Untitled - Smithsonian Institution
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Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

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84 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [V.vu.. 09 plur, Dt"'Da'n9Wt'ski ("he cures anyone"; "he cures people") it is more customary to call them by a name which is more discriminating and descriptive of the specialty to which the medicine man referred to devoted himself. The overwhelndng majority of the practitioners are men; sporadi- cally tliere is yet a medicine woman to be found, but there are indi- cations that lead us to believe that formerly there were far more of them tlian is now the case. An informant, when asked to account for the fact that tliere were so few female disease curers, as compared to males, told me that it was "because women do not take so much interest in it (i. e., in the study of plants, of the formulas, etc.) as men do." Apart from midwives (see p. 122) there are now only two medicine women wortli speaking of—an old person of about 80 years old, called aGy-'ya (i.e., "it is being taken out of the liquid") and se''lt3'^€''ni (Sally-Annie?), the wife of Og. (PL 8, 6.) A couple of the regular nudwives will also occasionally go in for some curing of ailments that do not quite fall within their compe- tence, but this is not usual. If a woman practices at all she does not limit herself to patients of her own sex, nor to any set diseases; nor is the treatment by her of any ailments, even in male patients, considered improper. She exercises her profession on a par with her male congeners, enjoys tlie same rights, and if her knowledge and her skill justifies it, she may in time be held in the same reputation as one of the leading members of the faculty. As ^^dll be seen again and again in these pages, the medicine men are the staunchest supporters of aboriginal faith, lore and custom, and with the disintegration of Cherokee material culture and social organization the medicine man has obtained a position of leadership which in many instances practically amounts to that of political head in another tribe. Different Classes However much the proverbial tooth of time has gnawed at Cherokee organization and tradition, it is still possible to find in the present body of medicine men traces of a difl"erentiation which must have existed to an even greater extent at a more remote period. It might as well be stressed right away that throughout this paper the term "medicine man" is used to cover a rather broad concept; it is used without distinction as to sex, and refers not only to those members of the tribe that treat the sick and cure diseases, but also to those tluit might be called "priests," "magicians," "divinators," etc. A short discussion of these several varieties follows now, together A\-ith the names given to these practitioners and the practices they

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 99 PLATE II. Ts., THE Oldest of the Medicine Men b, st'^hyt'ui, a mad'wiuu woiuau

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 99 PLATE<br />

II. Ts., THE Oldest of the Medicine Men<br />

b, st'^hyt'ui, a mad'wiuu woiuau

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