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MitmUICEB PUBUC MU$BUM BUUJETIN
VOL f9 NO 4 Jum 19 S5

BULLETIN

OF THE

PUBLIC MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE

Vol. 19. No. 4, Pp. 175-258. Figs. 1-13. December. 1953

Chippewa Pfeoccupation

With Health;

Change in a Ttaditional Attitude

Resulting From

Modem Health Problems

A thesis submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy, in the Faculty of
Anthropology, Columbia University.

Robert E. Ritzenthaler

MILWAUKEE, WIS., U.S.A.
Published by Order of the Board of Trustees

Printed by the
H. G. RAZALL MFG. CO.

Milwaukee, Wis.

Engravings by the
HAMMERSMITH-KORTMEYER CO.

Milwaukee, Wis.

PREFACE

This study is based primarily on information collected during three
summers of field-work carried on in 1941, 1942, and 1944. The major
portion of data was obtained at the Lac Court Oreilles reservation, but valu-
able confirmatory and comparative material was secured through visits to
such other Chippewa communities in Wisconsin as Lac du Flambeau, Bad
River, Red Cliff, and St. Croix; and Lac Vieux Desert in Michigan.

The project was jointly sponsored by Columbia University and the Mil-
waukee Public Museum both as to finances and personnel, with a duplicate
set of field notes being deposited at both institutions.

The writer is particularly indebted to Dr. Ralph Linton and Mr. W. C.
McKern who organized the project and lent valuable aid throughout; to my
co-workers in the field, Joseph B. Casagrande, Ernestine Friedl, and Victor
Barnouw; to Dr. Sylba Adams of the Ha)^-ard Indian Hospital; and to the
many Chippewa Indians who indulgently answered our often prying ques-
tions and admitted us to many intimate gatherings and ceremonies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
INTRODUCTION

1 . The Problem 175

2. The People 176

PART ONE: THE EXISTENCE OF THE ATTITUDE

1. Preoccupation with Health in Daily Life 179

2. Preoccupation with Health in Ceremonial Life 182

The Midewiwin 182

The Chief Dance 185

The Drum Dance 186

Peyote 189

3. Preoccupation with Health as Reflected by Numerous

Disease Concepts 189

4. Preoccupation with Health as Evidenced by the Variety of Native

Protective and Curative Techniques 192

Mechanical Methods of Curing 193

Cupping 193

Tattooing 195

The Sweat Bath 196

Shamanistic Techniques of Curing 198

The Conjuror 200

The Sucking Doctor 204

The Wabeno 208

Protective and Preventive Methods 209

Charms 209

Dream Fetishes • 210

Miscellaneous Protective Techniques 211

Observance of Taboo 212

Menstmal Taboos 212

Mourning Taboos 213

Destroying the Straw Man 213

The Offering Tree 214

The Modern Hospital 216

PART TWO: THE CAUSE AND BACKGROUND OF

THE ATTITUDE 219

1. The Modern Health Situation 219

2. The History of the Attitude 222

3. Conclusions 228

PART THREE: THE COMPARATIVE PICTURE 232

The MacKenzie Area 236

The Woodland Area 236

The Plains Area 237

The Southeast 239

The Southwest 239

Conclusions 241

SUMMARY 246

APPENDICES

Appendix A: T. B. Mortality of Wisconsin Indians 247

Appendix B: Summary from Hospital Records 247

Appendix C: Record of Deaths 248

BIBLIOGRAPHY 255

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures Fa-ge

1. Medicine Lodge 183

2. Medicine Dance at Lac Vieux Desert 183

3. Drums at Dance Ring 187

4. Drum Dance Ring 188

5. Cupping Equipment 194

6. Tattooing Instruments 195

7. Sweat Lodge 197

8. Shaking Tent Framework at Lac du Flambeau 199

9. Shaking Tent Framework and Doctor at Sand Lake 201

10. Sucking Doctor's Equipment 205

11. Doctor Sucking on Patient 208

12. Offering Tree 215

13. Hayward Indian Hospital 217

1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 175

INTRODUCTION

1. THE PROBLEM

Whenever primitive peoples come into direct contact with Western Civil-
ization the result is a sharp decrease in the native population. Factors
responsible for this include conquest in which actual slaying occurs by an
armed force such as in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, or in more informal
liquidation of the native population by civilians such as in the case of the
Tasmanians. The chief cause of native depopulation resulting from a con-
tact situation, however, lies in the field of health. The introduction of new
diseases to a people lacking immunity to them is perhaps the chief cause.
Measles, for example, a normal childhood experience to most whites operated
as a deadly epidemic when introduced into Polynesia. Smallpox wiped out
whole Indian villages, and, in the Great Plague of 1837 which swept through
the Missouri Valley, an estimated 10,000 Indians were destroyed in a few
weeks (Schoolcraft, Vol. 1, p. 257-8). Tuberculosis, the "Indian killer," a
slower, but no less effective destroyer than smallpox, is still rampant among
the American Indian. When a new disease did not kill directly, it some-
times led to a decline in population by affecting the birth-rate. In Yap and
the Marquesas gonorrhea has been a cause of sterility in women and cer-
tainly a factor in the sharp decline in the birth-rate.

The introduction of new foods, clothing, and shelter have also had their
effects on native population. The destruction of a native economy often
meant that the foods of the conqueror were substituted, and frequently it
was the inferior foods, or proper foods used improperly resulting in an un-
balanced diet. The introduction of white man's clothing in parts of Oceania
was frequent cause of pulmonary diseases and death because the people did
not remove the clothing when wet, an unnecessary procedure with theif
traditional garments. The effects of a new type of shelter on a primitive
population are more difficult to determine. Among some of the nomadic or
semi-nomadic American Indians where household cleanliness was neither a
necessity, nor a tradition, the shift to a fixed abode while maintaining their
traditional lack of concern for household cleanliness undoubtedly had some
effect on the introduction and spread of disease.

All of these factors played a part in the populational history of the In-
dians of the United States. The Indian population at the time of the first
white contact has been estimated at 846,000 (Mooney, p. 287). This figure

176 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

Steadily declined until by 1900 it had reached a low of 200,000. Since then
it has been steadily gaining until at the present time there are some 360,000
Indians in the United States. What the causes were for this rebound within
the last fifty years are not within the scope of this paper, but factors such as
the cessation of warfare, both intertribal and with the United States, acquired
immunities to some diseases, racial intermixture, and improved medical care
were undoubtedly involved. This paper will be concerned with an analysis
of the contact results on the major cause of populational fluctuation, health,
of one band of Chippewa Indians now living in northwestern Wisconsin.

One of the striking things encountered during a nine-month field study
of the Wisconsin Chippewa was the inordinate amount of attention given
to health and healing. Of course, man's interest in preserving his health is
universal, and in all societies, both primitive and complex, a generous share
of the culture consists of ways and means of dealing with that problem. In
our own culture the knowledge and techniques of curing, ranging from "old
wives" remedies to medical science, are legion. The hyper-consciousness of
the Chippewa regarding health and curing seemed well beyond a normal
interest and raised three primary questions. First, is this situation purely
cultural, or does it have a biological basis .' In other words are the Chippewa
merely expressing a cultural interest, or are they actually in a state of poor
health .-* Secondly, is this preoccupation with health a fresh condition, or
has it been evinced in their earlier history? Thirdly, what was the effect of
the impact of Western Civilization upon the cultural and biolog^ical situa-
tion? And, finally, to attempt to determine whether or not exaggerated health
anxieties are unique for the Chippewa among North American Indian
tribes, and to what extent, if any, health anxieties are correlated with type of
economic life. My procedure will be, first, to make an analysis of various
phases of culture in which this intense interest in health is reflected to show
that it does exist; secondly, to seek the solution to the above problems on
the basis of field observations, modern hospital records, and source material
provided by ethnological and historical accounts.

2. THE PEOPLE

The Lac Court Oreilles band of Chippewa consists of some 1700 people
sporadically scattered over a reservation of 45,000 acres in Sawyer County
in northwestern Wisconsin. The people, traditionally food gatherers with

1953} RlTZEiXTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 177

emphasis on hunting and fishing, entered the state from Canada via upper
Michigan, around the middle of the Seventeenth Century. They were con-
centrated on this reservation as a result of the treaty of 185-t, and settled at
various times in atomistic communities which today exist as Reserve, New
Post, Barbertown, Bisonetteville, Chief Lake, and Round Lake. Their
traditional economy has survi^ed to a considerable degree with hunting,
fishing, and the gathering of such wild foods as berries, rice, and maple-
sugar still carried on. Supplementing this diet are foods purchased at "white"
grocer)- stores. The cash income is obtained primarily by seasonal occupa-
tions such as guiding, lumbering, and the harvesting of cranberries, peas,
and beans for the nearby farmers. Such income, however, is meager, and
the economic problem of the Chippewa, as among all American Indians, is
a major one.

The ordinary dress of the people is that of the white man except for a
few of the older folks who prefer moccasins to shoes. Indian dress is seen
only at the summer dances for the tourist, and here the Woodland costume
has become intermingled with such Plains items as the war bonnet, vests,
bustles, and Dakota moccasins. Houses are either small log cabins, or small
frame structures with the elm or birch-bark wigwam employed only as a
storage hut, or occasionally used as dwellings in the wild rice camps.

The old social system has largely collapsed and, although most people
know to what clan they belong, the clan system is functionless except in a
few minor instances.

Catholicism has made substantial inroads into the religious lite of the
people, but there is an active so-called pagan" group carrying on the old
religious beliefs and ceremonies.

The nearly three centuries of contact with the whites has resulted in a
steady loss of the Indian culture, and. at the present time, a rough estimation
of the acculturational proportions would be eighty percent white and twenty
percent Indian. This, however, is not a well-kneaded mixture, but is closely
associated with age groups. Thus the children have little knowledge or
interest in the old Indian culture, and in most cases speak only English. The
middle-age group essentially follow the white ways, but with Indian infil-
trations, and are frequently bilingual. The old folks cling more to the old
ways, and in many cases speak only Chippewa.

178 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

PHONETIC KEY
Vowels: Consonants:

i in (eet s in shot

i in b/t 2 in gendarme

e in muke c in ch\\d

e in b^t g in ^irl

a in rod n in nug

o in rcpe Other consonants as

u in x:oom in English.

3 in b«t Signs:

' accent

' secondary accent
• length mark
'' glottal stop
au dipthong in mousQ

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 179

Part One
The Existence of the Attitude

1. PREOCCUPATION WITH HEALTH IN DAILY LIFE

Although health is an important topic of conversation among most
peoples, the Chippewa have given it top priority. I was impressed with the
number of instances in which I addressed to an Indian the casual rhetorical
question of ""How are you?", which in our culture brings forth only a
mechanical, platitudinous response, but which evoked a flood of details
from the Indian. Kohl (p. 110), writing nearly one hundred years ago,
• oflfers similar observations: "If two Indians go on a journey, they ask each
other a multitude of questions as to the state of health of their respective
families. Each relative is mentioned separately, and his present condition
described. 'How is your wife.-* What are your children doing — are they
all well and fat? Is your old mother in good health?" "No! she is rather
unwell.' "What is the matter with her?' "She has caught a bad cold, and
is down with a fever.' 'Have you a powerful medicine. for that? If not,
will you try this? Take some of it.' "Well how is your uncle? And are your
aunt's bad feet better?' 'Her feet are better, but she has begun to suffer
in. her eyes.' With such questions and answers the whole family is passed
in review, and all their sufferings and illnesses closely investigated."

A more concrete manifestation of their interest in health is in the assort-
ment of roots and herbs used for medicinal purposes, hanging on the walls,
ceilings, and over the fire of nearly every home. These range from herbs
with actual medicinal effect (laxatives predominating) to herbs with ascribed
magical properties, such as flag- root, to be carried on the person to keep
snakes away. An active knowledge of native plants and their medicinal
uses exists, and one fellow had a native pharmacopoeia in which he had
transliterated in Chippewa a total of sixty-four remedies, one of which had
twenty-two ingredients. Densmore (1928, pp. 286-294) lists 143 different
plants used for medicinal purposes by the Wisconsin and Minnesota Chip-
pewa. While there was a minimum of scientific accuracy in the compound-
ing and dosages prescribed, many of these herbs have been found to possess
intrinsic therapeutic properties, and have been incorporated into our own
materia medica. The medicines or knowledge of them can be given, bartered

180 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

for, or purchased, and such traffic is carried on not only intra-tribally, but
also among other groups such as the Potawatomi and Winnebago. However
(p. 324), "In the old days a person would not transmit any facts concern-
ing medicines to even a member of his own family without compensation,
one reason for this restriction seeming to be a fear that the information would
not be treated with proper respect. So great was the secrecy surrounding
these remedies that names were seldom given to plants, the person imparting
the information showing the fresh plant." One chap offered to show me
a plant used for curing toothache for a fee of one dollar.

Another method of acquiring knowledge of medicines was through the
Midewiwin when such information was dispensed for a fee, especially at
the time of one's initiation. "Although the Midewiwin was a repository of
knowledge of herbs (Densmore, pp. 322-323), it did not have a pharma-
copoeia accessible to every member. The remedies are individual, not general,
and an individual when questioned invariably replied, 'I can tell you about
my own medicines. I do not know about other people's medicines nor their
uses of the same plants.' "

Medicinal plants are commonly collected on a special expedition, or in
conjunction with other activities. The people know the best places to go to
gather a certain type of plant, and when the plant is dug up, a pinch of
tobacco is usually placed in the hole as an offering to the spirits (manidog),
or put next to the tree if bark or leaves are removed. The home stock of
medicines may also include non-vegetal substances such as clam-shells, cat-
linite, dried bumblebees, bear's-gall, deer-tallow, bear-grease (Densmore,
1928, pp. 330-1), gypsum, and native lead (Jones, p. 133). A small stock
of drug-store remedies such as aspirin and iodine will round ou^ the
average "medicine cabinet" of the Indian. Dr. Adams, the Medical Officer
at the Government hospital, and who had also worked in Indian hospitals
among the Dakota Sioux and on the Northwest Coast, made the observa-
tion that the Chippewa made much more use of Indian medicines than
either of the other tv.o groups.

