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TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AT AN INDIAN RESERVE

presented by

Mary E. Joy

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TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AT AN INDIAN RESERVE
By
Mary E. .Joy

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Anthropology

1989

bb4oosl

ABSTRACT
TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AT AN INDIAN RESERVE
By

Mary E. Joy

The medicine man of early contact times was the principal spiritual authority in
Northern Great Lakes Indian communities. Because present day medicine people
must share their authority with representatives of other community groups of an
official nature, their power has diminished and they have attempted to adapt to
this loss by altering their curing practices. Today’s medicine man has increased 1
the authority and effectiveness of his role with a semi-official religious affiliation

and has incorporated quasi-religious rituals into his curing practices. In an

attempt to maintain a viable role in a changing environment, elements derived

from alternative curing systems have also been added.

The study examines the current role of a traditional Indian medicine man from
the Northern Great lakes region. The research data was obtained from
interviews with such an individual who is a resident of Wikwemikong Reserve on

Manitoulin Island.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Sam Osawamik for the time he so graciously spent with me
to provide the data for the study.

I am grateful to Loudell Snow, my thesis supervisor, for her encouragement and
support during the planning and writing of the thesis. My thanks are especially
offered for her many hours of reading and positive responses that maintained my
efforts to complete the work.

I also thank Charles Cleland, the other member of my thesis committee, for

contributing his knowledge and understanding of the Northern Great Lakes
Indian people to this project.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS v
CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION 1

 

The Research Site
Historical Background
Wikwemikong Today
The Field Experience
2. ETHNOGRAPHIC AND MEDICAL BACKGROUND ........... 11
Traditional World View
Traditional Medicine
Biomedicine
3. THE DATA 20
Logistics and Process
Sam Osawamik: personal data
Personal health/self care
Spiritual beliefs/world view
Sam Osawamik: Medicine man
Development of healing skills
Activities as a medicine man
Curing experiences
Source of patients

Reimbursement for curing
Relationship with biomedical system

iii

CHAPTER

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

ILLUSTRATIONS
REFERENCE MATERIAL

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Page

S3

65

70

 

ADDITIONAL REFERENCFQ

74

Figure

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Sam Osawamik seated at the side of his house
Sam Osawamik’s house viewed from the mad
The new Wikwemikong Health Centre
Map of the Great Lakes Region

Map of Manitoulin Island

Map of Wikwemikong Reserve

Page
6S
6S
66
67
68

69

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

The goal of the research in this study is to examine the present day practices and
role of an Indian medicine man. An attempt will be made to answer the
following specific questions. How does the position of one traditional medicine
man in the native culture of today compare with that of medicine men in earlier
times? How are his curing methods different from those of medicine men at the
time of initial European contact? In what ways has Indian medicine adapted to

the presence of the more science-oriented biomedicine?

It is likely that health and illness have always been a primary concern of human
cultures. Recorded history and archaeological evidence seem to indicate that this
is so. A papyrus dating from 1552 BC. records 900 medical prescriptions (Hart
1983). Historically, beliefs about the causes of illness and the methods used for
curing have varied from one culture to another. In fact it is still true that in all
industrialized, Western multi-cultural communities differences in illness-related
beliefs exist among population sub-groups. The predominant curing system in
industrial cultures is based on biomedicine and it prevails in all the major
treatment centers and health care institutions of the Western world. Coexisting

with the predominant biomedical system are a number of other systems of

2
treatment that are not generally accepted as legitimate or effective by the
biomedical establishment. Nevertheless, individuals in Western society may also

utilize the services of these other systems when they are faced with illness.

Homeopathic, naturopathic and chiropractic practitioners are among those who
have traditionally offered treatment based upon alternative approaches to curing.
Other health care options are new to Western society. For example, acupuncture,
although a traditional treatment of long standing in Chinese medicine, has only
recently been available to American health care consumers. As well, there are
traditional medical systems associated with various ethnic minorities, including
traditional Indian medicine, the oldest treatment system in North America.
Providers of Indian medicine, though probably not as numerous as they were a
century ago, continue to treat illness. Evidence of a desire for traditional care
was found in a 1987 survey of community health care needs and preferences at
Wikwemikong Reserve on Manitoulin Island in northern Lake Huron. Seventy-
seven per cent of the 400 households surveyed indicated that they would like to

have traditional Indian medicine available for their use (Bailey 1988).

Just as cultures change through time, so must the role of the traditional curer.
One wonders how true to tradition the Indian medicine men of today are. It
seems possible that their role has also been altered or eroded by the presence of
biomedicine. There are few individuals in North America who are not exposed
to information regarding modern biomedical technology through the mass media.

This exposure must have some effect on those who are seeking health care and

”IT

3
also on those who offer it. Ancient methods of healing based on herbs and
rituals appear to contrast sharply with brightly colored pills and elaborate life
saving machines. How well do the old methods survive such competition in a
sophisticated society? Has the practice of traditional Indian medicine changed to
adjust to the pervasive presence of biomedicine? What adaptations have
evolved? Which of the old ways have been retained and why have they continued
in the face of such formidable competition? What comfort does the cultural view

offer?

The study is based upon an analysis of interviews with a medicine man at his
home on Manitoulin Island during 1987 and 1988. The informant was Sam
Osawamik, an Ottawa, who has lived all of his 77 years at Kaboni, a small
farming settlement on Wikwemikong Reserve. '1 had contacted him at the
suggestion of Basil Johnston, who is an Ojibway author and ethnographer at the
Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. I got in touch with Sam, explaining that I
was interested in traditional Indian medicine as a masters’ degree thesis topic and
we made arrangements to meet in May, 1987. I prepared for the meeting by
learning as much as I could about the Great Lakes Indians: taking courses;
reading the literature; talking to Indian ethnologists; and through talks with an

acquaintance at the Lansing Indian Center who grew up in Wikwemikong.

4
The Research Site

Manitoulin Island is located to the east of Sault Saint Marie, Ontario, Canada,
where the Georgian Bay meets Lake Huron. The Island measures approximately
50 miles from east to west and twenty miles from north to south. Because of its
many pretty vistas and inland lakes, it is a popular summer vacation area for both
Canadians and Americans. The channel to the north of the island is heavily
travelled in the summer months by recreational sailors who enjoy exploring the
inlets and harbors along the shoreline. From a high point on Manitoulin Island it
is still possible to imagine that time 400 years ago when birch bark canoes were
the only mode of transport on the waterways. Some areas of the Island are
probably much the same as they were then, while in others conspicuous changes
have taken place. Today, it is possible to reach Manitoulin Island by automobile
from the mainland to the north via a one-lane swing bridge at the town of

Little Current, or by car ferry from the south. The ferry boat Chi-Chemaun
travels three times daily in the summer from Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula

to South Bayrnouth on the Island, a trip that takes just under three hours.

Wikwemikong is the largest of several Indian reserves on the Island and it is an
unceded reserve, which means that the Indians who reside there have never
signed a land treaty with the Canadian government. Wiky, as the reserve is
commonly referred to by its residents, is on the east side of the island and covers
105,300 acres bounded on the east by Georgian Bay and on the west by Lake

Huron. It is separated from the rest of the island by Manitowaning Bay and

5
South Bay which are divided by a narrow isthmus. The language of social
interaction on the reserve is commonly Ojibway interspersed with English words.
Commercial signs appear in English and school is taught in English. Many of the
Reserve members are bilingual and although the school children are less likely to

use the native language, they often resume use of it when they are older.

Historical Background

Descendants of the Potawatomi, Ojibway and Ottawa tribesl reside at
Wikwemikong Reserve. It is the traditional history of these three tribes that their
ancestors had constituted a single people until their separation into three groups
at some time in prehistory (Clifton 1978). The three groups were located in the
area of the Great Lakes when the Europeans arrived in North America in the
early 16th century. The Potawatomi lived in the southwestern part of Michigan;
the Ottawa were in the area of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island; and
the Ojibway were found along the north shores of Lake Huron and northeastern
Lake Superior and northern Georgian Bay, extending into the lower peninsula of
Michigan. Clifton (1978) states that the boundaries between the three groups
were permeable and villages often contained numerous representatives from the

neighboring societies. As Algonkian languages, the Potawatomi, Ottawa and

 

‘ In the following text the term "Northern Great Lakes
Indians" will be used to refer to this group.

6
Ojibway dialects showed many parallels which doubtless facilitated the mingling

of the members of the three tribes.

Rogers (1978) states that "Ojibwa were first encountered by the French in the
early 1600’s. Samuel de Champlain in 1615 most likely met some along the
eastern shore of the Georgian Bay" (p.760). According to Rogers, the pre-contact
people in the region of Manitoulin Island occupied various locations within their
territories except during certain seasons of the year. They fished and hunted as
the seasons dictated and moved their birch bark tepees from place to place. The
small independent bands came together in the spring to collect sap for maple
sugar and gathered the wild berries as they became available in the summer,
preserving what they could for the winter. It was during this communal time that

marriages and other special ceremonies took place.

The Ottawa were great traders and followed an annual cycle similar to that of the
Ojibway as hunters, fishers and gatherers but they also carried out some plant
cultivation. They traded corn and goods manufactured by the women to the
people to their north, in return for animal furs which were desired by their
southern neighbors. The Potawatomi in the south made good use of a much
better opportunity for domestic agriculture that was provided by the warmer

climate, but they were also hunters.

Contact with Europeans inevitably altered the culture of the aboriginals. In time

Northern Great Lakes Indians became involved in the fur trade and some

7
travelled to the Saint Lawrence River to exchange the skins of the animals they
had trapped for European goods. As the occupation of their lands by Euro-North
Americans proceeded there was pressure upon the Indians to cede their land to
the government. Indian policy in Canada was to "civilize" the people and then to
assimilate them into the white community (Leslie 1981). In 1836, Lieutenant
Governor Colborne of Ontario became convinced that the best place to settle
Canadian Indians was Manitoulin Island. Missionaries began to develop schools
and churches in a settlement at Manitowaning, but the Indians, who had been
instructed to move there at their own expense, failed to appear in the expected
numbers (Surtees 1966). Although the Indian Affairs officials hoped that the
Island would provide all that the Indians needed for a life of fishing and farming,
it was a remote and relatively barren area. Eventually, more Indians did settle
on the Island, the most successful settlement being a Catholic mission at

Wikwemikong.

