DENSMORB] 



PLANTS AS MEDICINE 



323 



Midewiwin was a respository of knowledge of herbs it did not have 

 a pharmacopoeia accessible to every member. The remedies are 

 individual, not general, and an individual when questioned invariably 

 replies, " I can tell you about my own medicines. I do not know 

 about other peoples 1 medicines nor their uses of the same plants." 

 Thus it is frequently found that different people have different 

 names and uses for the same plant. Members of the Midewiwin were 

 not taught many remedies at once, except at the time of their initi- 

 ation. Their instruction at that time comprised what might be 

 termed a " ground work in the practice of medicine," with the identifi- 

 cation and use of a number of plants. The same sort of instruction 

 accompanied their advancement from one degree to another, and was 

 made more extensive as they went into the higher degrees. Aside 

 from these times of special instruction a man learned one or two 

 remedies at a time as he felt inclined to go to the old men and buy 

 the knowledge. Among the Chippewa, as among other tribes studied 

 by the writer, it is not common for one man to treat a large number 

 of diseases. A Sioux said : 



" In the old days the Indians had few diseases, and so there was 

 not a demand for a large variety of medicines. A medicine man 

 usually treated one special disease and treated it successfully. He did 

 this in accordance with his dream. A medicine man would not try 

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

 expect to succeed in all nor to fulfill properly the dream of any one 

 herb or animal. He would depend on too many and fail in all. 

 That is one reason why our medicine men lost their power when so 

 many diseases came among us with the advent of the white man." 7a 



While many remarkable cures were said to have been wrought by 

 the Mide remedies, it was said that if no improvement were seen 

 in a reasonable time the treatment was usually discontinued, it being 

 said that the medicine evidently would not " take hold " in that 

 particular case. From this it seems possible that they recognized a 

 self-limited, and also an incurable disease, and in such cases did not 

 wish to raise the hopes of the patient. 



The men and women who at the present time (1918) treat the 

 sick by Mide remedies are well poised and keen eyed, with a manner 

 which indicates confidence in themselves, and which would inspire 

 confidence in the sick persons to whom they minister. 



As already indicated, the medicinal use of herbs has been handed 

 down for many generations in the Midewiwin. It is said that mem- 

 bers of the Midewiwin " follow the bear path " in proceeding from 

 a lower to a higher degree in the society and that some of the 

 best Mide remedies were received from the bear. Thus one of the 



l!1 Bull. 61, Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 244-U45. 



