Izze-kloth
Encyclopedia
The Izze-kloth or Medicine cord is a sacred cord worn by Apache
medicine men
that is believed to confer strength and special powers of healing to the wearer. The izze-kloth is usually made from strands of animal hide and its length punctuated with beads and shells. Often, an izze-kloth has four strands, each dyed a different color (usually, yellow, blue, white and black).
beliefs often commented on the difficulty in understanding the purpose and use of the izze-kloth because "the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or talk about them."
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
medicine men
Medicine man
"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...
that is believed to confer strength and special powers of healing to the wearer. The izze-kloth is usually made from strands of animal hide and its length punctuated with beads and shells. Often, an izze-kloth has four strands, each dyed a different color (usually, yellow, blue, white and black).
Etiquette
The izze-kloth holds great sacred symbolism and people regarded as unbelievers in the cord are almost never permitted to view, touch or discuss it. Nineteenth-century ethnological reports on Native AmericanIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
beliefs often commented on the difficulty in understanding the purpose and use of the izze-kloth because "the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or talk about them."
See also
- ApacheApacheApache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
- Medicine manMedicine man"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...
- YagyopavitUpanayanaUpanayana is the initiation ritual by which initiates are invested with a sacred thread, to symbolize the transference of spiritual knowledge .- Significance of the sacred thread :...
, the Hindu sacred cord - KushtiKushtiKushti is the sacred girdle worn by Zoroastrians around their waists. Along with the Sedreh, the Kushti is part of the ritual dress of the Zoroastrians....
, the Zoroastrian sacred cord