TlIrkish Nelll'OslIrgery 12: 1 - 8, 2002 Tn§~lOglll: Wid/tlshn Wnlinn

Wichasha Wakan: Medicine Man (Lakota Sioux)Native American Medicine and the Role of the Medicine Man

Amerika Yerlilerinde TIp ve "Bilge" Adam

A. BEltZ TA$C;:IOGLU, ALt O. TA$C;:IOGLU

Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Dept of Anatomy (A.B.T) Ankara, TurkeyAnkara University Faculty of Medicine, Dept of Neurosurgery (A.O.T)

Abstract: "We were and are a peaceful people. We evenwelcomed the wasicllll [white man]. Only when we sawthem building roads, forts, killing off the game, committingbuffalo genocide, when we saw them ripping off our landfor gold, only then did we realize that what they wantedwas our land. They took away our pride, our customs,our MEDICINE. Then we began to fight. For our earth, forour children. That started what the whites call the GreatIndian Wars of the West. I call it the Great IndianHolocaust" (2).- Leonard Crow Dog (Medicine Man) -

Key Words: American Indians, cencepts of medicine,treatment, wise man

INTRODUCTION

The term "medicine" does not have quite thesame meaning for a Native American Indian asit does in white society. In Indian culture, the wordmedicine is not necessarily synonymous withcurative. It also encompasses an array of ideas andconcepts. For example whisky was called"medicine water"-water that acts in a way thatcannot be understood-and gun was called"medicine iron." The term was also incorporatedinto many Indian place names, such as "medicinebow" (Wyoming), "medicine lake" (Montana),

Ozet: Amerika Yerlilerine ytizytllar boyunca sava~anvah~iler gozuyle bakJ1ml~tJr. Ancak, beyazlartarahndan bilinmeyen mistik dunya ve hayatfelsefeleri, sag-hk ve hastahklara yakla~1l111an onlantarih i<;erisinde Bat1h meslekda~lanndan <;okdaha ileribir seviyeye getirmi~tir. Bu <;all~mada AmerikaYerlilerinin hastahk tammlan, hastahklara yakla~1111lve tedavi yontemleri ozetlenmeye <;ah~tlnll~t1r.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Amerika yerlileri, bilge adam, hastahkkavramlan, tedavi

"medicine park" (Oklahoma). In Northern Plainstribes, the word medicine connotes the

mysterious, that is, things that are beyond powersof human understanding. With this widerdefinition of medicine, the medicine man was not

only the doctor, but also the diviner, the rainmaker,the soothsayer, the prophet, the priest, and, in some

instances, the chief or king (8). So great was theinfluence of the medicine man upon his people thathe became obstacle number one for the Europeanswho tried to impose their culture. In mostcases, whatever the medicine man refused, the

people also refused to accept. (Fig I), (Fig. 2).

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Figure 1: IvIed icine man Leonilrd Crow Dog (Taken fromCrow Dog) (2).

Figure 2: Medicine man James Holy Eagle (Oglala Sioux)at the age of "[02,1992 (Taken from The NativeAmericans-An Illustrated History) (7).

Today, it is common to choose alternativemedicine, even in the most affluent and scientificallyadvanced communities 0). When modern medicinefails, people seek sources that are unconventional andoften far from scientifically proven. How scientificwas Native American medicine? How much did

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shamanistic beliefs and rituals contribute to this

practice? On closer view, it becomes clear that thelarge amount of attention paid to the ceremonial andreligious aspects of healing practiced by these peoplehas caused the scientific aspects to be disregardedor looked down upon. With the scientific methodscurrently used in the west our definition of medicinedoes not match the Native American meaning.However, the Indian practices were no moresuperstitious or primitive than those used in earlyEuropean medicine. In fact by methods of trial anderror, Indian medicine men learned many effectiveways to treat disease, and were more advanced inmany ways than their European counterparts. Thereare many striking examples. Indians used anAmerican variety of foxglove (Digitalis purpurect) asa cardiac stimulant for hundreds of years beforeWithering discovered the medicinal uses of this plantin England. Indians also successfully treated scurvyin the 16th century, when Europeans still believedthis disease was caused by bad air. It was more than200 years later that James Lind, a British Navalsurgeon who had read about the native practices,started the experiments that proved the dietary basisof scurvy (8).

One of the main differences between Westernand Native American medicine is that most Indian

concepts of health and daily living are centered onwell ness, not illness. In fact, the emphasis of mostIndian practices was to prevent illness andmisfortune. Preventive medicine is a very prominentaspect of medicine in the modern societies of today'sworld. In many Indian communities, healers ,·veresought in times of illness, but they were also calledupon for protection, to bless happy occasions(weddings, the birth of a child, and others), or toensure the success of an expedition or hunt (8).

