The Caucasian population of the United States has been in intimate
contact with the aborigines for a period of not less than two
hundred and fifty years. In certain sections, as in Florida and New
Mexico, this contact has been for a still greater period; but
claiming no earlier date than the settlement of New England, it
will be seen that the white race has been slow to learn or the red
man has been skillful in withholding knowledge which, if imparted,
would have lessened friction and done much to preserve and
assimilate a race that, in spite of some serious defects of
character, will for all time to come be looked upon as "the noble
savage." Recent deplorable occurrences in the country of the
Dakotas have emphasized our ignorance and made clear to the minds
of all thinking people that, notwithstanding the acceptance by the
native tribes of many of the improvements in living introduced by
civilization, the savage has remained a savage, and is still under
the control of an influence antagonistic to the rapid absorption of
new ideas and the adoption of new customs. Who, and what are the
medicine-men (or medicine-women), of the American Indians? What
powers do they possess in time of peace or war? How is this power
obtained, how renewed, how exercised? What is the character of the
remedies employed? Are they pharmaceutical, as we employ the term,
or are they the superstitious efforts of empiricists and
charlatans, seeking to deceive and to misguide by pretended
consultations with spiritual powers and by reliance upon mysterious
and occult influences? Such a discussion will be attempted in this
paper, which will be restricted to a description of the personality
of the medicine-men, the regalia worn, and the powers possessed and
claimed.
General
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