Sacred bundles

• TRIBES AFFECTED: Pantribal
• SIGNIFICANCE: Sacred bundles contain objects that represent the power or medicine of their owner; assembled under the guidance of spirit beings, they are used in ceremonies to assure the well-being of an individual, clan, or Indigenous group

Sacred bundles were believed to have supernatural power to cure the sick, win the affections of another, get revenge on an enemy, gain possessions, or even assure long life for an individual or a whole tribe. Wrapped in the hide of a deer or the whole skin of an otter, some bundles were large enough to hold hundreds of items, while personal bundles were often small enough to carry in one hand. (Although the use of sacred bundles is treated as historical here to emphasize their great importance in many traditional Indigenous American cultures, it is important to note that many practices involving sacred bundles still occur in the contemporary era.)

Sacred bundles required special care. They were considered to be “alive” with supernatural powers. Some personal bundles were displayed in the owner’s lodge or hung outside the tepee, but the great bundles belonging to the Indigenous group were secluded from everyday view. Because of their magical qualities, they were surrounded with taboos. Bundles represented an important link to the past and supernatural beings and could only be opened under prescribed circumstances to benefit the person or the Indigenous group.

Traditionally, a personal bundle was acquired through a vision quest. One went out alone for several days and fasted and prayed until the guardian spirit was encountered. A relationship was established, and directions were given for the spiritual path of the seeker. Upon return from the quest, objects were gathered for the medicine bundle as symbols of the experience. An item representing the guardian spirit was usually worn to ensure ongoing contact. The primary item in a medicine bundle symbolized the guardian spirit. Tobacco, feathers, fur, stones, or anything of special meaning could become part of the bundle. A song was often given by the spirits as part of the seeker’s medicine.

Something of the vision experience, such as a song, a painting on a shield, a dance, or the telling of a particular incident, was shared with the Indigenous group. In this way, others received some of the power that was available as long as requirements were met for keeping the bundle.

In some groups a bundle could be inherited through the father’s lineage, captured during a battle, purchased, or received in exchange for horses. A powerful bundle could be duplicated for one or two others with the permission of the spirits. The owner could remake a bundle that was lost or taken in a fight. Unless the bundle, with its power, was willingly given to someone, it belonged to the owner until death.

Sacred bundles remain important to Indigenous Americans in the twenty-first century, helping to preserve Indigenous culture, play a key role in spiritual practices, and as an important symbol of Indigenous identity.

Personal Bundles

Objects in a sacred bundle filled a definite purpose, either spiritual or practical. A large medicine pipe bundle belonging to a member of the Blackfoot nation, for example, contained a decorated pipe stem along with a tobacco cutting board and pipe stokers. Animal spirits were represented by an elk hide, bearskin, mountain-goat headdress, eagle-wing feather, head of a crane, skin of a loon (used as a tobacco pouch), fetus of a deer, and skins of prairie dog, squirrel, mink, muskrat, and owl. Other ceremonial tools were a rattle, a rawhide bag of roots for making smudge (sacred incense), a bag of pine needles, and tongs for placing coals on the smudge. Personal items included necklaces, a wooden bowl for food, a horse whip, a thong lariat, and a painted buffalo robe. A sacred song was also given by the spirits and was sung any time the bundle was displayed. In Blackfoot tradition, the pipe bundle could be opened on four occasions: when the first thunder was heard in the spring, when the bundle was being transferred to a new leader, when tobacco in the bundle was renewed, and when the pipe was used in keeping a vow.

Tribal Bundles

The great Indigenous bundles, such as the Blackfoot Sacred Pipe bundle or the Pawnee Evening Star bundle, were sometimes displayed at ceremonies, but they were opened only on special occasions. In some Plains Indigenous peoples, bundles were used to “keep the world together.” The people believed that the group’s well-being depended on the proper care and protection of those bundles because the items within them symbolized life itself. The Kiowa had a small stone image resembling a man that was shown to the people only once a year at the Sun Dance.

The Fox of the Great Lakes had forty sacred bundle groups in eleven major categories. For the Pawnee of the Plains, the stars were important in sacred traditions, and the Evening Star bundle was assembled under the direction of that highly revered star guardian. A Cheyenne bundle contained the four Medicine Arrows, and an Arapaho bundle held a special flat pipe, an ear of corn, and a stone turtle.

The summer Green Corn Dance was a time of cleansing and renewal for the Seminole of Florida and Oklahoma. Meeting at sacred places in woods and near creeks, they danced and recited oral history to honor their mystical origin. Just before dawn on the fourth day, the sacred bundle was blessed and opened. Nearly seven hundred items wrapped in buckskin or white cloth contained sacred knowledge and medicine for the health of the Seminole. The Seminole believed that this renewal of the sacred bundle assured that the people would not die, and the group would not disappear.

The power within sacred bundles was regarded with wonder, respect, and sometimes fear. The sacred practitioners who worked with this secret and often dangerous knowledge learned by experimenting with natural forces after much ritual preparation. An untrained person would resist contact with this potent knowledge because, as one individual put it, “the power might come back at me if I exposed myself to it when I was not prepared, or not ready to know about it”; another said, “I wouldn’t want to go near those medicine bundles if I didn’t know how to act.”

Bibliography

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Brown, Joseph Epes. The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian. Crossroad, 1982.

Gadacz, René R. "Medicine Bundles." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 15 Nov. 2019, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/medicine-bundles. Accessed 16 Dec. 2024.

Garbarino, Merwyn S. Native American Heritage. Little, Brown, 1976.

Mark, Joshua J. “Making the Sacred Bundle.” World History Encyclopedia, 4 Oct. 2023, www.worldhistory.org/article/2290/making-the-sacred-bundle. Accessed 16 Dec. 2024.

Radin, Paul. The Story of the American Indian. Deluxe illustrated ed., Garden City Publishing, 1937.

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