The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604)) — John Shaqi
The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604))Bourke, John Gregory
Religion
The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604))
Bourke, John Gregory
Apache Indians -- Medicine; Apache Indians -- Religion; Apache Indians -- Rites and ceremonies; Shamans -- New Mexico
First, in regard to the organization of the medicine-men of the
Apache, it should be premised that most of my observations were made
while the tribe was still actively engaged in hostilities with the
whites, and they cannot be regarded as, and are not claimed to be,
conclusive upon all points. The Apache are not so surely divided into
medicine lodges or secret societies as is the case with the Ojibwa, as
shown by Dr. W. J. Hoffman; the Siouan tribes, as related by Mr. J.
Owen Dorsey; the Zuñi, according to Mr. F. H. Cushing; the Tusayan, as
shown by myself, and other tribes described by other authorities.
The Navajo, who are the full brothers of the Apache, seem to have well
defined divisions among their medicine-men, as demonstrated by Dr.
Washington Matthews, U. S. Army; and I myself have seen great medicine
lodges, which must have contained at least a dozen Apache
medicine-men, engaged in some of their incantations. I have also been
taken to several of the sacred caves, in which solemn religious dances
and other ceremonies were conducted under the same superintendence,
but never have I witnessed among the Apache any rite of religious
significance in which more than four or five, or at the most six, of
the medicine-men took part.
The difficulty of making an accurate determination was increased by
the nomadic character of the Apache, who would always prefer to live
in small villages containing only a few brush shelters, and not
needing the care of more than one or two of their "doctors." These
people show an unusual secretiveness and taciturnity in all that
relates to their inner selves, and, living as they do in a region
filled with caves and secluded nooks, on cliffs, and in deep canyons,
have not been compelled to celebrate their sacred offices in
"estufas," or "plazas," open to the inspection of the profane, as has
been the case with so many of the Pueblo tribes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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