The Old Man and His Medicine Bag

by Mark J. Green (Wą́nihegá)
translated by Bill Hall (Hų̄ka)

William Hall, ca. 1895

(1) This man is known as a medicine man. He is talking to a friend about someone, perhaps an eccentric, "If you let him keep something, he's liable to spoil it. Sometimes he takes an old gun and binds the stock, [then] he would make a sign board out of it, because he can't be turned in any other direction. He is not a good caretaker, he is bad. I am very afraid of him."

[The medicine man said,] "[Suppose] one of these people has an evil mind towards me. When this is so, at once, whatever I think should happen to him, it's realized. If I think, 'He should live only a day,' it becomes so. This, what I thought of him, it would be so."

"Whatever it may be, he is a poor caretaker. He never handles guns carefully. 'This gun of mine, I cannot let [it] go for anything.' The old man who is saying this could say it well, there was a gun, it broke, this is what I wanted to tell. He may have said this because he prized it, I just told you so you'd know. Up until now, my father had used it, at times causing some people to lose their lives. I didn't like it at times, if he is saying this because he prizes it, I don't understand. Perhaps you should burn him too. I think you should."

When they arrived at the old man's dwelling, [when] they proceeded to take the medicine chest, the old man exclaimed, "Boys do not do this thing!"¹

(2) The man who pretended to work looked around for them, and here they were shaking their bags to clean them. They sought an object he was known to have with him a moment ago. Here they told him something, and looked to see how everything was. He came by and abruptly came back. The small poles of wood were momentarily stood leaning against something.

They took him where there was water and set him in it. Why they did this is not clear. Also this: this is what they said, someone said, "Yes, but boys, I prize this very much." And here, they really had him there. This is what the boys did; after all, he was father to them, and [despite] being so, then to smother the fire, he was thrown into it. It was [the] "Chief's Place," where they had burned a fire. He was called "Old Man."

First they went to where the Prophet-Orator was. So this is what these Indians did, where they had lived and roamed for unknown ages. What they meant when they said [what] this was, they were to stand it up at a certain place, and this fact was known to him, the Prophet-Orator. He was there where the village stood, this was to be a place where they could do anything, [including] such as this.²

Commentary

"he" — this is actually the medicine man's son, not the medicine man himself.

"an eccentric" — this turns out to be the medicine man.

"he can't be turned in any other direction" — that is, he can't be persuaded otherwise.

"he should live only a day" — this shows that this medicine man uses his power not just to heal, but to kill. This makes him a wakąwą́x (w KA wx), that is, a witch. This is why later in this narrative, his own son says that he fears him.

"the old man's dwelling" — Hall adds parenthetically, "the medicine man".

© NMAI_26201		NMAI_26206
Two Medicine Bundles

"the medicine chest" — it is very clear from the preceding that the medicine man was believed to have powers that could be used to kill. The instruments of this power were placed in a container, here described as a "chest," but otherwise contained in a bundle, like the power objects that made up the content of Warbundles. The old man knew that it was going to be destroyed, inasmuch as the Prophet had declared:

(6) All medicine dances and songs are abolished. Medicine bundles are to be confiscated and their contents destroyed in front of the whole assembled people. Those possessing such bundles were to make a loud confession of all the bad deeds that they had performed in the certain knowledge that the Great Spirit was too good not to forgive them.³

So in seizing the old man's medicine bundle, they were obleying the sixth precept set down by the Prophet himself.

"to smother the fire" — does this mean that they literally snuffed the fire by throwing him soaking wet on it? Nothing is said of his being bound in any way such that he might simultaneously burn and scald to death. It appears that they may not have killed him, that is, in this case, to have committed patricide.

"Chief's Place" — the narrator is trying to bring attention to the fact that the fire here is sacred. A village has a Peace Chief who is possessed of the highest authority. He is supposed to be a member of the Thunderbird Clan. In primordial times, it was the progenitor of this clan who started the first fire, and on that account was recognized as the rightful possessor of sovereignty. Ever since, anyone who wanted fire for their lodge, had to obtain it from the fireplace of the Thunderbird chief. Putting out the chief's fire by throwing on it a soaking wet miscreant would appear to be sacrilegious.

Is the evil shaman supposed to represent the Prophet himself? The Prophet built his town in a swampy area, perhaps symbolized by the evil medicine man being dunked in this very bog. He is then brought to the Chief's site, a different way of representing Prophetstown, where he is enveloped in flames. This is the very fate of the town after the Battle of Tippecanoe.

