When the term "medicine wheel" first appeared it was in relation to the Bighorn Medicine Wheel on Medicine Mountain in Wyoming, a site considered sacred to Native Americans. This area is part of northern Wyoming's Big Horn Range.

It is a circle of stones that are 80 feet across with 28 rows of stones that extend from the central mound of stones to an larger stone circle. Around the outside of the wheel are five smaller stone circles. No one really knows who built it or it's function but there is a general belief that it was built approximately 200 years ago by indigenous Native American peoples and that the 28 rows may stand for days in a lunar month. This site is a sacred, ceremonial site to Native Americans.

The medicine wheel symbolizes American Indian spirituality and the journey we must each take to find our own path. Within the Medicine Wheel the directions (4 or 6) and sections are varied from tribe to tribe. Common beliefs within the Native American culture include the understanding that life is a circle and that the four directions stand for North, South, East and West with Mother Earth being down and Father Sky being above; giving six directions. Some include one more - Spirit seen as either us as a "human" or as the "All that Spirit" is; giving them seven directions.

Here are some more sites on the medicine wheel:

The Medicine Wheel The Circles of Life
The Provincial Museum of Alberta
Site of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians
A wonderful story "The Hopping Stone" about the medicine wheel.
Inner Balance Learning Institute
The Medicine Wheel