The United States Government policy of removal which attempted to force the
Indians to move west of the Mississippi also resulted in the settling of many
Indians in Canada. In 1855, many Michigan Ottawas moved to Manitoulin Island
Reserves and joined other Northern Great Lakes Indians who were already
settled there. Feest (1978) states that the Ottawas now living near or with the
other Northern Great Lakes Indian groups cannot be clearly distinguished from
members of other tribes except by self-identification. This seems true also of the
Canadian Potawatomi who identify their interests as being connected to that of a

particular reserve rather than that of their tribal ancestry (Clifton 1978).

8
Wikwemikong Today

Today Wikwemikong Reserve consists of a larger village, located more or less
centrally on the Reserve and six smaller satellite communities. The 1985
population register indicates that 2,319 people live on the Reserve, approximately
half of them in the central village. The central village has water and sewer
services, but the rural areas rely upon trucked water for their needs. The roads
are unpaved and the pick-up truck is the most commonly seen motor vehicle.
The entrance to the village is striking. From a hilltop approach one can see the
village spread out below with the blue waters of the Georgian Bay in the
distance. Wikwemikong Village contains a gas station/ grocery store/laundromat,
two snack bars and a confectionery. On the main road through the village are
the few stores, two schools, the long low nursing home, a new health center, the
recently built Band Office, the large green bulky structure which is the arena, and
at the top of the hill on the far side of town stands the Catholic church, the

largest of four Catholic churches on the Reserve.

The Wikwemikong Health Center was built in 1971 and expanded in 1976-77. It
has now been replaced by a new and larger health center that was opened in the
summer of 1988. It is a most impressive structure and boasts the only
professional landscaping in the village. It is staffed by physicians, nurses, dentists
and other health care workers who have had biomedical training but it also
contains a medicine lodge, which serves as a symbolic indication that traditional

Indian medicine is acceptable there. There is also a nursing home which was

9
expanded in 1980 to its present 90 beds. The Province of Ontario provides
comprehensive health insurance coverage for all residents under the Ontario
Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), and the residents of Wikwemikong are of course

included in that coverage.

The Field Experience

Manitoulin Island is a beautiful area to visit and the people of Wikwemikong are
interesting and friendly, but while there I was constantly reminded of two things
that influence data collection. English is the second language, and conversation
between English speaking visitors and residents does not always flow as freely as
one might wish. This language difference affected my conversations with my
informant, who seemed often to unsuccessfully search for a word and then just go
on when he realized he did not know it. In some instances, as in references to
plants, he would supply the Indian word to fill the gap. At other times I would
have to guess at the missing word or phrase. I tried to use basic English and to
interpret conversational responses as they were intended, but there is always a
measure of doubt as to the success one has been able to achieve with this in such

circumstances.

The other difficulty was a seeming reluctance of the people to discuss some
things. At times my informant did not answer a question or simply answered with
a monosyllable, which seemed to be an indication that it was not a subject he

wanted to discuss. For example, when I asked if his brother, who lived on the

10
property next to Sam’s and with whom he seemed to have frequent contact also
practiced medicine, Sam replied, "not that I know of“. Whenever I was aware of
this reticence, I was careful to respect his wishes. Black-Rogers (1989) makes
reference to certain "no-talk zones" that she discovered in her research with
Ojibwa informants at Red Lake and I assume that I had stumbled upon one of

Sam’s "no-talk-zones" with this question.

I suspect that the Indian people have learned to protect themselves from the
misunderstanding of non-Indians by withholding information or conversation if
they feel that their ways might not be respected. Jenness (1935) found this to be
the case when reporting data regarding some of the Indian myths. He said that
such beliefs are sometimes scorned by unsympathetic Europeans and the Parry

Island Ojibwa are too proud to expose themselves to unnecessary ridicule.

In the following pages, I will present a description of the traditional world view of
the Northern Great Lakes Indian as background for a consideration of the way in
which their traditional medicine was practiced in early historic times. Western or
biomedical practices will be briefly presented and some of the criticisms of the
way it is currently practiced will be explored. This will be followed by a
description of the data collection experience in this study and its results.

Conclusions will be discussed last.

 

CHAPTER 2
ETHNOGRAPHIC AND MEDICAL BACKGROUND

Although there is a considerable amount of ethnographic material available that
describes the cultures of the various Northern Great Lakes Indian tribes, it is not
complete in every category and is sometimes contradictory. To critique and
review all the available documents would not be useful to this study. Instead, a
general overview of some relevant cultural characteristics of the groups whose
descendants form the bulk of the present population of Wikwemikong Reserve

will be presented.
Traditional World View

The Ottawa, Ojibway and Potawatomi, loosely organized as The Three Fires
Confederacy, shared many cultural beliefs (Clifton, Cornell and McClurken 1986;
Cleland 1978). The Indians of the Great Lakes region had a close and respectful
relationship with the spirit world. Many authors agree that these Indian groups
held a belief in a "Great Spirit" or power but that their spirit world also held
many more manitos with whom they had contact (Brown and Brightman 1988,

Jenness 1935, Kohl 1860). In referring to the "manidos", Jenness (1935) says,

12
"They are part of the natural order of the universe, no less than man himself,

whom they resemble in possession of intelligence and emotions" (p.29).

The closeness of the Northern Great Lakes Indian and their manitos was
significant. According to Hallowell (1975), a spirit or "other-than-human world"
pervaded their daily life and was present in every aspect of their culture. Brown
and Brightman (1988) seem to agree when in reference to Cree and Northern
Ojibway beliefs, they state that mythic beings are not confined to another or
ancient world and may manifest themselves in what might be described by

Europeans as the "natural world".

Myths or sacred stories of the Northern Great Lakes Indians were part of an oral
tradition in which the past was recounted in a traditional and formalized way.
The stories often described the activities of manitos. They provided models for
human behavior and defined the realities of existence for the members of the
group. The characters in the stories were regarded as living entities who had
existed since time immemorial. Whether human or animal, these characters
sometimes behaved like people, and though their temporal and spatial dimensions

may have been cosmic, they interacted with human beings (Hallowell 1975).

Metamorphosis occurred with some frequency in the myths. According to
Hallowell (1975),
"The conceptualization in myth and belief of Thunder Birds as

animate beings who while maintaining their identity, may change

 

13

their outward appearance and exhibit either an avian or human

form exemplifies an attribute of "persons" which...is basic in the

cognitive orientation of the Ojibwa" (p.64).
This concept of metamorphosis accounts in part for the ritual respect with which
animals were treated when hunted and killed. The Indian believed that both
living and dead human beings could assume the form of animals, and animals
themselves had a "soul" that could come back to seek revenge if it had not been

treated with respect (Jenness 1935).

A prime value of the culture was sharing. Originally a hunter-gatherer society, a
tradition of distributing the meat from a hunt or the catch from a fishing
expedition was prevalent among the members of the group. The egalitarian
values might have been essential to the survival of a people living in a harsh
environment, who had not much opportunity to build up a supply of surplus goods
that would satisfy their needs during a lean period. Hallowell (1975) sees a
parallel relationship in Ojibway culture between the way the spirits or other-than-
humans shared their power with human beings and the value that was placed on
the sharing of goods among the human members of the culture. They shared
their material goods in order to prevent individual deprivation just as the other-
than-humans shared their power with humans to combat other types of
misfortune. The Northern Great Lakes Indian societies were class-free with no

one group having more wealth than another (Clifton 1978).

14
The traditional culture of the Great Lakes Indian was also one in which there
was no concept of impersonal forces as determinants of events. The cause of an
illness, tragedy, accident or success was traced to a person, human or otherwise
(Hallowell 1975). Strangers were cautiously approached because of the fear that
a sorcerer might appear in some disguise and not be recognized. The question
asked about the cause of an illness was always "who" caused it. Sorcery
performed by another person because of some slight or suspected slight might be
thought to be the root cause. The illness might be considered as caused by an
other-than-human because of some wrongful act or broken taboo on the part of
the patient, his parent or wife. However, Brown and Brightman (1988) state that
not all illness or injury was ascribed to spiritual or magico-religious causes but
that treatment of minor, common disorders were probably effective independent

of ritual or magical influences.

A life of longevity, health and freedom from misfortune was the central goal of
the Great Lakes Indian (Hallowell 1975). In order to achieve this goal, a balance
in the spiritual, social and physical aspects of life was sought through cooperation
with both humans and other-than-humans in the group. Young boys, and girls to
a lesser degree, were taken by their parents to an isolated spot where they were
left alone for a period of time to fast and meditate. The child would pray for the
aid of the supernaturals against his natural enemies, hunger and sickness, and
hope for a vision that would reveal to him or to her the identity of a personal
guardian spirit. If the vision quest was successful and resulted in a dream that

was interpreted by the parents to be satisfactory, the child was expected to

 

15
develop a secret bond and relationship with the spiritual patron that had been
identified in the vision. This bond would give him/her power to influence certain
events such as sickness, weather or war, because he/she would be able to call
upon the patron spirit for assistance (Brown and Brightman 1988, Hallowell 1975,
Landes 1968, Jenness 1935, Kohl 1860). Brown and Brightman (1988) comment
that mystical experiences such as those occurring during a puberty fast were
prepared for by lifelong participation in a particular spoken language that had
sacred power for a subject who had also participated intensely and sincerely in
related rites and ceremonies. Such a background doubtless enhanced the
probability that successful dreams and visions would occur. The isolation, fasting

and meditation also contributed to the successful attainment of this valued goal.

Visions were the most esteemed sources of curing power in aboriginal times, but
additional curing skills might be learned through instruction or experience.
About the results of the vision quest Jenness (1935) states that although it was a
desirable outcome, only a small number of boys "became genuine medicine men
as a result of this contact" (p.60). Although most of the documentation refers to
Ojibway practices, members of the Potawatomi and Ottawa tribes of the period
also relied upon the puberty vision as a means of identifying an individual’s

guardian spirit (Clifton 1978, Clifton, Cornell and McClurken 1986).

