What Role Did The Shaman Play In The Tribal Life Of The Plains Indian Tribes?

The major role of the shaman, or medicine man, was to call on and treat any Indian who got sick. In his role as healer, the medicine man carried a bag of secret conjures and talismans to drive away the evil spirits and rid the patient's body of bad medicine. Among the tools of his trade , used to the accompaniment of chants, were dried fingers, deer tails, drums, rattles and a tiny sack of curative herbs. There was often a genuine physical cure in the herbs. For instance, the Dakotas actually relieved asthma with the powdered roots of skunk cabbage, and the Kiowas stopped dandruff with a plant called soap-root. Some of the Indians' herbal cures. However, were of dubious value. The Hopis, for example, believed that the milky juice of the bedstraw milkweed promoted the secretion of milk in nursing mothers. Yet, many a white frontiersmen ended up owing his life to a medicine man's cure.