Healing from Battle

While in battle, the Crows held strong to their healing methods ,but it didn't always work. The Crow indians, like many others, had their own way of healing and medicine.

Their methods aimed toward healing them spiritually, they wanted to restore one to a healthy and spiritually pure state#. When they would heal somebody it was a ritual, they had symbolic rituals  that would treat illness, and other remedies such as herbal would treat physical. A symbolic ritual could involve family members to beg the spirits to want to help heal the person; if a person is really sick they might hold a whole community ceremonie, there they would sing, paint their bodies, and of course dance. These things could last from hours up to several weeks. They never give up.For example, Plenty Coups told a story of when a fellow Crow warrior was shot , his name was The Wolf. Takes Plenty, a wise medicine man, that also was Plenty Coups uncle, immediately went to work. The Wolf was in rough shape with blood spilling from the whole in his breast. Takes Plenty opened what they called a medicine pouch and took out

The-flower-the-buffalo-will-not-eat and they watched him chew it up in his mouth and blew the contents upon The Wolf’s breast. He then took a few steps, about one-quarter round the body, and repeated what he just did. Then half round, next three quarters and every time he did  the exact same thing. Takes plenty then began acting as a buffalo-bull and snorted and jumped over the wounded warrior. The Wolf tried turning his body to watch but they never met eyes. he repeated this several times until he finally said “bring me a robe with a tail on it”. Now he was jumping over the man while waving a buffalo tail before him. He did this on purpose to try and make The Wolf reach for the tail. Still not looking at him he continued jumping and leaping over him. He then turned to walk slowly away while The Wolfs once weak effort to grab the tail turned into a must and he kept reaching farther and farther out until at last he was sitting straight up. Takes Plenty now looked into the wounded warriors hopeful eyes, but still backing away. The Wolf  reached further and further out until he was on his feet! They then opened his shirt and they told The Wolf to stretch himself and soon black blood spilled out over his body followed by red blood, Takes Plenty filled the hole with the same flowers and The Wolf was fine to live on.#

In order for these healings to work everything has to be exact  and by exact I mean if the ritual was interrupted or somebody messed it up and touched or went through something they were not aloud to it probably wouldn't work. See these things were also the Indians way of asking the spirits to help heal, so if it were interrupted it wouldn't work. Once a Crow Indian named Bird Shirt too got wounded severely and they did a healing ritual and the man did live for three or four days but then died and they said it was because of a violation of one of the first orders given.

Plenty Coups said “ our wise ones learned much from the animals and bird who heal themselves from wounds. But our faith in them Perished soon after the white man came, and now, too late, we know that with all his wonderful powers, the white man is not wise. He is smart, but not wise, and fools only himself.” Like us, the indians had many methods of healing and back then their methods might not seem so practical to us but the often worked very well.

by brooke