 

16

Traditional Medicine

The curing practices of the traditional Northern Great Lakes Indian medicine
men were enmeshed in religion. Nelson observed when he was talking to his
Cree and Ojibway informants that they considered medicine to be a facet of their
religion (Brown et Brightman 1988). Vecsey (1983) notes that one of the most
important applications of traditional Ojibway religion was health, and that
religious leadership meant medicinal leadership. Treatment was often based
upon dreams in which information regarding medicines or diagnoses were

revealed to the practitioner by the spirits.

A body of medical knowledge for treating common complaints was accessible to
everyone but in addition several categories of traditional curers were recognized
in the Northern Great Lakes Indian groups (Brown and Brightman 1988). A
traditional Indian curer is referred to in the literature as both shaman and
medicine man, although medicine man is the more commonly used term.
Hultkrantz (1985) differentiates between the two by stating that the activities of a
shaman involve "the mediation in ecstasy between this world and the other
world", and those of a medicine-man refer "to the medical capacity of the
professional doctor" (p.514). According to Hultkrantz, one individual could at
times function in either of the two categories. Grimm (1984) defines shaman as
"the person, male or female, who experiences, absorbs, and communicates a
special mode of sustaining, healing power" (p.3). He specifically identifies the

traditional Indian curer as a shaman. He notes that shamanic practices

 

17
characteristically include healing by means of trance state, interpretation of
dreams and visions, quieting the souls of the dead, divination, prognostication,
offering sacrifices to appease offended spirits and the initiation of new shamans.
Grimm (1984) also says that the status of the shaman has a religious dimension
and that shamanic ritual expresses a world view of personalistic contact with
sacred power that is accessible for curing through prayer and other ritual.
According to the above definitions, it would be acceptable to refer to a
traditional Northern Great Lakes Indian medicine man as either shaman or
medicine man, and therefore the more commonly used term will be employed in

the following text.

It is probable that as scientific medicine has grown and developed its role as the
predominant curing system in this society, the role of the traditional Indian curer
has become weaker. In traditional Indian society the medicine man was a person
of much power. He was curer, priest, advisor and arbitrator. In her discussion of
the Ojibwa power belief system, Black (1977) recognizes the highest-ranking
power holders as those who had the power for "healing, helping or harming"
others. These medicine men were persons who ranked just below the more
powerful spirits from whom they received their skills and whose aid they required

for success in their work.

The ethnographic record of the Ojibway, Potawatomi and Ottawa Indians
contains some variation in the names, functions and healing activities in the

various categories of medicine men (Brown and Brightman 1988, Jenness 1935,

 

 

18
Landes 1968, Dunning 1959, Hoffman 1891). The Jenness material has been
chosen as the primary reference for the following description of medicine men
because the informants with whom J enness worked had a more personal
association with the Manitoulin Island Reserve Indians than had the sources of
the other authors. It is hoped that for this reason his data more closely

represents their practices.

Jenness (1935) describes three major types of medicine men who were active in
traditional Ojibway society. They included the healer and charm-maker (wabeno),
the seer (djiskz'u or jessakz'd), and the conjurer (kusabindugeyu). Similar categories
of curers have been identified as having been present in traditional Potawatomi
and Ottawa cultures in the early contact period (Clifton 1978, Clifton, Cornell
and McClurken 1986). Each of these curers obtained his initial power through
supernatural sanction that was recognized during the puberty fast. Although each
of these curers derived their power from a vision at puberty, this contact alone
was not enough for them to become powerful medicine men. It was necessary for
the individual to have personal skills and aspirations beyond the average to

actually become an important and respected medicine-man (Jenness 1935).

Hoffman (1891) refers to one other specialist in plant medicines that he identified
among the Indians of the Great Lakes region. He was known as a
mashkikikewanini (medicine-workman or herbalist). Although this practitioner
might prepare medicines to treat illness or protect against misfortune, his power

was not regarded as equal to that of the established medicine man who had

 

 

19
received his "blessing" from the supernaturals in a vision fast and was able to call

upon them for guidance to effective healing.

The wabeno was a healer of diseases and a maker of love and hunting medicines.
He specialized in plant medicines and was often called upon to prepare potions
that would provide aid in love and hunting endeavors. A special tambourine-like
drum was an important part of his equipment. In early times, wabenos were
reported to have learned about plant remedies in dreams. They might also have
learned much as apprentices to established practitioners but dreams were
especially important to the Northern Great Lakes Indian curers because it was
often in dreams that they had contact with the other-than-human beings (Jenness

1935).

The seer did not use herbs to treat others but based his expertise upon his ability
to see things inside a person’s body that others could not see. This visionary
shook his rattle over the body of the patient and asked the spirits to help him
discover the location of the source of the illness. Once the location was
determined he would, by means of a hollow tube such as a small bone, suck the

offending object from the patient’s body and thereby effect a cure (Jenness 1935).

The conjurer was primarily a diagnostician. He called upon the spirits, who were
expected to visit him in a small tent-like structure built by the patients’ relatives
for the occasion, to reveal the source or cause of the illness. The spirits’ voices

would be heard as they conversed with the conjurer inside the tent, deciding what

 

 

20
should be done to restore the patient to health. This ceremony was likely to have
the participation of the whole community. According to Nelson, the audience
who were seated on the outside of the conjurer’s tent would take advantage of
the situation to ask for and receive news of their departed relatives and friends

from the spirits who visited the interior (Brown and Brightman 1988).

A traditional medicine man who worked under the guidance of a guardian spirit
was able to make pronouncements that were backed by spiritual authority.
Because traditional curing was interwoven with the mythology and beliefs of the
culture, the medicine man was the symbol of spiritual power in the community.
Each case of illness was treated as unique and was investigated in terms of the
patient’s experience by another member of the culture in which the illness
occurred. Of possible benefit to the patient was the reassurance that came from
the knowledge that s/he was the recipient of treatment designed specifically for

his or her needs, by a person whose power and respect s/he acknowledged.

The ethnographic record indicates that some of the Northern Great Lakes Indian
settlements had a medicine society (Landes 1968; Jenness 1935; Hoffman 1891).
Hoffman (1891) in particular gives a very detailed account of it. The Midewiwin,
as it was called, was a curing society that is thought to have begun as an Ojibway
organization in about 1690 (Hickerson 1970). The practices of the society
revolved around ceremonials which depicted tribal traditions and origin myths.
The ceremonials were conducted by an organized priesthood made up of

medicine men and women who had been inducted into the society. Membership

21
was limited to those who completed a long initiation and paid gifts to the Mide
priests who conducted the ceremony. Anyone could belong whether medicine
specialist or not. The collective approach to the supernaturals by Midewiwin
members provided them with a powerful means by which to request personal
health, to try to obtain supernatural assistance for a long life or simply allowed

them to gain the added prestige of membership.

During the Midewiwin initiation ceremony, which took place in a special structure
known as a "medicine lodge", there was a symbolic shooting of the initiate which
caused him to fall to the ground apparently dead. He recovered from this while
spitting a white shell from his mouth. The ceremony lasted for some days and
included a preparatory stage in which there was a cleansing ritual involving sweat
baths and was focussed on teaching the initiate the sacred Midewiwin myths and
rituals. The whole community was invited to participate in the feast which

occurred as the finale of the ceremony (Hoffman 1891).

It is now generally believed that the Midewiwin was a nativistic phenomenon that
arose as a response to European contact and represented an attempt by the once-
powerful medicine men to reorganize and restore some of the power they had
lost (Hickerson 1970). There were hints of the teachings of the European
missionaries in some of the Midewiwin symbols. The death and return to life of
initiates in a portion of the Midewiwin ceremony is suggestive of the Christian
resurrection, although this may just be evidence of the universality of certain

religious themes. When one early European visitor to an area in Northern

 

22
Michigan saw the large Midewiwin cross-like symbol he mistook it for the
Christian cross, because they were so similar in design (Hoffman 1891). Although
the record is incomplete regarding the extent of the Midewiwin, it seems to have
been more prevalent among the Ojibway to the west, in the area which is now

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The effectiveness of these traditional treatments that were rendered in the past
cannot be measured, although it is probable that they were perceived as
successful often enough by those who observe them to give credibility to their
use. There are illnesses that cause pain and suffering from which one recovers
regardless of treatment, though treatment received may be credited with recovery.
The amelioration of symptoms alone usually induces an improvement in illness
state. This improvement was doubtless often achieved by the use of the many
Indian herbal remedies which have been acknowledged by scientific medicine to
have pharmacologically effective ingredients. (Moerman 1982). Even a skeptical
attitude allows support for the notion that traditional Indian medicine probably
produced benefit to those who availed themselves of it a significant part of the
time. The benefits might have included effects on the patient’s spiritual, physical

and emotional health.

Biomedicine

During the years from initial European contact to the last half of the nineteenth

century, scientific medicine probably had little impact on traditional Indian

 

23
medicine. It is only over the past one hundred years that biomedicine has
evolved to its present position of influence, a relatively short period of time for
diffusion into traditional practice. In areas that were relatively isolated, such as
Manitoulin Island, biomedical practices were particularly late in becoming evident
to the resident population because of the scarcity of practitioners who lived and

worked there.

Scientific medicine or biomedicine prescribes treatment that is based upon a
scientific diagnosis to cure disease. The theory of Koch which identified
infectious organisms as the cause of many disease states, has provided a guiding
principle since 1883, with the result that a biological cause of illness is one that is
primarily sought (Lilienfeld 1976). A biomechanical cause such as fracture or
dislocation is another possibility. Biomedical treatment is thus directed to the
physical cause of the disorder. Because the cause is interpreted as a physical
aberration, measures to correct it are often technological or pharmaceutical
interventions that are intended to effect physical change. Although the healing
process is not completely understood, it is known that successful cures often result
from other than organ or disease specific interventions. Emotional and social
factors, though difficult to measure, are known to influence both the onset and

outcome of an illness episode.

