The American Indians / Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and Manuscripts

by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

A repetition of the evil, however, soon induced us to leave the island in search of food; and accordingly we departed for the bay of Boutchitaouy; distant eight leagues, and where we found plenty of wild fowl and fish.

While in the bay, my guardian's daughter-in-law was taken in labor of her first child. She was immediately removed out of the common lodge; and a small one, for her separate accommodation was begun and finished by the women in less than half an hour.

The next morning we heard that she was very ill, and the family began to be much alarmed on her account; the more so, no doubt, because cases of difficult labor are very rare among Indian women. In this distress, Wawatam requested me to accompany him into the woods; and on our way informed me that if he could find a snake, he should soon secure relief to his daughter-in-law.

On reaching some wet ground, we speedily obtained the object of our search, in a small snake, of the kind called the garter snake. Wawatam seized it by the neck, and holding it fast, while it coiled itself round his arm, he cut off its head, catching the blood in a cup that he had brought with him. This done, he threw away the snake, and carried home the blood, which he mixed with a quantity of water. Of this mixture he administered first one table-spoonful, and shortly after a second. Within an hour the patient was safely delivered of a fine child; and Wawatam subsequently declared that the remedy, to which he had resorted, was one that never failed.

On the next day, we left the bay of Boutchitaouy; and the young mother, in high spirits, assisted in loading the canoe, barefooted, and knee-deep in the water.

The medical information, the diseases, and the remedies of the Indians, often engaged my curiosity during the period through which I was familiar with these nations; and I shall take this occasion to introduce a few particulars connected with their history.

The Indians are in general free from disorders; and an instance of their being subject to dropsy, gout, or stone, never came within my knowledge. Inflammations of the lungs are among their most ordinary complaints; and rheumatism still more so, especially with the aged. Their mode of life, in which they are so much exposed to the wet and cold, sleeping on the ground, and inhaling the night air, sufficiently accounts for their liability to these diseases. The remedies on which they most rely are emetics, cathartics, and the lancet; but especially the last. Bleeding is so favorite an operation among the women that they never lose an occasion of enjoying it, whether sick or well. I have sometimes bled a dozen women in a morning as they sat in a row, along a fallen tree, beginning with the first, opening the vein, then proceeding to the second, and so on, having three or four individuals bleeding at the same time.

In most villages, and particularly in those of the Chippeways, this service was required of me; and no persuasion of mine could ever induce a woman to dispense with it.

In all parts of the country, and among all the nations that I have seen, particular individuals arrogate to themselves the art of healing, but principally by means of pretended sorcery; and operations of this sort are always paid for by a present made before they are begun. Indeed, whatever, as an impostor, may be the demerits of the operator, his reward may generally be said to be fairly earned by dint of corporeal labor.

I was once present at a performance of this kind, in which the patient was a female child of about twelve years of age. Several of the elder chiefs were invited to the scene; and the same compliment was paid to myself, on account of the medical skill for which it was pleased to give me credit.