The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-03-10
INDIAN MEDICINE MEN.
THEIR PHYSIC is MAGIC AND THEif
SYSTEM CONJURlNG.

How the Indian Priests Look and Dress
When They Are Making Medicine-Cus.
toms Recalling Some Old Bible Stories,
How They Got Their Name.
The fact that Sitting Bull was what is
called n medicine man. has been stated
in all the notices of his death, but it is
question whether one in seven of eastern
people know precisely what medicine mai
is. To one who does know, nothing ismore
amusing than 80 read the accounts of early
travellers in the Indian country when they
come TO treat Of the making Of medicine
and the other doings of medicine men
Even Capt. Butler f. r. G.. S, and Lewis
and Clarke were very shaky when they
came to this subject
Every tribe had and still has, man,
medicine men, some of whom are chiefs, all
of whom are very important personages
Nearly all that the writer ever saw have
been old men or men past the middle age
but that is a mere accident, for n man may
be made a medicine man while he is young
No one can visit any Indians at any fcsti.
val time or time Of general excitement
from any cause without seeing the medi
cine man figuring very conspicuously in
whatever is going on.
Sometimes they are merely beating
drums, or perhaps they are only grooming,
while dance or feast Is in progress At
other times they appear in the most gro
tesque costumes, painted all over, hung
with feathers and nails and claws, and car
rying some wand or staff, gorgeous with
color and smothcred with Indian iinery
HOW THE TERM WAS APPLIED. ..
The term medicine is n white mans
expression which the Indians have adopted.
II was applied to the priests of the tribes
| for that is what they really arG-because
the first white men often found them max
ing their incantatons at the side of the
+ sick, the wounded or the dying. In reality
they were exercising the evil spirits of dis.
ease or death, but the white travellers, see
| ing them in the presence Of the sick, put
two and two together and called them
medicine men. The term is two centuries
old, and the Indians have so fully adopted
| it that when one Of these officials is at his
offices they say he is making medicine
The medicine man is n Conjurer, n magi
clan, dealer in magic, and an intermediary
between the men of this world and the
spirits Of the other. EIe may know some.
thing of the rude pharmacopnia Of his
fellows, and may prescribe certain leaves
or roots to allay fever, to arrest cold, OF
TO heal n wound That is not his business,
however, and such prescriptions are more
apt to be offered by the squaws or by any
member Of the patients family
The medicine mans work comes in when
medicine fails, and tits pursued until death
is seen to be certain, when-among most OF
the tribes-the sick or wounded man is
abandoned to meet his fate Far from
thinking the only good Indian is n dead
one, the Indians themselves have little re
gard for one who is half dead or seems Ger.
tain to die
A WEIRD SIGHT.
No more weird sight is to be seen on tho
face of this continent than view of such
group of medicine men at work to save
life, Seen at night the effect is awesome
They sit in circle, broken only by the
body Of the invalid stretched on n blanket
at the head of the tent opposite the door OF
tent opening. The wayering light is from
candle stuck ingeniously in loop OF
birch bark fastened tight IN slit in the
end of stick that has been thrust in the
earth. The medicine men are painted in
their own colors, green and yellow FREEDOM
mating. They are in full regalia, but theil
hair falls over their hideous faces as they
bend forward to swing toand fro or to beat
their drums.