Indian Medicine Bag

The story of the Indian Medicine Bag. When I was a little girl until adulthood I have had horrible headaches and ear aches. My Grandmother, who was a quarter Indian, used to make these bags to relieve them. She stirred it in a pot until it was hot then poured it in the bag, usually made from an old shirt sleeve. On an earlier visit we had brought a small microwave to her house to use. While at her house one night the headaches started and got really bad but I didn't want to wake her up. I got the bag and put it in the microwave for just a couple minutes and thankfully I had my hot bag to go to sleep with. I was selling stuff I painted and different products at craft shows but business had slowed down a lot. I decided to make a few of the bags with my Grandmothers recipe and sell them at the next show. Very quickly they were all sold. We made more for the next show and sold all of them again and again until medicine bags were all we were making for the shows. It is still all we make for the shows and we are still selling them. Our Indian Medicine Bag is a cotton bag filled with a mixture of small grains and 12 different kinds of herb seeds. It is best kept in the freezer for a cold pack and can be taken directly from the freezer to heat in the microwave. It stays soft and pliable to fit to the area you need treated. It can be used for anything you would use a hot/cold pack for. It can be hand washed and dried in the dryer or draped over a fan or drainboard. Just make sure you dry it if it gets wet so it won't mildew.