The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-11-22
Piuteopathy.

as well as if he were Sioux or an
Apache. Similarly, he fully compre-
hends the uses of whisky, and there are
said to be occasional Flutes who have
mastered the profound principles of
draw-poker. When it is also mentioned
that the Piutes have thrown open the
profession of medicine to women, with
u hearty liberality as yet unknown
among whittier and more civilized peo-
pie, the fair sex can hardly fail to con-
ceive a warm regard for the peaceful
and progressive tribe.
There are certain features connected
with the practice.of medicine among
the Piutes by female physicians which
show that the whole community takes
a warm interest in the matter. In En-
gland, and among the white people of
this country, the female doctor may
hope for nothing more than cold tolera-
ton. If our female doctors happen to
cure patient, the cold world ignores
their skill and insinuates that Nature
alone deserves the credit of the cure !;
while if the patient dies no one pays
the female doctor the common courtesy
of suggesting that she is in partnership
with the undertaken. The general att
tude of the public toward female ply
sicians is that of affected disbelief in
their ability either to kill or cure, and
of entire Indifference as to the actual
results, if any, of their practice. How
differently this matter is viewed by the
Piutes will appear from the following
incident in the career of Piute medi-
cine.wOman.
The medicine woman in question
wore the simple, modest, yet pict-
urcsque name of Heap hokec," a
name given to her in memory of the
able manner in which, during her fif-
tcenth year, she strangled two wounded
emigrants whom her dear father had
previously scalped. She became q
widow at the age of sixty, and was sub
sequently duly licensed to practice med
icine according to the tenets of the reg
ular Piute medical school.
Shortly afterward DIR. Heap hokee
was called in to prescribe for squaw
who was in the last stages of consump-
ton. Having made a careful examina-
ton of the patient by punching her in
tender places with the handle of hoe,
the Doctor decided that the case was
one which did not call for drugs, but
for ''powwow. She therefore shut
herself up in the patients wigwam, and
danced and howled with much vigor for
several hours, at the expiration of
which the patient was found to be dead.
1t SO happened that the consumptive
squaw was not valuable one, and,
in fact, her husband was rather glad
that she was dead. Still, the death of
the Doctors first patient was not adapt
cd to give her reputation for medical
skill, and the affair was therefore in
vestigated ny council of able war;
riors. The council decided that the
Doctor had committed an error in not
prescribing medicine, and, while it
was expressly conceded that it was not
worth while to severely reprimand her
for the death of a worthless squaw, she
was affectionately warned that she
would do well in future to prescribe a
good dose of real medicine.
A fortnight later 4 young warrior was
brought into camp suffering from an
acute attack of grizzly bear, the lead
ing symptom of which was g the tract
ure Of a dozen or two of his ribs and a
general MASKING of the internal organs"
This time the Doctor compounded a
medicine that really ought to have
worked wonders. 1t was made by
boiling together collection of miscel-
laneous weeds, a handful of chewing
tobacco, the heads of four rattlesnakes,
and u select assortment of wOrn-out
mOccasins. The decOction thus OBJ
tanned was seasoned with little crude
petroleum and a large quantity of red
pepper, and the patient was directed to
take a pint of the mixture every half
hour. He was brave man, conspicu-
Gus for his fortitude under suffering,
but after taking his first dose, he turned
over and died with the utmost expedition.
Again the council of leading warriors
investigated the case. They ana
lyzed and tasted the medicine, and
agreed that it was faultless in its way,
and strong enough to cure any reasOna-
bic disease. While they fully approved
of the prescription, they found that the
Doctor had relied upon it alone, and
had omitted to dance and yell to any
extent worth mentioning. This inno-
walton upon the recognized method of
treating diseases could not be passed
over in silence, and DR.. Heap-Chokee
was solemnly warned that she must
either practice medicine properly or
meet the consequences, and that young
and valuable warriors could not be
wasted with IMMUNITY.
Soon after the daughter of the leading
Chief was attacked by what was un-
doubleday an inflammation of the brain.
Warned by experience, the Doctor
brought the entire resources of the med
ical art to bear upon the case. She
not only administered large doses of
her favorite decoction, but she took
large tin pan into the patients wigwam
and hammered itfor twenty -four hours,
during which time she never ceased
to dance and to yell at the top of
her lungs. Her zeal called forth the
admiration of the whole tribe, and it
was considered certain that the patient
must recover; but, strange as it may
seem, the Doctor emerged from the
wigwam in the morning of the second
day and sadly announced that the girl
was dead.
Once more the council met, but its
deliberations were short. DR.. Heap
Chokee had attended three patients and
every one had died. There could be
no doubt that she was an unsuccessful
physician, and that if she continued to
practice the tribe would soon become
extinct. The course to be pursued was
too plain to be ignored. The Doctor
was summoned. and was mildly but
firmly told that her professional career
was at an end. Three warriors then
led her outside the limits of the camp,
and administered to her six revolver
bullets, after which lots were drawn for
the possession Of her scalp, and the
rest Of her was quietly buried.
The Piutes may be dull and ignorant
savages in comparison with ourselves,
but it is false pride which would for
bid us to learn from them any really
useful lesson. The warm interest which
they take in the success of female phys
icians is conspicuously at variance with
the indifference which we exhibit, and
there is certainly something in the ex-
ample which they set us that we might