While it can never be said that the Chippewa were, or are, fastidious
concerning matters of cleanliness and sanitation, they nevertheless observed
certain health measures. The following is a list compiled by Densmore
(1929, pp. 46-7) for the Minnesota and Wisconsin Chippewa:

1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 181

"The following data collected from many individuals should be understood as
representing the best ideals of the tribe rather than the practice of each individual
or family;

"Cedar boughs were frequently burned in a lodge to purify the air.

"Sage was burned in a lodge during a contagious illness. It was also used to
fumigate the head and hands of those who had cleansed the dead.

"Bedding was aired daily in summer and spread on the snow in winter.

"Woven bags, when soiled, were brushed, pounded, and turned the other side out.

"Damp clothing was dried over the fire. It was said that the smoke had a
healthful effect and prevented vermin.

"Bathing in a lake or river was frequent, and the hair was thoroughly washed.

"A small sweat lodge was often built in a corner of the living lodge for use dur-
ing the winter.

"Stiff brushes were used in washing the hands and in scouring kettles. These
brushes were identified as Equisetum hyemale L.

"Travelers did not drink water if uncertain of its purit}'. The usual custom was
to boil the water and put in twigs or leaves of plants or trees known to be healthful.
The decoction was drunk hot or allowed to cool.

"The space of hard ground between the lire and the mats in a lodge was swept
clean, the sweepings being put in the fire. The Canadian Chippewa made brooms of
ash, the entire broom being made of one piece with narrow strips of wood turned
back and tied to form the brush.

"Refuse that could not be eaten by the dogs w-as burned.

"Lye for household use was made from hardwood ashes. The directions were:
'Boil the ashes, let them stand, strain them out, and use the water." A specimen of
this was obtained and found to soften water in an acceptable manner.

"For washing dishes they 'took the lye down to the beach, put it in the dishes.
and scoured them with sand.'

"Washing of clothes was done as follows: The soiled clothes were soaked in
warm, weak lye, after which they were 'shaken and pounded' and rinsed in the lake.
Lye used in washing clothes was of such strength that they could dip their hands in
it without discomfort.

"Washing of blankets was as follows: They were washed in 'not too strong' lye.
If a flat rock were available, the blankets were spread on the rock and pounded with
a flat board, after which they were rinsed in plenty of clear water and dried.

"In winter the face and hands were washed with snow.

"It was said that the Chippewa never immersed their bodies in icy cold water."
At the present time health measures are observed, but certainly not to any
overwhelming degree. It is interesting to note that there appears to be no
correlation between cleanliness and degree of acculturation. Personal and
household cleanliness seems to be an individual affair, and some of the
cleanest homes I was in belonged to the old, so-called "pagan ' people to
whom the germ theory of disease meant nothing.

182 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

2. PREOCCUPATION WITH HEALTH IN
CEREMONIAL LIFE

The most glaring manifestation of the Chippewa's interest in health is
shown in their religious ceremonies. Two of the three ceremonies function-
ing at the present time have curing as almost the sole purpose, and to the
third, the Drum Dance which is an importation from the Dakota Sioux, the
Chippewa have added a special curing ceremony.

THE MIDE.WIWIN

The Midewiwin, or Medicine Dance, is the most important religious
ceremony of the Chippewa. It is too complex in both meaning and ritual
to adequately describe in this paper, but the important elements as encoun-
tered today will be summarized. The Midewiwin is the important ceremony
of the Medicine Lodge Society to which membership is obtained by prelimin-
ary instruction and formal initiation at one of the semi-annual meetings held
in late spring and early fall. The instruction and ceremony is under the
leadership of a number of recognized priests each of whom has an assistant
or runner. The ceremony now lasts from two to five days depending upon
the number of candidates, and is held in a specially constructed, semi-
cylindrical lodge consisting of a pole framevv'Ork open except for cedar boughs
placed along the sides up to a height of two or three feet (Figs. 1 and 2).

A person who is sick or dreams he should "go through" the Midewiwin
signifies his intention by holding a feast to which friends and a Mide priest
are invited. If the priest tells him to go through, he must make the follow-
ing preparations: He begins buying the blankets and pails needed for the
initiation payment. The payment for each of the degrees varies as follows:

First degree
Second degree
Third degree
Fourth degree

Clothing is sometimes substituted for blankets. The candidate is given a
cowrie shell (mi'g/'s) on a thong which must be worn around the neck at all
times until his initiation. He must also give a series of feasts during this
period to which his sponsors and the priest are invited.

lankets

Pails (galvanized water buckets)

7

2

11

2

17

2

21

2

1953}

RITZEXTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH

183

FIG. 2 — Medicine Dance at Lac Vieux Desert.

184 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

The priests decide when and where the initiation ceremony will take place
and assemble the candidates with invitational tobacco. Each candidate is
given secret preliminary instructions as to the ritual and conduct he will have
to observe during the ceremony, and is taught songs, meanings, and secrets
of the Society depending upon which degree he is taking. On the first day
of the ceremony the blankets and pails of the candidates are hung on the
ridge-pole of the lodge which has been built (or repaired if they are using
an old one) on the previous day. The candidates are led into the lodge
from the east and seated at individual stakes in the center. The members
assemble with tobacco, food, and their medicine-bags, and march around
the lodge led by a priest who sings the entrance song. The people leave
tobacco on a rock outside the east entrance, march inside, and take scats
along the sides. The ceremony is directed by the priests who do the speak-
ing and singing, and direct the dancing, feasting, and ritualistic maneuvers.
The important and dramatic feature of the initiation is the magical shooting
of the shells into the body of the candidate by the sponsors with the aid ot
their medicine-bags to drive out sickness and "renew life." The shell is
actually dropped in front of the candidate. During this procedure the candi-
date is given a medicine-bag as follows:

First degree . . . mink, otter, muskrat, or beaver

Second degree . . . owl or hawk

Third degree . . . snake and fox, or wildcat claw

Fourth degree . . . bear paw, or cub bear

After the shooting, the candidate distributes his blankets and pails to the
Mide priest, runners, and sponsors. When all the candidates have been
initiated, the members march around the lodge holding their medicine-bags
and shooting one another in a general melee, and finally exit by the west
doorway. The initiates leave last taking with them their medicine-bags and
the decorated stakes at which they had been seated.

The Midewiwin is now so dominated by the curative aspect that sick-
ness is actually a pre-requisite for membership. When I would discover
someone wearing the mi'g/'s, the shell indicating that he was to be initiated
at the next meeting, my question as to what was wrong with the person was
accepted as an appropriate one, and details would be supplied. In only one
instance among the twenty or so candidates I observed at four different
ceremonies was sickness not a reason for the person "going through." In
this case a young fellow was being put through by proxy, i.e., he was taking

1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 185

the place of his aihng step-father who was to have been initiated, but had
suddenly died. This is quite a different situation than that described by-
Hoffman (1891, pp. 163-4) for the Minnesota Chippewa in the 1880's.
Hoffman describes entrance into the Midewiwin as a natural, routine part
of a person's life with application usually as a result of a dream, or, if the
desire to join is not blessed by a dream, the person could make his wishes
known by expressing to the Mide priests a desire to purchase a mi'g/'s. At
the present time even babies who are, or have been sick, can be inducted
into the society which seems to be another distinct departure from the old
tradition. While curing and prayers for health and new life were certainly
important elements in old Midewiwin, they never dominated the ceremony
so completely as at present.

The curative function of the Midewiwin today is primarily on the super-
natural basis, although practical techniques are not entirely neglected. Medic-
inal instruction, formerly an important feature of the Midewiwin, has
degenerated to an almost negligible element. At Lac Vieux Desert, the Mide
priest insists that the candidates are told about only two medicines during
the four degrees (Kinietz, 1947, p. 209). This is quite different from the
situation described by Kohl in I860 who met one Chippewa who estimated
that he had traded forty packets of beaver skins for medical knowledge in
the Midewiwin. Kohl (p. 382) figured he had thus invested some 530,000
in his medical education.

When a contact situation results in the shrinking of a native institution,
it is logical to suppose that those elements which are considered to be most
important or most useful to the people will be preserved the longest. In
the case of the Chippewa it is apparent that much of the old ritual, meaning,
and accoutrements of the Midewiwin have been sloughed off within ihe last
fifty years, and in this condensation process the religion has withdrawn into
and seized upon the curative aspect as the important one which resulted in
a considerable change in the total institution. The reason for this trend, I
believe, is a direct reflection of the serious health problem, and represents an
expression by the people of the need and desire to deal with this situation
through the natural and supernatural curative techniques of the Midewiwm.

THE CHIEF DANCE

An even more convincing example of the effect of this preoccupation
with health on a religious ceremonial is found in the Chief Dance. The

186 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

Chief dance (og/cida'nimVdiw/n) at the present time is held if a person is
sick, or if someone dreams that sickness is about to invade the community,
and the main function of the ceremony is to enhst the aid of the guardian
spirits of a group of people in the curing of the sick person, or in warding
off the impending sickness. There is no regular membership, or scheduled
meetings as in the Midewiwin. The ceremonial pattern consists of invitation
by a gift of tobacco sent with a runner, the dedication of the food and
tobacco to the spirits by a speaker, a feast, singing and dancing to the rhythm
of a tambourine drum, and the enlistment of personal guardian spirits by
the participants in the aid of a person, or the community at large.

The ceremony has undergone a rather profound shift in purpose. My
older informants claimed it was originally a war ceremonial held before a
war party was sent out against their traditional enemy, the Woodland
Dakota Sioux. The people then enlisted their guardian spirits to insure the
safety and success of the war party. This contention is bolstered by such
suggestive elements as the literal meaning of the name, i.e. "brave dance," the
relating of war exploits (now rarely done), the use of the same type of
drum as was employed by a war party, and a former practice of carrying
wooden knives to represent scalping-knives during the dance. Although
popularly called the "Chief Dance" at Lac Court Oreilles, it is commonly
called the "War Dance" at the nearby reservations of Lac du Flambeau and
Lac Vieux Desert.

When hostilities with the Sioux ceased, the ceremony also died down
from lack of purpose, although it did not die out. Its dessication, and subse-
quent revival (during the early part of the twentieth century) as a mutual
aid society is a point on which all informants agreed. Although now held
primarily for curative purposes, it is also occasionally held to insure a good
wild-rice crop, to avert inclement weather, and during World War II, to
insure the safety and success of the Indian boys in the armed forces, a pur-
pose somewhat harking back to the original one.

This revival and reinterpretation of the Chief Dance in terms of health
seems to me a significant display of the Chippewa attitude toward health.

THE DRUM DANCE

The third ceremonial, the Drum Dance (or Dream Dance), is an impor-
tation coming to this band during the 1870's. The ceremony revolves about

1953]

RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH

187

FIG. 3 — Drums at Dance Ring.

a small number (there are three at present) of sacred drums. These are
made of wooden washtubs covered with calf hide and highly and symbolically
decorated with paint, beadwork, and other trappings (Fig. 3). The drum is
theoretically owned by two individuals (although some of the drums today
have but one owner) and the members are spoken of as belonging to a
certain drum. Each member has a special place at the dance ring or around
the drum, and specific duties such as speaker, singer, drum heater, pipe
tender, etc. Women can belong to a drum, but have no specific duties. They
accompany the singing with humming and join in the dancing. While small,
home meetings are held for a drum at various times throughout the year,
the main ceremony is (ideally) a four-day event held twice a year, usually
following the Midewiwin, and all the drums in the band are assembled.
These are held in a special lodge or outdoor ring (Fig. 4). At the ceremony
the speakers thank the people for coming, thank the drum spirit for
helping the people, and preach such virtues as good moral conduct, and
helping ones fellow man. The major portion of the ceremony is taken up
with singing and dancing. Dancing is an individual afi^air and done in the
same spot. The singing and dmmming is done only by assigned members
seated around the drum in the center of the ring. The singers have to

188

BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE

[Vol. 19

%^<;

^^fSi.

■■^'^

,ie.^

^ ■''^^

FIG. 4— Drum Dance Ruil

memorize a great many songs, for each person has his own song. When it is
sung, according to a definite order, that person must get up and dance; then
others may join in. When the song is finished the person must contribute
some article such as a blanket, clothing, or a gun to some member of his
choice. A bundle of gifts is also given to an invited representative of
another band for distribution to his people. The presentation of gifts is the
important feature of the Drum Dance.

Health is not an important theme of this ceremony. The speakers
usually include a prayer for good health sometime during the dance. Also,
the Chippewa, in taking over the dance from the Sioux, did add a curing
ritual in which the sick person was brought into the dance ring and special
curing songs sung in his behalf, but this is rarely done at present, and it
seems not to have been an important feature of the dance even in former
times. The Drum Dance, in fact, once a sort of social clearing house for
such events as marriage, divorce, removal of mourning, et al., has now
become essentially a social dance in which singing, dancing, and visiting are
the main attractions.

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 189

PEYOTE

Considering their attitude toward health and curing one would expect
to find a ready acceptance by the Chippewa of such curative cults as Peyote.
Peyote, however, has made only feeble inroads among the Wisconsin Chip-
pewa. There is a small, but active, cult at the Lac du Flambeau reservation
some eighty miles to the east of Lac Court Oreilles, but it has never pene-
trated the Lac Court Oreilles band. Lack of opportunity is not the reason,
for this band is in close contact with such peyote users as the Potawatomi,
Winnebago, and the Flambeau band. It has, rather, been actively and suc-
cessfully resisted due to the efforts of the older people, particularly the
influential Mide priests who feel it would interfere with the Midewiwin
religion. It might be noted, however, that at Flambeau the curative seems
to be the most important function of the cult.

3. PREOCCUPATION WITH HEALTH AS REFLECTED
BY NUMEROUS DISEASE CONCEPTS

Before beginning a discussion of disease concepts it is necessarj' to present
a picture of the magico-religious world of the Chippewa.