Medicine men and women tried to treat

illnesses caused by both natural and supernaturalcauses. Their medicine was focused more upon wiry

the illness occurred, and the healer would resort toherbs, religious ceremonies, and various devices,such as drums, flutes, and rattles. These were all usedto evoke spiritual forces that would either heal thepatient directly, empower them to be able to heal, orchase away the evil spirit. In cases where the originof the trouble was obvious, such as fractures,dislocations, wounds, or snake and insect bites, thetreatments were rational and effective. In such

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instances, the methods of cure used by the medicineman were straight to the point, and were far removedfrom ceremonies and rituals. When the problem wasinternal, although the medicine man had an extensiveknowledge of herbs, he would still resort to religiousceremonies, and would use rattles, drums, and anyother devices he saw fit to impress the sick person orhis relatives (8). Through these rituals, which haddramatic positive effects on patient, the medicineman accidentally stumbled upon an earlypsychological approach to treatment. He was wellaware that a sick person benefited from psychologicalback-up to help begin healing, even if he did not callit "psychological" in the scientific sense of the word.Maximillian (8),describing practices in the Blackfeettribe (Sioux), reported, "In all cases they haverecourse to the drum and rattle, and have greatconfidence in the intolerable noise caused by thesein~tnllll('nh" (Fi,\!;.3). Simi1.lrl\', herbs employed by

Figure 3: Healing ritual performed by a Blackfeetmedicine man using drums and rattles. (Takenfrom The Art of Howard Terpning) (6).

medicine men and women were believed to derive

their strength from ceremonies that were performedto make them powerful (8).

As emphasized above, the word medicineencompassed many concepts for Native Americans.Medicine power was often attributed to a fetish orcharm that was adopted to typify a demon or mysteryguardian, and the superior performance of onejuggler over another was often attributed to the factthat his medicine was superior. Medicine was alsoassociated with magic numbers, similar to somesuperstitions held by whites today. The mostcommon sacred number used by the Indians wasfour, which signifies the cardinal directions.However, the number six was also used, adding theup and down directions to the four cardinal ones (8).Such special numbers were used in medic<11prescriptions that specified a certain number ofremedies for so many days, or that called forremedies to be gathered in so many places. Thesesymbols are still currently used.

Another significant example of the broaderfndian definition of medicine is the ceremonies that

are still performed by the Navajos tod<1y. Theseceremonies include the creation of complexsand paintings, works that are called "mandalas"due to their strange resemblance to the Indo-Tibetanmandala. The main purpose of the Navajosand paintings is not to orient the patient to theNavajo cosmos (macro or micro) or to communicateits history. Rather, it is to identify the person withthe images of power that are represented in thepaintings. Every sand painting contains the power ofpsychic energy. The painting focuses this pm'ver, andthe medicine man or woman transfers it to the patientthrough the physical medium of sand. The patientnot only makes use of the power of the figures in thepainting, he becomes tha t power. The images in thesemandalic paintings are of supernatural people ,,,,horepresent the forces of the natural world. In manycases, the sand paintings consist mainly of four HolyPeople standing in a row (Fig. 4). In others, thefigures may be multiplied m<1nytimes, always inmultiples of four, to represent augmented power(Fig. 5). More often, the Holy People are arrangedin true mandalic (circular) form. Around this

central point, the Holy powers to be evoked areplaced in the cardinal directions: north, south, east,and west (5).

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Figure 4: Navajo sandpainting from the Night Chant(Taken from Navaho Symbols of Healing) (5).

Figure 5: Another example of Navajo sand painting(Taken from Navaho Symbols of Healing) (5).

It was also the duty of Native Americanmedicine men to watch carefully for omens todetermine the probable results of a treatment, or toforetell future events. Omens could be storms,lightening, rain, specific behavior of an animal orchanges in the attitudes of a patient ...etc. This typeof practice was particularly well developed in Middleand South America, but North American tribes also

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used it.

DISEASE-CAUSING AGENTS

By and large, the Native American Indianattributed diseases and death to specific causes.Since their medicine practices focused more on why

diseases occurred, they placed extreme importanceon disease-causing factors. The most common ofthese were as follows:

1- Spirit Intntsion: This form of belief was alsowidely held in Europe during the Middle Ages. TheCherokees believed in several dozen disease-causingspirits, and the medicine man had to determinewhich spirit caused the trouble in order to prescribethe appropriate drug. The Iroquois (linguisticrelatives of Cherokees) also believed that diseases

were caused by evil spirits. It was thought thatwitches and poisonous plants and roots werepossessed by such spirits. The medicine man orwoman would examine the patient and reveal whichpart of the body was possessed by the evil spirit.Another form of spirit intrusion. was the belief thatthe souls of the dead returned to live in the bodies of

their living relatives. The Hurons did not fear thesouls of friends and relatives, or those of enemieskilled in battle; however, they were afraid of the soulsof tortured captives, which they could only expelfrom their lodges by making horrible noises.

