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Description
Made this for one of my nieces who works in my office.

Acrylic on leather.

I am of the Humuthqui'em Coast Salish people, from the Pacific Northwest. While medicine bags and bundles are originally of Great Plains and Woodlands derivation, they were brought in pre-contact times over the Rockies, often by Interior Salish or through the Coast Salish People's loooooooong trade routes that went to the Mississippi River and down to Southern Mexico. Like dreamcatchers and sweetgrass they have become a sort of post-contact pan-amerindian tradition.

A medicine pouch is usually a personal item and thus the things it contains would be of a personal nature. There may be small items from significant moments in a person's life, traditional healing herbs or substances like sweetgrass, cedar, sage, willow bark, ochre, jade or turquoise, small items given as gifts, or other meaningful objects to the holder. I have one I take into the bush that contains a small Altoids survival kit, flint, steel and a small personal object given me by my baby niece, so they can also be pragmatic, or a combination. They are often worn close to the chest/heart and some people wear them inside the shirt.

Larger folded ones are known as medicine bundles and they would contain gathered medicinal plants and substances used by traditional healers or shamen. These are even more culturally important and specific rituals are necessary to handle and open them. Some people believe that the objects have an intrinsic power, some - that they are to be used in the process of healing or meditation and some that they act as mnemonic items to help one focus and remind oneself of your chosen path.

O Si'yem.

Description
Made this for one of my nieces who works in my office.

Acrylic on leather.

I am of the Humuthqui'em Coast Salish people, from the Pacific Northwest. While medicine bags and bundles are originally of Great Plains and Woodlands derivation, they were brought in pre-contact times over the Rockies, often by Interior Salish or through the Coast Salish People's loooooooong trade routes that went to the Mississippi River and down to Southern Mexico. Like dreamcatchers and sweetgrass they have become a sort of post-contact pan-amerindian tradition.

A medicine pouch is usually a personal item and thus the things it contains would be of a personal nature. There may be small items from significant moments in a person's life, traditional healing herbs or substances like sweetgrass, cedar, sage, willow bark, ochre, jade or turquoise, small items given as gifts, or other meaningful objects to the holder. I have one I take into the bush that contains a small Altoids survival kit, flint, steel and a small personal object given me by my baby niece, so they can also be pragmatic, or a combination. They are often worn close to the chest/heart and some people wear them inside the shirt.

Larger folded ones are known as medicine bundles and they would contain gathered medicinal plants and substances used by traditional healers or shamen. These are even more culturally important and specific rituals are necessary to handle and open them. Some people believe that the objects have an intrinsic power, some - that they are to be used in the process of healing or meditation and some that they act as mnemonic items to help one focus and remind oneself of your chosen path.

O Si'yem.