The Chippevi'a viewed the natural surroundings as being inhabited and
controlled by spirits (ma'nidog). There are believed to be spirits in such
natural phenomena as the sun, moon, stars, trees, rocks, lakes and rivers,
birds and animals. At the head of this pantheon is a Supreme Being
(gicima'nido or mide'manido), a benevolent, but remote being who parcels
out the various tasks to lesser spirits. For example, the four thunder-birds
representing the cardinal directions are assistants of the Supreme Being who
has delegated to them the job of directing the weather. It is considered to
be their complete responsibility, and attempts to control the elements are by
appeal and offerings to them rather than to the Supreme Being. The sun
and the moon are considered to be runners of the Supreme Being. Besides
such universal spirits there were benevolent and malevolent local spirits
usually inhabiting certain landmarks and known only to the local band.
Beyond this most men had a guardian spirit obtained as a result of a fasting
experience during youth. Women could acquire them also, but not during
the puberty fast. The guardian spirit provided the individual with assist-
ance and protection throughout life. The guardian spirit communicated
warnings and advice to the person through the medium of dreams. Dreams

190 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

are thus regarded as being of great moment, and influenced behavior to no
small degree. The attempt to influence the spirits for the benefit of the
person or community was by means of such techniques as offerings of tobac-
co, food, and goods; prayer and supplication; observance of taboos; religious
observances and ceremonies; and by intercession of guardian spirits. The
Chippewa also believed that each person had a soul.

Such concepts had a number of implications in terms of the health and

i well-being of the people. While common physical ailments such as head-
aches, colds, cuts and bruises were viewed as natural occurrences, the ma-
jority of more serious ailments were believed to have a supernatural etiology.
Thus sickness or injury could be the result of offending a spirit by failure to
observe a taboo or sanction. Most common, however, was the danger of a
! fellow Indian using his spiritual power, or hiring a shaman with more
power, to bring injury to an enemy. To this end such techniques as sympa-
thetic magic, soul stealing or incapacitation, and magically imbedding foreign
I substances in the body were employed. Paralysis of the face, for example,
I was always regarded as the work of an enemy, and usually a shaman was
hired to determine who was poisoning the person, rid the patient of his
malady by employing more powerful spirits, and if possible, return the
sickness to plague the sender. Such efforts often resulted in shamanistic
duels. Shamans were greatly feared and respected because of their greater
spiritual power and thus greater ability to do both good and evil.

The previous description is that of the traditional culture, and it should
be pointed out that while the majority of these concepts and practices sur-
vive, or have at least in part survived, they are at present associated primarily
with the older folk.

It is interesting to note that according to Clements' tabulation of disease
concepts of the world (pp. 193-201), the Chippewa are one of the few
tribes having four or more of these concepts. Clements defines primitive
concepts of disease as "those ideas held by primitive people as to the cause
or genesis of sickness." He then sets up the following five catagories into
which all primitive concepts of disease can be classified:

1. SORCERY. Here are grouped all those theories which ascribe sick-
ness either to the manipulations of persons skilled in magic or to
the operations of human beings who exercise some control over the
supernatural world.

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 191

2. BREACH OF TABOO. All theories which explain sickness as a
punishment sent by the gods for breach of religious prohibitions
or social prohibitions having divine sanction, are included under
this heading. The breach may be quite unintentional and even

I unknown to the sufferer but it is none-the-less regarded as the
real cause of his sickness.

3. DISEASE-OBJECT INTRUSION. Under this heading are listed all
theories attributing disease to the presence in the body of some
malefic foreign substance. This need not be intrinsically patho-
genic and usually takes the form of a bit of bone, hair, a pebble,
splinter of wood, or even small animals, such as lizards, worms,
and insects.

4. SPIRIT INTRUSION. This class includes all those etiologies which
hold that disease is due to the presence in the body of evil spirits,
ghosts, or demons.

5. I SOUL LOSS. This class includes all theories attributing sickness to
1 loss of the soul (Clements, pp. 186-190).

He then proceeds to list 298 tribes or areas giving the disease concepts
as reported for each. The Chippewa are reported as having four of the five
concepts, leaving only breach of taboo as unreported for the tribe. How-
ever, this compilation was based on Hoffman's classic work on the Mide-
wiwin, which was not especially concerned with curing and contains no
information concerning the breaking of taboos. The Chippewa definitely
have the concept of breach of taboo as causing sickness. The breaking of
either menstrual or mourning taboos can be directly responsible for sickness,
and some actual cases will be cited in a later section on this subject. Thus
the Chippewa must be listed as having all five disease concepts, a phenom-
enon shared by only four other groups in the world according to the
Clements' tabulation: the Maori, the Baganda, the two areas — Borneo and
Peru. "While a tabulation of this sort cannot be regarded as completely
accurate because of the lack of full and accurate source material for certain
areas, it nevertheless does indicate the relative extent to which certain peoples
developed their thinking along the lines of disease causation. The aware-
ness of the Chippewa to all five possibilities suggests a certain preoccupation
with the problem of sickness.

192 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

To these five primitive concepts of disease must be added the modern
germ theory of disease as introduced by the whites. The germ theory, al-
though often not properly understood, is still taken cognizance of by an
increasing number of people due to the influence of the Government hos-
pital, and the schools. A health education program consisting of movies on
such subjects as tuberculosis and post-natal care of children has been at-
tempted by the hospital, and undoubtedly has had some effect in illustrating
certain aspects of the germ theory such as the importance of cleanliness
and vaccination.

The older people dichotomize between Indian diseases and white man's
diseases, and will openly admit that Indian cures are ineffective against white
man's diseases, and point out that the white man can do nothing about
certain Indian diseases. Thus it is not regarded as incongruous that even
a medicine-man seek treatment in the hospital for such maladies as tuber-
culosis, smallpox, or cancer. This distinction, however, does not mean that
both methods may not be employed to effect a cure. In fact it is quite
common for people to try the hospital first, and upon failure of that method,
to resort to Indian treatment, or vice versa. For example, Mrs. J. B. had her
son leave a tuberculosis sanitorium in Chicago to come back to the reserva-
tion where she hired a shaman to put on a shaking-tent ceremony to find a
cure. On the other hand, I was called upon to drive a Mide priest to the
hospital for the removal of a tumor after a variety of native cures had been
attempted. In most cases the theory of disease merely determines the order
of treatment, and a person with partial paralysis will first seek to learn who
is magically poisoning him and then to employ counter-magic to effect a cure.
Upon failure of that he might end up at the hospital.

The effect of the impact of the germ theory then has been that there is
one more added threat to the health of the community, and among the
more acculturated members of the tribe it has already superseded in im-
portance the native etiologies.

4. PREOCCUPATION WITH HEALTH AS EVIDENCED

BY THE VARIETY OF NATIVE PROTECTIVE

AND CURATIVE TECHNIQUES

To combat such a formidable array of disease-causing phenomena the
Chippewa have devised a formidable array of curative devices. The imposing

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 193

aggregation of plants in past and present use as medicinal cures has already
been commented on. The following discussion will analyze other primitive
techniques of curing under the heading of: mechanical methods, shamanistic
techniques, and protective and preventive methods.

MECHANICAL METHODS OF CURING

Cuppmg

There are only a few recognized "specialists" practicing blood-letting
by the cupping method at the present time. The practitioners are usually
women (bepe'swe'jikwe, cutting or scratching woman), and there is no cult
or supernatural practices connected with it. The knowledge and technique is
taught to an apprentice for a fee, although one male informant claimed he
was taught how to do it by a mosquito and horse-fly, through a dream. The
patient pays the doctor a fee, usually tobacco and some common article,
but one person charges a fee of $5.00 per treatment. The most common
ailments treated in this manner are headaches and blood-poisoning, but such
things as dizziness, soreness, swelling, and rheumatism are also regarded
as curable by this technique.

The equipment consists of a sharp instrument for making the incision,
and a section of horn to draw off the blood (Fig. 5). In several instances
the lancet was obtained by smashing a coldcream jar and selecting a sharp
fragment, but a knife or razor may be used, and one practitioner had a
triangular steel blade set into a wooden handle. The cupper is made from
a three- or four-inch section of the small end of a cow horn which is cleaned
out and the tip perforated. To cure a headache, for example, the doctor
makes a slanting incision in the temple of the patient so as to strike a vein,
puts the large end of the horn over the cut, and sucks on the small end to
draw off the blood which is caught in a dish. According to one informant
the blood is caught in a dish containing water and emptied outside in an
isolated spot "where no-one will step on it or disturb it." Blood-letting is
limited to the head and limbs, and for blood-poisoning the person is bled
until "all the dark blood is out and the blood runs red and clear." A pint
seems to be about the maximum removed at any one time. No sterilization
of the lancet is reported, but some doctors apply a native salve to the cut
after the bleeding has stopped, or a native astringent may be used to stop
the bleeding. When a metal lancet is used the point is placed over a vein

194

BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE

[Vol. 19

FIG.

-Cupping Equipment.

and lightly snapped with the thumb and finger to make the cut. In some
cases two or three treatments over a period of several weeks are necessary
before a cure is effected. While blood-letting was not scientifically employed
by the Chippewa, it undoubtedly effected cures in some instances. That
blood-letting can have a salutary physiological effect is indicated by the fact
that modern medical science makes considerable use of it in cases of hyper-
tension and Polycythemia Vera.

Whether cupping was a primitive method of the Chippewa, or one
taken over from the whites is open to question. There is no archaeological
evidence thus far to support the theory that the Indians practiced it pre-
historically. My impression is that, inasmuch as it was a popular technique
of the whites in our earlier history, it was taken over by the Indians during
early white contact. Its former popularity has declined, and we found only
four women and two men who had practiced cupping within the last few
years, and none had had more than two or three patients during that time.

1953}

RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH

195

Tattooing (asasuw/'n)

Another technique for curing the same ailments as by cupping is to
strike repeatedly the ailing area of the patient with an instrument set with
a series of needles. This method is practiced by individual specialists,
mostly women, who work without supernatural assistance. The usual fee is
a gift of tobacco often accompanied by such articles as blankets or beadwork.
The tattooing instrument in former times was usually the upper or lower jaw
of a garfish, of which the long rows of needle-like teeth served quite well.
I obtained one such specimen in 1941, but it was the only one on the reser-
vation to my knowledge (Fig. 6). The usual type today is a series of steel

**^* **'y.» •'.*»* ••«»•

^.

FIG. 6 — Tattooing Instruments.

needles set into the end of a stick. The instrument is first dipped into a
native medicine and the sore spot hammered on, and sometimes a poultice
or medicine is applied afterward. Medicine is always used in conjunction
with tattooing. I obtained the following description of such a curing
in 1942:

"The instrument Mrs. B. used on me was a round stick on to which had been
tied about ten or twelve needles. She got some medicine and boiled it and let it cool,
and put it into a cup. Then she told me to lay down on a mattress on the floor. I

196 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

laid down and she told me she was going to tap me as long as she could hold her
breath, and that I shouldn't cry out. She dipped the needles into the cup of medicine
and tapped me on one temple. It hurt plenty, but they start slowly and then pound
faster and faster and by that time the spot is numb. Then she did it on the other
temple. Each tapping lasted about two minutes because a person can only hold their
breath that long. I had a headache and that is why I had her work on me. They
also do this for sore joints, rheumatism, or soreness anywhere. I just gave her a
package of tobacco. You can give them a blanket or anything. Mostly women do
this, but my uncle used to do it." (J. B., Field Notes 1942.)

In another account the tattooing instrument was a portion of a northern

pike jaw bound to a springy cedar stick. With one hand the instrument was

held over the sore spot, but about a half inch away. With the other hand

the teeth were driven into the flesh by snapping the second finger off the

thumb and onto the instrument. This was repeated a number of times after

which some powdered medicine was placed on the punctured area and a

piece of buckskin placed over it and held there. This informant stated that

bird down could be used instead of the buckskin.

The purpose of the tattooing procedure, according to my informants, is
to pierce the skin so that the medicine will penetrate into the blood stream,
and frequently blood is drawn as a result. It was said by one informant that
the terrific pain experienced during tattooing is really the soreness leaving
the body. It is possible, too, to account for any efficacy of this method in
terms of modern medical theory. Any such irritation will attract blood,
"the great healer," to that area, and the theory behind the directing of
ultra-violet rays on a sore or injured area is that it will set up a mild
irritation.

Tattooing, a term somewhat misleading, but one which the Indians them-
selves use when referring to this practice in English, is rarely practiced at
the present time.

Other surgical techniques known to the Chippewa include amputation
and tooth extraction. Splints of cedar or heavy birch-bark were bound onto
fractured limbs with basswood cord.

The Sweat Bath

(While the sweat bath was an important part of the religious ritual of
the Midewiwin, and also employed on the hunt for "getting rid of human
odors," its chief use was for curative purposes, and this is its only function
at the present time. It is employed particularly for such ailments as colds,
Ifevers, and rheumatism. The sweat-lodge consists of a framework of poles

1953}

RITZEN'THALER, CHIPPE^X•A HEALTH

197

arched in the middle and the ends set into the ground (Fig. 7). This is

completely covered with birch-bark or blankets. For the Midewiwin it was

built large enough to hold four men, but those built for curative purposes

are built with two poles and just large enough for one. When the sweat-

I lodge is finished heated stones are carried inside, the patient strips and

1 sprinkles water on the stones with a bunch of grass or cedar boughs, creating

^ steam. The water may contain medicine, or may be used alone. In the one

instance I observed, cedar boughs had been steeped in the water. According

I to Densmore (1928, p. 331), "After the bath the person was thoroughly

I rubbed, warmly wrapped, and put to bed." Densmore continues, "Another

method of steaming was used chiefly for rheumatic limbs, and with the

water they put any sort of medicine which was supposed to be good for that

ailment. In giving this treatment a hole was dug in the ground the size

of the kettle containing the hot decoction. Thev put the kettle into this

hole and the person sat beside it, covering his limbs closely with a blanket.

A medicine frequently used in this connection was identified as willow

I (species doubtful). The prepared root was put in hot water and allowed

^to hoil a short time. It was usually cooled before using.

FIG.

-Sweat-lodge.

198 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

"Dry herbs were also placed on heated stones and the fumes were inhaled,
this treatment being used chiefly for headaches. The stones were somewhat
smaller than those used in the sweat lodge being 'about the size of a small
bowl.' The patient covered his head and shoulders with a blanket, inclosing
the stones and inhaling the fumes. A mixture of many varieties of flowers
was said to be an agreeable preparation for this use."

