THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



BY JOHN (r. BOURKK. 



O II A PT K R I. 



THE MEDICINE-MEN, THEIR MODES OF TREATING DISEASE, 

 THEIR SUPERSTITIONS, PARAPHERNALIA, ETC. 



The Caucasian population of the United States has been in inti 

 mate contact with the aborigines for a period of not less than two hun 

 dred 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 less 

 ened 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 &quot; the noble savage.&quot; 



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 in 

 fluence antagonistic to the rapid absorption of new ideas and the 

 adoption of new customs. 



This influence is the &quot;medicine- man.&quot; 



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 pharma 

 ceutical, as we employ the term, or are they the superstitious efforts of 

 empirics and charlatans, seeking to deceive and to misguide by pre 

 tended consultations with spiritual powers and by reliance upon mys 

 terious 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. To go farther, 



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