Why did native Americans use medicine bags?

Answer 1

Medicine bags were of no value or importance in themselves - it was the contents that mattered. "Bags" came in a wide range of shapes and forms, from tiny deerskin pouches to rawhide tubes fitted with disks at each end and containers shaped like envelopes. All might be painted with typical tribal designs and fringed, or left entirely plain.

The "medicine" was anything considered Holy or sacred or special in some way. It could be the skull of an ancestor, a stuffed animal or bird skin, a fossil or strangely-shaped stone, a sacred pipe decorated with beads and feathers (often called a calumet), seeds, paint, feathers, a headdress and many more items. Each had its own special powers, for healing, for protection in battle, for telling the future, for finding the buffalo herds, for success in war or as a love medicine.

Crow medicine bundles included: a fairly large round stone decorated with beadwork and hung with beaded fringes; the skull of a medicine man; the stuffed skin of a type of weasel; sacred tobacco; and a stuffed eagle. Naturally each was wrapped in trade cloth (usually red) and kept in a bag or pouch or other container - but the container did not matter, just the contents were considered important.

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