SHAMANISTIC TECHNIQUES OF CURING

For more involved illnesses the Chippewa enlisted the services of a
shaman. There were two kinds of healing shamans: the conjuror or tent-
1 shaker (jiziki'w/"n/"ni), and the sucking doctor (wikwajige'w/n;"ni). Both
enjoyed extremely high status in the band, in fact they were generally the
most feared and respected persons in the community, for they had the power
to do evil as well as good. "Health and long life represented the highest
good to the mind of the Chippewa, and he who had knowledge conducive
to that end was most highly esteemed among them." (Densmore, 1928,
\p. 322.) Shamans were men, with rare exceptions,* and their powers were
/ secured during their vision quest, but remained latent until the person was
( middle-aged or older before he could actually practice. If he began practicing
too young he might lose his power or even his life. Not infrequently a
person was both a conjuror and a sucking doctor. Of the two the conjuror
had the wider powers, for he not only could magically heal, but also had
clairvoyant ability to determine among other things causes of sickness such
as sorcery and breach of taboo, and could exercise sorcery himself. The
) sucking doctor worked on the disease-object intrusion theory, and it was his
I function to remove the cause of sickness by sucking it out of the patient's
body. The tent-shaking technique was perhaps the more dramatic method
especially when coupled with skillful ventriloquism, but showmanship was
1 not lacking in the sucking doctor. Both doctors were solicited by means of
f a gift of tobacco. If the doctor accepted the gift it meant he would under-
take a cure at a specified time and receive a fee for his services. Each worked
with an assistant who took care of the physical arrangements, and did the

^Although in theory women cannot practice conjuring, Hallowell reports two
instances, Canadian Ojibwa, of women known to have used the technique in excep-
tional cases. They could do so, however, only "after menopause when they are con-
sidered to be much more like men." We also obtained several reports of women
having performed the sucking cure among the Wisconsin Chippewa.

1953]

RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH

199

FIG, 8— Shaking Tent Framework at Lac du Flambeau.

200 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

drumming. Both doctors accompanied their singing with a rattle, and the
ceremonies were held in the evening or at night.

The Conjuror

The theory and practice of the Wisconsin Chippewa is essentially the
same as described in detail by Hallowell for the Berens River Saulteaux in
his excellent monograph "Conjuring in Saulteaux Society." One variation
is that the Wisconsin tent is not the extreme barrel-shape, but instead,
cylindrical, with the framework open at the top (Fig. 8), or the poles
joining to form a dome (Fig. 9). It is to be expected that such variations
will occur inasmuch as each conjuror must have his tent built according to
instructions received in his fasting dream as to shape, number of poles, kind
of wood, etc.

The procedure of the conjuror is to call the assisting supernatural spirits
into the tent (their entrance causing it to shake) and consulting with them
on problems demanding a clairvoyant or prophetic solution. The doctor is
thus equipped to determine the cause of illness whether it be natural or any
of the five supernatural reasons: sorcery, spirit intrusion, disease-object
intrusion, breach of taboo, or soul loss. With this intelligence at his com-
mand the doctor is then able to prescribe a cure. It is interesting to note
that the conjuror who himself may kill or cause sickness by the technique
of soul-stealing sometimes gets involved in shamanistic duels over a patient.

The number of such doctors extant at the present time is meagre. I
know of only four Wisconsin Chippewa who have practiced in recent times,
and there are none left at the Lac Court Oreilles Reservation. This is very
different from the situation at Berens River, Canada, where nearly 10 per
cent of the people were known to have practiced tent-shaking in recent
times (Hallowell, p. 27). The decrease in numbers in Wisconsin seems to

!be due not so much to the decrease in demand as to the disappearance of
the custom of fasting. The power to conjure was obtained through the
fasting dream, and there is only a small group of people at present who are
equipped with such an experience. The phrase they use, i.e., "He has no
dream,'' applies to not only nearly all the middle-aged group, but also to
nearly all of the old people. The few conjurors that are left seem to be in
considerable demand and circulate their services over a wide area. There
are records of a conjuror being imported from Lac du Flambeau, a distance

1953]

RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH

201

FIG. 9 — Shaking Tent Framework and Doctor at Sand L.\',

202 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

of eighty miles, or, where the patient could be moved he was taken to
Flambeau. A Potawatomi, well known for his conjuring abilities, makes
the rounds of the Chippewa Reservations exercising his skill in the role of
"guest artist." In one case which I had the opportunity to observe, a woman
offered to pay all traveling expenses if I would drive her and her ailing
son to a doctor of the St. Croix band some sixty miles away. She had
already made one trip there to arrange for the ceremony. The time and
expense involved in such procedures is often considerable, and serves to
demonstrate their faith in the practice, but the art seems fated to die in the
hands of the present practitioners. The following is a description of the
ceremony I witnessed in 1942:

"Laurence Butler, about 25 years old, was working in a defense plant in Detroit
for a year and a half, until he was called into the army. His examination showed
incipient tuberculosis. He went to the Municipal Sanitorium in Chicago and stayed
there for six weeks. His mother, Mrs. John Butler, wrote him a letter and asked
him to come home and to go to this Indian doctor, John King at Sand Lake, a
I jiziki'w/n/'ni. Laurence came home Sunday, and Tuesday we were asked to drive
them down to Sand Lake.

"We got there about 2 P.M. Wednesday, and sat around waiting for dusk.
Mrs. Butler told John King what she wanted him to do. Talking to Laurence, we
learned that he had never seen a ji'ziksn shake and did not know much about it.
He didn't believe much in the efficacy of the jiziki w/n/'ni and was apparently going
through the whole thing mostly to please his mother, although he said he had heard
of people being cured by these doctors, and he admitted that he had nothing to
lose by it.

"We were told, at first, that we wouldn't be allowed to watch the curing, that
they never allow any white people around. John King said he couldn't work with
people of another race around (gawe*sa' — I can't do it). Mrs. Butler talked to him,
and told him that we had brought them down, so he changed his mind and consented
to our watching, providing we gave tobacco and didn't take any pictures or tell any
other white people about it.

"At dusk, about 8 P.M. Charley Littlepipe, the skabe'wis or runner, went out to
fix up the ji'zikan. Charley Littlepipe had been invited to come up by Mrs. Butler,
who had gone down to his house about seven o'clock, and had given him a package
of standard tobacco, and told him what was going to happen. The framework was
already built and had been used previously. It consisted of six ironwood saplings
I set into the ground and six smaller pieces going around. The ironwood stakes were
[ set about a foot and a half into the ground, bent over the top and tied to the opposite
stake about half way down. They were IV2 inches thick at the base. Six ironwood
branches, three-fourths inch in diameter, were bound onto these, starting about a
foot and a half up from the ground. They were about four inches apart and left
a gap of about 2 feet at the top.

) "The structure was just about 6 feet high and 21/2 to 3 feet in diameter at the

I base. It was tied together with wi'gop — basswood twine, and shook rather easily.
John said no dogs were allowed near it; they were all shut in the house.

"Charley shook the framework to test it and replaced some of the wi'gop, binding
it at various places on the framework. Then he bound bands of sleigh bells on
four of the uprights near the top. He tied them tightly with wi'gop and tied one big
leather band with some larger bells across the top (on the two remaining uprights).

1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 203

"He went into the house and brought out six blankets and a small pail of
wooden skewers. He said these blankets were used for the ji'zikan. He laid one
blanket on the floor inside on some hay that had been placed there. Then he wrapped
four of the blankets around the sides, one at a time. He fastened them to the frame-
work and to each other with the wooden skewers which were about 4 to 5 inches
long with one end pointed. The other blanket was thrown over the top and fastened
down to the others. There was no entrance left.

"Charley worked in a very efficient and business-like way, as though he had
done it many times before. He knew just what to do and how to do it, and the
whole process only took about 15 minutes. When he had finished, he picked up the
can of wooden skewers and went into the house and told them it was ready. He
came out and laid out a blanket next to the ji'zikan and put a bowl of tobacco on
it and a pipe in that, and then he went over and sat down with the Chief Drum
he had brought.

"Shortly after that John King came out followed by the three women who help
him on such occasions; his wife, Maggie Littlepipe, and her daughter, each of whom
carried a rattle made of a wooden stick about 2 feet long and 2 inches wide with
numerous tin cones nailed on which jingled when shaken. John pushed up the
blankets in one place and crawled into the ji'ziksn. The women filed around the
ji'zikan, grabbing it several times on the way and shaking it. Then they sat down
on a bench.

"When everyone was seated, the wigwam began shaking very slowly. This
seemed to be a signal for Charley to start drumming rapidly on the Chief Drum and
women to begin shaking their rattles. Soon the ji'zikan began shaking rather violently,
and then slowed up again, and shook hard again. This went on for about five minutes
(this is when the spirits come into the ji'ziksn). Then a disguised voice was heard
and the drumming and rattling stopped.

"The voice (supposedly the spirit bebo'kow^') said, 'atai'ya' (holy smoke, or
goodness gracious), what's been going on here. Look at my nosise (grandson, refer-
ring to John King, who had been drinking rather heavily). That's the work of
akiwe'si (Pat Kasabin). At this all the people watching started to laugh. Then the
spirit went on and said, 'What's that white man doing here?' and the people laughed
again. John Kasabin said that the white man was only there to watch and had paid
well for it (referring to the tobacco we had given).

"Then the spirit asked, 'Why did you call me here?" Mrs. Butler answered
(after being prompted by Mrs. King) and said she had brought her boy here and
wanted him. the spirit, to find out what was wrong with him and if he had any
medicine he could tell her about. Then Charley filled the pipe on the blanket and
lighted it for Mrs. King and passed it to all the others. They each took a few puffs
and then he handed it in to John King.

"The spirit said, 'All right, I'll try. I've helped a lot of Indians and I'll see
what I can do for this one.' The spirit spoke to Laurence and told him to come
closer. Laurence moved to a seat about 2 feet from the ji'zikan. The spirit asked
Laurence if he could understand Chippewa and Laurence was slightly confused. Mrs.
Butler told him to answer the spirit, so Laurence said that he could speak Chippewa
(all the talking was, of course, in Chippewa).

"The spirit then said, 'If you believe in me, I will tell you the truth, but if you
don't, I will tell you lies. Come closer and I will look at you.' Laurence leaned a
little closer, and the spirit said, That isn't bad. That sickness will leave you.' Mrs.
King then told Mrs. Butler to ask the spirit to work on him, so Mrs. Butler spoke
to the spirit and said, 'I would like to have you doctor him and boda'nzik (blow on
him) and tell me if there is any medicine that you know will help him.'

"The spirit said, 'Drum for me and I'll see what I can do.' So Charley started
drumming and the women shook the stick rattles, (these are used in the Chief Dance)

204 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

and the wigwam began to shake hard and every once in a while the sound of blowing
was heard. (Whoo", unvoiced. The sickness is supposed to be blown away from the
person like this.)

"The wigwam shook for a few minutes and then quieted down, the drumming
stopped, and the voice of the spirit was heard again. It said, 'That isn't a bad sick-
ness and you can get over it by taking medicine.' Every so often a spirit would talk
in an unintelligible growl, and John King would say ani'wgwana (all right then), as
a sign that he understood what the spirit was saying in that special spirit language.

"Mrs. Butler then asked what kind of medicine she should get and who should
make it. The spirit answered, 'Anyone who knows good medicine could make it.'
(Usually the spirit will name a certain medicine and name the person who should
make it). Mrs. Butler told the spirit that she had been using some of her own
that's all.' Then he told Laurence to take good care of himself and use the medicine

"Then the spirit said, 'Now then, in regard to that preacher (gagikwe'winini)
medicine on him, and the spirit said that was good. Then the spirit said 'miyu' - — •
out there, the one who is checking up on the Indians. Have him come up close here
and Til tell him all about the Indians in a short time.' He meant me, but Mrs.
Butler interrupted and told him, 'No, don't be concerned about him. He is only here
because he brought my boy here. He is only watching!' The spirit said, 'AH right
then, we'll go home.'

\ "The wigwam began shaking, and when it shakes hard it means that a spirit is

) leaving. There must have been at least two spirits there, one who talked clear
Chippewa and one who talked Chippewa in a growl, that no one could understand
except the doctor. No drumming went on while the spirits left, and the wigwam
shook hard a few times, then slowed down and stopped. The people got up and
started home and Charley took all the blankets off the ji'zikan. John King stayed
inside the wigwam in a kneeling position until all the blankets were off, then he
crawled out and came over to me. 'Can you do that.^' he said, in Chippewa, and I
said 'gawi'n — no!' And he laughed.

"Mrs. Butler went into the house for a few minutes and then we took them
home. She had brought a pint of whiskey for the doctor. They usually pass the bottle
during a curing like this, but John King had been drinking wine. Mrs. Butler had
gone down to Sand Lake to see him about two weeks before this, and had given him
tobacco, a blanket, and two half-pints of whiskey. She had told him she wanted him
to work on her son. He had said that he would and told her to bring her son down,
but not to bring any more blankets or anything except a pint. There was no date set.

"The spirit that spoke was bebo'kowe. He's only about 4 ft. tall, with hair all
over bis body. He's a manido, some people have him for their guardian spirit. There
is a special song that goes with him, they sing it at the Chief Dance and for the
ji'zikan." (Field notes 1942.)

