The original dream of creating a holistic mobile medical unit grew in response to a recurrent need expressed by the local and extended communities in the IPP service area. The mobile medical unit was equipped with an array of holistic medical tools, books, and homeopathic and natural first aid remedies. It was not intended to replace the services of ambulance, emergency room, hospital or physician, but rather to complement traditional medical services.

Medicine Wheels provided the following functions:

• To serve as transportation for the Indigenous Peoples Project Program Directors and Volunteers
• To provide mobile holistic health resources in response to the call for help in acute, but minor, first aid emergencies, complement regular EMT services and be available on a stand-by basis for rural home births
• To travel to distant communities in times of need, as in such natural disasters as earthquake, flood, or fire, as well as un-natural disasters such as war or industrial accidents