452 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1952 



recorded four songs that he used in treating men suffering from gun- 

 shot wounds in the chest. Each song has a special purpose. With 

 the singing of the first song he expects the patient to regain con- 

 sciousness. With the second he calls upon a small insect that lives 

 in the water and is believed to have power over the fluids of the body ; 

 the purpose is to check the hemorrhage. The third mentions a lively 

 insect, and with this song Wilson expects the patient to regain the 

 power of motion. The fourth mentions a certain kind of buzzard 

 that has white bars on its wings and flies so high that it cannot be 

 seen by man. Wilson said, "Each of these insects does his best, but 

 it is the buzzard whose great power gives the final impetus and cures 

 the sick man." 



A unique explanation of the cause and cure of sickness was given 

 by Pa'gits, a doctor of the Northern Ute tribe, living on the high 

 plateau at the base of the Uinta Mountains. He claimed to receive 

 his power from "a little green man who lives in the mountains and 

 shoots arrows into those who speak unkindly of him." Pa'gits said, 

 "He tells me when he has shot an arrow. Then the man sends for me 

 and pays me to get it out." In return for this cooperation he some- 

 times left a handkerchief or other small gift at the abode of the little 

 green man in the mountains. Pa'gits said that he usually had to sing 

 five or six times before he could extract the cause of the pain, which 

 was sometimes an inch or two in length, red in color, and in texture 

 like a fingernail. He recorded nine of his songs, which are very slow 

 in tempo and have no words. He never took a case if he had any 

 doubt of his ability to cure it. 



A Sioux Indian on the prairie of North Dakota defined the limits 

 of Indian therapy by saying that an Indian doctor "would not try to 

 dream of all herbs and treat all diseases, for then he could not expect 

 to succeed in all or to fulfill properly the dream of any one herb or 

 animal. That is why our medicine-men lost their power when so 

 many diseases came among us with the advent of the white men." 

 Sioux songs were recorded in 1911-14. 



Brave Buffalo was one of the most powerful doctors on the Stand- 

 ing Rock Reservation in Dakota. He related a dream in which a 

 pack of wolves formed a circle around him ; as they stood looking at 

 him he noticed that their nostrils and paws were painted red, and then 

 he lost consciousness. WTien he regained his senses, the wolves took 

 him to a den on top of a high hill. The details of his dream are not 

 of present interest, but the wolves gave him a song that he used in 

 treating the sick. The words reflect the high regard which Indian 

 doctors, who usually treat the sick at night, have for the owl : 



Owls hooting in the passing of the night, 

 Owls hooting. 