In attempting to develop greater understanding of the part that psychosocial
factors play in recovery, Kleinman (1980) differentiates between illness and

disease. Illness, he says "refers to the psychosocial experience and meaning of

24
perceived disease" and occurs for the patient in the context of family and society
(p.63). It includes the secondary personal and social responses to a disease,
although illness may also occur in the absence of disease. Disease Kleinman
(1980) defines as a "malfunctioning of biological and/or psychological processes"
which refers to abnormalities in the structure and function of body organs and
systems (p.251). In a criticism of Western medicine, Kleinman, Eisenberg and
Good (1978) make the point that biomedical practitioners should be as precise in
defining the life problems created by an illness as they are in investigating its
biological basis. The inference is that the biomedical approach has not been as
effective as it could be if illness-related psychosocial factors were taken into
account. In contrast to the biomedical disease-oriented approach, traditional

curing is illness-oriented (Kleinman 1980).

Much has been written about the nature of the doctor/patient relationship in
recent years. As a significant component of the practice of biomedicine it is a
topic of great interest. Mechanic (1972) noted that in this system of medicine the
doctor acts primarily as the patient’s agent, and on his or her behalf. He says this
gives high potential to the relationship for influencing the patient’s feeling state
and illness-related behavior. Because the patient seeks help when distressed, at a
time when s/he is likely to be highly suggestible and open to influence, the
physician’s attitude to both patient and illness have important effects on the
illness outcome. What often happens in practice however, is that the encounter is
very brief, the patient may be intimidated by the physician’s busy schedule and

use of technical terms and as a result may fail to communicate his or her

 

 

25

concerns adequately. Dissatisfaction with the encounter may occur and the
patient may fail to follow treatment recommendations. Support for a careful
patient interview also comes from Snow (1983) who says:

"Listening to a patient’s view of health problems in an interested

and sympathetic manner will elicit areas of possible conflict but also

beliefs that may be strengthened and reinforced" (p.827).
Although more attention is now being given to the problems surrounding the
doctor/patient relationship, and corrective efforts have been undertaken by some,

difficulties still remain.

The difference between traditional and modern medicine was examined by
Kleinman (1980) who believed that treatment difficulties often arose because the
patient and physician came to the healing encounter with different "explanatory
models" or beliefs about the causes and meanings of the illness. An explanatory
model (EM) may contain beliefs about any or all of the following aspects of
illness: etiology; onset of symptoms; pathophysiology; and course of sickness or
treatment. EMs are conditioned by personal experience, ethnicity, world view,
and society. Kleinman maintained that more effective treatment would be
provided if the patient/practitioner interaction was based on a mutually shared
understanding of the illness, which is to say more congruent EMs. If patient and
practitioner are members of the same culture and share the same world view,
they are more likely to have the same explanatory model of illness. In the case
of Native North American patients who seek health care from biomedically-

oriented practitioners of Euro-American descent, difficulty in establishing the

26
kind of doctor/patient relationships that Kleinman believes are necessary to

effective care may be expected.

Evidence that this difficulty does occur has been found. A study of the use of
traditional Indian medicine in San Francisco, where the best in biomedicine is
available, found that more than 25% of Native American families in the sample
had sought care from traditional sources in the five years preceding the study
(Fuchs 1975). As mentioned earlier, many of the residents of Wikwemikong also
indicated that they would like to have traditional medicine available to them.
When there is lack of satisfaction with a healing encounter because of EM
incongruence, patients may be motivated to search for a practitioner with an EM

more like their own.

It seems appropriate to consider one other psychosocial aspect of illness which is
increasingly significant as it becomes more fully understood. Although it has
been thought of as treatment in which a therapeutic drug is replaced with some
inert substance, the placebo response is now more broadly defined as having
occurred when a patient improves because of the symbolic dimensions of the
healing encounter rather than because of technological or pharmacological
intervention (Brody 1986a, Engel 1980). A patient’s response to an illness often
becomes more positive when s/he is given an explanation of the illness that fits
with a preexisting world View; receives support from the social group of which
s/he is a part; and gains a sense of mastery over the illness (Brody 1986b). In

other words, treatment that satisfies the patient’s expectations may produce an

27
emotional effect that leads to physiological change. The total interaction between
the patient and the person(s) involved in the healing encounter is the instrument

through which this satisfaction will or will not be developed.

Without doubt science has given modern medicine the techniques to greatly
improve the outcome of many disease states. At the same time findings such as
Kleinman’s suggest that traditional curers have a special expertise to offer when
providing treatment to people of the same culture, that is not shared by
biomedical practitioners. Of course the reverse is also true. Modern technology
has obvious advantages as well. However, the attention given to the balance
between the social, mental and physical aspects of an illness by traditional Indian
medicine might combine well with disease oriented biomedicine to provide a
more illness oriented approach to treatment. A combining of effective forces
from both traditional Indian medicine and biomedicine might result in a

refocussing of efforts to cure the patient rather than the disease.

Landy (1972) cites an interesting study of Navaho healing. It describes patients
in present day Navaho settlements who were sent by the traditional diagnostician,
the hand trembler, to the establishment biomedical clinic when they were
suffering from injuries or sudden disease attacks. When the illness had developed
more slowly and was less well defined they were likely to be referred to the
Navaho medicine man for treatment. This is an example of the selective

combining of biomedicine and traditional Indian medicine in a successful manner.

28
Landy (1972) studied the role adaptations made by traditional curers to the
intrusion of the scientific medical system into a sphere that was previously theirs
alone. In some cases the traditional healer remains an strict advocate of
conservative treatment views. In a competition with biomedicine, this ineffective
role adaptation makes the role no longer a viable one and Landy believes that it
must gradually disappear from the culture. In some situations a new curer role is
deliberately created along with the introduction of scientific medicine which
allows the traditional curer to continue to have a viable place in the scheme of
things. Independent adaptive maneuvers that maintain role viability may also be
undertaken by the traditional curer. As mentioned above, the Navaho hand
trembler has retained the traditional role of diagnostician but now includes the
services of the biomedical clinic as one of the treatment options he might
recommend to a patient. In this way he has connected himself to both systems
and established an altered but still viable curing role. This pragmatic approach
can result in a new model that combines elements of both traditional and

biomedical curing.

Kleinman (1980) also suggests that adaptation is possible in both practitioner and
patient EM. Because EMs are partly conscious and partly outside of awareness,
and are generally tacit, they are subject to fairly frequent change. In Landy’s
example, it seems that the Navaho practitioner was able to make some adaptive

maneuvers that reflect adjustments in his EM.

 

 

 

29
The medicine man must now share with biomedicine and other institutions such
as government and the church those areas in which he was once the single
authority. The physicians, lawyers, politicians and clergymen who are associated
with these institutions have been trained in recognized schools, passed
examinations, have professional associations and are recognized by the legal
system. This places them at an obvious advantage over traditional curers. The
traditional curing role also lacks the support of licensure or third party
reimbursement which the biomedical practitioner role enjoys. Thus the change in
the level of the power and status of a traditional medicine man as compared to
that of the curer of earlier times is obviously very great. In order to consider
how traditional Indian curers of the Northern Great Lakes region might have
responded to the diminution of their power, it will be helpful to examine their
current role. This examination may provide some insight into how the position of

a traditional curer within the culture has changed.

CHAPTER 3
THE DATA

Logistics and Process

I travelled to Manitoan Island in 1987 to visit my informant Sam Osawamik for
an exploratory meeting which I hoped would lead to others. I approached our
first meeting with the idea that I would not try to structure the interview but
would follow his lead, asking as few questions as possible. As we began to talk, I
asked for his permission to tape our conversation, but this was denied with the
comment "let’s save that for next time". In fact, I never again asked to tape our
conversations, sensing that somehow this would adversely affect the nature of the
interaction. Instead I went to an isolated spot immediately after each meeting
ended, adding to the few notes I had taken during the conversation by writing

down as accurately as I could from memory what had been said in our meeting.

Sam was not at home when I telephoned after I arrived on Manitoulin Island the
first time, on a Sunday morning in May of 1987, so I simply drove to his home
and waited until he returned from church. Our initial conversation took place at

the side of his house while we sat in the sun on the top of a cistern. People

30

31
came and went as we talked, but he did not acknowledge them and I only learned

later that they were his sons, daughter, and wife.

Basil Johnston, the ethnographer who had suggested Sam as an informant, had
asked that I pay Sam an informant’s fee. While in doubt about how best to
manage this, I offered him "some money for his church" as I was leaving and he
accepted it with no other comment than that it was the custom to take a gift of
tobacco to a medicine man. Indeed, tobacco offerings to the spirits have always
been an important element in traditional Indian medicine and I said that I would

do so the next time I came.

During my next meeting with Sam Osawamik in June 1988, I followed the
suggestion of my thesis committee and let him know that I intended to focus my
study on his healing experiences alone and would not interview other informants.
Most of the information I had obtained from Sam in 1987 was relevant but
incomplete, while some of my interests had not been touched upon. I had
decided to be more directive if necessary in order to get answers to the questions
I had identified as important to my thesis. I also told Sam that I would send him
a copy of what I had written about him before I presented it in the thesis so that
he could make corrections if I did not have it right. My goal was to learn:

a) how he developed his healing skill

b) how he functioned as a medicine man

c) what people he treated

(1) what illnesses he treated

 

32
e) if he was reimbursed for treating the ill
f) what his relationship with the biomedical system was
g) what form his healing encounters took
I hoped to collect enough data relevant to these categories to determine what his
curing practices were, how these compared to traditional Indian curing practices, _
and whether any of the changes that I identified appeared to have developed

because of the contact with biomedicine.

My acquaintance from the Lansing Indian Center had made arrangements for me
to stay at the home of a lifelong resident of Wikwemikong. Annie my hostess,
was a widow who lived alone but who enjoyed frequent visits from her adult
children. Her house was in the center of town, within walking distance of the
schools, few stores, health center and Band Office. My stay there gave me an
opportunity to informally observe another aspect of life at Wikwemikong. My
conversations with Annie and her children gave me the impression that they were
not so interested in the traditional Indian culture as Sam and his family were.
Annie had been a boarder at an off-Island school for Indian children beginning at
age six and this experience might explain her less interested attitude to Native
traditions. The residential schools tried to suppress all evidence of Indian
customs in the boarders. At any rate, my contact with my hostess and her family
emphasized to me that there are variations in attitude to Indian culture even in

this small and isolated area.

