Page:Natalie Curtis - The Indians' Book.djvu/81

THE INDIANS' BOOK THE HOLY MAN, OR "MEDICINE-MAN"

HE English word "medicine" has come to be applied to what the Dakota Indian calls wakan. Wakan means both mystery and holiness, and is used by the Indian to designate all that is sacred, mysterious, spiritual, or supernatural.

The Supreme Being of the Dakotas is called Wakan-Tanka. In English this name is commonly rendered "The Great Spirit," but it would be translated more correctly as "The Great Holy-Mystery."

Wakan-Tanka is an omniscient force. This conception of an impersonal, spiritual, and life-giving power is held by many Indian tribes as well as by the Dakotas, and would seem in no way to be a product of early missionary teaching, but rather an intense and integral part of the Indian's nature. Besides the Great Mystery, the Indians recognize lesser spiritual beings who are personifications of certain elements in nature, in animals, and in man; but these, like all else, owe their existence and their power to the Supreme One.

The Wicasa-Wakan, Holy Men, or Men of Mystery, are the prophets, soothsayers, moral leaders, and healers of the tribe. On account of their service as healers they were called by the early French traders médecins, or doctors, and the word "médecin" came to be applied to everything pertaining to the Holy Man and to all that is sacred or supernatural to the Indian. Anglicized, the word became medicine, and thus the Holy Man is known everywhere in English as the "Medicine-Man."1 Catlin says, "The Indians do not use the word medicine, however, but in each tribe they have a word of their own construction, synonymous with mystery or mystery-men."

Healing plants and herbs, manipulation, and the sweat-bath are curative agents long understood by the Indian. In case of wound,

1 A remarkable exposition of the true character of the medicine-man is given in an address by Mr. Francis La Flesche, entitled “Who was the Medicine-Man?” printed in the Thirty-second Annual Report of the Fairmount Park Art Association, Philadelphia, 1904.