The medicine wheel is a concept brought to life by the Sioux tribe. It has many different meanings and interesting interpretations just as tribes have different languages, ceremonies etc. According to an informative video explained by Don Warne, this article will discuss the many meanings he has personally learned through his tribe pertaining the medicine wheel.
Don explains that if we look at the medicine wheel we will find a circle with a cross in the middle and four colors in each corner of the circle. The most common view of the medicine wheel is that the cross in the middle connects the four directions; north, east, south, west. As for the colors of the medicine wheel, they vary in many ways. For now, the focus will be mainly on the Sioux tribe meanings that Don has learned and that most people know about today. The colors are black, red, white and yellow; which may represent the people of the world and their race. Yellow would represent Asia, white would represent Europe, red would represent this continent and black would represent Africa. Don states that some may ask about the Latina population or Spaniards and he stated that, “The indigenous people and the Spaniards came together so in this case it would represent the red and the white colors together”. The next theory of the four corners of the medicine wheel would be the elements which Don describes as “Nature being sacred, so these would be the gifts from our four directions.” The elements are fire, air, earth and water. For more information about the colors Don describes, visit his three-part video. In his three-part video Don also explains the four direction meanings pertaining to individuals. The north would represent the mental aspect, the east would represent the spiritual aspect, the south would represent the emotional aspect and the west would represent the physical aspect. In the Native American culture, a medicine man would say that if any of these attributes to an individual were to be disrupted, then that would mean there was an imbalance in one of these four areas of that individuals life. In traditional medicine, a medicine man would help to heal this person through meditation, prayer, herbal medicine or ceremony and this person would have their own role in the healing process, but in modern medicine, a person might blame the doctor for their imbalance and be passive about not getting a “quick fix”. So, as you can see, the medicine wheel is very sacred and holds multiple meanings. The history dates at least 1000 years ago and the tradition still stands today. |
About Kristina:
Kristina DeSersa is an aspiring writer and artist born in Casper, Wyoming. She is an accomplished student at the Oglala Lakota College in Rapid City, South Dakota. Kristina is Sincangu Lakota and an enrolled member with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Majoring in English and Communication, she wishes to pursue a career in publishing, journalism and freelance writing to inspire others. |