33
On my second visit, I was not able to reach Sam by telephone when I first got to
the Island, so I drove to his home and asked his daughter, who was doing laundry
at the side of the house, if I might wait for him, and she agreed. I sat on the
grass until he drove in looking exactly the same as he had a year earlier. He told
me that he had returned from taking his wife to town to her job at the "rehab"
center for alcoholics, where she was a cook, and later planned to take his
daughter to the health center for a physician’s appointment, and so would have
some time to talk. At the end of the interview, he invited me to return the next
afternoon when he would be able to show me some of the plants he used for
curing. However, when that time arrived he was tired and so we sat in the main
room of his house and talked. He did show me a yarrow plant growing in the
field by the house, which he said was a useful medicinal herb. These experiences
have provided me with an interesting look at life at Wikwemikong Reserve and

some impressions about the curing activities of Sam Osawamik.

Sam Osawamik: Personal Data

Sam and his first wife had ten children, three of whom died in accidents. His
wife had been killed about 20 years previously by a drunk driver, and Sam was
both father and mother to his children for some time. His home is decorated
with 4H awards won by both he as a leader and his children as active 4H
members. He was remarried about 12 years ago to his present wife. They live
with an adult daughter and son in their home, which is one of the Canadian

government one-story houses that are standard on the reserves. His father’s small

 

34
log house, where Sam spent his childhood, still stands about 40 feet further down
the lane and there are some old outbuildings for livestock in a fenced enclosure
to the rear of the property. There is a small cluster of sugar maples beyond the

yard. The house is within sight of a small Catholic church.

Sam at age 77 enjoys the status of elder in his Indian community and this extends
to his representation of Indian tradition in the larger community of Ontario. He
is obviously proud of his heritage, and is pleased to share his knowledge and

experience with non-Indian people.

Sam serves as an information resource for Indian culture to Basil Johnston of the
Royal Ontario Museum. He is also invited to conferences and schools around
Ontario to talk about Indian traditions and is cited in the volume Flowers of the
Wild, Ontario and Great Lakes Region as a resource for the Ojibway plant
names that are listed in the book. One of the things he has been asked to do at
conferences is to demonstrate and explain such things as Indian dance traditions.
He says that he insists on proper behavior at the traditional ceremonies and
reprimands those who do not show respect. He enjoys this work but finds it quite

tiring to talk all day, which is apparently a requirement on such occasions.

The pleasure he has in meeting many people includes the enjoyment he gets from
having an occasional joke on some of them. Once he was with a group who were
asking about Indian words and the name of the Manitoulin Island ferry boat, Chi-

Cheemaun came up. It is the Indian word for big canoe. If spoken carelessly it

35
may sound like the Indian word for "I’ll give you a big kiss". A member of the
group pronounced it in this way and Sam laughingly told me that he just asked
which one of those present the person asking the question was going to kiss. He
keenly enjoyed the joke in the retelling. Another occasion that he likes to tell
about involved two women strangers from "overseas" whom he met on his road.
They asked him if he knew where the medicine man was, assuming that he was
just the farmer he often is. Enjoying himself, he told them "no" and let them
wonder for a while before he laughed and told them he actually was the person

that they were looking for.

Personal healthiself care

Sam Osawamik appears to be in excellent health. He is about 5 feet 11 inches
tall, wears glasses and is solidly built without being fat. He has warm brown eyes
and a friendly smile and each time I saw him wore brown boots, a navy nylon
shell jacket and peaked cap. He is very conscious of the importance of
maintaining his own health and says that he no longer drinks nor smokes. Some
years ago he was told by a physician at the local health center that he had high
blood pressure. He subsequently took it upon himself to change his diet to
exclude meat, animal fat, and eggs and to increase his intake of oatmeal, whole
grains, onion and garlic. Sam tells that when he returned to the physician
following the unfavorable blood pressure report, he was very surprised by Sam’s
apparent recovery. Sam of course credited the dietary changes he had made for
the absence of a high blood pressure reading. Sam also uses daily kelp and

Vitamin C tablets as preventive medicine. He believes that vinegar and honey or

36
pure apple cider taken every day will help to prevent arthritis. He reads the
popular lay publication Prevention Magg’ne and it is possibly this source that
inspired some of his nutritional changes. Sam also remarked that much illness
comes from "fear and worry", which seems to corroborate with a current focus on
the problems created by "stress" in popular health literature. His use of "popular"
preventive medicine appeared to be an addition to his traditional curing practices
and might be considered an adaptive element. He stated the belief that
individuals are responsible for their health in some ways and should observe
careful dietary habits. Personal responsibility for health is not a new theme for
the Northern Great Lakes people. In earlier times, they hoped to maintain their
good health by adhering to other established rules of conduct that were designed

to maintain a balance in the spiritual, emotional and social aspects of life.

Sam had casually referred to a number of occasions when he or his family had
gone to the health center for treatment and I became curious about his personal
use of traditional medicine men for treatment. He told me of a time when he
had a very stiff neck and could not move his head at all, although his breathing
was normal. He went to the health center and the staff immediately initiated the
emergency procedures that are utilized in cases of suspected heart attack.
Eventually he was told that nothing was wrong and was sent home, even though
he still felt the same. A medicine man friend came to his home later to see him
and performed some rituals and "made smoke". Afterwards he told Sam to take
the medicine "he knew" and then left. Having already taken what he thought

were the appropriate therapeutic measures, Sam was puzzled by these

37

instructions, but later in a dream he saw what he should do. He prepared tea
from a certain tree bark as indicated in the dream, drank it and "got better".
Dreams are apparently still powerful sources of curing information for
practitioners of traditional Indian medicine. This interesting anecdote may also
demonstrate what is really helpful in traditional medicine. When biomedicine
was unable to help Sam received encouragement from a medicine man to muster

his own resources. In the end he was able to cure himself.

Spiritual beliefs [world view
An information brochure produced in 1986 by the Wikwemikong Band Council

contains the statement that "The Indians of Wikwemikong adapted to the
Catholic religion when it was introduced in the 17th century." In McClurken’s
(1989) biography of an Ottawa Indian who lived during the early half of the
nineteenth century, the subject reports that the Ottawa leaders in his community,
who for practical reasons were hoping for the acceptance of Catholicism by their
people, "cast Catholic doctrines in the form of traditional Ottawa beliefs"(p.85).
Apparently there were ongoing efforts to present the teachings of the Church as a
source of power complementary to the traditional beliefs and thus they found

acceptance by the people.

Sam holds a mixture of beliefs that come from both the old and the new religious
traditions. He related several experiences that indicated his belief in the ability
of other-than-human beings to become visible. At a conference, some white

women asked him about Sasquatch, wondering if it was real. (The legend of

38
Susquatch concerns a large being who is reportedly seen periodically in the
Northwest of Canada.) He told them "yes" that he did believe that Sasquatch was
seen from time to time. He talked to me of a time when one of his children
wandered away at a very young age and was gone overnight. Sam and his family
had almost given up hope of his safety when the child reappeared and told them
that he had been playing down by the river with some boys. Knowing that there
were no boys, the parents concluded that it was the "little people", those spirit
beings "that are all around us that we can only see if they want us to". The "little
people" are very traditional creatures in. A third instance reported by Sam of
spirits becoming visible to humans, was of Sam’s father appearing to him after his
death. Sam saw him as he walked towards him just behind their house, a
different kind of spirit presence. These anecdotes seem to describe situations in
which spiritual beings underwent metamorphosis and appeared in visible forms,

much as they did in the traditional Northern Great Lakes Indian legends.

Sacred stories of the Indians place importance on thunder and lightning and Sam
Osawamik shares this belief in their power. "Some people say that it’s just
electricity, but I believe in it", he said. On two separate occasions he repeated a
story about a man who while at home during a storm, noticed that the thunder
was particularly loud and seemed to remain over his house without moving on.
Eventually the man’s daughter went into the yard and buried some tobacco as an
offering to the spirits. The lightning came right down to the place she had been
and then both the thunder and lightning moved on. The fact that Sam repeated

this story on two occasions indicates its importance to him. The traditional belief

39
in which thunder is a messenger of the spirits and at times must receive an

appropriate response seems to be an active component of Sam’s belief system.

The new Wikwemikong health center has been constructed in the shape of a
Thunder Bird, so apparently the respect is community wide. When I saw Sam
after I had seen the plans for the new health center, I commented that the
Thunder Bird seemed to be a powerful symbol for the people at Wiky, and he
responded by relating a traditional story based on the Thunder Bird myth. The
story concerns an Indian family in the old days who were going to sugar camp
and could not take their son with them because he was ill with the "lung disease"
(probably tuberculosis). Left at home alone, the son saw a stranger at the door
who told him to follow exactly in his footsteps. The son gathered his bow and
arrows and, following the stranger, stepped exactly where he stepped, until, pretty
soon he could feel himself rising up into the clouds. He saw below them the big
snake monster and shot arrows at it but kept missing because the moving clouds
would block his view at the last minute. Finally the clouds opened at the right
moment and the arrows found their mark and killed the snake. At that moment
the stranger disappeared, but the boy found in his place a white feather which he
put into his pocket, suddenly feeling just fine. He went on to the sugar camp, but
when people saw him they were frightened because they believed that he was
dead and they ran away. It was then that the boy knew that it had been the

Thunder Bird who had come to get him.

40
Metamorphosis of the Thunder Bird into human form is consistent with
Hallowell’s interpretation of Thunder Bird activity. The Thunder Bird of
Northern Great Lakes Indian legend is obviously closely related to life and death,
and by association to curing activities. Thunder and lightning as evidence of the
activities of the spirits have traditional supernatural significance that is powerful

for Sam and other members of his culture.

