North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler.

  • Clark Wissler
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    115/160 (page 107)
    Ventre, Omaha, Hidatsa, and Pawnee. The best known type of bundle is the medicine-pipe which is highly developed among the Blackfoot and their immediate neighbors. In the early literature of the •area frequent reference is made to the calumet, or in this case, a pair of pipestems waved and sung in con¬ nection with a ritual binding the participants in a firm brotherhood. This is reported among the Pawnee, Omaha, Ponca, Mandan, and the Dakota, and accord¬ ing to tradition originated with the Pawnee. The use of either type seems not to have reached the Plateau tribes. One singular thing is that in all these medicine- pipes, it is the stem that is sacred, often it is not even perforated, is frequently without a bowl, and in any event rarely actually smoked. It is thus clear that the whole is highly symbolic. The war and clan bundles of the Osage and Pawnee have not been investigated but seem to belong to a type widely distributed among the Sauk and Fox, Menomini, and Winnebago of the Woodland area. Among the Blackfoot, there is a special development of the bundle scheme in that they recognize the power of transferring all bundles and amulets to another person together with the compact between the divine element. The one receiving the bundle pays a hand¬ some sum to the former owner. This buying and selling of medicines is so frequent that many men have at one time and another owned all the types of bundles in the tribe. In the Museum collections are a few important