The Sucking Doctor

The sucking cure is based on the theory of disease-object intrusion. The
doctor effects the cure by sucking from the patient's body the foreign matter
responsible for the sickness. The main features of the curing ritual, as
observed in five sessions conducted by two different doctors are as follows:
A sick person presents tobacco to a known practitioner who accepts the gift
if he intends taking the case, and arranges for the time and place. The
ceremony is held indoors and usually after sundown, although I did see one

1953]

RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH

205

afternoon session. At the appointed time the doctor, his assistant or runner
(skabe'wis), and the patient assemble. Spectators are allowed, but dogs are
forbidden from the vicinity, as their barking while the doctor is swallowing
the tubes might cause him to choke. The doctor's personal equipment con-
sists of a gourd or tin-can rattle, and two or three tubes kept in a buckskin
bag or cloth wrapping and only exposed at curings (Fig. 10). The two

FIG. 10 — Sucking Doctor's Equipment.

tubes used by one doctor were sections of canon bone of deer about 3 inches
in length, and three-quarters inch in outer diameter. The other doctor
used three .45 caliber cartridge cases with the ends removed. These were
just two inches in length and .45 inch in outer diameter. The assistant
is equipped with a tambourine drum. When the people have been seated
the doctor remo\es the tubes from the wrappings and places them in a
shallow dish, usually a pie tin, into which has been put water, maple-sugar
water, salt water, or whiskey according to the doctor's instructions. As each
doctor obtains his instructions from a spirit through dreams, there are many
such minor variations in equipment and technique. The patient, who may
or may not be partially stripped, lays on a blanket placed on the floor.
Tobacco is passed around with each person taking a pinch. The tobacco is

206 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

dedicated to the spirits by the doctor who then relates part of his fasting
dream and enlists the aid of one or more of his spirits to help him in this
curing. A song to the assisting spirit is sung by the doctor while shakmg
his rattle and to the drumming of the assistant. During the song the spirit
enters the body of the doctor. One of the tubes is "swallowed" and re-
gurgitated by the doctor who kneels over the patient, locates the origin of
the sickness, sucks it out through the tube, and spits it into the shallow dish
along with the tube. At this point the drumming stops abruptly to indicate
the end of this phase, the dish is passed around for inspection, and if
foreign matter has been forthcoming, the contents of the dish are thrown
into the fire. There may be several such suckings before any matter shows
up in the dish, and in the case of several failures the patient may be asked
to return the following evening when another spirit will be tried. A curing
ritual may last anywhere from a half hour to two hours depending upon
the wishes and successes of the doctor. The patient rewards the doctor
with gifts such as clothing, blankets, whiskey, guns, etc. The following is a
detailed account of a curing witnessed in 1941 in which two patients
were treated.

"We arrived at the patient's house about 7:15 P.M. and the ceremony began
shortly thereafter. The doctor was wasegi'zik, a man over eighty, nearly blind, and
from the nearby Bad River Reservation. He has been livingl at the patient's house,
treating her at various times. A blanket and pillow had already been laid out on the
floor and on a cloth nearby was a pie tin, a cup of sugared tea, and a piece ot
buttered bread. Shortly after our arrival the doctor took two brass tubes (made from
cartridge cases) that had been wrapped in a blue handkerchief and tied with string,
and put them into the pie tin. The first patient lay down on the blanket and wrapped
a thin cloth around the lower part of her body. The assistant passed tobacco to each
person present after which the doctor made a speech dedicating the tobacco to the
ma'nidog and asking for their help. Patient number two, in whose house this was
being held, gave a shot of whiskey to each person (including the five spectators).
The whiskey was dedicated to the ma'nidog by the doctor, and some was poured in
the pie tin on the floor after which each person, except the doctor, got down on his
knees and took a sip. It was later explained that we had to drink like a bear because
the doctor was using the bear ma'nido to assist him. The doctor began shaking his
tin can rattle and singing while the assistant beat the tambourine drum. During this
song one of the spectators was selected to eat the food on the cloth, and at the end
of the song another shot of whiskey was passed around. The doctor sang another
song during which he hiccoughed and slightly convulsed indicating that the bear
spirit had entered his body. At the conclusion of the song the doctor got down on
his knees and crawled the few feet to the patient who had meanwhile turned over
on her stomach. He still held the rattle, and the drumming continued. He swallowed
the tube, blowing into it first, with great swallowing gestures and convulsing move-
ments. He shook the rattle under his left armpit whenever he swallowed the tube
and intermittently during the sucking. He then blew through the tube over the
patient's left leg at the thigh downward toward the foot. As he reached the foot he
swallowed and regurgitated the tube and sucked. He did this twice more and bent
over the pie tin with the tube projecting from his mouth, blowing saliva into the

1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 207

tin, and finally spat out the tube, and the drumming stopped. Patient number two,
in constant attention to him. picked up tin, threw the contents into the stove, washed
the tin and the tubes, and replaced them. She passed around another shot of whiskey.
The patient lay very still during the treatment. She was being treated for sore legs,
apparently rheumatism. The doctor said he could see something like a light near her
navel, and that was causmg the sickness. After about five minutes of general gossiping
the doctor sang, and sucked in the region of the buttocks, but spat out nothing. He
said the cause of sickness was too tightly lodged, and that he would have to try-
again the following evening. The patient got up, put on her moccasins, and took a
seat. Another shot was passed around, and there was about a seven-minute inter-
mission. It was now 8:15 and a lamp was lit.

"The second patient lay down on the floor. Tobacco and whiskey were passed
followed by a speech in which the doctor told of how hard he tried to have a vision
and learn something when he was a boy. Ever)- morning when he awoke there would
be a plate of food, a piece of charcoal, and a switch. He chose the charcoal rather
than the food and switch, would rub some on his cheeks and go out fasting for a
half or the whole day. When he was a young man he went out on his long vision
quest to a sand bluff near Spooner, and there the sun came to him and helped him.
The doctor sang a song after which whiskey was passed, the tin filled with whiskey
and drunk as before. The first patient ate the food, and after another song the
doctor kneeled over the patient who was lying on her back and covered completely
with a piece of cheese-cloth. He blew and sucked on her foot, turned her on her
side and sucked on her hip, then on her forehead and neck, and spat mucous and the
tube into the dish. After a brief intermission and the passing of whiskey he resurned
sucking, successively on the forehead, eye, neck and breast, spat out mucous which
was thrown into the fire. There was the same convulsive swallowing and regurgi-
tating the tube before each sucking, examining the patient through the tube, and
blowing through the tube as done in the case of the first patient. When it was over
the patient got up, the doctor put his tubes away after they had been washed, and a
social shot was passed. It was now 9 o'clock. The doctor told us he would treat
them both the next night and that we were welcome to come. He said he would call
on sawano'binesi (bird of the south) a more powerful spirit than the one he used
tonight, and that he thought he could dislodge the first patient's sickness. (The next
night he apparently sucked a tiny pebble from her foot. It was put into the fire
along with an offering of tobacco). The first patient has been sorcerized and the
doctor had told her who had done it. Her mouth was becoming twisted and
paralyzed. She also had bad eyes. We learned later that besides providing room and
board for the doctor she had given him a fur coat for treating her." (Field
Notes 1941.)

We -^'itnessed a curing by another sucking doctor, a man over ninety,
also a mide' priest, and the most feared and respected man on the reservation.
His technique was generally similar to the other, but there were some differ-
ences which can be noted in the following field-note account.

"We arrived at the doctor's house at 8 P.M. There were three Indian spectators,
two of us, the doctor and assistant, and the patient, a man of seventy-five. The doctor
related his fast at some length, and sang with his rattle and drumming of the assistant.
The patient had brought a pair of tennis shoes and a package of tobacco as gifts. Two
bone tubes had been put in a pie tin partially filled with salt water and covered with
a handkerchief. The doctor swallowed one of the tubes after bending over the patient
who was lying on a blanket on his back. He sucked several times near the navel and
once on the groin, sometimes regurgitating the tube and sometimes not. Spat out the
sali%'a after each sucking as a rule, and finally spat out tube, the drumming stopped,
and the first attempt was over. After a song and another series of sucking he spat out

208

BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE

[Vol. 19

a small piece of white stuflt which we all examined with a flashlight. The doctor said
he thought he could get the rest of it out the next evening. The assistant carried the
pan outside and threw it into the brush. A bowl of rice and some buns were placed
on the blanket and we all ate. The doctor sang four songs, we had a few shots of
whiskey, and were invited to return the next night. The same people were present the.
second evening, and the doctor spoke saying he was going to use a stronger spirit
tonight. The patient laid on his back on the blanket with his torso bare. After another
long speech and song the treatment began. He swallowed the bone, gagged until we
became worried, but finally coughed it up. He sucked on the same part of the body
as before, with the bone well into his mouth and his lips touching the body of the
patient (Fig. 11 ). On the second attempt he had one of the women insert the bone
in his mouth, and had another lady shake his rattle. After several suckings he asked

FIG. 11 — Doctor Sucking on Patient.

his assistant to get a larger bone tube hidden under the bed. He unwrapped it,
swallowed it and on the first sucking attempt got three or four pieces of white stuff
which were spat into the pan. He sucked several times more and stopped. We in-
spected the contents of the pan which were again thrown outside by the assistant. The
doctor said he got it all out. He said that a woman from Chief Lake had sorcerized
the patient, and that he was sending that sickness back to her to see what she could
do with it. The patient gave him two packages of tobacco and a pair of gloves. The
doctor sang four songs 'to scare the sickness away from here' but no food served
this time." (Field Notes 1941.)

The Wabe)w

Although 1 could discover no trace of it among the modern Wisconsin
Chippewa, both Schoolcraft and Hoffman report the existence of a third

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 209

class of shamans termed the Wabeno (Eastern men). According to Hoffman
(p. 156-7) a Wabeno also receives his power through his fasting experi-
ence and "evil manidos favor his desires, and apart from his general
routine of furnishing 'hunting medicine", 'love powders' etc., he pretends
also to practice medical magic." He too was an individual practitioner, and
his dramatic forte was pyrotechnical legerdemain such as the handling of
red-hot stones or burning brands with the bare hands without injury. This
took place during all-night ceremonies in conjunction with singing, dancing,
and feasting. Among several of Schoolcraft's (Vol. 1, p. 356) informants it
was believed to be of modern origin and a degraded form of the Midewiwin.
j Information concerning the Wabeno, however, is both scanty and nebulous,
and even Hoffman (p. 156), writing more than sixty years ago, states,
"Their profession is not thoroughly understood, and their number is so
extremely limited that but little information respecting them can be ob-
tained."

PROTECTIVE AND PREVENTIVE METHODS

Charms

The Chippewa do not distinguish between medicine and charms. Their
term muski'ki which they translate as "medicine" includes both categories
In this paper, however, I am employing the term medicine to include only
those substances administered directly to a person for curative or malevolent
purposes, and charms to include those used to affect man or nature without
material contact.

Charms, like medicine, were usually obtained by purchase from another
individual. They were used to bring good fortune in hunting, fishing, trap-
ping, gambling, war, and love; to protect the individual from disease or
bodily injur}'; and for malevolent purposes. The vast majority of charms
were concerned with the food quest, with hunting charms being especially
numerous. In most instances charms were carried in small buckskin packets
on the person, but love or malevolent charms were commonly worked in
the home by applying them to clothing, hair, or any personal article of the
person they wished to affect. "Songs were not used with the working of
. . . charms, the efficacy being secured ... by 'talking and praying.' "
(Densmore, 1928, p. 375.) Examples of protective or preventive charms
are:

210 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

1. Flag-root carried on the person to keep away snakes. As there are

no poisonous snakes in this area, the purpose of the charm is
apparently based on either a dislike of snakes, per se, or a tear
of their supernatural powers.

2. "Dogbane was used as a protective charm against evil influence or

bad medicine.' " (Densmore, 1928, p. 375.)

3. "Seneca snakeroot was used as a charm for safety on a journey . . ."

(Densmore, 1928, p. 376.)

4. The root of a species of milkwort, Polygala senega L. was carried

on the person for general health and safety on a journey (Dens-
more, 1928, p. 376).

Two recent uses of charms are as follows:

Before E. B. left for school at Flandreau, S. D., his stepfather gave him
a charm to wear around his waist under his clothing to keep him from harm
and misfortune while he was away. I asked to see it, but he said no one
was supposed to look at it (E.B., Field Notes, 1944).

Mrs. J. Q. keeps a piece of the interior of a section of beehive in her
pocket whenever she goes to an Indian gathering. That keeps her all right
while the gathering is going on. It spoils the effect of any bad medicine
that might be around, and it doesn't hurt anyone (J. Q., Field Notes, 1942).

A Chippewa also had to take into consideration the unintentional, but
nevertheless harmful, consequences of charm-using by others. For example:
"They say when a man goes hunting with that medicine the fellow behind
him gets all broken up and can't walk. That happened to my brother. He
was hunting and the one in front had the hunting medicine. He just fell
down and couldn't walk. Some hunters brought him in. You get over it all
right in a few days, but it's bad." (F. Q., Field Notes, 1943.)

Dream Fetishes

These fetishes (aisiu'w/na'n) are sacred, personal articles kept by a

person throughout his life as guardians against any harm or misfortune.

They are made or obtained according to instructions received by a person

*" in his own fasting dream, or through a dream of a close relative or a 'we'e

■j who presents the article to the person in infancy or childhood. An aisiu'wina'n

1 may also originate as the result of intelligence received by a conjuror at a

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 211

shaking-tent seance. Such objects receive special care and handhng, being
hung on the loop of the cradle-board of a child and commonly hung over
j the bed of an adult. The person must never part with the object, and if it
1 is accidentally destroyed, or worn out, it must be replaced with a counterpart.
These articles were commonly taken to religious ceremonies or might be
carried on a long journey, and upon the death of the person they were
buried with him. The only example I saw of an article definitely identified
as an aisiu'w/na'n was a lacrosse racquet with a braided strand of red and
green yarn al'tached. I obtained the following account of it.

"J.M. cried too much when he was a kid, so his parents went to old man Batak
to find out what was wrong. The old man built a ji'zikan, and started it shaking, but
soon broke out in laughter. He had seen that the child wanted a lacrosse racquet, and
that was why he was crying. So his father made a tiny lacrosse racquet and his grand-
mother put the yarn braid on it, and they hung it on the loop of his cradleboard just
over his head where all toys are hung. J.M. stopped crying and the old man said he
should always have a lacrosse racquet with that braid on as long as he lived. When
he got bigger he got a big lacrosse racquet with braid on, and that is the one hanging
on the wall there." (J. M., Field Notes 1942.)