	"Special Artist" for Norman B. Wood
	Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet

"the Prophet-Orator" — this is Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet (1775-1836). Throughout the stories told by Mark Green, he is referred to as the "Prophet-Orator." His initial name was Lalawethika ("He Makes a Loud Noise" or "The Noise Maker"), but later in life was called Tenskwatawa ("Open Door" or "One With Open Mouth"). Some accept as factual that he was born as one of triplets, another of whom died in infancy.⁴ His older brother was the famous warleader Tecumseh. Unlike Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa seemed introverted and unaccomplished as a hunter or warrior.⁵ He soon turned to alcoholism for which he became notorious.⁶ While presumably drunk, he managed to strike out his right eye with his own arrow.⁷ During this period, the Shawnee and other tribes of the Northwest Territory were experiencing both a physical invasion of their territory by white settlers, as well as a cultural invasion, which was accompanied by alcohol and disease. At this time much of Ohio was ceded by compliant chiefs for U. S. government annuities. This led to considerable disaffection by the native tribes, including Hōcągara. This led to heightened resentment among the tribes of the region.⁸ In 1805, Tenskwatawa had a number of intense visions in which he learned of two possible worlds that the tribes could enter: one in which they adopted white ways, a world in which complete disaster would overcome them, and another world in which the Indians embraced and revived their own culture, creating a life full of blessings. It was then that he found himself, and became a prophet. More visions ensued, and he declared that the white invaders were the children of the Bad Spirit.⁹ By 1805 he had become so influential that he and his cult followers founded their own settlement on the White River near Greenville.¹⁰ After being challenged by William Henry Harrison to perform a miracle to prove his prophetic powers, Tenskwatawa learned of an upcoming solar eclipse, and prophesied its occurrence. When it occurred as predicted, he gain complete credence. In 1808, he and his brother Tecumseh founded a large multi-tribal town known as "Prophetstown." It was the center of the Prophet's purification movement as well as Tecumseh's grand military alliance. However, Gov. Harrison attacked the town on 7 Nov. 1811, precipitating the Battle of Tippecanoe. This largely destroyed the Indian alliance, and the Prophet and his brother Tecumseh fled to Canada where they supported the British cause in the War of 1812. Long afterwards, the government asked Tenskwatawa to return to lead the Shawnee exodus to their reservation in Kansas.¹¹ He died there in relative obscurity in 1836.

"to stand it up" — this is apparently a way of saying they were going to fight a battle; see this.

"where the village stood" — we may assume that this is Prophetstown, a town Tenskwatawa and his brother Tecumseh constructed in 1808 on a swampy area by the Tippecanoe River.

"they could do anything" — this was probably the opposite of what was the case in the town founded by the Shawnee Prophet. Strict rules obtained, as can be seen in this list of the Precepts of the Prophet:¹²

(1) Never drink alcohol.
(2) No man should have more than one wife.
(3) No man should chase after women. Let all single men marry instead.
(4) If a married woman neglected her work, her husband might punish her with a rod, but after the punishment was over, both were to look one another in the eyes and laugh, holding no animosity thereafter.
(5) All Indian women living with white men should be brought back home without their children, to ensure that all the peoples remained genuinely Indian.
(6) All medicine dances and songs are abolished. Medicine bundles are to be confiscated and their contents destroyed in front of the whole assembled people. Those possessing such bundles were to make a loud confession of all the bad deeds that they had performed in the certain knowledge that the Great Spirit was too good not to forgive them.
(7) No one is permitted to sell anything to white people. Gifts of equal value might be exchanged, however.
(8) No one is permitted to eat white food or food prepared by white people.
(9) No one may sell anything, only barter is permitted.
(10) The French, Spanish, and English were to be considered brothers and fathers, but the Americans were always to be kept at a distance.
(11) Anyone owning white apparel was to give it to the first white person whom he met. Domestic cats were to be given back to the whites, as are all non-native breeds of dogs.
(12) Everyone is enjoined to avoid acquiring anything from the whites so that game will become more plentiful and can be hunted with the bow and arrow as in former times. This will achieve independence from the white man.
(13) Anyone refusing to abide by these precepts should be put to death.
(14) Prayers were to be offered to the spirits to ensure plenty. These are to be done at set times as deviation from these rituals are an affront to the Great Spirit.

Those believed to be engaged in witchcraft had in the past been severely dealt with. Inter-tribal conflict was anathema to the Prophet. The idea that Prophetstown was a "wild west" settlement most likely results from a confusion with the later settlement of the same name in Illinois. That Prophetstown, associated with the Sauks and the Winnebago Prophet, had a reputation for being more chaotic. This Prophetstown was originally a Hōcąk village, as we see from the Treaty of 1825 which stated that there was a "Winnebago village, about forty miles above its [the Rock River's] mouth ..."¹³ When two settlements, not too far from one another, having the exact same names, nor separated by any great passage of time in their histories, we should not be surprised if they become confused with one another.

