Introduction to the Medicine Rite

by Sam Blowsnake
translated by Amelia Susman

Sam Blowsnake

Original Texts: | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 |

Hōcąk Interlinear Text

Contents

§1. Medicine Rite People are Superior Because of Their Knowledge (78)
§2. Size of the Medicine Lodge (80)
§3. Ordinary People Respected the Holiness of the Ceremonies and Lodge (80)
§4. The Tobacco Pouches Used in the Ceremony, Mock Death of Novitiates (83)
§5. Respect in which the Medicine Rite was Held (91)
§6. How Members Used the Medicines at Their Command (94)
§7. Some Medicine Rite Members are Able to Fly (96)
§8. Metamorphosis into Bears and Hawks (98)
§9. Fear of Medicine Rite Members (99)
§10. Powers Came from the Spirits (100)
§11. Cost of Joining and Cost of Participation (100)
§12. The Attractions and Holiness of the Rite (105)

§1. Medicine Rite People are Superior Because of Their Knowledge. (78) There are those who belong in the Medicine Lodge and those ones are not are called "ordinary men," so that those who were not as good as members of the Medicine Lodge, they are less than the Medicine men. What these Medicine people know, those (79) do not know. So those of us who did not belong there thought it was very holy. And when the Medicine Dance was going on, they did it inside. We ordinary people would stay out and look in [the Medicine Lodge].

Seth Eastman

The Winnebago Medicine Dance Lodge

§2. Size of the Medicine Lodge. (80) That Medicine Ceremony wigwam was maybe 80 steps or 100 steps long. And crossways about 5 steps.

§3. Ordinary People Respected the Holiness of the Ceremonies and Lodge. And that they did inside, and we outside heard the singing (81) as if it would be respected. We hear (understand) the words and the words they used were very holy words. So we respected (& feared)¹ them. We were usually afraid of them. We did not say to them what we wanted to say (i.e., we had to be careful). (82) Even the way that they dressed looked "worthy of respect," great to old folks.² When we saw the dancing and heard the singing, we listened to what they said (the songs), listening we were sort of afraid.

BAE GN 03810B01 06610000

A Beaver Skin Tobacco Pouch

§4. The Tobacco Pouches Used in the Ceremony, Mock Death of Novitiates. They had tobacco pouches, and(83) some of them were hawks,³ and some of them were squirrels, some beavers, some were weasels, and otters. When the dance was going good (making noise), we heard the tobacco pouches cry. (84) Doing this at noon time, when they shoot the one whom they just brought in (the new member). After they shoot that one, they (should) sing for shooting each other, and dance shooting each other, and when they shoot each other, the one that was shot drops down. (85) He fell down, and got up again. That bullet that they had was a shell.

	BAE 37: Pl. 51
	An Otter Skin Pouch

These shells we saw sometimes, sometimes one of them missed, and then they stopped (to dance) a little while. (86) And one of the great medicine men hunted where the bullet went. To do this, he used one of those otter skins. He went all around the Medicine Lodge wigwam. He carried it straight (stretched) (87) over the house. That otter skin he had, it cried. He took it along. They made the otter skin find the bullet.⁴ It looked holy. When he found the arrow, he went to the middle of the house, and on clean ground (88) he chants and points the tobacco pouch at the ground and shakes it, and from the otter skin's mouth the shell drops to the ground. That was the one that they missed with. He took it and went around the house, (89) and threw the shell into his (own) mouth and fell down. Then he took the tobacco pouch and blew into the mouth and put the arrow into it (the tobacco pouch). And he stamped the ground around the house and chanted, and the one who shot him (90) made him fall down flat [to the ground]⁵ (stretched out). Then they started to dance again. Those who were dancing shot each other and killed each other. We saw them shoot and knock each other down and get up again.

§5. Respect in which the Medicine Rite was Held. (91) So we saw it and thought it was holy, so ordinary people were very respectful. What they knew, we ordinary people did not know. What he understood, (92) we ordinary people did not understand. We called them "Medicine men," as many as had joined the Medicine Lodge, and this life of our group is worthless. We were afraid of their way. (93) The house where they were doing new events in there [we did not enter].⁶ We were afraid of them. When ordinary people would go in there, we got something of bad luck.⁷

§6. How Members Used the Medicines at Their Command. These medicine people (94) know all kinds of medicines. They used these medicines to cure a sick person. And they used the medicine to give someone bad luck. (95) They could make someone blind.⁸ They could kill someone and they can make someone crazy too. They know all medicines. They used these medicines to do whatever they could to anybody. (96) So we ordinary people respected their way.