Miscellaneous Protective Techniques

A still common method of protection against property damage or physical
injury due to wind-storms is by making offerings of tobacco to the thunder-
birds. When a storm comes up an Indian will sometimes put a piece of cut
plug tobacco on a stump in his yard as an offering, or he may throw a pinch
of tobacco in the fire. In some cases he will talk to the thunder-birds asking
protection, but this is not necessary, as the offering itself is sufficient. One
informant told me with great delight of a time he was camped with a party
in Minnesota. A big cloud came up and the Indians knew the thunder-birds
were coming and they threw tobacco in the fire. The storm blew over many
houses, but none of the wigwams was harmed. Later some white people
asked why this was, but the informant only smiled. He confided to me that
white people don't know about thunder-birds; that only Indians could thus
protect themselves.

An apparently modern protective device is to hang identification feathers.
I noticed some turkey and chicken-hawk feathers hanging from a nail over
the door of a house. My informant told me they really should be eagle
feathers, and that is their way of telling the thunder-birds that an Indian
lives there, so the birds will not harm them when they bring storms. J. S.
has a feather tied on his car for this purpose.

212 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

A pinch of tobacco was commonly dropped in the water before setting
out on a fishing expedition or trip as an offering to insure a safe journey,
but as far as I could determine, this is no longer done.

Observance of Taboo

Another means of preserving individual health was by the faithful ob-
servance of certain taboos. In some instances a breach of taboo affected the
transgressor, but more often it resulted in injury to another person. The
majority of taboos m Chippewa culture did not concern health, but in two
categories, menstrual and mourning, they were not only associated with
bodily injury, but could be lethal.

Menstrual Taboos

The Chippewa believed that contact with a menstruating woman or
anything she touched was harmful. "Those that touched her or anything
that she had handled such as food, water, or clothing would become very
sick. She even had to be careful about touching herself. Formerly such girls
used sticks to scratch their heads or other parts of their bodies because using
a comb might cause the hair to fall out. Scratching the body might cause the
finger nails to drop off or raise blisters on the skin." (Kinietz, 1947, p. 125.)
Girls received instructions in this taboo during their puberty fast at their
first menses. They were isolated in a special hut for a week or more during
which time they were brought food but had to cook it oa their own fire
and eat it in separate dishes. They were told not to bathe in the lake or it
would kill the rice crop. They were told that a menstruating woman must
never step over a young child or men's clothing for sickness or even death
would result to that child or man. A young married couple was told not to
have intercourse during the catamenial period of the woman or the man
would get sick and might even die. It is said that a menstruating woman
even crossing the path of a man could do him harm. One informant stated
that if a woman was mean enough she could put some menstrual blood in
the food or clothing of a man and cripple him, but he knew of no instance
of this ever having been done. We learned of the case of a woman who
stepped over the cap of her son. She steamed the cap, and the son wore it,
but he got a sore eye, then paralysis of one side of his face, and he finally
died (D. O., Field Notes 1942).

1953] RITZEXTHALER, CHIPPEVCA HEALTH 213

Mourning Taboos

A person in mourning is not allowed to touch children until after a
removal of the mourning ceremony. During this period the mourner's touch
may produce sickness or even death to the child. It is believed that G. B.
who is paralyzed on one side got that way because a woman in mournmg
picked him up when he was small. The Chippewa have a great love of
children and it is probable that this taboo was rarely broken, and then only
by accident.

Destroying the Straw Man

Perhaps the most interesting method of protecting the health of the
community or an individual is by means of sympathetic magic employed
by a group. By the act of obliterating a straw man made for the purpose it
is believed that an impending sickness will be obliterated.

"The ceremonial pattern is simple. A person is warned bv his guardian spirit
through the medium of a dream that sickness is about to descend upon the com-
munity. The person notifies the community by sending a runner with tobacco, the
common method of invitation. The runner presents some of the tobacco (a bit of cut
plug, or Standard) to each family, and tells them when and where to come, and to
bring equipment for what they are going to do (wimasin skibi'jigan — we are going
to make an image). At the appointed time the people assemble bringing food,
tobacco; the men with guns; the women and children with knives, clubs, and axes.
The Dreamer then tells the people his dream and why they are doing this. The food
is laid out on the floor, tobacco is passed around and smoked, and the Dreamer gets
up and dedicates the food and tobacco to the ma'nidog (spirits) and asks their help
in doing this thing. The people then eat, it being believed that the food and tobacco
are really offerings which go to the ma'nidog. After the fast the men take their guns
and the women and children their clubs, knives, and axes, go outside and cautiously
approach the straw man which has been set a short distance away from the house by
the runner. The figure is made of straw or hay (to be inflammable) varying in height
from about two to four feet, and dressed in a miniature man's costume. It is either
made by the runner the night before, or by the women just before the ceremony
begins. . . .

"As the people approach the straw man. the Dreamer gives the signal to the men
to shoot it with their shotguns, he joining them. The women and children then rush
up to club it. cut it, and chop it to bits. The remains are gathered up by the people
or runner, placed in a pile, and burned. They may return to the house where the
Dreamer thanks them for their assistance." (Ritzenthaler, p. 320.)

Although ordinarily done to avert sickness in the local community the
system may have wider application. During World War II a man who had
heard of the high incidence of malaria among U. S. troops in the South
Pacific dreamed that he should help them by destroying the straw man,
and this was done.

214 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

Sympathetic magic is not foreign to the Chippewa, but ordinarily it is
a secret individual undertaking by a shaman. The destruction of the straw
man is the only instance I know where it was employed as a community
venture.

The Offering Tree

Another group attempt to ward off impending sickness is through the
technique of the Offering Tree (bagi'jigana't/g). Here, too, an individual is
warned by his guardian spirit that a sickness is about to visit the community.
The person sends invitational tobacco to a number of people by a runner
who tells the people to come to a certain place at a certain time "to make
an offering" of clothes. At the appointed time the people assemble with
tobacco, food, and articles of clothing. The food is laid out, and tobacco
passed, both of which are offered to the ma'nidog of the air, particularly the
thunder-birds (bine'siwag) by the dreamer, or someone he has asked to
speak for him. The dreamer relates his dream to the people, tells the
ma'nidog that this offering of clothing is being made to them imploring
their intercession to keep that sickness away. After the feast the clothmg
brought by the participants is assembled and hung on a tree or pole along
with tobacco. In the one case I saw the clothing was tied in bunches and
hung about two-thirds of the way up a slender, eighteen-foot tall pine tree
from which all the branches had been trimmed except for a few at the top
(Fig. 12). In other instances a slender pine tree is cut down, peeled, and
trimmed just leaving a tuft of branches at the top. The clothing and tobacco
are tied near the top and the pole either leaned up against the house, or set
upright in the ground. It is said that the clothing should be articles worn
close to the body, not overcoats or the like. The usual articles hung on the
pole or tree include underwear, pants, shirts, dresses, and aprons. They must
be left hanging for at least four days, and during that time they are accepted
by the ma'nidog. In some instances they may be left up until they disinte-
grate; in other cases they are taken down on the fifth day and used for
dish-rags. The former seems to be the older practice. Occasionally a Chief
Dance will follow the ceremony of clothes hanging.

A variant of this practice is a case reported to have occurred some years
ago at a settlement about fifty miles from the Reservation known as Sand
Lake. A person was warned by his guardian spirit of a coming plague. He
assembled some people, and after the feast the bundle of clothing was put

1953]

RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH

215

FIG. 12— Offering Tree.

216 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

into a boat. The dreamer and his assistant rowed out into the lake some
distance and threw the clothing and tobacco into the water as an offering
to the water spirit. The informant added that this is rarely done because
most people believe the water spirit to be an evil one.

This completes the battery of native methods the Chippewa have devised
to combat sickness. With the gradual loss of the old culture there has been
a decline in the belief in the primitive etiologies of disease, and in the use
of primitive curative techniques, with an increasing patronage of the modern
hospital. The surprising thing, however, is not the lessened use of all the
old native curative techniques, but the fact that they have survived through-
out three hundred years of white contact.

The Modern Hospital

Previous to 1931 the Chippewa at Lac Court Oreilles depended largely
upon Government Field Physicians and Nurses for medical care. More serious
cases were transported to the Government hospital at Tomah. A Govern-
ment nurse was stationed on the Reservation for ten years as a health in-
spector. She treated minor ailments, and arranged for the hospitalization
of the more serious cases.

In 1931 a Government hospital was erected near the town of Hayward.
It is a modern brick building (Fig. 13) housing 45 beds and 10 bassinets.
Service is provided free for any Indian living on the Reservation, but some
of the people object to the fact that the hospital was not built on the
Reservation, and a journey of from 15 to 25 miles is necessary. Transporta-
tion, however, is supplied for the more urgent cases by either the Indian
Agent or by a field car sent from the hospital. The normal staff quota
should consist of a Medical Officer in charge, a field physician, a field
nurse, six nurses, and one head nurse. In 1947, however, there was no
field physician, and only four nurses and one head nurse. At one time they
also had on the staff a dentist and an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist. At
the present time a field dentist comes to the Reservation about once a year.
The former Field Physician, assisted by a Field Nurse, had an office in
Hayward and was on call at any home on the Reservation. He also examined
the school children once every year and arranged for clinics at which vac-
cinations and innoculations were given, and occasionally x-rays were taken.
At that time there was also a health education program consisting of movies
on such subjects as tuberculosis and post-natal care of children.

1953}

RITZEXTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH

217

FIG. 13 — Ha>T\ard Indian Hospital.

Besides the local facilities there is a U. S. Government sanitorium at
Walker, Minnesota, where tubercular patients are sent for treatment. The
few mental cases are sent to the State Hospital for Mental Diseases at
Mendota. There is also some patronage of private doctors and dentists in
the nearby towns, but these are services which the majority cannot afford.

Although there is a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the services
and methods of the Government hospital, the majority of the people are not
hesitant about utilizing the institution. For a sample five-year period
(1933-1938) there was an average of 862 cases admitted per year. They
have been fairly well conditioned to the idea of having their births at the
hospital with an estimated 85 per cent of the children born there, and only
15 per cent handled by Indian midwives. This factor has undoubtedly been
important in reducing the rate of infant mortality, but the figure is still high.
Some of the older people are still suspicious of the efhcacy of modern
medical science, and persuasion is sometimes necessary to get them to enter
the hospital, but that the old prejudices are breaking down is attested to by
the fact that even medicine men and Mide priests have, on occasion, patron-
ized the hospital. This does not mean that native cures are necessarily being

218 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

replaced. In fact, in many cases native methods will be used before or after
hospitalization. The hospital is received into the culture as one more curative
device, and upon failure of that device the patient may take recourse to
native methods. Certain people take great delight in citing cases where,
after the hospital had failed to effect a cure, the patient was taken home
and cured by Indian doctoring. The dangers of simultaneous use of Indian
and modern medical therapeutics were recognized by Miss Gardner, a former
field nurse who said she had always told a patient "Either take my medicine
or your medicine, but don't take them both."

One of the problems at the hospital is that of keeping a patient long
enough to cure him. The Chippewa, with their love of the out-of-doors,
are not fond of being confined inside for any length of time. Also, their
desire to be among their own friends and family may reach the compulsive
stage where a patient just walks out and returns home, utterly disregarding
the instructions and advice of the Medical staff. Cases such as the following
are not uncommon:

A.S. refused to stay in the hospital even though she had bronchial pneumonia.
She had her husband take her home where she was seated for four days by two old
ladies, but died shortly after (Field Notes 1943).

V.G. expecting a baby at any time, was taken to the hospital for delivery, but
she got lonely and walked the mile and a half into Hayward where she had her
husband come and take her home (Field Notes 1943).

The problem of keeping a patient in the tuberculosis sanitorium for the

long period often required for cure is especially great.

1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 219

Part Two

The Cause and Background
of the Attitude

Thus far, the discussion has been concerned with an analysis of the
aspects of culture in which the Chippewa have exhibited a preoccupation
with health. This section will deal with an analysis of the reasons for this
interest in health. The most obvious problem that arises is how much real
reason is there for such an interest. The analysis of primitive culture by
anthropologists has clearly revealed the fact that necessity does not always
determine the cultural interests. Man is not necessarily a rational being and
many social cynosures seem to have no logical basis. Thus there is no actual
necessity for the elaborate social organization built up by the Australians.
They could survive as well with a simple system. An elaborate death cult
as expressed by the early Egyptian culture or the prehistoric Hopewellian
peoples of the greater Mississippi Valley does not necessarily mean that the
cultures were threatened by oblivion. Why one group like the Hopi develop
a rich religious complex, while another group, like the Pima, living under
similar physical conditions, almost ignore the religious phase, cannot be
explained in terms of necessity.

Focusing again on the Chippewa, the first question to be considered is
how much of the preoccupation with health is merely a cultural interest, and
how much is a reflection of the actual situation. In other words, are the
Chippewa actually sickly people and is their interest in health a direct re-
sponse to that situation, or is health merely another unexplainable cynosure.'

1. THE MODERN HEALTH SITUATION

An analysis of the amount and types of sickness and longevity rate in
recent times was carried on by two methods: (1) interviews with field and
hospital nurses and physicians, and, (2) by an examination of the health
records at the government hospital.

The hospital records revealed some rather startling facts which are con-
vincing evidence that the interest in health is based on a serious health

220 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

problem. To begin with, the hospital records showed that for the five-year
period from June, 1934, to June, 1939, there was an average of 862 cases
admitted per year. With a population of 1,700 Indians on the reservation
this means that the number of cases hospitalized each year was just about
half the total population. The number of cases admitted to the hospital in-
cludes a few whites (accepted in emergency cases) and a few from other
reserv^ations, but this figure is offset by the number of Lac Court Oreilles
people hospitalized at other institutions, such as the Walker Sanitorium.

This figure does not mean that all cases admitted were persons suffering
from sickness or disease. Over this same five-year period there was an
average of ninety-four maternity cases per year. The balance must be con-
sidered as enrolled because of illness. There must also be taken into account
the fact that some people suffering from even serious illnesses will not go
to the hospital because of prejudice, and the number of tubercular patients
who should be hospitalized but refuse. For example, in 1934, ten out of
the seventeen known active T.B. cases among Indians in Sawyer County
were not in a sanitorium (Wis. State Board of Health, 1943).