2- Soul Loss: Soul-loss illness occurred when

the soul left the body and traveled about during adream. If the soul were not returned somehow, thepatient would surely die. Some tribes believed thatthere was no cure for this type of illness, since it wasnot possible to bring the soul back. In others, such asthe Kwakiutls (from northwest North America) it was

the medicine man's job to bring the soul back.

3- Dreams: Dreams occupied an important placein the disease theory of many Indian tribes. Iroquoiantribes were especially strong believers in this theory.They thought that every person had certain inborndesires, many hidden from consciousness, and thatthe happiness of the person depended on these beingfulfilled. If the desires were not fulfilled, they couldreveal themselves in dreams. The medicine man's

task was to ascertain what was not being fulfilled inthe patient by asking him or her illuminatingquestions. The Hurons firmly believed that imagesin a person's dreams revealed desires that had to be

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fulfilled to cure sickness. Whenever a Cherokee

medicine man was called in, he generally began byasking the sick person about their dreams to uncoverthe cause of the trouble.

4-- Disease-Object Intrusiwaon: It is alsobelieved that a worm, insect, snake, or small animalcould enter the body and cause disease. The disease­causing object was eliminated from the body bydrumming, singing, sucking and sometimes bittermedicines were used to make the patient's body anuncomfortable place for the invader to reside.

5- Witc11craft: Belief as a disease-causing factorwas especially prevalent among the Zunis (a tribefrom southeast North America).

6- Otller: Other possible causes of disease ordeath included the showing of disrespect to the soulsof hunted animals, being ungrateful to nature, andbeing wasteful.

Some of these causes were more important thanothers, depending on tribe and location (8).

EQUIPMENT USED BY THE MEDICINE MAN

The medicine man's various devices included

special costumes, a medicine bundle containingcharms and fetishes, medicine sticks (which couldserve as an invitation, warning, or offering), andsometimes a bag of herbs. He or she might also havea drum, a rattle, a hollow bone for sucking,equipment for mixing medicines, and syringes foradministering enemas or injecting wounds. Of theseitems, the medicine bundle was the most important.The medicine bag was usually made of animal skin,and contained fetishes such as deer tails and oftenthe maw stone of a buffalo (calculus of the stomach).These bags were handed from father to son ordaughter, or from an instructor to a newly initiatedmedicine man or woman (8). Medicine shields wereused for the same purpose, especially in the Blackfoottribe (6). (Fig. 6). (Medicine shields are shieldsadorned with symbols, which the medicine men carryand which are considered to have healing powers ).

DRUGS AND TREATMENTS

Indian drugs were considered bogus until thewhite man discovered and approved of them (Fig.7). However, many of these drugs were ultimatelyadapted to European and American pharmacopeias.

Tn~C;lOglu: Wichnshll Wnkllu

In addition to so-called shamanistic approaches todisease and healing, it is clear that medicine men andwomen had extensive knowledge about herbs andtheir curative properties. Indians cultivated herbgardens to guarantee a ready supply of plantremedies, and such gardens were often found at theirabandoned town sites. The Indians also seemed to

have some knowledge about contagious diseases. Ifa sick person was suspected of carrying an illnessthat could be transmitted to others, the individualwas carried to a location outside the village. Themedicine man accompanied him or her, preventedanyone from contacting the sick patient, and wouldpractice his medical work until the person recovered.The idea that impurities in the body should beexpelled from the mouth via emetics and from therectum via cathartics was very common anlOngIndians, and most of the drugs they developed arein these classes. Of the hundreds of herbal

medications that Indians used, the following aresome of the most interesting:

Anesthetics: Use of coca leaves as a stimulant

was very popular among the Incas. Coca was alsoused as an anesthetic for trephination or other typesof skull surgery. The local anesthetic properties ofcocaine were not discovered by modern medicineuntil 1884.

Alcohol: Mexican Indians used alcoholic drinks

to treat nervous conditions. Tequila, which is madefrom the juice of the mescal plant, remains populartoday.

Anti-malarial Drugs: The anti-malarialcinchona bark, from which quinine was extracted,was discovered by the Indians and used effectivelyto reduce fever.

Poisons: Indians knew how to use poisons forfighting against enemies, and for committing suicide.The most famous poison used by South AmericanIndians was curare, which is fatal when it enters theblood via a wound (8).

