Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1886-07-06
MEDICINE MEN.

Auu Wuo ktstesNe - $50
College In the Class OF 1880. appears In
. late number Of the Portland (Orgon)
N,irs:
Fred w. Pickett. one OF the Copper
River explorers. but now In the signal
service Office In this city. Was explaining
the F" rattle" an instrument peculiar to
the medicine men Of Alaska, to some
visitors. wnen = Neic' reporter ven,ured
10 yesterday afternoon to inquire about
the weather. The "rsitle" 10 . hollow
wooden instrument with . handle, and
painted and designed according to the 10.
genuiiy Of the maker. IL contains
quantity Of pebbles. or shot. and when
shaken, cause. . rafting noise. which
gives Il lie name.
"The Indians Of Alaska recognize no
medicine said Mr.. Pickett. They
have this cot, Of an instrument, called .
rattle. welded by medicine men. They
believe when person becomes sick that
an evil 'piri, takes possession OF him.
The frat thing IL to dislodge this bad
spook The medicine man !. sen, for. and
after considerable en,rea,y and fes.. in
the Nay Of skins. blankets, etc. Is in.
daeed n ,i.i, the patient lie covers
himself with ell the grease, pain, and dir,
he can re, hold Of. surmoun,' his head
with . feather. and generally makes him
self .. hideous as possible. Then the
patient, /. laid on q blanket In the open
air. and Coz hours the medicine man goes
through the mos, horrible eontortions.
misgled with worse than var.whoop'
Sometime. the disease spends itself aud
the p.,ien, RECEIVERS. Bu, in nine cases
ou, OF ten. death ensues. The medicine
man stays With the patient until he re-
covers OF dies "
"whstdi.es'e !. mos,Pre'slsn, among
the Alaska lndisnss'
"Biliou.nsss. II IL caused by eating
90 much dried meat and fish. The In.
dian. live on dried mea, In summer. aud
. mixture Of fish and mea, in winter
They never cook their food. and consume
|, 10 il. dried. raw state after dipping u
10 oil. When tie food becomes too hard.
they steam IL TO soften IL. aud ,ha, Is
.bou, al the cooking they do The
children suffer terribly from sickness, and
the mortality il large. so much 80 iha,
no, one child Ia ten ever rsaehs. the age
Of maturity. I, !, impossible on such
exclusive diet"
III. much confidence placed in these
medicine men by the lndi.nsl
Every reliance Is placed in them. II
. medicine man tells sick Indian ,ha,
he will leave Tor the happy hunting.
grounds in half an hour. be believes Il.
and give. up all hope Of recovery. In
fact. the medicine men are master. Of the
situation. and are the cause OF much
trouble. They can pronounce even q
death sentence. II they fail TO cure q
pa,ien, some one else IL blamed for the
failure. and II ,ha, person values BIS life
he ~ill soon make himself scarce. Onee
in Northern Alaska . medicine man un-
derook TO cure q child and failed. lie
claimed ,ha, an old Indian woman had
be~i,ehed him. and ordered her TO be
killed. A, low tide she va. tied to a
stake and when the tide came 10 she VAS
drowned. The officers Of the United
State. steamship Pin,a keari Of the mat
ter, and came 10 the scene aud captured
the medicine man. lie VAS taken aboard
and shorn Of hi. hair and then released.
Tha, di.grseed him 10 the eyes OF the peo'
pie. which W. worse than death. Like
sampson. be WAS powsrls's wiihou, hi.
long locks.
1--WE KEEP, four or five dog. With US,
aud fed them on the scraps Of our meals.
In Alasks there are five run. Of salmon,
each too OF three days apart. The frs,
run VAS very email. and the second was
late. The medicine man Of the village
declared that We were feeding our dogs
With salmon. and that no more would
come a. long as We continued IL. The
Indians shu, down on our supply imme'
dis,ely. The next day the run com.
meneed. and the medicine man proclaimed
the sppsren, truth OF bis prophecy IN fore
ible term. After ths, we bad all the fish
We desired.
Another time | missed one Of my in
.,rumenis when the party Was preparing
to leave a village. | insisted on search
ing an Indians hu, for il. aud in an In
slant there were sixty rifles leveled q, our
heads. | do no, see Why they didn't
shoe, for they are never known TO stop =,
killing. abandoned the search Cor the
missing instrument
"During the trip we came across a
Russian half.breed Who bad been an in.
terprter for the Russian traders. tie
had . wife and child. The child be-
came III and the Russian sent for the
medicine man. although be had lived all
his life with white folks. We expos,u-
lated with him. as we had medicine
with Us, and offered our services free.
We gave the child some pills, and lefs
some with the father. who promised 10
treat the child according to our directions,
but do no, believe he ever did IL. A,
length the medicine man came, but I,
took every bit OF household goods. skins.
dried meats. etc. tina, the half.breed
possessed. TO induce the doctor to s,,emp,
q cure. The child WAS taken into the
open air on = cold August night, and
laid on . blanket The medicine man
lay on the ground close TO the child.
Several Indians held another blanke,
above the two As shelter. Well. cir. for
three hours thA, medicine man groaned.
uved, struggled and wen. through all
manner Of con,or,ions. but to no avail.
Then he placed the child in . sitting pos
ture in iis fathers lap. The medicine
mans clumsy fee. were placed on the
child. and the tiny hands OF the latter on
the feet. For fully ten minutes the doc.
tor ,r-mblsd and groaned and then made
an almost superhuman effort and arose
from the ground with . Wild cry tia, be
had contracted the ehild's disease, and
began to rid himselfof II, In few mo.
menis he fell TO the ground exhausted.
and was unable to stand. Every BIT Of
clothing Was torn from him In his s,rug.