stones, drum playing, and chants — visitors partake of a three-hour evening body-cleansing experience intended to purge the spirit of impurities, express gratitude to the Creator, and give thanks for a chance at rebirth. Out with toxins, in with preternatural calm and clarity.

No surprise that skaná is Oneida for peace — and that peace is exactly what a stay at Skaná bestows.

Sweat the big stuff

Awakening the senses and purifying the body in an authentic sweat lodge

Flames leap from rocks heating for the sweat lodge experience. Framed by tepees and tall trees, dressed in tribal regalia, Kakwiranoron, a Mohawk/Lakota Sioux, greets me. Formerly a massage therapist in Hawaii, he now shares his heritage at Turning Stone Resort's world-class Skaná Spa.

Sweat is part of ancient healing rituals: Roman thermae, Finnish sauna, Russian banya, Turkish hammam, and Mexican temazcal. But the American Indian sweat lodge is interactive, awakening the senses.

Kakwiranoron certainly knows his way around this healing ritual: He tells me his family gathers twice a week in the sweat lodge at their South Dakota home on a Lakota Sioux reservation.

Drumming and chanting, Kakwiranoron invites me to enter the lodge. We strip to bare minimum, preparing to cleanse body and soul. Slipping between buffalo hides onto a wooden platform around a fire pit, my young guide directs me to clear my mind and let the heat open thoughts of the past and future.

Created by Kakwiranoron, his father, and members of South Dakota's Oglala Sioux Tribe from red willows covered with horse skin and buffalo hide, the earthy sweat lodge glows organically. Sweet, pungent smoke from grass and sage fills the air. Sweat begins to flow, cleansing the body.

Words flow, too, cleansing the mind. We talk about life, hopes, dreams. It is a total sensory experience, yet it transports me beyond my senses. The journey ends with an Oneida blessing: Asehsi': You will reawaken.

Emerging from the sweat lodge for a refreshing dip in the pool, I can already feel that the reawakening — the real journey — has begun.

— Bernard Burt

• The adult-only sweat lodge ceremony is performed by request at least 24 hours prior to date. Reservation required. $300. Call 800-771-7711.
• Bernard Burt is the author of 100 Best Spas of the World (The Globe Pequot Press). www.SpaGoer.com.