Structure And Complexity Of Medicine Bundle Systems Of Selected Plains Indian Tribes

Medicine Birds and Mill Creek-Middle Mississippian Interaction: The Contents of Feature 8 at the Phipps Site (13CK21)

“…The bodies of the raptors processed at Phipps may have been intended to serve as medicine bags or fetishes for the Mill Creek people's trading partners (Fishel 1995a). The use of bird bodies as medicine bags is well known historically (Fletcher and LaFlesche 1911;Foster 1994;Gilmore 1932;Hanson 1980;Jenness 1955;Mathews 1961;Sidoff 1977;Skinner 1915;Ubelaker and Wedel 1975;Whitman 1937). The Sauk leader Black Hawk took his name from his hawk-skin medicine bag (Catlin 1926:239, Plate 283).…”

Bundled Worlds: The Roles and Interactions of Complex Objects from the North American Plains

“…This sense of purpose in the bundle system, as well as the connection between bundles and vision quests, is universal among bundle holding groups (Albers and Parker 1971;Lowie 1956;Hanson 1980;Irwin 1994;Kehoe 2000). For the sake of brevity, I will only discuss concepts from Algonquian-speaking groups with specific examples from Blackfoot bundles, as these groups share cosmological, epistemological, and ontological principles that render their bundle systems highly comparable.…”

“…Ceremonial bundles act as personal bundles for the holder and as medicine bundles for the shaman. Moreover, they are unique in their role as integrators of social sectors (e.g., esoteric societies or the group as a whole) and as distributors of wealth and prestige (Albers and Parker 1971;Hanson 1980;Lokensgard 1996Lokensgard , 2001Hernandez 1999). Such bundles are, in a sense, the embodiment of both the physical world and the rules and regulations of the cosmic, natural, and social orders.…”

“…Lowie's study of Crow and Hidatsa bundles in the 1930s was a foundation for the Culture and Personality school (Lowie 1956), and Bowers' analysis of Mandan bundles, particularly the Okipa, is a detailed and systematic record of ceremonies and social institutions no longer in existence (Bowers 2004). An excellent cross-cultural study by Hanson (1980) focuses on the systemic structure and complexity of medicine bundles with particular attention to ecological adaptations and social organization of tribes from the North American Plains. Among contemporary Indian and non-Indian scholars there is a keen interest in examining the fundamental principles underlying the bundle system vis-a-vis anthropological theory (Bastien 2004;Crowshoe and Manneschmidt 2002;Hernandez 1999;Lokensgard 1996Lokensgard , 2001Yellowhorn 2002).…”

“…Medicine bundles can be as small as two or three objects tied together, or as large as a complete apothecary. These bundles are individually owned but transferable through ritual, purchase, or inheritance (Hanson 1980). Bundle objects stem from visions, dreams, or waking spiritual encounters where individuals acquire power and the instructions to exert change upon things, people, and environment by virtue of opening and utilizing the bundle in strictly prescribed ways.…”