For ALL who have the LS Native American Tarot!

[Debra]

You love one of my favorite books!

And I just ordered the illustrated version, inexpensive used from an amazon.com seller! I've got the story in an old collection of sci fi, paperback, I reread it at least once a year and it's falling apart, can't wait to see it in hardback with pictures! And thanks, Mi-Shell, for the reading list. Much appreciated!

 

[Mi-Shell]

Medicine Bundles

2 of the cards show the same Medicine Bundle; a traditional Otter Bundle.
I already mentioned the 5 of Chalices as showing Nigig / Long Otter, Keeper of the flow of life and Guardian of the first degree of the Midewiwin Medicine Society of the Ojibwa....
To me this Card symbolizes Nigig's Power and the all-present inter-connectedness of everything everywhere.
On the 5 of Wands the Bundle is staked in front of the healer's lodge and in the backround we see him attending to a patient. To me that card therefor is the card of the Healer and of Healing Power.

Here is a little bit about Medicine Bundles:

Before talking about medicine bundles, I first will talk a little about "medicine."
Medicine to Native Americans means a type of spiritual guidance or special power. People gained their medicine through visions. Anything of great power could be said to be the result of a certain medicine. Medicine bundles come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, but generally they are made up of sacred objects wrapped in a cover. The covers were usually made by women. It is an honour to be asked to make a bundle cover, and is thought to bring good luck to the maker. The cover is made according the instructions of a whoever had a vision. The cover can be made from a wide variety of materials, including deer skin, buffalo hide, or the skins of animals such as weasels, turned inside out.
The covers may be decorated with symbols and colours, the significance of which may only be known to the visionary who is planning the bundle. In later times Teepee canvas or in the eastern woodlands canoe canvas was used as a cover material.

Medicine people keep their medicine tools in a medicine bundle. This is a large piece of cloth or hide that they tie securely with a thong, or a piece of yarn or string. The contents of the medicine bundle are sacred. Each medicine person may own or share in different medicine bundles: their own, the tribe's, and bundles for special purposes, like seeking visions, hunting, or protection in battle. Some are passed down from one generation to the next. Personal medicine bundles are private and asking about another person's medical tools is forbidden. Some are small enough to be worn around the neck. Medicine bundles belonging to tribes are often called the "grandmothers" because they have the power to nourish and nurture the tribe and promote continued well-being. Tribal medicine bundles grow stronger with each passing year.


One Winnebago medicine bundle contained: three paws of a black bear, a bone tube stuffed with small feather wrapped in the skin of an eagles head, enclosed in a pouch of otters skin containing a bunch of feathers, fastened at the mouth with a peace of eagles skin, two cane whistles, a paint bag, a moccasin with herbs inside, four snake skins, a white weasel skin, herbs, a cane whistle, a brown weasel skin, two snake vertebrae, a bone whistle, a cormorant head, a woodpecker head, a black squirrel skin, two small wooden dolls tied together, a dried eagle claw, animals eyes, a horse chestnut, teeth, a wooden bowl and spoon and eight woven pouches with dried herbs.

That leaves me to mention, that I myself am a Bundle Keeper.
A year and a half ago I was entrusted with an old family Bundle from a local family. The owner had suddenly died and all the relatives had turned to Christianity and wanted to burn "that Devil's Do"
A family friend knew that the deceased had high regard for my work and previously given me a "Medicine Gift" So she convinced the family members to pass the Bundle over, least they would be befallen by bad luck for tossing it away....
It contains ceremonial items reaching back from the 1880's Midewewin Medicine Society to items connected with the Peyote rituals of the Native American Church....
And believe you me: That Bundle is alive and a presence in our house with demands of its own....

 

[Mi-Shell]

forgot to mention, that the strange things, that have fallen out of the ?open? Medicine Bag in the 5 of Wands card, to me do not look at all like the contents of an Otter Bundle. Also a bundle would be handled with outmost reverence and not hang on its perch, opened and spilling its contents..
Medicine treated like that could be ineffective or even "backfire".
The healer in the back- attending his patient - to me does not look like the person who would treat a Bundle so careless.
I imagine, he is treating the patient with a camphor / elk-fat salve, put on the feather, to help his charge with a stuffed up nose....
Bdw: "the Bad white book" calls the card Medicine bag and has 3 accurate sentences to offer.....
I just wish I could ask the artist of the painting what was on her mind showing a violated bundle????
Had the White people just raided the camp and brought their cold and flue along???
An unfriendly neighbourhood tribe would either have left the Bundle alone --because do not mess with its Power or it backfires or they would have taken it and asked a HUUUUUUGE ransom for it......

The painting here is from Howard Terping...

