Insight From the Medicine Wheel
A sacred symbol of direction, guardianship, and prophecy.
The medicine wheel is a well-known symbol.
European Americans, not native people, gave the medicine wheel its name. Each native nation has their own name for this symbol. The image is sacred and so is their name for it, so they keep that name secret.
Each indigenous group represents the emblem differently and may use their own colors and explanations related to their history. Even though the symbol we know is two-dimensional, since it stands for all that exists, native people understand it as three dimensional, a globe shape.
Cherokee and Sioux Examples
The Cherokee Nation originally lived in the Southeast. They adopted many European American ways, including owning slaves, to live in harmony with the large group of newcomers. Cherokee who disapproved of slavery left the Southeast and traveled up along the east coast, settling in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and farther north.
Colonists wanted the Cherokee land and moved them by forced march to new territories in North Carolina and Oklahoma. On the journey from their homeland, many Cherokee died. That earned the forced move the name “The Trail of Tears.”
