Who built the Medicine Wheel?

The wheel was constructed by Plains Indians between 300-800 years ago, and has been used and maintained by various groups since then. The central cairn is the oldest part, with excavations showing it extends below the wheel and has been buried by wind-blown dust. It may have supported a central pole.

What are the 4 components of the Medicine Wheel?

The Medicine Wheel teaches us that we have four aspects to ourselves: the physical, the mental, the emotional, and the spiritual. Each must be in balance and equally developed in order for us to remain healthy, happy individuals.

Why is the Bighorn Medicine Wheel important?

In some Native American ethnographic accounts, the Bighorn Medicine Wheel and other major sacred sites play an essential navigational role. Sacred sites emerge as an integral part of the larger cosmological order by which Indian people oriented their movements and activities.

How was the Bighorn Medicine Wheel made?

Lying at an altitude of 9462 feet near the summit of Medicine Mountain in the Bighorn National Forest of north-central Wyoming is the Bighorn Medicine Wheel. The Pre Columbian structure is made of local white limestone laid upon a bedrock of slightly sloping limestone.

Where was the Bighorn Medicine Wheel built?

Why is the Medicine Wheel a circle?

The circle shape represents the interconnectivity of all aspects of one’s being, including the connection with the natural world. Medicine wheels are frequently believed to be the circle of awareness of the individual self; the circle of knowledge that provides the power we each have over our own lives.

Why is it called a Medicine Wheel?

The term medicine wheel is not an Aboriginal term, but was initially used around the turn of the century by Americans of European ancestry in reference to the Bighorn Medicine Wheel located near Sheridan, Wyoming. Over 70 structures classifiable as medicine wheels have at present been identified.

What is the history of medicine wheels?

Physical medicine wheels made of stone were constructed by several different indigenous peoples in North America, especially the Plains Indians. The medicine wheel has been adopted as a symbol by a number of pan-Indian groups, or other native groups whose ancestors did not traditionally use it as a symbol or structure.

What are the animals of the Medicine Wheel?

The four animals commonly represented in this role are The Bear, The Buffalo, The Eagle, and The Mouse. However, there are no fast rules about which animals represent the directions of the Medicine Wheel.

How big is the Bighorn National Forest?

1,115,073 acres
The Bighorn National Forest is 80 miles long and 30 miles wide. The Forest covers 1,115,073 acres. Elevations range from 5,500 feet to a high of 13,167 feet at Cloud Peak. Black Tooth Mountain stands at 13,005 feet.

What is the history of the Bighorn Medicine Wheel?

The Bighorn Medicine Wheel, probably less than 1,000 years old, was first studied in 1902 by the noted ethnologist S. C. Simms on behalf of the Chicago Field Museum. The Medicine Wheel is a circular alignment of limestone boulders about 80 feet in diameter with 28 rock “spokes” radiating from a prominent central cairn.

What is the difference between the Bighorn Medicine Wheel and Fort Smith?

The Fort Smith Medicine Wheel, built around 1850, is much smaller that the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn Mountains of north Central Wyoming. This medicine wheel has a small central cairn of stones about five feet in diameter with six spokes, in pairs, radiating from it.

What is the elevation of the Bighorn Medicine Wheel?

The Bighorn Medicine Wheel is located in the Bighorn National Forest in north-central Wyoming, at an elevation of almost 10,000 feet on Medicine Mountain. Its elevation makes the medicine wheel inaccessible much of the year due to snow pack.

How tall is the medicine wheel in Wyoming?

The central cairn is about 12 feet in diameter and 2′ high. The Medicine Wheel is located in the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming, USA, off highway 14A. Elevation: 9,642 feet. Latitude: 44 degrees 49′ 32″ N.; longitude: 107 degrees 55′ 15″ W.