According to Wright, indigenous people considered blood to be a sacred fluid in which a person's life and spirit are present. Therefore, for the First Nations, one way to respect this fluid was to take care of it formally, which the women did during their stay in the lodges. The rulers were carefully cared for, usually kept inside the lodge and buried in a hole. Wright also mentions that blood was sacred to both sexes, as men also underwent specific blood rituals as they formed through puberty. Boys would cut their legs to let the blood drain from their bodies. Since these rituals were performed by both men and women, Wright argued that gender was not the reason for the seclusion, the sanctity of blood