rssenglishworld, The English Literature and Grammar Digest

Summary of The Medicine Bag by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve The Medicine Bag is a first-person narrative told by Martin, a young boy living in a modern American city with his parents and sister Cheryl. Martin belongs to a mixed cultural background: his father is a Native American (Sioux/Lakota), while his mother is white. Though Martin is aware of his Native roots, he feels emotionally and socially distant from them and is more comfortable with his urban lifestyle. The story begins with Martin recalling how he and his younger sister Cheryl often boasted about their Sioux grandfather, Joe Iron Shell, to their city friends. Since their friends knew Native Americans only through movies and television, they were deeply impressed by the siblings’ stories. Martin admits that they sometimes exaggerated, making Grandpa and life on the reservation sound far more glamorous than it actually was. During their annual summer visits to the Rosebud Reservation, Grandpa would give them authentic Sioux i...