TREATMENT OF INTERNAL CONDITIO S

Digestive Disorders: It was not always possibleto identify separate illnesses, but the general disorder"dysentery" was common among Indians. Differenttribes used different curative methods. Agave leaves,

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Figure 6: Transfer of the Medicine Shield to a newlyinitiated medicine man (Taken from The Art of

Howard Terpning) (6).

extracts of bladderwort, or fresh ground maize weredissolved in warm water and injected into the anus.Copal, a tree sap collected from the leaves or branchesof cedar, was also a very effective cure for theseconditions.

Epilepsy: Although this disorder is known tohave been rare among Native American Indians, ithas been reported that they successfully cured whiteswith remedies that they would not reveal.

Fever: The Indian treatments for fever included

rest, sweating, purgation, liquid diets (no solid foodat all), and anti-fever (anti-pyretic) medicine. Sweatbaths were very popular, and their purpose was notonly medical, but also religious. Sweat baths wereperformed in sweat lodges, in which vapor was madeby pouring water over hot stones mixed with all sortsof medicinal and sweet-smelling herbs (Fig. 8). Here,

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New-Englands

RARITIESDifcovcred :

IBirds, Brojls, Fijh!s, SffJ>rntJ,

and Plants of that Country.Together with

The Ph)'./ical and Cb)'rurg;cal REME­DIES wherewith the Natives COll­

fiantly ufe to Cure their DISTE tPERS, WOUNDS, and SoRES.

AI.SO

A perfect Dljcriptifln of an IndianS§(,UA, in all her Bravery; with aPOEM not improperly conferr'dupon her.

LASTLY.1 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLEof the mofi remarkable PalTagcsin that

Country amongfi the ENGLISH.

IIIujlrated with CU:rS.

By JOHN JUSSELrN!.- Gent..~,ondfl11t Printed for G.WiddO"..oeJ at theGrult Drng01l in St. ['nulJ Churl"h yard, 1671.

Figure 7: Title page of John Josselyn's "New England'sRarities Discovered" first published in 1672. Atitle page showing the interest of the white manin Indian cures and remedies (Taken fromAmerican Indian Medicine)(8).

Figure 8: Sweat Lodge- An Indian resting before enteringa sweat lodge (Taken from The Encyclopaediaof Native America) (4).

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the sweating person was believed to purge both hisbody and soul, and this was carried out in the formof a special religious ritual. The practice was followedby a cold dip in a river or lake. The sweat bath was apanacea for almost all diseases, and achievedcomplete cure in most cases. Sweat lodges are smallcabins made of twigs covered with clay or fabric.Heated stones are put in the lodge and vapour isproduced by pouring water over the hot stones. TheNative Americans lie in it and perspire until theybelieve they are purged.

Snakebite: Native American Indians were able

to treat even the most lethal snakebites effectively.Fern roots, seneca snakeroot, and several other plantswere used for this purpose. In one intriguing method,the offending snake was killed, cut up, and theanimal's flesh was applied to the person's wound.White doctors supported this practice, maintainingthat the antidote was in the snake's fat tissue.

Fractures allff Dislocatio1ls: The Indians were

extremely skillful at treating bone injuries. The men

Figure 9: Famous tribal Chief who was also a medicineman. Tatanka Iyotaka(Sitting Bull).Chief of theHunkpapa. The Sioux of the Sioux (Taken fromEveryday Life of the Northern American Indian)(9).

were usually lone hunters, and they even developedthe ability to handle this type of problem on theirown. Medicine men and WOBlenwere very adept atreducing bone injuries. Special medicines were usedto rub and help straighten the affected limb, and toreduce pain. After the fracture was reduced, thelimb was bandaged and splints were applied toimmobilize it (8).

These drug and treatment examplesrepresent just a small portion of the wide rangeof medical knowledge that was possessed byNative American Indians. Research indicates that

surgical interventions were more developed in themore settled communities, such as those of theCentral and South American Indians. Surgicaltechniques will be the subject of a future paper.The above is merely a fraction of a vast story thatremains largely untold. The story of the Indiansis one of a people who cared deeply about natureand well-being, but who were regarded as savagesby others who had no stories to tell. (Fig. 9)(Fig. 10).

Figure 10: Famous Chiricahua Apache Chief Geronimowho was a fierce warrior and medicine man

(Taken from The Art of Howard Terpning) (6).

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Correspondence: A. Beliz TasciogluHacettepe University,Faculty of MedicineDept of Anatomy06100 Ankara, Turkeybtasciog@hacettepe.edu.tr

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4. Pierce TG: The Encyclopaedia of Native America,Viking, Published by the Penguin Group, PenguinBooks USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York,New

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