§7. Some Medicine Rite Members are Able to Fly. People use what medicines they know and even use them to fly. "Poisoners" they call them, (97) we saw a (light like a flickering)⁹ fire going on somewhere. About the height of a tree (about 20 feet)⁹ the light went along. He saw the light get big again. And from somewhere (98) the light went out there because he stopped.

§8. Metamorphosis into Bears and Hawks. They could make the cry of anything, they made the cries of all kinds of birds, and turned themselves into bears, and they could turn into deer, also they could turn themselves into dogs, also big hawks¹⁰ they could make themselves.

§9. Fear of Medicine Rite Members. (99) So we thought the medicine men were smart. They even used medicine so that fire wouldn't burn them. So we [ordinary people] were afraid of this business.

§10. Powers Came from the Spirits. They have very holy stories (100) which they got from the various Spirits.¹¹ The business that they were doing was the business of the various Spirits.

§11. Cost of Joining and Cost of Participation. So we wished to be among these medicine men, we thought we wanted to be one of them. And if they joined, it costs lots of things, (101) as it was expensive. If anyone was going to join in, it would take him four years to pay up that much, it cost lots. If he is going to join in (the first thing is to prepare) all his clothes to be good. And he had to have a good blanket too. And you had to get as much (boiled) food as (102) all the Indians would eat, that much we had to. Concerning the lodge, you had to cover the whole Medicine Lodge with blankets.¹² And to give enough, 6 yard pieces of shirt goods you had to hang on four sticks (15 foot pieces for each); (103) that food costs about $50, and the blankets cost about $200. The shirt goods were worth about a hundred. And also, shirt goods were spread on the ground. (104) He spent about $400. Anyone who wanted to join as a new member even had to be told how to act. What he had to do they told him, and if he didn't do it, he could (105) not join in. So it was pretty hard to join in.

§12. The Attractions and Holiness of the Rite. And when they went on with their business, it looked attractive. When they danced and sung, they sounded very good to us. And (106) we knew what they were doing was a life. And we understood the meaning of the words, the meaning of the words that he'd spoke was very holy, so we know it was. So we wished very much [to join].

Notes to the Text

¹ all remarks contained in parentheses are those of Amelia Susman, those in brackets were inserted by Richard Dieterle.
² the text has wą‧kšík ȟeterá, which can be translated as "the big Indians" or "the big men/people," given that age had high status, such an expression invariably referred to the elders.
³ the text has, (w)anį́k(‘ h)iréną, where wanį́k always and only denoted birds generally. Substituting "hawks" for "birds" may be a specification resting on Susman's own research.
⁴ Susman translates mą‧rá, which literally means "the arrow," as "the bullet." Both are metaphors for the shell that is shot from the pouch.
⁵ omitted is a translation of mąį́ča, "on the ground," which she renders as "to earth" in the interlinear translation.
⁶ the expression wa‧k‘áwawinį́ną, while translated in the interlinear, is not represented in the final English translation. The expression has the odd feature of having a negation (-nį́-) that is not preceded by hąké.
⁷ here "ordinary people" translates wą‧kšιkoį́níkεra, which literally means "little people."
⁸ literally, "they could make their eyes small".
⁹ these remarks (1, 2) in parentheses are in both the text and translation.
¹⁰ the text has wanį́k‘ ȟεk ("xek bird"), which is in error for wanį́k‘ hεk, hek being the standard word for hawk or buzzard, and so used elsewhere by Susman herself.
¹¹ Susman translates this as, "They got the stories from great spirits." However the term waráčirε always means, "various, different."
¹² Susman translates this as, "Of the house, the Medicine Lodge whole length you had to cover with blankets."

Commentary. "wigwam" — an odd choice of words, in this case an Algonquian term. Wigwams usually connote a small, single family lodge.

"medicines" — mą̄ką́, "medicine," should not be confused with its sense in English as a curative agent. Here medicines are material agents of power, a power that would subsume what we would call "supernatural."

