275 



The Apache Medicine Ceremonies Performed Over the 

 Daughter of C 30. 



Albert B. Reagan. 



C 30's daughter, near Fort Apache, Arizona, was very sick, so the 

 chief medicine men of tlie clan, having used every otlier remedy Icnown 

 to their profession, decided to use the Gunelpieya Disli performances 

 (described ui the Indiana Academy of Science for 1903) and the Medicine 

 Ghost Dance as a remedy to ma Ice her well. This remedy is the last 

 medical resort known to the Apache Indians. They believe that it wiU 

 either cure the patient or, if he dies, will prepare him for the Happy Hunt- 

 ing Ground. It belongs to the faith cure side of the Apache medical 

 practice. The Gunelpieya Disk performances are day-time ceremonies, 

 the Medicine Ghost Dance is alwaj^s performed at night. The former 

 always immediately precedes the latter. 



Having decided what to do, the medicine men set about to do it at 

 once. 



In a sheltered sunny spot they made a canvas enclosui'e about thirty 

 feet in diameter. The enclosed area being then leveled, they drew a 

 medicine dislv in it some sixteen feet in diameter. This disk they dec- 

 orated in concentric rings with several symbols of their gods; the sun, 

 rainbows, deer, bird, and gods or Gunelpieya, represented by the figures 

 of men. These they drew on the ground in various colors, the coloring 

 material being prepared as follows: The black from groundup charcoal; 

 the red from pulverized red sandstone; the yellowish-white from crushed 

 limestone; and the green from groundup leaves. 



The disk being completed the Gunelpieya cermonies began. The 

 oldest grandmother present, in this case, Chinda by name, came into the 

 canvas enclosure, walked to the center of the disk with cattail tiag pollen, 

 sprinkled each of the symbolic tigures of the disk with cattail flag pollen, 

 the sacred meal of the Apaches, called bv them "Hottendin." She then 

 took a cup partly filled with water and, beginning with the outer rainbow 

 circle, the outer figure of the disk thus drawn, she walked around on 

 each concentric circle, lioth space and bov»'. from the rim of the disk to 

 its center, stooping before each sacred object to gather a pinch of dust 



