USE OF MUSIC BY AMERICAN INDIANS — DENSMORE 453 



Another prominent doctor on this reservation was Eagle Shield, 

 who had treated fractures for more than 40 years; he also treated 

 wounds and general illnesses, and he ascribed his power to the bear 

 and badger. He recorded 11 of his healing songs and brought speci- 

 mens of the herbs used with them. Eagle Shield was also a warrior 

 and had the right to wear the crowskin "necklace" which is the insig- 

 nia of the Kangi'yuha, or Crow-owners society, an important military 

 society of the Plains tribes. 



A primitive form of socialized medicine was found among the Ma- 

 kah and Clayoquot, two seafaring tribes living in northwest Washing- 

 ton and on the west coast of Vancouver Island. These tribes had an 

 organization called the Sai'yuk society to which "everyone had to be- 

 long in order to have any standing in the tribe." One of its functions 

 was to supply musical therapy to its members. A group of men and 

 women would go to the house of the sick person, where they danced 

 and sang. The songs were in pairs, the first accompanied by very 

 rapid pounding on planks (a native form of percussion instrument) 

 and the second by a measured beat on small drums, in the same tempo 

 as the song. "Sometimes a pretty song would soothe the sick person 

 and he would go to sleep." The power of the Sai'yuk included the 

 healing of physical ills, and it was said that they cured a cripple who 

 had been unable to walk for at least 10 years. They came and sang 

 for him, and he lived in excellent health to an advanced age. He was 

 a whaler, a vocation which requires strength and endurance. His 

 daughter, Sarah Guy, said, "His reliance was on the songs and meet- 

 ings of the Sai'yfik, but he sometimes took herb tea." 



Songs of the Indians of British Columbia were recorded near Chil- 

 liwack, British Columbia, where about a thousand Indians were em- 

 ployed in a hop-picking camp. They came from widely separated 

 localities, including Vancouver Island and the reservations on the 

 west coast, Fort Simpson and the regions of the Nass, Skeena, and 

 Babine Rivers in the north, and the country adjacent to the Fraser 

 and Thompson Rivers. Many songs were recorded, and among them 

 were 26 songs used in the treatment of the sick. These were recorded 

 by eight singers from various parts of British Columbia and Van- 

 couver Island. John Butcher and Tasalt recorded songs that they 

 were using in their treatment of the sick, and other songs were re- 

 corded chiefly by sons and grandsons of old men who treated the sick. 

 The younger men had learned the songs when singing with them. One 

 of these songs contains the words, "The whale is going to help me cure 

 this sick man." 



John Butcher, whose native name may be translated Dawn, lives 

 at Lytton, on the Thompson River, and treats illnesses of a general 

 character. The four songs he recorded are those he uses in a confine- 



