The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 301-398Mooney, James
Religion
The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 301-398
Mooney, James
Cherokee Indians -- Religion; Cherokee language -- Texts; Indians of North America -- Medicine
The results obtained from a careful study of this list may be
summarized as follows: Of the twenty plants described as used by the
Cherokees, seven (Nos. 2, 4, 5, 13, 15, 17, and 20) are not noticed
in the Dispensatory even in the list of plants sometimes used although
regarded as not officinal. It is possible that one or two of these
seven plants have medical properties, but this can hardly be true of
a larger number unless we are disposed to believe that the Indians are
better informed in this regard than the best educated white physicians
in the country. Two of these seven plants, however (Nos. 2 and 4),
belong to genera which seem to have some of the properties ascribed
by the Indians to the species. Five others of the list (Nos. 8, 9,
11, 14, and 16) are used for entirely wrong purposes, taking the
Dispensatory as authority, and three of these are evidently used on
account of some fancied connection between the plant and the disease,
according to the doctrine of signatures. Three of the remainder (Nos.
1, 3, and 6) may be classed as uncertain in their properties, that is,
while the plants themselves seem to possess some medical value, the
Indian mode of application is so far at variance with recognized
methods, or their own statements are so vague and conflicting, that
it is doubtful whether any good can result from the use of the herbs.
Thus the Unaste´tstiyû, or Virginia Snakeroot, is stated by the
Dispensatory to have several uses, and among other things is said to
have been highly recommended in intermittent fevers, although alone
it is “generally inadequate to the cure.” Though not expressly stated,
the natural inference is that it must be applied internally, but the
Cherokee doctor, while he also uses it for fever, takes the decoction
in his mouth and blows it over the head and shoulders of the patient.
Another of these, the Distai´yĭ, or Turkey Pea, is described in the
Dispensatory as having roots tonic and aperient. The Cherokees drink
a decoction of the roots for a feeling of weakness and languor, from
which it might be supposed that they understood the tonic properties
of the plant had not the same decoction been used by the women as a
hair wash, and by the ball players to bathe their limbs, under the
impression that the toughness of the roots would thus be communicated
to the hair or muscles. From this fact and from the name of the plant,
which means at once hard, tough, or strong, it is quite probable that
its roots are believed to give strength to the patient solely because
they themselves are so strong and not because they have been proved
to be really efficacious. The remaining five plants have generally
pronounced medicinal qualities, and are used by the Cherokees for
the very purposes for which, according to the Dispensatory, they are
best adapted; so that we must admit that so much of their practice
is correct, however false the reasoning by which they have arrived at
this result.
MEDICAL PRACTICE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account