The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-04-15

RED EAGLE
system of priestcraft that from aboriginal
times has held sway over the red men of
North America.
In all the tribes of Indians on this con-
tinent the sway of the medicine man has
been supreme, and to put an end to his
power viii be difficult, says the Chicago
Tribune. The Indians are smart enough
to claim this legislation is an attack upon
religious liberty. They say, "You may
move us and take our lands, but you must
leave us our religion"
Since the beginning of conflict between
the whites and the Indians conflict
which meant for the Indians either SUBJ
mission or extermination-the history of
that contest in all it's stages has been gov
erned in large measure by the medicine
men of the various tribes and nations of
the American aborigines in SO far as the
making of that history has lain within the
power of the Indians control. And there
are not lacking today intelligent, educat-
ed, civilized Indians-good Indians who
are not dead Indians, all maxims to the
contrary Observation-Disclosures maintain
that had it not been for the malign infiu-
ence of medicine men, become debauched
and mercenary, many of the horrors of In
dian warfare in later years might have
been ayerted and the race as a whole much
further advanced in the civilization which
now is its only possible salvation.
Who is the medicine man, and what
gives hin his power? To define him and
account for his dominion requires first a
knowledge of the Indian character and an
insight into the nature of the Indian re-
ligion. And in these respects when the
question is answered for one tribe of North
American Indians it is answered for all,
since in all the great Indian nations, no
matter how widely different in speech or
manner of life, there is found practically
the same conception of deity, the same
philosophy of life.
The Indian regards deity as a complex
spiritual agency, manifested in all the
phenomena of the material universe; as
dual in nature, representing the forces of
both good and evil, and as affecting alike
the lives and fortunes of man and beast.
1t was in the warding off of the influences
for evil supposedly exerted by deity in its
malign moods that the medicine man
found his greatest field of activity, %
through this he gained his power over his
followers.
Not by heredity, as in the case of chiefs
and other officers in the tribal organiza-
ton and government, did the Indian be-
come a medicine man, but by adoption or
limitation into a mystic organization
known as the medicine lodge, of which the
secrets were guarded as carefully as are
those Of the Masonic order. Its language
was the language of symbolism. In the
Photographic writings of the medicine men,
which served them aSan index for their
weird and mystic incantatiops, the In
dians placed implicit trust. They believed
In the incarnation of supernatural agencies
In wild animals and even in inaDimate
objects. and IN the ~rattles, charms and i'm
elements used by the medicine men in
their barbaric orgies the simple minded
red men believed they saw the only means
that could save them from the blighting
effects of ever threatening evil spirits.
Wizard, necromancer, clairvoyant, seer
and prophet-all these n more was the
medicine man to his followers. In every
violent expression of the forces OF nature,
such as earthquakes n thunderboits, alb
normal growths in the vegetable kingdom,
strange actions Of animals or insanity OF
men the Indians believed they saw the
expr ession of malevolent purpose on the
mart of the deity, and to save them from
these they looked to the medicine man.
In the influences surrounding the life of
the individual there was thought to be a
perpetual combat between good and evil
forces. To invite the former and propi-
tiate the latter required the offices OF on
gifted with a knowledge of the supernat-
ural.
Perpetualiy the Indian mind was the
victim of wild mystery, intending suspi-
cion and 3aralyzing fear. His only con-
ccption Of joy was freedom from suffering,
his only idea of q means of securing it the