"fly" — Sam Blowsnake's older brother, Jasper, who was also a member of the Medicine Lodge, had this to say on the matter: "... birds they transformed themselves into, and they would fly away. They have really been doing this from the beginning."¹

"poisoners" — the sorcerers (wakąwą́x) of the Medicine Rite were also infamous for using poisons (waką́wąx) on their opponents. The connection between sorcerers and poisoners is found in other cultures. The Hebrew mekhashepha (מְכַשֵּׁפָה), is a word whose meaning is controversial in some circles, some contending that it should be translated as "poisoner."² A better understanding of its meaning can be derived from its Semitic cognates. The Hebrew khashep seems clearly to be cognate to Akkadian kašāpu, "to cast spells on someone," kaššāpu (𒅜), "sorcerer," kišpu (𒅜), "sorcery."³ So prima facie there is some connection between mekhashepha and witchcraft/sorcery. When we examine how the Greeks translated this word, we encounter a more intimate connection to poisoning. In the Greek translation of the Septuagint, Exodus 22:18 reads, Φαρμακοùς οὐ περιποιήσετε, "You shall not spare the lives of sorcerers."⁴ So here mekhashepha was translated as φαρμἄκóς (pharmăkós). A φαρμἄκóς is, "a poisoner, sorcerer, magician."⁵ The mekhashepha, kaššāpu, and φαρμἄκóς present an interesting parallel to the wakąwą́x of our present story. This synonymy of terms for sorcerers and poisoners in disparate peoples, shows us that the arts of black magic were inefficacious and required a more reliable mundane and pragmatic vehicle for transmitting their belligerent power. The appearance of black magic could be had more practically by slipping the victim a secret dose of poison and attributing its effects to the hidden powers that the sorcerer possessed from the spiritual realm. For more details, see the commentary to "Whiskey Making."

"bears" — Sam's brother Jasper quoted what people had to say about those of the Medicine Rite called "Night Walkers": "'In the old days, the Medicine Rite men really killed each other. They would really do it,' he said." ... "Night walkers say, 'Higų̄́į̄, like at first these night walkers were really turning into bears, and as their powers fade, they employ something else and are going about (that way). They transformed themselves into dogs, and again birds they transformed themselves into, and they would fly away.' They have really been doing this from the beginning. At present they can't do anything of the kind, but initially they were really like that."⁶

A Woman's Disc Shirt Worn in the Medicine Lodge

"shirt goods" — this was already an archaic expression in 1937. In the XIXᵀᴴ century, "shirt goods" referred to the fabric and finished garments for shirts, including undershirts.

1937 $100 Bill, Obverse		1937 $100 Bill, Reverse

"$200" — shown above is the $100 bill of 1937, when this narration was taken down. When inflation is calculated, the value of $100 in 1937 is equivalent to $2,249 of 2025 tender.⁷ So meeting the financial requirements of membership in the Medicine Lodge was an expense in the range, not of hundreds of dollars, but of thousands of dollars in today’s money.

Notes to the Commentary

¹ Jasper Blowsnake, "Whiskey Making," in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Notebook 64: 1-13 (6).
² see the discussion at Elizabeth Sloane, "Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live: A Murderous Mistranslation?" Haretz, 17 August 2017.
³ J. Black, A. R. George, N. Postgate, A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian. Second (corrected) printing. SANTAG Arbeiten und Untersuchungen zur Keilschriftkunde 5 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, ²2000) ss.vv. kašāpu I, kaššāpu I, KA×BAD.
⁴ The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English, ed. Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1851) p. 99, Exodus 22:18.
⁵ all the examples that follow are from the "Middle Liddell," 855b, ss.vv. More examples with detailed citations can be found in the "Big Liddell": Henry George Liddell, A Greek-English Lexicon (New York: Harper, 1897) 1657a-b, ss.vv. As to the use of φαρμἄκóς in this sense, see Hippon, 4, 28. The Big Liddell also cites this very verse of Ex. 22:18 from the Septuagint. Cf. φαρμακíστατος, -άτη, "the most arrant sorcerer or sorceress," Suidas, s.v. Μηδεíα; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 17. 4, 1.
⁶ Jasper Blowsnake, "Whiskey Making," 5-6.
⁷ CPI Inflation Calculator, for 1937, 2025 update (electronic text).

Source

Sam Blowsnake, "Beginning of Sam Blowsnake's Account of the Medicine Rite," Winnebago Notebooks of Amelia Susman (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, Aug. 30 - Oct. 10, 1937) Book 3: 78-106.