Comparative Material. ...

Links: Witches.

Stories: about seers: The Seer, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, Witches, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, A Prophecy About the End Time, A Prophecy, Great Walker and the Ojibwe Witches, The Shawnee Prophet Predicts a Solar Eclipse, The Road to Tippecanoe, A Prophecy About the First School, Winnebagos Go to See the Prophet, The Prophet Visits the Hōcągara, The Journey of the Prophet’s Acolyte, The Woman Who Is Going to Stop the War (v. 1), Hōcągara and Other Tribes Camp with the Prophet, The Prophet Warns of the Consequences of Indian Fratricide, The Claw Shooter, Waruką́ną, The Tap the Head Medicine, The Prophet is Accused of Untrue Predictions, The Diving Contest; about the Shawnee Prophet: The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, The Shawnee Prophet Predicts a Solar Eclipse, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Road to Tippecanoe, Winnebagos Go to See the Prophet, The Prophet Visits the Hōcągara, A Prophecy About the End Time, The Journey of the Prophet’s Acolyte, The Woman Who Is Going to Stop the War (v. 1), Hōcągara and Other Tribes Camp with the Prophet, The War of Indian Tribes against White Soldiers, The Prophet Warns of the Consequences of Indian Fratricide, The Prophet is Accused of Untrue Predictions; mentioning witches or warlocks: The Witch Men's Desert, The Witch's Bandolier, The Thunder Charm, The Wild Rose, The Seer, Turtle and the Witches, Great Walker and the Ojibwe Witches, The Claw Shooter, Mijistéga’s Powwow Magic and How He Won the Trader's Store, Migistéga’s Magic, Mijistéga and the Sauks, Migistéga's Death, The Mesquaki Magician, Whiskey Making, The Tap the Head Medicine, Keramaniš’aka's Blessing, Battle of the Night Blessed Men and the Medicine Rite Men, The Magical Powers of Lincoln's Grandfather, The Hills of La Crosse, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara (v. 2), Įcorúšika and His Brothers, Thunder Cloud Marries Again, Paint Medicine Origin Myth, The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle, Potato Magic, The Prophet is Accused of Untrue Predictions, Young Rogue's Magic.

Themes:...

Notes

¹ "The Medicine Man's Bag," Archives of Traditional Music (ATM), Indiana University, translation by William Hall, Original Typescript (Black River Falls: ca. 1960-1970) D9-10, recording by Milford G. Chandler of Mark J. Green - vocals, bef. 1922, Black River Falls, Jackson County, Wisconsin. ATL no. 526.11 8742.12, tr. 2, Recording 47.SCY 18120155 (repeated at 82.SCY 18500155), Collection number (collection identifier): 54-196-F, p. 50 of 87; OT 7695; APS accession number 7232. Continued by the story cited in footnote 2.

² "The Sayings of an Old Man about His Medicine Bag," Archives of Traditional Music (ATM), Indiana University, translation by William Hall, Original Typescript (Black River Falls: ca. 1960-1970) F4-5, recording by Milford G. Chandler of Mark J. Green - vocals, bef. 1922, Black River Falls, Jackson County, Wisconsin. ATL no. 528.5 8742.33, trs. 2, Recording 67.SCY 18330155, Collection number (collection identifier): 54-196-F, p. 70 of 87; OT 7696; APS accession number 7209. This story continues the story of footnote 1.

³ Emma Helen Blair, The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes, 2 vols (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996 [1911]) 2:273-279.

⁴ R. David Edmunds, The Shawnee Prophet (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985) 29.

⁵ James H. Madison and Lee Ann Sandweiss, Hoosiers and the American Story (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2014) 13.

⁶ Andrew R. L. Cayton, Frontier Indiana (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996) 206.

⁷ Madison and Sandweiss, Hoosiers and the American Story, 13. 

⁸ Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745–1815 (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press,1991) 116–140.

⁹ Edmunds, The Shawnee Prophet, 38. Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) 507.

¹⁰ Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair, edd., Indiana's 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2015) 346. Edmunds, The Shawnee Prophet, 34.

¹¹ "Shawnee Indians - Wapakoneta Ohio - Vincennes Indiana." Boston Reporter and Telegraph, 15 December 1826, p. 3.

¹² Blair, The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes, 2:273-279.

¹³ Article 7 of the Treaty with the Sioux and Chippewa, Sacs and Fox, Menominie, Ioway, Sioux, Winnebago, and a portion of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawattomie, Tribes [First Treaty of Prairie du Chien]; United States Statutes at Large, v. 7, p. 272, Aug. 19, 1825; Proclamation, Feb. 6, 1826. Tribal Treaties Database > Treaties > Treaty with the Sioux, etc., 1825.