The Native American medicine bags serve as a container for items but such are also believed to protect or give spiritual powers to its carrier or owner. You might be confused, but this is actually used by shamans and medicine men from historic times.

Used In Ancient Times

Historical facts tell that people use a huge medicine bundle to hold many items, including animal teeth or claws, arrowheads, beads, bones, grass, herbs, horse hair, pine cones, tobacco, or anything small in size with spiritual value to the owner.

Warriors also use bundles to carry items important to them, such as animal furs, rattlers, or special stones. That said, the medicine bags have become a precious possession that represent the spiritual life of the person. The tribal community generally considered this and its contents as holy, but they are meant to be kept secret by the owner.

Proper Handling Of Medicine Bags

At the same time, this should never touch the ground. So the bundles should be securely wrapped. In fact, during the manufacture and opening of these medicine bundles there are rituals and prayers that accompany them. Medicine bags are also useful for an entire tribe. However, such can only be handled by certain tribe members and only opened on special occasions.

All the bags and bundles can have powers that offer protection, healing, good hunting, and good luck. These bundles are mostly buried with the owner when he or she dies or can be handed down from one generation to the next.

Used By Different Cultures Around The World

Aside from the native tribes of North America, different cultures worldwide use medicine bags. The use of this type of bag dates back to at least 5,000 years based from ancient remains of a man located at a Swiss Alps in 1991. Among the things found with him was the medicine pouch. In fact, many historians thought that the use of such bags dates back to even as far as 10,000 years.

Basically, medicine bags are meant to give abundance, good guidance, good health, good luck, and even love to individuals who carry them. But some may carry their own bags intended just for them.

Items that can be held inside the medicine bag include those from the animal kingdom, human kingdom, mineral kingdom, and plant kingdom.