Guarding the Lodge
This Warrior hangs a medicine bundle on a tripod just outside his lodge to ward off evil and protect those who dwell within. The tokens and talismans contained in the bundle are the secrets of his medicine, a gift granted to him from the spirits through visions and dreams.
The People of the plains were pre-occupied with spiritual concerns. Even in the best of times, there were those who wondered about tomorrow and became absorbed in uncertainty. There were portents and mysteries in the world around them, omens even in the clouds with vague messages from supernatural beings who lived just behind what the People could perceive. There was the continuing need to entreat the spirits for their divine assistance and protection in a world that still was wild. Spirituality colored every aspect of the lives of the People, as individuals and as components of the tribal whole.