REDSKIN RITES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 239, 8 October 1932, Page 8 (Supplement)

REDSKIN RITES.

PRESERVED BY OJIBWES.

A MEDICINE LODGE CEREMONY THE SACRED NUMBER FOUR. (By a Spccial Correspondent.) MILWAUKEE (Wise.), August 30. In the northern forests of Wisconsin to-day, the Ojibwes are using the very medicines their ancestors did centuries ago. And the white man, -with his test tubes, microscopes and intricate laboratory equipment, has found that 65 per cent of these medicines, concocted _so long ago by the painful method of trial and error, are valuable medicinally. About 35 per cent of the medicines have shamanistic value in superstitious rites. With Indians, as with neurotic white folks, it seems, cures may be had by faith, plus a bit of hocus pocus. The Ojibwes (popularly, the Chippewas) of northern Wisconsin are the most numerous Indians in the State, and are considered probably the bestinformed and the strictest obscrveis of the medicine lodge ceremonies in the country. Huron H. Smith, curator of botany at the Milwaukee Public Museum, says in a bulletin on Ojibwe Indian reme'dies recently published by the museum: "The medicine man or woman, lie notes, "is usually distinguished by two long braids of hair over either shoulder. They are usually shrewd diagnosticians, and depend upon their senses for discovering the ailment. They feel the pulse rate, look at the pupils of the eyes, at the> condition of the tongue, at the complexion variation, feel the body temperature and inquire where the pain is felt. From these symptoms they diagnose the disease. "External afflictions are: treated with lotions or poultices, while internal troubles are almost invariably treated with a medicinal tea. The ingredients are steeped in lukewarm water and copious draughts are prescribed several times a day. Medicine Lodge Ceremony. "The medicine men," Mr. Smith says in explanation of why medicines are held so dear, "are taught that _ these medicines will not be efficacious if disposed of cheaply." . , What happens in an Indian medicine lodge ceremony? What is the lodge itself like ? Mr. Smith describes a lodge on the edge of the woods near Lac du Flambeau : "It was a huge affair, about 150 feet long, with a stout framework of saplings joined together and arched over at a height of eight feet. The framework was rigidly held together with horizontal saplings, secured by basswood bark cord at every junction of poles. During use the sides of this framework are covered with cat-tail mats and the top with sewed birch bark. By 'using a bone needle and nettle string the cat-tail mats are sewed together with an invisible stitch that makes a ivindproof cover. "Down the centre of the lodge is a long ellipse where countless dance steps have bared the earth of this otlierwice grassy plot. The entrance of the lodge faces' east and there is an exit to the west. A fire is usually burning just inside the eastern entrance, the smoke ascending through a smoke hole left in the roof. "The medicine men are gathered to the left of the fire on the north, while the patient is usually seated to the right of the fire on the south. The medicine drum in use during a treatment for healing is smaller than the dream dance drum usually seen by tourists, and of a different shape.. It is about eight inches in diameter and sixteen inches high. The buckskin stretched over the end is moistened from time to time by reversing the drum, which contains water, and rubbing the skin to permit it to take up the liquid. The tone and volume are greatly enhanced by this procedure. "The medicine lodge members sit in groups around the lodge, starting at the north side and proceeding down to the west and back along the south side toward the east again. The Mystic Number. Every song and march around the lodge is repeated four times, this being their sacred number. The time needed in effecting a cure is varied, but the writer has seen a woman carried in on a litter recover in three hours' time and take part in the dancing." But the Federal Government isn't any too fond of these ceremonies. A resident physician is stationed at each large reservation, and there is a constant competition between the old healing ceremonies and the new. As they dig for their medicine roots, the Ojibwe place a tobacco offering in the cavity for Grandmother Earth and sing a prayer to their deity. Once gathered and compounded with a mortar and pestle, the medicine men keep their remedies tied in bits of cloth, ready for steeping. Combinations of nine to twelve herbs are common. The bark of the red maple is boiled and used as a wash for sore eyes. Every part of the smooth sumac is used somehow —leaves for a poultice, the fruit as a throat cleanser. Sweet flag is used as a powerful physic. Wild sarsaparilla, pounded into a poultice, brings cure to a carbuncle or boil. Fragrant golden rod is used for pains in the chest, and the dandelion as a tea for heartburn. The wild balsam apple is used as a bitter medicine for stomach troubles and for a tonic. The field horsetail is used for dropsy; the wintergreen "to make one feel good"; the cranberry as a tea for those slightly nauseated; the blueberry leaves as a blood purifier; the giant puffball for nosebleeds; the wild geranium for healing a sore, mouth and as an astringent; the wild mint and catnip as a blood remedy. The Ojibwe also boil reindeer moss and use the water to wash a new-born baby. (N.A.N.A.)