The first time I visited Sam Osawamik he was preparing to be inducted as a
deacon in the Catholic Church by the Bishop of Northern Ontario. He had
studied for four years for this responsibility and was quite excited about it. When
I inquired about the ceremony on my second visit to Wikwemikong he told me
that for some reason which he did not understand, he had not been included in
the induction ceremonies which took place the summer before, and he was
obviously very disappointed. I later looked through the archives at the offices of
the Meniteulin Expositor in Little Current to try to gain some understanding
regarding the mystery of Sam’s failure to be inducted as Deacon. I read the news
account of the induction of two Wikwemikong residents as Catholic Deacons in
June 1987, but there was nothing to indicate why they particularly had been
selected, or if others had been in the past or would be in the future. The news
article and pictures that described the induction made it evident that it was a
mark of great prestige to become a deacon, and a person who had this status

would be conspicuously closer to an important source of spiritual power.

41
Sam frequently attributes any success he has in curing to God and states that "all
good comes from God". Religion is obviously very important to Sam and he has
had a number of mystical experiences that seem to provide support for his faith.
He told me of a time when he was talking to a group of children, to each of
whom he wanted to give a copy of the small Sacred Heart religious token that he
normally carried in his pocket. He knew that he did not have enough of them to
give each child, but when he reached into his pocket he found, to his amazement,
that additional tokens were there. He believed that a munificent but invisible
force had somehow intervened. This modern "loaves and fishes" story may seem

to have Christian roots but it also fits well with traditional Indian beliefs.

Once at Christmas when he was scheduled to help with the church service and

- the others who were to assist had failed to appear, a group of drunk "kids" came
in and started fighting in the church. Sam was "scared and didn’t know what to
do". He looked at the statue of the Sacred Heart at the front of the church and
saw it nod several times. He said "I did not know what this meant", but it
caused him to feel very strong and he went and grabbed the "kids" by the wrists
and made them "do what they were supposed to do". Such a clear spiritual sign
to Sam of his special powers enabled him to perform in a very difficult situation.
He was then able to successfully complete the service. As we were talking he
repeated that he is never alone, and "that Jesus is here right now". Although
some modern Christians talk about the "spirit of God within them", Sam’s God

seemed to be more of an external presence that is reminiscent of the manitou of

42
the earlier Northern Great Lakes Indian people, one who could appear in a

variety of forms.

Sam Osawamik: Medicine Man

a) Development of healing skills
At our first meeting, Sam told me he had become a medicine man by learning on
his own, by trying things out and by watching what others did. He said this in
response to my question regarding the possibility that it was a youthful vision
quest that had prompted his decision to be a medicine man. At the time it
seemed to me that I should not have asked such a personal question and that the

information with which he replied though true, might be incomplete.

At our second meeting, he related an incident concerning the way in which he
first became aware that he had a special ability to cure. It was at a time when he
had a wife and ten children to feed and not much money, necessitating that he
grow a lot of food and raise pigs to supplement the food that was grown. He had
obtained a new male pig and put it into the pigpen, where it bit one of the baby
pigs so badly that the intestines were protruding from its abdomen. Sam placed
the organs back inside the injured pig’s abdominal cavity as well as he could,
found a clean place to lay it and put his hands on the pig’s body and prayed. The
next morning when he came out to the pen expecting the piglet to be dead, he

was amazed to find it running around with the others. He concluded that this

 

43
was an indication that he had special curing powers and from that time he began

to develop his skill as a medicine man.

Sam does not however, take the credit for successful curing but says, "It’s not me,
it’s God. I just pray". When I asked if he was doing less curing now than he had
done when he was younger, he replied that he believes that his power is stronger
than it has ever been. I supposed that his increasingly active role in the Catholic
Church strengthened this belief. A spiritual source of power for the development
of curing skills is consistent with traditional beliefs. In a manner not completely
unlike that of the early medicine men who developed their curing skills after
being assured of the support of the spirits during a vision quest, Sam developed
his skills following a different type of experience, but one that to him indicated

that he had spiritual support for curing.

b) Medicine man activities
The respect with which Sam approaches the plants and attempts to enlist their
cooperation in the curing process reflects the traditional Northern Great Lakes
Indian world view in which things thought of as inanimate by members of the
Euro-North American culture, are regarded as potentially capable of interaction

with humans.

There is a particular way in which Sam collects plants for medicinal use, which is
a traditional Northern Great Lakes Indian ritual. Before taking that portion of

the plant required, he buries some tobacco at the base of the plant as an offering.

44
He talks to the plant, telling it what work he hopes it will do and what use it will
be put to. "They are like people", he said. If he does not have tobacco available,
he will explain to the plant that a tobacco ritual has been or will be carried out
in some other place to honor it. It could even suffice to burn the tobacco in the

stove at home.

Although there are plant remedies that he regularly uses and may have on hand,
there have been instances when a special treatment was suggested to Sam in a
dream. The dream of course was spiritually inspired and is reminiscent of the
visions obtained in earlier times by the medicine men. On one occasion when the
usual remedies were not working for a patient he was treating, he dreamed about
a cough medicine recipe that he subsequently made which was very effective for
this difficult case. It consisted of cedar bark, balsam limb, seneca root and
weekehzt (blue flag) cut in small pieces, formed into a packet and boiled for a tea.
Some of the other more frequently used remedies that he mentioned to me were
the effective treatment of an old woman who had difficulty in "passing water",
with a tea made from boiled comsilk and dandelion root. One remedy Sam
mentioned that to my knowledge is used by other Wiky residents is red willow.
Moerman (1982) also lists it in his volume of Native American remedies as a

commonly used treatment for headache or fever.

c) Curing experiences
Sam told me of some Of his successful healing experiences. Once when he was

helping at a church camp for children, all the "kids" got summer complaint

45
(diarrhea). In order to deal with the problem, he made a tea of sweet fern, and
all the children came with their cups and took some. The next day they were
"better" (recovered). Sam’s curing was not restricted to the traditional use of
herbs alone. He also had success in treating his wife who had been hospitalized
because of diabetes, but was showing little improvement. Sam brought her home
and treated her with a tea made from a rather rare plant that grows some
distance from Kaboni, on the south end of the reserve. He also insisted that she
follow a sugar free diet and drink the tea three times a day in a treatment
regimen that apparently combined both scientific (restricted sugar intake) and
traditional (herbal tea) approaches to diabetes treatment. Although she improved
after this treatment, she later became careless about the diet and had to return to
the health center for care, at which time she was started on a schedule of daily
insulin injections. After this treatment was begun, she continued to take the

special tea and did well.

Another situation that seemed to stress new treatment ideas was a successful
treatment involving a friend with arthritis who was hospitalized and confined to a
wheel chair. Sam brought the friend home with him and provided a treatment
that was based on efforts to make the patient happy and optimistic. He used this
approach to let the patient know that someone cared for him. Eventually Sam
got him moving about the house until finally he "got better". Sam mentioned
after relating this information that Prevention Magazine advertised audiotapes
designed to make people laugh that were marketed as therapeutic devices.

Whether this was the inspiration for Sam’s treatment approach for his friend or

46
Sam had read the advertisement after the fact and was pleased to believe that it

lent credibility to his choice of treatment in this case, I am not sure.

It seemed to me that Sam had treated a wide range of health-related conditions,
and I wondered what the limitations of his practice were. When I inquired about
his treatment for childbirth he quickly informed me that he had "nothing to do
with that", with the exception that he often gave the expectant mother a blessing
before the birth. He told me that the women of Wiky all go to the hospital in
Little Current for the birth of a child and I got the impression that a man would
not have been involved in the delivery of an infant in any case, past or present.
(This was later confirmed by my contact at the Lansing Indian Center who had

grown up at Wiky).

Although Sam and his family did avail themselves of the services of the
biomedically oriented local health center, they often augmented that care with
traditional remedies. On the other hand, most of Sam’s clients from outside of
Wiky seemed to suffer from problems having an emotional/mental basis, and had
seemingly tried other cures before coming to him. The reasons for this are not
clear but it is possible that outsiders who did not receive successful treatment
under the care of biomedical practitioners were inclined to go further afield to
seek other treatment alternatives in their search for a cure. It may also be that
the kind of treatment provided by this or other traditional Indian medicine men
had gained a reputation for success with the emotional/mental type of problem

with which they were afflicted.

47

(1) Source of patients
When I asked where most of his patients came from, Sam said they came from
"all over" and he specifically mentioned a "heart doctor" from Toronto who came
to ask him for help. Sam determined that the doctor had "too much going on in
his head". Although this happened at some indeterminate time in the past, Sam
was expecting to see the same doctor, in the summer of ’88, while he was
vacationing on Manitoulin Island. He was flattered by this attention from an

impressive biomedical specialist.

On two occasions he talked about the women from overseas who had inquired
about the medicine man when they met Sam on the road, and one of whom had
"mental problems". He had told the woman who was seeking aid that "there was
nothing the matter" and she would be well again "and she cried", but he later
heard from her and she told him that she had recovered. Some obvious
therapeutic benefits to this encounter are the fact that the woman who had
travelled far for treatment probably had strong belief in the power of the curer.
His suggestion to her that she would recover gave her hope that she could master

the problem.

It was difficult to fix the treatment events that Sam talked about in any time

frame and I am uncertain with what frequency he was asked for help with the
treatment of an illness. According to the woman with whom I stayed while at
Wiky, the local people did not regularly go to Sam for treatment, but this may

have been only her perception. Sam himself had mentioned treatment of Wiky

48
residents and of course he treated members of his family. It seems that his initial
curing activities occurred some twenty years ago when he was already the father

of ten children. (his youngest child is now in his early twenties).

e) Reimbursement for treatment services
Payment is expected by Sam for the treatment he gives but it may be deferred
until later. He stated that he expected to be paid for his work because gathering
and drying plants was hard work and added that he would have about a thousand
dollars if people paid him what they owed him. This obviously represented a
large sum to him. It seems possible that he assumes when someone requests
treatment that they intend to pay him but he does not voice a request for it.
When I asked him what my payment to him for his time should be he replied
"whatever you like", suggesting to me that it was expected but that the initiative
was properly mine. He had also talked to me about the Indian attitude regarding
sharing, saying that "if you tell an Indian you like something he will give it to

you . Perhaps Sam’s confidence in the sharing principle has led to abuse by some
of his patients, who interpreted his easy attitude to payment as lack of interest in
or need for it. Another possible reason for his passive approach to payment

might be the avoidance of censure for practicing medicine without a license.

f) The curing encounter
My impression of the initiation and content of a curing encounter with Sam is
this. Individuals come to Sam Osawamik and ask for his help when they wish it.