Compared to the average number of people hospitalized in the United
States for one year — one out of five (A.M. A., 1946), the Chippewa ratio of
one out of two is significant. The fact that the Chippewa are provided free
hospitalization and thus can utilize this advantage more frequently than
other lower economic groups in the general U. S. population may mitigate
the significance of the wide gap between the two ratios to some extent, but
even taking that factor into consideration, the Chippewa figure is an im-
posing one.

Mr. J. B. Townsend of the U. S. Public Health Service states (p. 32):
"In general, the Indians as of today have about the same disabilities as the
white race. The tuberculosis rate is higher, they have more trachoma, and to
some extent more venereal disease, the last depending upon the location of
the tribe." In general this holds true for the Chippewa except for the
venereal disease rate which is about the same as for the general population.
Trachoma, once a fairly common disease, has been brought under control
due largely to the fact that the great majority of children are born at the
hospital. Dr. Adams stated he encountered only about twenty-five cases of
trachoma in his nine years (1931-1940) at the hospital. The sulfa drugs,
a specific treatment for trachoma, are now the potent weapon of the hospital.

Mental disease among these people is comparatively rare, as is cancer.

1953] RITZEXTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 221

but the latter may be due to the fact that fewer reach the Lancer age as com-
pared to the white population.

The most devastating disease of the Chippewa, as with all North
American Indians, is the "Indian-killer, " tuberculosis. There is some argu-
ment as to how large a part lack of immunity plays in this picture, but all
concede that the low economic level is an important factor. Dr. Adams of
the Hayward Indian Hospital believes the high rate among Indians is due
both to lack of immunity plus poor economic conditions. Townsend (p. 35),
however, states 'Tt is our belief that the Indians as a race are not especially
predisposed to tuberculosis, but that any group of the same economic level
would have an approximate endemic index."

Dr. Adams estimated the present tubercular incidence to be 10 per cent.
This includes all active cases, whether hospitalized or not. A complete survey
has not been made, so it is impossible to compute the rate precisely. Hospital
records showed an average of seventy-one tuberculosis cases admitted each
year from 1933-1938, an incidence of 31/2 P^"^ '^^^^ P^^ Y^^^^ ^^^ whether
these were new or old cases was not indicated. That figure also does
not take into account the active cases not hospitalized or those cases hos-
pitalized at the Walker Sanitorium. The 10-per-cent estimate of Dr. Adams
seems to be about as close to the actual rate as one can get.

The hospital records reveal that of the 233 deaths from 1931-1941, 41
were listed as caused by tuberculosis, or 17 per cent of the deaths were due
to this cause. It is significant to note that during that same period, the
T.B. mortality rate for all Wisconsin Indians was over eight times greater
than that of the general U.S. population (Appendix A).

Another deadly disease among the Chippewa is pneumonia. Exposure
to the inclement winter climate under conditions of inadequate clothing and
housing, or a weakened physical condition is largely responsible for the
high rate. For the ten-year period (1931-1941), the hospital records list a
slightly higher percentage of deaths due to pneumonia than to tuberculosis.
There were 43 pneumonia deaths of a total of 232. or a percentage of 18
per cent of the deaths due to pneumonia. The high death rate in winter is
largely due to pneumonia. In the four months of December, January, Feb-
ruary, and March, 26 of the 43 deaths occurred from pneumonia. From the
available death records at the Agency Office for the years 1912-1921 and
1926-1939 nearly 50 per cent of the deaths were listed as caused by pneu-
monia and tuberculosis.

222 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

Considering the fact that most children are born at the hospital, the high
rate of infant mortality is astonishing. Of the 232 deaths from 1931-1941,
the number of stillbirths and those surviving less than six months was 56 or
nearly one-fourth of the total deaths. 73 of the 232 were infants or children
who died before their fifth birthday. This means almost one-third of the
deaths was in the 0-5-year age group.

This high infant mortality is largely responsible for the appallingly low
longevity rate among the Lac Court Oreilles Chippewa. The hospital records
show that from 1931-1941 the average age at death was 30.8. The death
records at the Agency Office for the years 1912-1921 revealed a longevity
rate of 30.7 for that period. This agrees with the average life expectancy —
30 to 40 years — of the American Indian as a whole (Townsend, p. 33). This
is a longevity rate of less than one-half of that for the general United States
population at large. This alone would give a people cause for alarm.

Another myth exploded by the hospital records was that the Indians
who do survive the dangerous years up to adolescence live to a ripe old age.
Of the 232 deaths, only 8 persons lived to the age of eighty or over
as follows:

100 or over 1

90-99 3

80-89 4

Summing up the health situation of recent years, it may be said that the
Chippewa have good reason to be concerned with the health problem. That
with the high infant mortality rate and appallingly low life expectancy ot
30.8 years, we are dealing with a people that has every right to awareness
that something is radically wrong. That the problem is too involved to be
solved by even first-class medical aid is obvious. Poverty is a syndrome which
always includes sickness and disease in its ugly complex. Tuberculosis, a
disease of malnutrition, will continue to thrive in the low-income community
despite the efforts of doctors to check it. Until more adequate food, clothing,
and housing are provided these people, they will be helpless against attacks
threatening their physical well-being.

2. THE HISTORY OF THE ATTITUDE

The next problem to be considered, granting the excessive interest in
health in modern times, is whether or not Chippewa preoccupation with

1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 223

health is long estabhshed and traditional, or whether it is of recent vintage
generated by modern conditions. The following analysis will attempt to
I show that a deep concern for health was present in the Chippewa before
I white contact; that this concern was sustained and apparently deepened
during the first part of the contact period due to the introducion of new
diseases, particularly smallpox, to the Indians; and that this concern was
further sustained in modern times due primarily to the replacement of tuber-
culosis as a serious health threat as the problem of smallpox was brought
under control.

The evidence for the hypothesis that the Chippewa interest in health is an

old one rests largely on the impressive array of both disease concepts and

native curative devices in existence at the time of the coming of the white

man. These have already been discussed and need no further elaboration.

Added to this is the probable pre-contact existence of the Midewiwin — a

religious ceremony with ciaring as an important element, and the logical

assumption that health is always an important concern among hunting peo-

1 pies whose very survival depends upon the physical fitness and well-being ot

I the hunter. While one would expect to find this attitude reflected in folklore

and mythology, it is interesting to note that health and curing are only minor

/themes. About the only recurrent related theme is the wish for long lite.

The coming of the white man and the subsequent introduction of new
diseases had important repercussions upon the health of the American
Indian. Precisely which diseases were pre-Columbian and which were intro-
duced into America is a problem still involving debate. Hrdlicka states
(1907, p. 540), "The condition of the skeletal remains, the testimony of
early observers, and the present state of some of the tribes in this regard,
warrant the conclusion that on the whole the Indian race was a compara-
tively healthy one. It was probably spared at least some of the epidemics
and diseases of the Old World, such as smallpox and rachitis, while other
scourges such as tuberculosis, syphilis (pre-Columbian), typhus, cholera,
scarlet fever, cancer, etc., were rare, if occurring at all."

The greatest scourge of the Indian during the early, as well as most of
the historical period, was smallpox. Stearn and Steam (p. 13) state that
"Smallpox, which was introduced into the mainland of the Americas in the
early part of the sixteenth century . . . decimated the native population for
four centuries ..." and add, "Smallpox killed more Indians in the early
centuries than did any other single disease." Although specific references to

224 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

the Wisconsin Chippewa in this regard are absent for the early historic
period, it is known that such epidemics infiltrated this general area and un-
doubtedly took their toll of this group. "From 1633 to 1641 there seems to
have been an almost unbroken series of smallpox epidemics through the
Great Lake — St. Lawrence River region." (Stearn and Stearn, p. 24.)
Again (p. 131), "In 1781-2 it (smallpox) ravaged the Ojibway territory
as far west as Lake Superior." In the later historic period one encounters
specific references to the Wisconsin Chippewa, such as (Morse, p. 348),
"The Chippewas, during the past few years (i.e. previous to 1855), have
suffered extensively, and many of them died, with the smallpox." That the
problem was a serious one is indicated by the inclusion in the treaty of 1836,
between the United States and the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, of a sec-
tion providing for the payment of three hundred dollars a year for vaccine,
medicines, and the services of physicians.

During the first half of the Nineteenth Century came the first real
attempt to protect the Indian against smallpox by means of vaccination,
isolation, and quarantine, but adequate control of the problem was not
realized until the end of the century. The last important outbreak of the
disease occurred from 1898 to 1901 in the United States and Canada, but a
mild form had replaced the virulent one, and while the incidence was high
the mortality was low (Stearn and Stearn, p. 113). In 1907 the vaccination
of children in Indian schools was made compulsory (p. 123), and by 1938
only one death from smallpox was recorded for that year among the entire
Indian population (p. 131).

Just what the effect of the ravages of smallpox was upon the attitude of
the Chippewa can only be surmised. The appalling death rate from the
disease as well as the serious after-effects such as disfigurement, blindness,
or deafness frequently occurring among those who had recovered could not
have been lightly regarded. It seems probable than any intensity of concern
with health held prior to the arrival of the white man would have been at
least maintained, if not deepened, during the historic period. Certainly
such observations as Raudot's, in 1701, that "... there is not a single old
Indian man or woman who does not have some secret of medicine, real or
pretended." (Kinietz, 1940, p. 372), suggests that curing was important
in the minds of the Chippewa at that time, and Kohl's comment in I860
(p. 382), that one Chippewa had given forty packets of beaver skm

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 225

estimated at $30,000 in exchange for medical knowledge in the Midewiwm,
indicates that this interest had not diminished.

Whether the problem was resolved by acquired immunity, effective
application of preventive medicine, or a combination of the two, the fact
remains that by 1900, smallpox had ceased to be a serious problem of the
Chippewa. By this time, however, a new threat to their health had arisen
in the form of tuberculosis, which became and remains the most serious
health problem of modern times. The rise in tuberculosis incidence was, to
a considerable extent, an accompanying feature of the acculturational process.
The increasing acceptance of western culture produced conditions amenable
to the spread of the disease. While the Chippewa had been exposed to, and
had incorporated many items of western civilization into their culture during
early times, the period of intensive acculturation begins with their settle-
ment on reservations in 1854. Traditionally the Chippewa had lived in
small, widely scattered, semi-sedentar)? bands. The reservation system froze
them in their locales, resulting in reduced mobility and a greater concentra-
tion of population. The trend toward a more settled way of life was
furthered by the gradual breakdown of the old economic system. Under the
old system the group was almost constantly on the move. In the fall they
moved to the wild rice fields for a period of a month or more. In winter
they moved to the hunting grounds; spring found them in the sugar-bush;
and in summer they returned to the village to fish, gather berries, and tend
their gardens. The change from a food-gathering economy to a money-
gathering economy began during the latter half of the Nineteenth Centur}'
when lumber interests invaded the area and many of the men took jobs in
the lumber camps. Today, a combination of the two is in operation, but the
emphasis is on a money economy with the major income from seasonal
pursuits such as cutting pulpwood, guiding, and harvesting crops for the
nearby farmers and cranberry growers. Elements of the old economic cycle
are still in evidence, but the only thing approaching mass migration occurs
in the fall when many families move to the wild rice fields. Only a few
families still collect maple-syrup in the spring, and while there is con-
siderable hunting and fishing done throughout the year it is now done with
the permanent home as a base of activities. This economic trend has had
two results bearing on our problem: a more sedentary life with much more
time spent in a fixed abode, and a change in the foodways.

The abandonment of the wigwam for a more permanent dwelling intro-
duced some unfortunate aspects. The majority of the houses today are one- or

226 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

two-room log cabins or frame structures. Overcrowding is common and I
have seen as many as nine persons living in a one-room house. Such condi-
tions producing close contact mean that the likelihood of an intected mem-
ber spreading tuberculosis among other members of the family is great. The
problem of control is also made difficult by the fact that the Chippewa love
to be with their families, and will frequently refuse to remain away at a
sanitorium for the length of time required for cure.

Houses in general are poorly insulated, often not equipped with screens,
and modern plumbing is almost unknown. I know of only one bath tub, one
flush toilet, and one house equipped with running water on the reservation
today. This lack of modern plumbing coupled with the lack of electricity
and such conveniences as power-washing machines makes the problem of
maintaining cleanliness a difficult one. While the low standards of personal
and household cleanliness can be largely attributed to economic conditions,
there must also be taken into account a traditional lack of any considerable
concern for cleanliness, especially in terms of the household. The wigwam
of former days was primarily a sleeping place and shelter from inclement
weather, and in following their economic cycle no one dwelling was occupied
long enough to create problems of sanitation current in their fixed abodes
today. Programs of health education by the field doctors and nurses and the
influence of the schools have helped, but there is much more to be done in
this line. It might be pointed out that the homes of the older people arc
better kept as a rule, a fact probably explainable in terms of the greater
difficulties in maintaining a neat house by the younger people who have
a number of small children. Both the considerable lack of modern sanitary
knowledge and equipment, and the overcrowding are conditions amenable
to the rise and spread of tuberculosis.

The change in foodways from a native diet to a growing dependency
upon commercial foods has had some bearing upon the health of the com-
munity. Native foods such as fish, wild game, berries, and wild rice are
still important items of diet and utilized whenever available, but commercial
foods form the major portion of the diet. In line with their low economic
position it means that they are usually limited to the cheaper foods. Meats,
such as salt pork and sausage, are used in considerable quantities mostly
because these are all they can aff^ord. Shopping is done at the two stores on
the reservation and in the two nearby towns, but distance and lack of trans-
portation limits shopping to once a week in most cases. Fresh foods are not

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 227

usually purchased because of the lack of facilities for preservation. There is
only one refrigerator on the reservation, and ice boxes are rare. This limits
the use of fresh dairy foods, with canned milk taking preference over fresh
milk, and butter and cheese not commonly encountered. Some of this lack
of fresh food is compensated for by the use of supplementary native foods,
but the supply is not always dependable. There is also a considerable use of
starchy foods such as bread, potatoes, and dumplings. In general it may be
said that the absence of a well-rounded diet is due to the lack of knowledge,
financial means, and preservative facilities. Tied up with the problem ot
adequate diet is the existence of actual food shortages at times when money
runs out. While no one starves to death on the reservation, there are hard-
ship cases which undoubtedly leave their mark in terms of health. It is
apparent that the inadequate diet is a contributing factor to the incidence of
tuberculosis which is to a considerable extent a disease of malnutrition.
Whatever the causes and contributing factors, tuberculosis is the chief health
problem of the modern Chippewa and they are well aware of it.

