Appearing mostly in Alberta, Canada, medicine wheels were built by laying out stones in a circular pattern that often looked like a wagon wheel lying on its side. The wheels could be large, reaching diameters of 75 feet. Although archeologists are not definite on the purpose of each medicine wheel, it is thought that they probably had ceremonial or astronomical significance.
Medicine wheels are still used today in the Native American spirituality, however most of the meaning behind them is not shared among non-Native peoples.
History
Erecting massive stone structures is a well-documented activity of ancient people, from the Egyptian pyramids to Stonehenge, and the natives of Northern America are no different in this regard. What does separate them from the rest is how non-intrusive their structures were. Unlike the usual towering stone monoliths, the natives laid down stones on the earth in certain arrangements. One of the more obscure arrangements is the medicine wheel.
Medicine wheels appear all over northern United States and southern Canada, specifically South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. Most of the wheels have been found in Alberta. In all over 70 medicine wheels have been found.
One of the prototypical medicine wheels is in within the Bighorn National Forest in Big Horn County, Wyoming. This 75-foot diameter wheel has 28 spokes, and is part of a vast set of old Native American sites that document 7,000 years of their history in that area
Structure
Medicine wheels were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center cairn of stones, and surrounding that would be an outer ring of stones, then there would be "spokes", or lines of rocks, coming out the cairn.
Almost all medicine wheels would have at least two of the three elements mentioned above (the center cairn, the outer ring, and the spokes), but beyond that there were many variations on this basic design, and every wheel found has been unique and has had its own style and eccentricities.
The most common deviation between different wheels are the spokes. There is no set number of spokes for a medicine wheel to have. The spokes within each wheel are rarely evenly spaced out, or even all the same length. Some medicine wheels will have one particular spoke that's significantly longer than the rest, suggesting something important about the direction it points.
Another variation is whether the spokes start from the center cairn and go out only to the outer ring, or whether they go past the outer ring, or whether they start at the outer ring and go out from there.
An odd variation sometimes found in medicine wheels is the presence of a passageway, or a doorway, in the circles. The outer ring of stones will be broken, and there will be a stone path leading up to the center of the wheel.
Also many medicine wheels have various other circles around the outside of the wheel, sometimes attached to spokes or the outer ring, and sometimes just seemingly floating free of the main structure.
Meaning
Medicine wheels have been built and used for so long, and each one has enough unique characteristics, that archeologists have found it nearly impossible to tell exactly what each one was for, and had little success at making broad generalizations about their function and meaning.
One of the older wheels has been dated to over 4,500 years old; it had been built up by successive generations who would add new features to the circle. Due to the long existence of such a basic structure, archeologists suspect that the function and meaning of the medicine wheel changed over time, and it is doubtful that we will ever know what the original purpose was.
Astronomer John Eddy put forth the theory that some of the wheels had astronomical significance, where the longest spoke on a wheel could be pointing to a certain star at a certain time of the year, suggesting that the wheels were a way to mark certain days of the year. Other scientists have shown that some of the wheels mark the longest day of the year.
Many Natives use Medicine Wheels to show the natural way things work. Such as life, relationships, and the natural elements.
North normally represents the body, air, the color white (or white people), birth, and/or meeting a stranger and learning to trust as in infancy, explained in Erik Erikson's stages of Psychosocial development. East is said to represent the mind, fire, the color yellow and its people, the adolescent stage, and learning the groups to which people belong. The South holds the heart, the color red or indiginous peoples Red people, the Earth, and the young adult stage. Finally West holds the spirit, water, the color blue, and black people. West can also represent the final life stage in the wheel, being an elder and passing on knowledge to the next generation so that the wheel may start again just like the circle it takes after.
Above is the Sedona Medicine Wheel
The Wyoming medicine wheel sits atop the crest of the Big Horn Mountains many miles from anything that can be called a town. U. S. Route 14A snakes up the incredibly steep western scarp of the Big Horn Mountains in one of the most amazing set of switchbacks anywhere.
The Bighorn Mountains consist of Archean granite overlain by Paleozoic platform rocks. The uplift is a fault block bounded by two great thrust faults that dip beneath the mountains. The sedimentary rocks are flat in the middle of the range but roll dramatically off the western flank until they are vertical and even overturned.
The Wheel is located on a narrow ridge (arete) overlooking two cirques. Parking is at a visitor center about 2 km (1.5 miles) off Route 14. Visitors have to walk the remaining distance on an easy trail. Most site descriptions say it's 1.5 miles but I estimate it as only a mile. The road is drivable to the wheel and beyond and people desiring access to the lands beyond can drive through but may not park at the site. Handicapped visitors can drive up, snow permitting.
The wheel has 28 spokes, the same number used in the roofs of ceremonial lodges. The number 28 has been speculatively linked to the phases of the moon and the number of days in the human reproductive cycle. There is a raised central cairn and several others on the periphery of the wheel. These have been alleged to have astronomical alignments.
The wheel is 500-800 years old and the central cairn is the oldest part. Excavations have shown it extends below the wheel and has been buried by wind-blown dust.
Above is the Wyoming medicine Wheel