He does not solicit patients or promote his skills in any way. In response to my

fil

 

49
query he stated that he has never had a patient referred to him by a biomedical
practitioner nor has he been asked to come to a hospital to offer traditional
treatment to a patient that was being treated there by a biomedical practitioner.
When someone comes to him requesting treatment, he asks them what their
problem is and what they have done to try to remedy it. Sometimes the patient
has already been to other practitioners but has not been satisfied or may have
attempted to self-treat with a home remedy. Whatever the prior treatment, Sam
may decide that he can treat them or he may decide that he cannot help and may

suggest that they go to a biomedical practitioner.

I expect that he works with a considerable base of curing information and an
experientially gained understanding of symptoms, tempered with knowledge of his
own limitations in the curing arena. His years as the care giver to ten children,
his reading of popular medical literature and his personal experience as the
recipient of biomedical care have all added to his expertise as a medicine man.
Sam expressed respect for Doctor Bailey, a local doctor who had been to an
Indian Medicine Workshop in Tucson and had "learned many things". I assume
that the biomedical alternative is one that Sam finds very acceptable, particularly

in the case of Dr. Bailey.

A healing encounter with Sam will include his request that the patient pray in
their own way to get well. Herbal remedies may also be prescribed and diet
modifications suggested in some cases. A blessing is also given by Sam. As I was

leaving, the last time we met, he said he would like to give me a blessing. Sam

50
took a vial of sweet smelling "consecrated" oil from his pocket and rubbed it on
my forehead and the palms of my hands. Then as we stood outside of his house,
with his eyes closed and his lips moving, presumably in prayer, he held my head
in his hands firmly for about one minute. I found it a very comfortable
experience, and one that engendered a secure, calm feeling. The blessing ritual is
probably familiar to Catholics but it also seems to be one that might have a

counterpart in traditional Indian medicine.

In the curing encounter, Sam employs techniques that establish a good
doctor/patient relationship, one which is likely to be beneficial to the patient.

He listens to the patient’s view of the problem and acts upon this knowledge to
suggest treatment. He exhibits a very personal interest in the patient and his/her
illness episode, and by asking them to "pray in their own way" shows respect for

their beliefs. His treatment approach is very illness-oriented.

g) Relationship with the biomedical system
Sam told me that just before my second visit he had been asked to spend some
time in the medicine lodge at the new health center in the role of traditional
medicine specialist. The request had come from Band officials who managed the
center, not from the physicians who worked there. He had not responded
favorably to the request saying that he had work to do and he couldn’t sit around
all day. He told the officials who made the request that they would have to pay
him, which was agreed to, but he still appeared to think it an inappropriate thing

for him to do. It seemed to me that it was Sam’s view that biomedicine and

51
traditional Indian medicine could not come together so easily, perhaps because
the location was a distinctly biomedical one. Most of Sam’s treatments are
administered in the out-of-doors or in some other non-institutional location. I
also wondered if his reluctance had anything to do with the fact that the new
traditional medicine area was called "medicine lodge", a term reminiscent of
Midewiwin. Mide priests conducted the rituals in Midewiwin ceremonies and Sam
had denied knowledge of their rituals. I have heard since I last saw him that Sam
was involved in the opening ceremonies of the new health center, so perhaps he
has altered his viewpoint, or possibly he just appeared on the special occasion of

the opening to give the prayer, as a religious representative of the community.

An earlier inquiry about Midewiwin and whether it was familiar to him had
resulted in Sam’s response that he had no personal experience of it although he
had heard of it and had also heard that it was very powerful. He added, "They
just pointed the medicine bag at someone and it made them fall back". As
previously mentioned, the historical record is not clear as to whether Midewiwin
was ever a part of the Manitoulin Island Indian culture, but Sam had some very

specific knowledge of it.

Because I was still wondering about the presence of some form or remainder of
Midewiwin, I asked Sam if the Wikwemikong medicine men ever got together as a
group. He told me that the local medicine people did not get together but that
he had on one occasion shown a friend who was a medicine man some plants

which he had found to make effective remedies, and which the friend had not

52
known of. In my conversation with Dr. Bailey, the non-Indian physician who had
been treating people at Wiky for more than forty years, and who had been made
an honorary chief and blood brother to the band, I learned that it was his belief
that a number of people on the reserve acted as curers part of the time on an "as
needed" basis. Most of the time they filled other roles such as farmer or band
official. In reference to the local practice and use of traditional Indian medicine,
Dr. Bailey said "It’s part of the way of life". Oddly enough, when I told Dr.
Bailey that I had been talking with Sam as a representative medicine man, he
expressed surprise, saying that he was Sam Osawamik’s physician, but had not
known that he practiced traditional medicine. I do not know whether to interpret
this fact as a comment on the distance between traditional and modern medicine

or the relationship between Euro-North American and Indian individuals.

My impression is that the local curers are very independent practitioners. History
indicates that many of the early curing rituals were carried out as community
events. The rituals of the Jessakid and also Midewiwin ceremonies were at least
partially public. Some privately conducted curing rituals were also apparent to
the bulk of the community because of their audible nature. The sound of
medicine drums and curing chants could carry over some distance. In contrast,
current traditional curing activities at Wikwemikong seem to be of a very private

nature.

CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results of the data collection are organized and discussed in five categories
that delineate some of the component parts of traditional Indian medicine. The
categories are: curing style; the development of curing skill; motivation for curing;
the form of the curing encounter; and the kinds of illness that are treated. The
discussion includes a comparison of the role and activities of a modern medicine
man with those of contact period Northern Great Lakes Indian medicine men.
Those elements of the role of today’s medicine man that seem to suggest

adaptation to the dominant culture are also examined.

Curing sgle

Sam Osawamik’s current role of medicine man is one in which Northern Great
Lakes Indian customs and practices are blended with others that are suggestive of
European and modern Western influences. As an active lay officer in the
Catholic Church he embodies Euro-North American spiritual values. His semi-
official Church role identifies him to members of his community as a
representative of "western" spiritual values. As an active practitioner of Indian

medicine he incorporates traditional values and his role as medicine man

53

54
manifests his connection to the traditional Indian cultural and spiritual world.

His curing style reflects this combination of cultural beliefs.

Sam’s belief in the traditional Great Lakes Indian other-than-human beings as
described by Hallowell is evident in his statements regarding "the little people",
his assertion that "plants are like people", his respect for thunder and lightning as
spiritually significant forms, and in his account of his father’s posthumous
reappearance. For Sam, these were examples of the ability of spiritual entities to
undergo metamorphosis and appear in tangible form. These experiences are very
traditional and there are many similar examples in the ethnographic literature of
the Northern Great Lakes Indians. They provide evidence of the presence of a

strong traditional component in the belief system of today’s medicine man.

Consistent with this belief system is the attribution of all curing power to a
spiritual source, as was the way of the contact period medicine men. He
frequently states that his power to cure comes from God, that it is not he that
does the curing but God who is responsible. Sam’s God seems to have both
traditional Indian and Catholic characteristics. Although "God" is not a
traditional Indian value but a distinctly Catholic one, the idea of power coming
from the spiritual world to aid in the relief of human suffering and for the
support of human endeavors is compatible with traditional Indian values. Sam
actively contributes to the curing process by gathering appropriate herbs and by
making conscious efforts to increase his curing skills by learning of the techniques

of other practitioners, these efforts are apparently also spiritually inspired. As

55
with the medicine men of an earlier period, curing is accomplished with spiritual
aid and is closely allied with religious ritual. Dreams continue to be a source of

inspiration and direction for curing activities.

There is evidence that the components of Sam’s curing style have at least three
sources. That his collection of plants is performed in the traditional manner
demonstrates Sam’s respect for the potential spiritual power within them. His
attribution of the treatment knowledge that he obtains in dreams to spiritual
power is also true to tradition. His addition of a Catholic style of blessing in
curing encounters brings in a potentially effective element from another more
modern source. Thirdly, the use of the alternative "humor therapy" to treat an
arthritic friend demonstrates his successful adoption of new forms of treatment
from yet another source, that of the popular health literature. This pragmatic
approach to curing appears to be an example of the use of two complementary
sources of spiritual power, traditional Indian and Catholic, in addition to the

incorporation of aspects of popular alternative healing.

Role development

The development of Sam’s role as a medicine man went through a series of
stages beginning with the use of experientially gained knowledge which was later
strengthened by spiritual inspiration. This in turn led to further personal efforts
at skill development and the heightening of his spiritual power through church
affiliation. Sam’s development as a curer entered another stage when he began

to study for additional church responsibilities. Whether or not this connection

56
with the Church was developed in a deliberate attempt to enhance his curing
stance, it enabled him to tap two sources of spiritual power, one new and one
traditional. The semblance of additional power that resulted from this
combination probably made him appear in the eyes of his people, more like the

powerful traditional medicine man of the early contact period.

Sam’s curing skill was developed when he was an adult, apparently on his own
volition following what appeared to him to be an indication that he would be
have spiritual support as a curer. From the time of the healing of the pig, Sam
actively worked to enhance his curing skills by increasing his knowledge of herbs
and their medicinal and curative properties. As mentioned above, he also added

other readily available techniques to his repertoire of curing skills.

Motivation for curing

It seems reasonable to speculate that Sam’s motivation for curing comes from
several sources. When he is reimbursed there is a financial advantage which he
believes is deserved because the effort expended in collecting and drying the
herbs is considerable. In keeping with the cultural tradition of sharing, he does
not withhold treatment for lack of payment. Just as the Indian described by
Hallowell followed the spiritual example of sharing with humans, by sharing his
material wealth with other members of the group in an egalitarian system, so the
medicine man of today may be motivated to share his curing skills by using them
to help others. In the present study, this altruism is probably tempered by a

modern need for the financial means to material ends that was not a

57
consideration in traditional times. Another motive for curing might be that of the

prestige that accrues to a successful curer.

