268 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



attending physician wUl resume treatment with an Indian doctor. 

 For another example, one informant was treated for a cat bite which 

 had become infected. Upon release from the hospital she was treated 

 by an old woman. Another man's face was stepped on by a mule. 

 "Uncle Jimmie doctored him, then he went to the hospital. When 

 he got out Uncle Jimmie doctored him untU he got well." 



This pattern of utilizing a combination of professional and nonpro- 

 fessional care is not as common as using either one type or the other 

 as different occasions demand. It is difficult to discover what deter- 

 mines the choice of therapy in some circumstances. However, the 

 data suggest that knowledge of the nature of the ailment is a factor, 

 particularly in the case of children. If the ailment is not diagnosed, 

 the child is most frequently taken into the PubUc Health Hospital. If, 

 on the other hand, the trouble is an earache, a cold, or a fever, an 

 Indian doctor is called in. One young couple regularly takes its baby 

 to a private pediatrician for periodic examinations. But the mother 

 took the youngest child to an Indian healer when the child had a bad 

 cold. "He prescribed some roots to be scraped down and made into 

 tea, then delivered more the next morning." The baby recovered. 

 Hives (Indians in category 1 beheve that all babies have them) are 

 always treated by native doctors. They make the baby restless and 

 fretful. "White doctors don't know anything about hives or kernels, 

 either." 



I asked one Indian mother, EmmaHne, a question about the relative 

 effectiveness of Indian doctors or White doctors. She replied, "Well, 

 it just depends, if you know what's the matter." She took her baby to 

 Molly to be doctored because she thought the baby had an earache, 

 but later the same day when the baby seemed no better, she took her 

 into the hospital where she hoped they would "give her a shot of 

 penicillin. That usually takes care of it." She continued, "Some- 

 times when you go down, they just give a shot and it don't help." 



Some years ago, Emmaline had a 3-year-old who would not play 

 with the other children. The physician at the hospital said there was 

 nothing wrong with the child. But Emmaline noticed that the baby 

 was getting "fat [swollen] in the face and stomach." She took the 

 youngster to an old man who asked, "How she was. He said he'd try. 

 He got some herbs and blew on the baby. We went back four times 

 and the baby was cured." EmmaUne said, "It seems like Indian 

 doctors know more about babies than White doctors." 



Another parent, Katherine, has a baby who weighed only 5 pounds 

 when she came home from the hospital. She did not gain and did not 

 "do right." When the hospital failed to help the baby, Katherine 

 took her to an Indian doctor. He asked, "How she been," and then 