 

[Mi-Shell]

Chickens anyone???

3 of Swords: Rooster:
The BWB states: Rooster is the harmony of the cosmos, discipline and control. Now to me psonaly that sounds like what is on the slips of paper in the Chinese fortune cookies... Is the Rooster not an animal of the Chinese zodiac??
One thing is for sure, Chickens, when not in a pot or on a roasting spit, rank very low on the list of Sacred Animals for Native Americans...
Domestic ones, that is..... Prarie Chicken - Quail and Grouse however are VERY different in the eyes of “Younger Brother Two Legged”
As far as i remember, there are even Grouse dances....
Grouse, due to its spiraly mating dance display is considdered very special and is a teacher of the dance, drumming and the way into trance dances..Ptamigan is a northern type of Grouse.
And I think , what we see on this card could very well be seen as a Quail or Grouse leading - unfortunately a war- or victory dance -> see the hatchets, knifes and coup sticks and the paint....
...... Or are we to assume that this is the legend of how the first chicken ended in the mulligan stew?????


And that brings me to the the Tohono O'odham Nation and Chicken scratch!
A type of music!!!!
an eclectic mix of Native and -----POLKA!!!!
With absolutely NO spiritual aspirations!
A first for First Nations, that see music and dance as a form of prayer, a moving medtation, a trance dance to talk with the Spirits, and not for social fun.
Ok, there also were round dances and Sq.... (baaaaad word!!!! = female privates!!) dances that were/ are social ..... but they are usualy held AFTER the chicken was eaten at the feast....
So here the dirt about Chicken scratch and later I will edit in a scan of the card.....

Chicken scratch (also known as waila music) is a kind of dance music developed by the Tohono O'odham people. The genre evolved out of acoustic fiddle bands in southern Arizona, in the Sonoran desert. These bands began playing European and Mexican tunes, in styles that include the polka, schottisch and mazurka.
Chicken scratch, however, is at its root, an interpretation of norteño music, which is itself a Mexican adaptation of polka. Many chicken scratch bands still play polka songs with a distinctive flourish, and may also play the waltz or conjunto Chicken scratch dance is based on the "walking two step or the walking polka and the emphasis is on (a) very smooth gliding movement" dancers may also perform the mazurka or the chote, though no matter the style, it is always performed counterclockwise
Chicken scratch is usually played with a band including alto saxophone, bass, guitar, drums and accordion, though the original style used only percussion, guitar and violin, with the accordion and saxophone added in the 1950s . Its home is the Tohono O'odham Reservation, Pima Salt River Reservation and Gila River Reservation.
The term waila comes from Spanish bailar, meaning to dance The term chicken scratch comes from a description of traditional Tohono O'odham dance, which involves kicking the heels high in the air, which supposedly bears a resemble to a chicken scratching.
The most famous performers are likely the Joaquín Brothers and Los Papagos Molinas with Virgil Molina

 

[Mi-Shell]

The Power of the Drum:

10 of Wands: The Drum

The BWB says: It reproduces the primordial sound of creation that leads to ecstasy. right.
It symbolizes thunder, ... right.... and the rest is incorrect.
The drum does NOT symbolize death and war - (other than seen as white western war drums in marching bands calling the soldiers into step and deafening their critical thought-process when so trodding of to the fields of slaughter.....)
The Drum is female and the sound it emits is the Heartbeat of Mother Earth.
It is sacred.
It is most often played with a beater/ drum stick that is considered male - and not with the hands, like a conga as seen in the picture.
Drums are plaid by a group of men sitting around it and beating in unison. Some are singers, the lead singer having an amazing vocal range from deep and low rumblings to the super -high falsetto that attracts the Spirits.
The women stand behind the men and sing and sometimes also play frame drums.
Drum ways and etiquette varies greatly from tribe to tribe.
However: ONE rule always counts:
In Native America NEVER touch a drum!!!!!!!!!!
If you do, it becomes useless, needs to be reborn = cleansed, re-invocated and its specific ceremonies redone... That can cost more than a new drum.
I have seen it that some thoughtless wh..... people casually walked up to a big Pow Wow drum, pulled of its robe and banged on it. When they were done with that and went to “play” with something else, a great wailing and keening started and the women came over, slitting their arms with a broken bottle letting the blood drip onto the dead drum while continuing to wail. The singers followed suit and then the carried the precious object over to the Sacred fire and With EVERYONE in attendance on this Pow Wow standing up= honor guard, the drum and its robe were committed into the fire.......
I cried.......
I will not tell you what happened to the car of the disrespectful “visitors”......... You all have vivid imagination......