It was clear that recognition for his skill and curing successes were important to
Sam. His assertion that people travelled great distances to see him and that one
of his patients had been a "heart doctor from Toronto" offers evidence. He also
expended considerable time and effort to share his knowledge of plants and
Indian traditions with people from other cultures, and he clearly enjoyed the
recognition that came from this activity. Prestige, the traditional value of sharing,

and financial reward were principal motivators for Sam’s curing activities.

The curing encounter

The form of the curing encounter utilized by Sam is not routine but is always
modified to fit a patient’s need. In all the cases reported except those within the
family, the patient came to Sam and asked for help. An illness-oriented approach
was employed. After questioning the individual about the nature of his/ her
symptoms and prior treatment, Sam made a decision about whether or not he
believed that he could help. If he believed that he could not, he would suggest
alternative sources of care; if he believed that he could help, he would then
proceed to learn about the patient through conversation and observation. If the
patient happened to be a Wiky resident, Sam would, as a long time resident of
the same small community, almost certainly understand some of their illness-

related beliefs without the need for extensive questioning. The likelihood of

58
congruence in patient/physician Explanatory Models in these cases suggests an

increased potential for the development of an effective therapeutic relationship.

Kleinman’s research in traditional cultures and his findings regarding the
importance of a satisfactory doctor/patient relationship support the notion that
the more individualized and personal approach of traditional Indian medicine has
value in the curing encounter. Today’s medicine man develops a good
doctor/patient relationship as an aid to treatment. The treatment is
individualized, and based upon an understanding of patient Explanatory Model.
This must explain in part the desire of many individuals to use traditional Indian
medicine despite the availability and prominence of biomedicine. The attention
to individual need provided by traditional medicine allows the patient a greater
opportunity to feel satisfied that s/he is getting something more than routine
attention. The intimacy of the healing encounter which includes touching and

personal prayer may have particularly beneficial therapeutic results.

As treatment, Sam might decide upon the use of a plant or herb. This may have
been previously prepared and be available from his stock or it may have to be
specifically obtained for the treatment. The traditional ritual for plant collection
including a tobacco offering is employed. Root, limb, berry or bark of the plant
might be desired. To prepare it for use, it may have to be dried or cut up into
pieces and brewed or boiled to make a decoction or tea. Alternatively, a poultice
or skin lotion might be required. Dietary changes might be suggested as well

during the encounter and individual responsibility for personal health discussed.

59
The treatment is completed by the giving of a patient blessing and a suggestion
that the individual pray for good health, in his/her own way. This aspect of the
treatment encounter has great potential for the production of a placebo effect
and the benefits to recovery it produces. As a very personal component of the
encounter, the blessing provides a strong emotional and symbolic dimension that

is possibly its most effective element.

Illnesses treated

Illnesses treated by a contemporary medicine man might include any of those that
have not responded to biomedical care. Emotional problems were most often
mentioned as responding well to treatment. Others included diarrhea,
constipation, urinary retention, arthritis, lung disease, diabetes and high blood
pressure. Childbirth is not treated with the exception of the blessing given prior
to delivery. It is not clear whether Sam was approached by patients more
frequently before or after biomedicine had been tried. My impression is that
those patients who travelled a distance for treatment had tried other practitioners
first and had not been satisfied. Although biomedical treatment had been tried
first in a number of the cases reported in which the patient was a Wiky resident,
it is possible that those instances of successful traditional treatment following the
failure of biomedicine were reported because of the fact that they demonstrated

that traditional medicine was superior in some instances.

60
Role changes
The data indicate that there are both similarities and differences in the roles of
the medicine men of today and that of the medicine men of the early contact
period. That the role has changed in a number of respects over the past 400
years is not surprising though fewer changes may have occurred on Manitoulin
Island than in some less isolated areas. One of the most apparent changes is in

the power inherent in the role of medicine man.

Traditional medicine men in the early contact period and for many years after
were called upon to mediate in any occasion of importance and were the primary
resource in times of illness or misfortune. For this reason they were among the
most valued and respected members of their group. The medicine man of today
who must share his authority and prestige with representatives of the church and
the biomedical establishment has a much diminished role. Physicians and
religious leaders have claimed jurisdiction over significant portions of the

medicine man’s former role.

Evidence of change on the part of today’s medicine man suggests an effort to
combat the dispersion of the power of the role by the incorporation of some of
the elements from the competing ritual and knowledge into the curing encounter.
The use of a religious style of blessing and prayer as a part of the treatment is
probably an effective adaptation because its use is sanctioned by the religious
establishment and it is likely to be understood and accepted by the people who

might come for treatment as a positive and helpful action.

61
Medicine men have also had to cope with government pressure to cease their
medical interventions, at times when traditional Indian curing practices were
considered worse than useless by those in authority. This pressure undoubtedly
instigated some adaptive maneuvers by medicine men. Where public curing rituals
were once common, they are now generally private. Medicine people are not as
visible in today’s Indian cultures as they were in the past, or at least not to a non-
Indian investigator. It is possible that they remain an underground entity in an
attempt to avoid interference from members of the dominant culture with their
activities. However, there is some evidence that they may now be becoming more
visible. The presence of an area in the new Wikwemikong Health Center known
as the "medicine lodge", which will be reserved for traditional medicine should

encourage more open use of traditional Indian medicine.

None of the activities of the curers that were present in traditional Great Lakes
Indian society as described in Chapter 2 of this document, are exactly like those
of Sam Osawamik. His activities do not match their descriptions well enough to
classify his role as one of the early types. However, there is evidence that
suggests continuity with the earlier practices. Cures were revealed to contact
period medicine men in dreams which were believed to be communications from
a spiritual source, and the data contain Sam’s description of two such dreams.
Religion and curing have been closely allied in the ministrations of both
traditional and modern medicine men. Herbs were, and are still an important
and frequently employed remedy for illness, and tobacco continues to be a special

substance that is used to honor spiritual power.

62
In a comparison of today’s medicine man with those of an earlier period as
described by Jenness (1935) and Hallowell (1975), other similarities are apparent.
Although the informant in this study did not make a decision to become a
medicine man as the result of a puberty vision, he did so as the result of a
mystical experience in which a spiritual force seemed to be suggesting to him that
he had special healing powers. Acting upon this message from the spirit world,
like the medicine men of the past, he attempted to enhance his healing skills by
learning as much as he-could from other sources to supplement spiritual

guidance.

A difference is found in the way earlier and present-day medicine men appear to
have called upon the spirits to intercede in illness. The medicine men of the past
sought spiritual aid to discover the causes and cures of illness, often in a public
ceremony, whereas the present day curer requests assistance from spiritual
sources to determine appropriate treatment, and to achieve a cure, usually in
private. The public to private shift may be due to a change in the theories of
disease causation that prevail among the Northern Great Lakes Indians, to
include the belief that there are some causes that are not of a "personalistic"
source. In the past, the task of the medicine man was to determine what
behavioral lapse had instigated the spiritual or human intervention that led to the
illness. The influence of biomedicine and its preference for physical causes has
perhaps lessened the prevalence of spiritual diagnoses in traditional Indian
medicine. The addition of some of the widely documented biomedically

determined causes and cures of disease to the repertoire of a traditional curer

 

63
would be an adaptive maneuver. It seems likely that, whether consciously or
unconsciously, both past and present traditional practitioners allowed experiential

knowledge of illnesses and cures to supplement spiritual aid.

More responsibility is now left by the medicine man to the individual patient to
carry out his/her own health care than was the case in the past, when all curing
power was believed to be relayed through the medicine men. However, personal
responsibility in matters of health does not seem completely inconsistent with a
traditional Great Lakes Indian world view. At the time of European contact, the
belief was prevalent that personal behavior regarding the observance of taboos
and other forms of cooperation with the other-than-humans would lead to a life
of longevity, health and freedom from misfortune. Preventive self-care with a
focus on personal health behavior does not seem alien to this view. By
broadening and revising the scope of practice, traditional Indian medicine has
adapted to changing values in order to remain relevant. Advocacy of the use of
preventive medical practices by today’s medicine man is also consistent with a
general trend in lay society. Although the value of prevention has not been fully
adopted by modern biomedicine, its incorporation into traditional Indian
medicine appears to be adaptive because of its current popularity with health

conscious individuals.

The new role that has evolved for the Northern Great Lakes Indian medicine

man demonstrates a very pragmatic approach to curing. It is greatly influenced

 

 

 

64
by the traditional culture and incorporates effective elements of scientific and

popular medicine.

Further study

As is often the case in a preliminary study such as this, several questions have
emerged that suggest further research topics of interest. It would be useful to
know more about how the two religions come together, that of the traditional
Northern Great Lakes Indian and that of modern Catholicism. The statement
contained in the Wikwemikong brochure regarding the adaptation of the residents
to Catholicism is a provocative one and was not fully explored in this study. The
results of data collected from a present day medicine man suggest that it is
probable that elements of both religions are strong components of the world view

of many Northern Great Lakes Indian people.

It would also be interesting to know how much traditional curing actually does
take place at Wikwemikong Reserve, and in other North American Indian
communities. How many individuals make use of it, how many individuals
provide it and what is the range of treatment that it offers? How effective are
the various treatments? An investigation of these questions could produce results
that would be of use to health planners and practitioners in their attempts to
provide more relevant and effective health care, not only in Indian communities
but also in urban centers where many minority groups require health care that is

sensitive to their particular needs.

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

65

    

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Sam Osawamik seated at the side of his house

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Figure 2. Sam Osawamik’s house viewed from the road

66

 

Figure 3. The New Wikwemikong Health Center

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67

GREAT LAKES

Lake Superior

Manitoulin

Island
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Figure 4. Map of the Great Lakes Region

scale: 1 inch = 107 miles

’REGION

. Lake

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Ontario

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68

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Figure 5. Map of Manitoulin Island

scale: 1 inch = 11.7 miles

69

 

 

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WIKWEMIKONC COMMUNITIES 0gb

 

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Figure 6 Map of Wikwemikong Reserve

scale: 1 inch = 8 miles

 

 

 

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75

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