Medicine Wheel
Contains at least two of the following three criteria:
Using this definition, the number of remaining medicine wheels is estimated to be between 100 and 200, each of which has a completely unique form. A vast majority of these wheels are found in Alberta and Saskatchewan, but some are located in North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado. The oldest wheels date back about 4,000 years, to the time of the Egyptian pyramids and the English megaliths like Stonehenge.
Burial and Memorials Wheels
Fertility Wheels
Moose Mountain Medicine Wheel
Moose Mountain, Saskatchewan
Largest in USA - Bighorn Medicine Wheel
Lovell, Wyoming
Largest in Canada - Iniskim Umaapi / Majorville Medicine Wheel
Majorville, Alberta
Learn more Blackfoot Medicine Wheel Project
Contains at least two of the following three criteria:
1) A central stone cairn
2) One or more concentric stone circles, and/or
3) Two or more stone lines radiating outward from a central point.
Using this definition, the number of remaining medicine wheels is estimated to be between 100 and 200, each of which has a completely unique form. A vast majority of these wheels are found in Alberta and Saskatchewan, but some are located in North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado. The oldest wheels date back about 4,000 years, to the time of the Egyptian pyramids and the English megaliths like Stonehenge.
Burial and Memorials Wheels
In grave sites and memorials, the longest line of boulders points to the direction of the honoree's birth.
Shorter lines point to places of courageous acts or remarkable deeds.
Fertility Wheels
They have the same pattern of radiating lines and circles employed as fertility symbols on the pottery and birch-bark "bitings" of other pre-historic, North American cultures. The fertility wheels contain buried offerings their builders believed would increase the number of buffalo.
"If the people went into a particular place and they were without resources, they'd take the shoulder blade of the animal they wanted to hunt and put it in the fire. As the bone dried out, it would crack, and at the end of the crack you'd get blobs of fat. They would interpret (the cracks with the blobs of fat) as indicating the directions they'd have to go to find those food resources, or people who had food to share. The cracks where fat did not accumulate would indicate a poor direction to go."
Moose Mountain Medicine Wheel
Moose Mountain, Saskatchewan
Radio-carbon dated 2600 years old. The Blackfoot arrived about 800 AD. In an 1895 report written by land surveyors, it is described the central cairn of the wheel as being about 14 feet high. Today it is about a foot and a half due to theft and vandalism of the stones. The central cairn is surrounded by five spokes, with an outer ring 30 feet in diameter. The spokes extend far beyond the outer ring, with the longest one measuring 123 feet and marking the summer solstice sunrise.
Largest in USA - Bighorn Medicine Wheel
Lovell, Wyoming
At 75 feet in diameter, Wyoming’s Bighorn Medicine Wheel is the biggest in the USA. The geometry of the structure is described by a central cairn, large enough to contain a sitting person, surrounded by 28 spokes emanating outward and six other cairns placed along the outer circumference of the wheel.
Largest in Canada - Iniskim Umaapi / Majorville Medicine Wheel
Majorville, Alberta
The largest medicine wheel in Canada is located in Majorville. The Blackfoot name for the site is Iniskim Umaapi meaning "buffalo calling stones sacred site". It consists of a central cairn, 9 meters across, with 28 spokes radiating outward to form an outer ring that is 27 meters in diameter. This wheel is also Canada's oldest known, built 5,000 years ago.
"To ordinary people, the rocks in the medicine wheel are just rocks, but to us they are alive," explained Gerald Sitting Eagle, a Siksika Elder and husband to Laura. "The rocks give us life and the four directions and the signs in the medicine wheel mean different things to different people. The rocks piled up in the middle look like a Sweat Lodge and some say the stone ring resembles a Sun Dance Lodge. There are many different stories about the purpose of the medicine wheel, but we know it is a place to look for the creator's help."
Learn more Blackfoot Medicine Wheel Project