An Elder speaks: Earnest N.... Comanche
It is said that the drum was brought to the Indian people by a woman, and therefore there is a woman spirit that resides inside the drum. Appropriately, it is to be treated with respect and care, and strict behavior is expected of anyone coming in contact with the drum. The drum is often thought to help bring the physical and mental side of a person back in touch with his or her spiritual or heart side. As with many things in the Indian culture, the drum is used to bring balance and rejuvenation to a person through their participation in dancing, singing or listening to the heartbeat.

 

[Little Hare]

10 of Wands: The Drum


However: ONE rule always counts:
In Native America NEVER touch a drum!!!!!!!!!!
If you do, it becomes useless, needs to be reborn = cleansed, re-invocated and its specific ceremonies redone... That can cost more than a new drum.
I have seen it that some thoughtless wh..... people casually walked up to a big Pow Wow drum, pulled of its robe and banged on it. When they were done with that and went to “play” with something else, a great wailing and keening started and the women came over, slitting their arms with a broken bottle letting the blood drip onto the dead drum while continuing to wail. The singers followed suit and then the carried the precious object over to the Sacred fire and With EVERYONE in attendance on this Pow Wow standing up= honor guard, the drum and its robe were committed into the fire.......
I cried.......
I will not tell you what happened to the car of the disrespectful “visitors”......... You all have vivid imagination......

I really really really dislike when people do things like that, it makes me cringe with shame and embarrassment.... some people really make me angry.....

 

[Bat Chicken]

I didn't know that rule, myself. But I always felt like it would be wrong to even step under the drum tent (when everything else is open) whenever I have been to a pow wow.... My Catholic upbringing makes the word 'forbidden' come to mind!

 

[Mi-Shell]

Nowadays things are changing Very rapidly!! There is my friend Shannon Thunderbird, a Tsimshian Medicine Woman who had a vision, tocreate and birth a Woman's Healing Drum and lead it with her none Native friend. she travels with it around the country and women, that need to heal from bad experiences come and drum with her.
Some Elders are aghast about that but it is HER vision and she walks with it!!!! Right into the mids of controversy. She is very brave!
We in my home village have a laaarge Grandmother drum in the house of a friend and use it whenever the Drum Circle is at her house.....
Let me see, if I have pics on the other computer...

 

[Mi-Shell]

Fire!!!!!

This is about the 9 of Pentacles , a blazing conflagration within which spirits and petroglyph designs and other Medicine symbols dance.
Many other cards have a fire too, = also the 10 of wands....
so here a repeat post from the Teaching tent about
Fire:
Native Americans consider fire to be a great powerful living being and a sacred Spirit. It is often called Grandfather Fire and fire ceremonies are among the first rituals performed by humans. Fire cooked meals and heated homes and for that they gave thanks. The greatest and most powerful of all fires is that from Grandfather Sun. Most tribes have ceremonies, some daily, that honore the sun and its life-giving fire force.
Special fires include the one created to heat the sacred rocks before a Sweat Ceremony, called Inipi. Sweats are practiced by many tribes today and the ceremony is a rite of purification.
Natural earth fire, such as that which comes forth from a volcano, is also sacred to First Nations people.
The qualities of fire -its resemblance to living things, its creation of light, and its relationship to the sun - make it an important
element in many Native American stories and rituals. Some stories tell of the acquisition of fire.
The Huron hold that fire making was learned from Aataentsic =First Woman.
The Cherokee obtained fire from Ani Hyuntikwalaski, the Thunder Being. Black Godis the Navajo creator of fire.
Okabewis (Ojibwa) teaches people how to make fire, and the Menominee received fire as a gift from Winabojo.
Masau?u gave fire to the Hopi. When Frog rubs his hands on the back of Mastamho, fire is created for the Mohave.
Fire entered the Pima world to resolve the issue of what to do with the dead.
Fire is often missing during the mythic era, having been locked up or hidden by some malevolent being. In many stories,
a culture hero makes a dangerous journey to steal fire so that it may be released for use by human beings.
In many traditions Coyote is the heroic figure who steals fire.
The Nootka woodpecker (Lehmamit} and creator (Quawteaht} both appear in stories where they steal the fire.
The Ute wolf (Sunawavi} and the Kawaiisu Tocitumba are also portrayed in this role.
Fire may be used to represent new life, as when the fire is renewed in the Green Corn Dance.
In a Kathlamet story of Grizzly Bears Fire, the bear prides himself in always having a fire.
Ababinili is the Chickasaw spirit of fire.

Fire to all!
Mi-shell

 

[Debra]

I just got back from a week away and have a lot of reading to catch up with this thread...and also the LeGuin Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight book was here, and I want to re-read that and savor the illustrations! Anyway, again I am watching, Mi-shell.