The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-11-02

l.. Copies of the pamphlet onthe his
| tory land isuperstitions surrounding
1.-THE historic medicine wheel in the
[ Biz. Horn mountains, around which
I are Woven most of the legends of the
l.Arapahoess and Cheyenne Indians of
southeastern M o nj n a and nor
ntherno Wyoming, written by George
Bid .GEinnells q chairman of the ma
I'll, tioRPasl parks commission have been
receiyed by friends of the eelebrat-
Ted, author and naturalist in Billings
AID Sheridan, ,Wyo. .,e3.t.7 ~, a..1
ED''0 DR.. Gr1nnel visited Sheridan few
weeks ago investigating the feasible
ity ofsthe proposed Big Horn nation
al park 40 miles west of Sheridan.
If that portion of the Big Horns is
set aside for national park, one of
it's feature attractions will be the
hnedicine Wheel, which DR.. Grinnell
describes as follows:
%A known to Indians
The so-called medicine Wheel in
Wyoming has long been known to a
fewg# itemen and always to the In
dians. Yet many present day Indians
appear almCst to hayeI forgotten even
heard sfram an earlier generation.
cts first mention in type, as far
as I know, is found in an account of
trip. into the Big Horn mountains,
printed in Forest and Stream, Sep
TENDER %, 1895, which gives the gen.
eral location and rough description
of the wheel, as follows:
"'On the very top of Medicine
mountain can still be seen the So
called Medicine Wheel, the plan and
general arrangement of which bear
a striking resemblance to the famous
CaIendar Stone of Old Mexico. AS
tho hame implies, this Medicine
Wheel isAa circle composed of loose
stones. nthe middle of it is hut
(algn sfone) from which spokes
of ktenes radiate to the circumfer-
end fhere terminating in smaller
hutxdt is said that these smaller
during the religious cere
occupied by the medicine men
of the different tribes, while the
larger hut in the center was supposed |
to be the abode of the Manitou. The
wheel appears to be- of great Eanti-
1gisy JTlYI G.S1 III "a
blStOFy OnknOWu :,
"a mum Der of the people have Wis
ted the Medicine Wheel in recent
years, but nothing seems to be known
rs to it's history or the uses to which
t was put. 1t is built on the flat
.opped shoulder of a bald mountain
IN the western side of the Big Horn
Just about at timber line,
)r perhaps a little above it. The
shoulder, which is almost without
;oil4 consists of a hard white or
,reafp- coiored limestone w hic h :
yeathers into slabs or flat frag- s
nents,, and the wheelais made up of ]
,ieces of this rock arranged on the
,roSInd in a certain order. Because {
t Has been disturbed by visitors and
walked over wandering cattle, ac-
urate measurements of it can not be I
iven.
''The wheel consists of wide and 9
omewhat irregular circle of large |
tones, which has diameteRof from 9
4 to 80 feet. In the center of this {
ircle is inner circle of large stones
lied up in wall, about II feet in t
Inside diameter and seven feet in I
ide, and from two and half to three a
Get high. From the outer side of the G
yall of this inner the central circle i
s lines of small stones, set close to- G
ether, radiate to The border Of the {
utter circle. T
Was Religious Resort t
''The arrangement of these stones r
lstifies the term wheel" and the a
ord medicine obviously refers to c