Fighting and Healing for a Tribe

During times of the 1700s a lot of Native American warriors would go into battle to fight for their tribes. Although, while in battle, most warriors got extremely hurt by other tribes. Because there were lots of injuries, the victim’s tribe would gather together and follow the healing ritual to mend the wounds. The Native American healing ritual consisted of acting like animals, and using different types of medicines.

When a warrior was close to death or was in any kind of pain that would prevent the warrior from fighting, one method of healing was acting like animals. The Crow Indians acted like animals because they thought that it would spiritually connect them with the animal that they were imitating. In the story of plenty coup, it talks about how Swans-Head  was hurt very badly while in a battle against the Sioux indians. Because of this, He was taken to a nearby lodge, and the healing rituals began. An elderly man named Bird-Shirt, who was also the wisest, made sure everything in order for the ritual to work, was in place and was surely not going to be disrupted. Bird-Shirt finally started to beat the medicine drums and sing a song that went along with the ritual. Shortly after this procedure, Bird-Shirt took a wolf skin painted with stripes of red on his nose and under his eyes. Since the wolf was painted like he was, Bird-Shirt also painted himself from his legs to his knees, from his arms to his elbows, and also his nostrils with red paint. Bird-Shirt also made his head and his ears out of clay, to look just like the wolf skins. while playing the medicine drums slowly and steadily, each hit like a heartbeat, Bird-shirt sang. He sang his medicine song while everyone waited with both excitement and worry in their eyes. The beating became softer but much faster. Bird-Shirt started to both trot around Swans-head and whine like a mother wolf at the same time. After this procedure was done Swans-Head opened his eyes and was finally healed.

Not only did the Crow Indians use the method of acting like an animal but they also used different types of medicines. The medicines that the Crow Indians used in 1700s are a lot different than the medicines that we see and use  today in the world we live in. For example, The Crow indians would use plants and a lot of different kinds of herbs. When healing, The Indians first watched sick and wounded animals to see what they used to cure themselves. Because of this, the wounded and sick animals introduced the Native Americans to using herbs and plants as a medicine. The Native Americans used Tobacco in almost all of their cures and became one of the most sacred herbs. The Native Americans used flowers such as sage, to cure evil spirits, and animal skins to connect themselves with a specific animal and cure the wounded by the animals power. Although in our culture today, anybody is allowed to get and distribute medicine, in the Native American culture, it wasn't right for just anybody to give out the medicine to the wounded. It was apart of the ritual that the wisest man would distribute the medicine. In the story of Plenty coup, Bird-Shirt, who was the wisest man in the tribe, beat the medicine drums, which was also a form of medicine,  for  Swans-Head. Other Medicines that were used consist of Cedar fruit and leaves for coughs and colds, animal skins, singing, and the beating of the medicine drums.

These healing rituals were used for many years during the 1700’s by the Native Americans. It is said that the 80% of the time, the healing rituals actually worked. The Indians think that the only reason that sometimes the ritual didn't work, was because something went wrong with the procedure. For example, everything had to be quiet around the area where the healing was taking place. If one thing was done wrong, or even if one thing was out of place the healing ritual would not be successful and the warrior would not be cured. These are just a few examples of how Native Americans in the 1700’s used their own ideas like acting like animals and different kinds of medicines to cure the wounded warriors in their tribes.
By Lunden