A sacred bundle or a medicine bundle is a wrapped collection of sacred items, held by a designated carrier, used in Indigenous American ceremonial cultures. According to Patricia Deveraux, a member of the

Blackfoot Confederacy The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'', or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or "Blackfoot language, Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up ...

in Alberta, "These are holy bundles given to us by the Creator to hold our people together... They're the same as the relics from the Catholic Church. They are a demonstration of the holy spirit. They can heal people."

Overview

According to

Black Elk Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (baptized Nicholas; December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' (" medicine man, holy man") and '' heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war lea ...

of the

Oglala Lakota The Oglala (pronounced , meaning 'to scatter one's own' in Lakota language, Lakota) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota people, Dakota, make up the Sioux, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A ...

, the first woman chosen to care for the sacred bundle was Red Day Woman, and all women subsequently chosen to care for the sacred bundle are regarded as holy people. To open or use a bundle without the proper ritual and ceremony portends disaster.

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

, the 'bundle' - as an idea, image and word - is seen as both the container, such as the wrapping of the bundle, and the contents, which could be any number of special objects possessing spiritual significance. Called ''tlaquimilolli'' among

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

speaking peoples, the bundles were receptacles of divine force and served as symbols of group identity.Olivier, Guilhem, and Susan Romanosky. "Bundles." In Davíd Carrasco (ed).
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, vol 1.
' New York : Oxford University Press, 2001. Historically, sacred bundles were also prominent among the Aztecs and the Quiché Mayas (see

Popol Vuh ''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people of Guatemala, one of the Maya peoples who also inhabit the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, ...

). The pre-Columbian Borgia Codex uniquely visualizes the mystic powers emanating from such a bundle.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sacred Bundle Native American religion Native American relics Religious objects Mississippian culture

Overview

Mesoamerica

See also

References