"Sacred Bundles of the Ioway Indians" is an EXPANDED online version of my (Lance Foster's) thesis of the same name for my Master's in Anthropology, completed in 1996. Although some differences in layout occur, the content is the same as that in the thesis. However, some editing and additions have been made in this online version to keep this a living and useful resource. If you really want to compare it with the original you can either a.) borrow the original through interlibrary loan from Iowa State University, or b.) buy a photocopy from me for $75 to cover costs, the hassle, and postage ...heck I'll even sign it for you and put it in a binder. Email me at mailto:ioway@earthlink.netif you want me to run a copy for you, which does have page numbers. It runs about 350 pages. But it is all here, free and online, with additional tweaking and new graphics, and you can certainly print it out here for your own use for FREE.

"Sacred Bundles of the Ioway" is presented here as a GIFT in the name of our Ioway ancestors and our Ioway people, so that members of the Ioway tribe as well as scholars, and the interested public, may have access to it for educational purposes. Any other use, such as in so-called New Age shamanism, constitutes fraud. You can be sure that in times to come, if anyone purports to be any kind of an Ioway medicine man/woman going around and using this information, they are shams, and the spirit world will take care of that. I AM A SCHOLAR AND MAKE NO CLAIMS TO BEING ANY KIND OF SPIRITUAL TEACHER AND WILL NOT RESPOND TO EMAILS OF THAT TYPE.

All rights are reserved, copyright 1996 by Lance Foster. Permission is given to individuals to print single copies for their own use but individuals may not distribute the contents in any form, for sale or otherwise. Permission is given to quote sections of the text as long as credit is given and a link to this site is placed with the credit. Any other use, especially by anyone pretending to being teachers of Indian spirituality, will be considered a ripoff of our ancestors. And I won't have to protect against that, because that protection has been seen to already. So be it, DA KE.

At this time I have not been able to scan all the graphics, so for now only the text is online. The graphics are in hardcopy and in storage many states away, so that may take some time. Also what is really exciting to me is that I will also be able to scan in some color photos and original photos from Skinner. I may also add some other notes, illustrations, corrections, and links as seems appropriate, later on.

To avoid confusion, page numbers from the original are omitted here.

This is version 1, and will be posted beginning Sept. 19, 2001, with succeeding sections every few days.

CONTACT: If you have comments, criticisms, etc. you can email me, the author (Lance Foster), at: ioway@earthlink.net.