The Medicine Bundle Symbol Analysis

A medicine bundle is a collection of sacred items wrapped together, usually given during spiritual ceremonies, and they are symbolic of Native Cree identity in Three Day Road. In Anishnabe culture, medicine bundles are given to keep Indigenous people connected, and Niska gives Xavier a medicine bundle before he leaves for World War I. Xavier’s medicine bundle contains “protective herbs” and the tooth of a lynx, Niska’s spirit animal, and he never takes it off the entire time he fights in France for the Canadian Army. In the whitewashed army, Xavier is given a wemistikoshiw (European) haircut and clothing, but the medicine bundle given to him by Niska remains a tangible connection to Northern Canada and Xavier’s Indigenous identity. He often “fondles” the medicine bundle around his neck, and he can still smell the smoke from the ceremonial fire when he holds it close to his nose.

Xavier often wants to open the medicine bundle, but he refrains “for fear of losing something important,” so he simply holds it and “dreams of home.” Near the end of the war, Xavier rips his military identification tags from his neck and leaves only the medicine bundle. “That alone is who am I,” Xavier says. Xavier rejects the wemistikoshiw ways and culture and instead embraces his own Cree identity. Elijah, too, wears a medicine bundle made by Niska, and after Xavier is forced to kill Elijah after he is infected by the windigo (an evil Anishinabe spirit), Xavier removes Elijah’s medicine bundle, “but it does not want to break.” When the medicine bundle finally breaks, it is tangled with Elijah’s military identification tags. Elijah embraces wemistikoshiw ways and culture, and his own medicine bundle tangled with the military tags represents his assimilation. Elijah’s culture tries to keep him connected and resists breaking, but for Elijah it simply isn’t enough.