Pawnee
Sacred bundles are a powerful part of Pawnee ceremonies linked to planting and harvesting. They contain tools necessary to those ceremonies, and the rituals and ceremonies associated with them are passed from generation to generation along with the bundles. Bundles are owned by women and inherited through the female line, but can be used by men only. According to Black Elk of the Oglala Lakota, the first woman chosen to care for the sacred bundle was Red Day Woman, and all women subsequently chosen to care for the sacred bundle were regarded as holy people.
To open or use a bundle without the proper ritual and ceremony portends disaster.
Bundle contents vary according to ritual and customs. A bundle at the Kansas State Historical Society has been x-rayed to identify its contents, which are wrapped in an ocher-stained bison hide. There are several ceremonial objects tied to the outside of the bundle, including a long smoking pipe, arrow fragments, a meat fork tipped with a raccoon bone, and small American flags. According to the x-ray analysis inside are stuffed bird bundles, hawk bells, counting sticks, and glass beads sewn on a leather strip.
Some Pawnee kept intricate star charts in their bundles.
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