Our
Totem: The Medicine Wheel
Manitous Lodge 88
History Archive |
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The totem of Manitous Lodge is
the Medicine Wheel. Medicine Wheels are like a giant
celestial calendar, similar to Stonehenge. Research
suggests that the Cheyenne most likely built Bighorn
Medicine Wheel, the Medicine Wheel depicted on the lodge
flap, and that perhaps the other tribes may have used it
as well. The floor plan of the Bighorn Medicine Wheel
resembles an old time Cheyenne Medicine Lodge, where the
traditional sun-dance ceremony was performed. At a few
Medicine Wheels, human remains have been excavated,
suggesting that these Medicine Wheels served as a sacred
burial ground for distinguished members of the tribes.
Unfortunately, not every thing about Medicine Wheels can
be documented since the people who built them are no
longer in existence, and all of the 67 known Medicine
Wheels have suffered damage from erosion and vandalism.
The Native American tribes who constructed Medicine Wheels
can tell us little about them. This is be cause these
tribes used oral tradition, and it has been close to two
centuries since the Medicine Wheels were last widely used.
Scientists have been able to determine that some Medicine
Wheels are over two thousand years old, and others were
still being built on as late as the late 1700's. It has
been discovered that the older Medicine Wheels are in the
more northerly locations, in Canada, and the younger ones
are in the more southerly locations, in the United States.
Using a combination of Native American Lore and
mathematical calculations, scientists have also been able
to simulate the astronomical alignments of Medicine Wheel.
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Left: A Cheyenne Medicine Lodge
Right: The Eight Types Of Medicine Wheels
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In the Bighorn National Forest, on the top of Medicine Mountain, a little over 10,000 feet above sea level, is the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, which is the medicine wheel depicted on the Manitous Lodge #88 flap. Bighorn Medicine Wheel is comprised of seven cairn, an outer ring, and 28 spokes. It is 80-90 feet across, and has an elliptical shape. The entire structure is made of piles of rock. The average height of Bighorn Medicine Wheel is about 4 feet, and is categorized in Subgroup 6 of Medicine Wheels. Medicine Wheels are categorized into eight subgroups, based on common characteristics. Subgroup 6 is defined by a prominent central cairn surrounded by a stone ring. Two or more interior lines connect the stone ring to the cairn.
The Bighorn Medicine Wheel is aligned with the summer solstice sunrise and sunset, and the stars Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius, and Fomalhaut. An observer would sit at the lower cairn and observe the sunrise each morning as summer approached, moving more northward each day until the summer solstice. Only on that day the sunrise would be seen to rise over the middle cairn and between the 2 upper cairns, like a cosmic rifle sight. The wheel was used as a primitive astronomical calculator to set the times of ritual ceremonies such as sun dance lodge ceremony, a sacred event for many tribes. Each of the before mentioned stars come into their alignment with the Bighorn Medicine Wheel 28 days apart from each other. The 28 spokes may coincide with what we today call a month.
The Bighorn Medicine Wheel has been found to be astronomically aligned for a time between the 12-14 centuries. This is because the position of Earth's axis changes slowly, and the direct alignment of the stars and the summer solstice sunrise and sunset fit the night sky of this age. It is believed to have been constructed in different stages. The cairns have been found to have been constructed first sometime between 1050-1450 c.e. and the 28 spokes between 1500-1760 c.e. The spokes were dated at this time period due to carbon dating from archaeological excavation.
The Crow, Shoshoni, Cheyenne, and Kiowa tribes all claim that their ancestors built Bighorn Medicine Wheel. However, extensive research suggests that the Cheyenne most likely built Big horn Medicine Wheel, and that perhaps the other tribes may have used it as well.
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The Alignments Of
Bighorn Medicine Wheel
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The idea behind the design of the Manitous Lodge flap is to show a Medicine Wheel in use, as if you were an observer. Imagine that on the first day of summer you watched the sun begin to rise. In the twilight before dawn those 3 bright stars were still visible over the outer cairns. The scene on the Lodge flap is an event which has occurred each year for centuries and will continue to occur every summer for centuries to come. It is a picture of history and tradition that is real and lasting. It brings to mind a place of timeless continuity, a bridging of the past and the future.
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The Manitous Lodge #88 Flap
The origins and purposes of the Medicine Wheels differ from tribe to tribe. A Cree legend tells about a women who walked along a ridge line, where one of the Medicine Wheels now stands, and there she fell in love with the sun. He (the sun) carried her away from that place. A Medicine Wheel was built there to mark the spot. The Shoshoni have a story called The Sheep Eaters which states that the local Medicine Wheel was built by a people of that name, and that each of the twenty-eight spokes of this Medicine Wheel represented a tribe of the Sheep Eaters. The Sheep Eaters were a cult of Shoshoni. They constructed a Medicine Wheel to honor some of their gods, including their god of plenty, goddess of beauty, and their chief god, the sun god. The Shoshoni also believed that the Sheep Eaters lived beneath the wheel, and survived on the meat of bighorn sheep, which are indigenous to that area. The Cheyenne tell us that some Medicine Wheels were the plans for an old time Cheyenne Medicine Lodge. In Crow mythology and oral history, accounts tell of vision quests at or in the immediate vicinity of Medicine Wheels. The Crow also say that it was already there when they came, but it was built by people who had no iron. There is also a Crow story that says the he sun built it to show them how to build a teepee.
The full truth about Medicine Wheels might never be known. They will remain mysterious for future generations to speculate and ponder.
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Bibliography
Mystery of the Medicine Wheels, National Geographic, Vol. 151, No. 1, National Geographic Society, Washington D.C., pp.140-145.
Geise P.(1996). Star Medicine Wheels, World Wide Web, http://indy4.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/stars/starmenu.html
Krupp E. C.(1978). In Search Of Ancient Astronomies, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York.
Wilson M. (1978). Megaliths to Medicine Wheels: Bold Structures in Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The Provincial Museum of Alberta, Human History Archaeology FAQ, What is a Medicine Wheel?,
http://www.pma.edmonton.ab.ca/human/archaeo/faq/medwhls.htm
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