Medicine Wheel

A Medicine Wheel ( dt: . Medicine wheel ) is a sacred place of multiple cultures of the Plains Indians. They are located in the northern Great Plains, in the northern United States and southern Canada. In a stylized way the medicine is used in particular by the Lakota as a religious symbol. As a symbol, it was also taken up in esoteric circles, especially in the version of Sun Bear.

Appearance and distribution

In the Great Plains, there are tens of thousands of rock formations of indigenous peoples. As Medicine Wheels are those which have at least two of the following characteristics: a pile of stones as a central hub, one or more (often concentric ) circles and at least two spoke-shaped stone rows. From this type are between 70 and 150 (depending on interpretation with strong destruction) known alone 66 are in the Canadian province of Alberta. Others are known from Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Saskatchewan.

The best-known locality is the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn National Forest, a National Forest, in the Bighorn Mountains between Powell and Sheridan in the state of Wyoming. It has a diameter of about 23 m and 28 spokes and is dated to 1400-1700. It was founded in 1969 designated as a National Historic Landmark and is managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Importance

Medicine Wheels are dated to an age of up to 5000 years, but some have been created yet in historical times after contact with whites. These recent Medicine Wheels are from the Blackfoot and were probably created after the death of a prominent warrior in the context of ceremonies. Wheels some seem to have been used for long periods and may be extended. You might be related with the sun dance. Any further cultic functions and meanings are lost. Today's Indian cultures they maintain than traditional worship their ancestors and regard them as sacred places.

There are various theories about a construction of some Medicine Wheels as astronomical instruments. At some locations, visual axes were identified from the center to the other distinctive shapes that run toward the point at which the sun rises at the summer solstice and other calendar- related places. In Valley City, North Dakota, a Medicine Wheel and other rock formations were created in the so-called Medicine Wheel Park to demonstrate the capabilities of the system as an astronomical observatory by the local state university.

Symbolism of the Lakota

In the Lakota the Medicine Wheel consists of a hoop with four spokes. The number four has a special significance in their mythology, it stands for the cardinal points and the core values ​​woksape (wisdom), woohitika ( bravery ), wowacintanka ( Fortitude ) and wacantognaka ( generosity ) of the people. It is often connected with animal symbols. The wheel is used in traditional ceremonies and understood more recently in artistic representations as a symbol of the people and the culture.

The emblem, named after Chief Spotted Tail Sinte Gleska University in Rosebud, South Dakota, used the medicine in traditional colors of the people and with a central buffalo skull and four eagle feathers. The Medicine of the Lakota and the stone settings play in the documentary miniseries " Into the West - Into the West " (2005) by Steven Spielberg a visual role, the symbol is set in relation to wheels on the wagon of the whites, who for a synonym the expansion and progress urge to be used.