p. 24 | An Indian Medicine Dance

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 27, 1916

An Indian Medicine Dance

Writing from Chin Lee Indian Reservation, in Arizona, where he is laboring for this race, Brother Orno Follett describes an Indian medicine dance which he visited:—

“There are between thirty and forty thousand Indians on this reservation, nearly all of whom are as truly pagan as the heathen of darkest Africa.

“A few days ago I attended a ‘sing,’ as it is called, where ‘medicine men’ were endeavoring to drive the evil spirits out of a sick woman. They chanted weird songs all night long for many nights. A bright camp fire was kept burning in the center of the hogan while the priests and laymen participated in ceremonies to ‘the queen of heaven.’ The head priest would wave his long feather wand over the head of the patient, first this way four times, then that way four times; another burned incense on live coals of fire, after which sacred water was poured upon them, and they were thrown outside the camp. This was repeated. A kind of herb medicine was next taken by the patient, and then passed around to the guests, some of whom drank of it. The patient, all this time, was stripped to the waist. She was nearly white, and I noticed with surprise that she had blue eyes, showing that she was a half-breed.

Pai E. Myon and his wife, the father and mother

“These priests get very much in earnest, and their weird songs are chanted with a vim which must tax their physical strength to the utmost, and great streams of sweat roll down their tense faces and bodies while they sway back and forth, singing and shaking native rattles to frighten away the evil spirits. The number of nights these ceremonies continue depends largely upon the number of sheep or goats the victim is able to pay the priests for their services!

“O, what a shame, what a pity, that we of this fair land, with its Christian privileges, should have overlooked and quite forgotten these poor deceived heathen so near our own happy Christian homes! May God fill our souls with a determination to see to it that these pagan neighbors of ours shall receive the warning message which is due ‘every nation, and kindred, and tongue.’

“Dear reader, pray for me, that I may have wisdom from God to know how to handle this most difficult field.”