Another clue to the health situation during the historic period is to be
found in the observations and reports by early writers pointing out the high
rate of infant mortality. For example, Peter Jones (p. 145), working among
the Canadian Chippewa during the 1830's and '40's says "It is painful tor
me to relate, that of all the children that have been born among these tribes
with which I am acquainted, more than one-half die before even reaching
the period of youth; it is only those who have the strongest constitutions that
survive the shocks and exposures to which they are subjected during infancy
and childhood. The poor mothers are very ignorant of the nature of the
diseases common to children, and of the proper treatment of them; some-
times their clothing is very scanty, at other times they are almost smothered
in blankets. The food which they eat is often injurious, and thus disease is
generated by the very means used to subdue it." A report on the White
Earth (Minnesota) Chippewa for 1890 contains the following statement.
"Nearly two-thirds of the Indian infants die under 5 years of age . . ."
(U. S. Census, 1894, p. 340-1.) While such observations and reports must
be considered as opinions rather than statistically arrived at facts, and thus
may be somewhat exaggerated, it is still apparent that the rate of infant
mortality was, and is today, unusually high.

In summary it may be pointed out that the evidence strongly suggests
that a preoccupation with health existed among the Chippewa Indians in

228 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

* pre-contact times. It is further apparent that this attitude was not only
sustained, but doubtlessly deepened during the historic period due to the
acute health problems resulting largely from white contact. Such problems
as the high rate of infant mortality, the death and disabilities wrought by
the introduction of new diseases by the white man, particularly smallpox
which was an almost constant ravager from early to relatively late historic
times, and tuberculosis which replaced smallpox as the most serious disease
and remains today as the major threat to the well-being of the community,
gave the Chippewa a realistic basis for intensification of their concern
with health.

3. CONCLUSIONS

This report thus far has really had three minor objectives and a major
one. One of the former was to put on record some previously unreported
data obtained in our field-work. Another was to bring together for the first
time all the curative techniques known for the tribe. A third objective was
to present a picture of the rather unfortunate health situation existing at
present and to indicate the reasons for it, particularly in terms of the effect
of white contact.

The major objective, however, has been to show the existence and
history of an attitude. The first section of the paper was concerned with the
problem of establishing the fact that a preoccupation with health does exist
among the modern Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin. The attitude was
apparent in their daily life as expressed in their every-day conversation,
their well-filled "medicine chests" where the aspirin tablet mingles with
native herbs drying on the rafters, and in their considerable knowledge and
traffic in native medicines. The attitude was even more clearly discernible
in their health-seeking ceremonial complex. It was showri that two of the
three religious ceremonies had curing as their primary purpose, and the third
had a curing ritual up to recent times. Another expression of their health
interest was found in an analysis of the traditional disease concepts. It was
seen that the Chippewa have all five of the disease concepts as defined by
Clements, a phenomenon uncommon among primitive peoples of the world.
An examination of the curative and preventive techniques employed by both
professional healers and private individuals revealed an impressive array
dominated by magico- religious devices, but also including mechanical and

1953} RITZEXTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 229

medicinal techniques. The fact that the professional healers, the Mide
priests and shamans, were accorded the highest prestige in the band was
another indication of the attitude.

The second portion of this paper has dealt with an analysis of the
reasons for such an attitude in terms of both the present situation and
previous history of the band. While it could never be proven, the evidence
pointed to the hypothesis that a considerable concern with health was enter-
tained by the Chippewa in pre-contact times. It was seen that any existmg
concern for health was intensified during the historic period due to the
serious health problems resulting from white contact. Beside the introduc-
tion of new diseases such as smallpox which plagued the Chippewa durmg
most of the historic period, white contact also resulted in cultural changes
producing conditions under which diseases like tuberculosis flourish. An
analysis of the state of health of the band in modern times revealed that the
preoccupation with health apparent among the Chippewa today has a
realistic basis; that the health of this communit)' is sub-standard; that while
the Indian only senses something is wrong, the statistics show the following:

1. One out of two persons is hospitalized each year as compared to one

out of five for the general United States population (1946).

2. That the tuberculosis mortality rate for Wisconsin Indians for the

ten-year period from 1931-41 was eight times greater than that ot
the general United States population.

3. That for this same ten-year period one-third of the deaths were in

the 0-5-year age group.

4. That for this same ten-year period the average age at death was 30.8

as compared to the general United States life expectancy rate for
whites of 65.5 (U. S. Bureau of Vital Statistics, 1939-41).

It seems probable that a preoccupation with health will exist among the
Chippewa as long as such unfortunate health conditions prevail, and it
seems unlikely that there will be any radical change in the attitude in the
immediate future. The health problems of the Chippewa today are to a
considerable extent a result of poor economic conditions, and there is little
likelihood of any significant improvement in the near future. While a
comprehensive program of health education, and an expansion of medical
services might be of considerable help, the problem will not be resolved as

230 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

long as the American Indian remains the lowest income ethnic group in the
United States. On the cheerful side of the ledger is the fact that the high
death-rate is offset by the higher birth-rate so that the Chippewa are in-
creasing in number.

An additional word may be said regarding the possibilities of improving
the situation through the medium of a public health program. Dr. E. T.
Foard, Director of Medical Services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in
recently deploring the utter inadequacy of a preventive medicine program
for the American Indian makes the following points (pp. 1403-7):

1. "As for public health (preventive medicine) service for the Indians, 83 field
nursing service positions are now provided for under budget limitations and only 50
positions are filled. Despite the urgent need for improvements in environmental sanita-
tion on practically all Indian Reservations until within the past few months, only one
medical officer trained or experienced in public health adminstration had ever been
employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for field service. It was only within the
past 60 days that the first sanitary inspector was ever employed for field service
among the Indians; yet basic sanitation is the one great need for eliminating health
hazards which exist on a majority of the Indian Reservations. At the present time,
only two qualified sanitary engineers are employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and only one of these two is devoting his full time (on the Navaho Reservation) to
public health work. No pediatricians or nutritionalists have ever been employed for
field service among the Indians; yet diseases of infants and children are among the
principal causes of the high death rates among Indians as a racial group. . . .

2. "Only one dentist is employed for each 19,000 Indians. . . .

3. "Of the 62 Indian hospitals operated in the United States, more than 40 per
cent of the hospital load from year to year has been made up of preventable or con-
trollable diseases. . . .

4. "The high morbidity and mortality rates among the Indians are undisputable
evidence that the health of the American Indians, a majority of whom are wards of
the government, has been neglected to the extent that the lack of health facilities for
Indians is a disgrace to the nation. . . .

5. "The Indians are entitled to health services equal to those provided for the
white people of the country. For lack of funds, inability to pay adequate salaries for
professional personnel and an outmoded central administrative policy, they are not
getting it."

Dr. Foard ends with the statement that unless the present federal plan
is radically improved, the public health program should be transferred to
state agencies for administration with the aid of federal subsidies. In terms
of direct benefit to the Indian, such transfer has much to recommend it. A
local agency is more likely to be sensitive to the problems and needs of the
Indian group in its ken, whereas a centralized agency in Washington might
be more prone to think in terms of "blanket" programs. Perhaps the chief
contribution of the anthropologist is to point up the fact that each Indian
reservation must be considered potentially a unique situation with the possi-

1953} RIT2ENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 231

bility of very different methods and approaches required than either with
other groups of Indians, or with whites; that one thoughtful and efficient
health program might work well on one reservation and fail miserably on
another because of the cultural and psychological differences of the two
Indian groups. For example, a health education program for the Chippewa
would have to have a different approach and appeal than one for the
Navaho, not only because of the cultural and psychological differences, but
also because of the difference in degree of acculturation. Even the transfer
itself could not be a blanket one. Some groups would be easily accommo-
dated into the prevailing health facilities of their particular state or county,
while some of the isolated tribes, particularly some in the Southwest, would
be left without health services because of the absence of non-federal facilities
in the immediate vicinit)'.

232 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

Part Three
The Comparative Picture

This report thus far has focused its attention upon a single tribe. It is
the intention in the following section to add comparative material through
an analysis of other primitive groups in the attempt to learn whether or not
the case of the Wisconsin Chippewa is a unique one. The problems to be
considered are: (1) are there other North American tribes which also exhibit
exaggerated health anxieties at the present time; (2) is there any correlation
between health anxiety and type of economic life; and (3) what generaliza-
tions can be drawn concerning the effect of health attitude upon the be-
havior of man? The search for an answer to the first problem will be
directed first to other bands of Chippewa outside of Wisconsin, and then
to other tribes of American Indians.

Health anxieties are not restricted to the Wisconsin bands of Chippewa.
Both Landes and Hallowell report similar situations among the Canadian
Chippewa. Thus Landes (p. 179) reporting on the Chippewa of south-
western Ontario, states:

"All the preoccupations of the Ojibwa can iind expression only with the limits
set by the individualistic attitude. Thus the general interest in physical well-being is
a concern of the individual alone; the group, the tribe are not considered. Every
Ojibwa is ridden with anxiety about his health. From birth, a child is provided with
curing rites by his parents. An adult continually hires doctors for himself, seeks
visions that promise well-being, participates in the curative Sun-Dance and Medicine
Dance. This concern with illness finds a complement in the cultural provision for
curers of several different sorts. The attention given to one's own illnesses, which is
based on a rather hypochondriacal self-preoccupation, matures into a relationship
between patient and curer in which the patient is interested only in improving his
condition, and the curer typically is interested only in demonstrating his power to
cure. The attitude of the shaman is extremely exhibitionistic — he wants to show off
power, miraculous tricks which have been given to him in a vision by a supernatural
who singled him out for this personal attention. Here again, the curer's success is
important to him largely because it ministers to his self-respect, not because he has
any serious stakes in alleviating the patients' suffering."

One difference between this group and the Wisconsin Chippewa is that
among the former, ". . . the physical well-being is a concern of the indi-
vidual alone; the group, the tribe are not considered." (Landes, p. 179.)
While this concern is primarily an individualistic affair among the Wiscon-
sin Chippewa, it is certainly not exclusively so. Examples of group concern
for the physical well-being of the community were previously described in

1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 233

connection with the Chief Dance and the ceremonial slaying of the straw
dummy. In both the Medicine Dance and Drum Dance concern for the
well-being of the group is expressed in the form of prayers to the ma'nidog
to keep the people well.

Hallowell (1941, p. 872), in his study of anxiety among the Berens
River Chippewa of southern Manitoba, says:

I "In Saulteaux society, it is not fear of the Gods or fear of punishment that is

I the major sanction: it is the fear of disease. Or. putting in the termmology already
employed, the motivating factor is the effect connected with certain disease situations.
Individuals in Saulteaux society are highly sensitized to anxiet)' as an emotional reac-
tion to a danger signal, the precipitating cause being illness interpreted as punish-
ment. The manifest danger to which the anxiety is directed is the direct threat to
someone's well-being or even life."

It is apparent that a pronounced healthy anxiety exists among these two
Canadian tribes comparable to the Wisconsin situation.

While the lack of data precludes the possibility of an analysis of health
anxieties among the American Indians as a whole, there are, at least, some
areas that can be sampled on the basis of recent work touchmg on this
problem.

Macgregor's (pp. 190-2) study of the Pine Ridge Sioux, for example,
sheds some light on health attitudes among the children of that tribe. The
results he obtained from giving the children the Emotional Response Test
and the Moral Ideology Test indicate that concern for well-being is an
important consideration among them. While the number of responses
"... suggest that the predominant behaviour and emotions of the children
are reactions to a world that seems to them hostile, the second largest
category of responses reveals the children to be concerned with self-interest
in pleasure or anxiet}- about their own well-being." "Self-concern o%'er being
sick and dying would not be thought unusual under these circumstances it
it were not the additional high anxiety over the death of others. Worry
about the possible death of other people, as measured by the frequency of
responses, is exceeded only by that caused by the potential or overt aggres-
sion of people and by the behavior of animals. Although the children have
strong affection 'for their relatives, worry about their death or sickness ap-
pears to be centered in apprehension about how such catastrophes will affect
the children themselves. This preoccupation is thrown into bolder relief by
the absence of any responses showing interest in the happiness or activities
of other people. Judging from Macgregor's material it is evident that health

234 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

anxieties are an important concern of the Sioux. However, it does not seem
to attain the intensity as exhibited by the Wisconsin and Canadian Chippewa.

For sheer intensity of health anxiety among the American Indian no
group can even approach the Navaho. This interest in health was pointed
out by early investigators of the Navaho such as Matthews who in 1897
observed (p. 40) : "All the great ceremonies which the writer has witnessed
among the Navahoes are primarily for the healing of the sick." Modern
students of the Navaho such as Kluckhohn and the Leightons have been
even more impressed with their preoccupation with health. The Leightons
(1942-A, p. 517), for example, point out that the majority of the thirty-
five principal ceremonies of this tribe are concerned with disease and curing.
Their study of types of uneasiness and fears (1942-B, p. 203) showed
that threats to health and body were by far the most important in the minds
of the Navaho in a series which also included threats to subsistence, social
security, liberty, housing, and religion. "The first thing which the collected
data reveals is the great preponderance of health concern over any other
type, health references forming sixty per cent of the total. Some of these
came to our attention because we were known to be physicians. However,
even if we subtract all references that seem influenced by our profession
which seem to be about fifteen per cent, health and body threats, totallmg
forty-five per cent lead all other types by a large margin."

Kluckhohn and Leighton (p. 160) estimate that in the Ramah area the
Navaho men devote one-third to one-fourth, and the women one-fifth to
one-sixth of their productive hours to activities connected with religious
rites. This "... includes the periods they spend as patients, helpers, and
spectators; their trips to summon ceremonialists and to gather plants and
other materials; the extra chores in preparing food for practitioners and
guests and in hauling larger supplies of water and firewood than usual."
Considering that the majority of these rites are for curative purposes, it is
apparent from the great amount of time spent on them that curing holds an
important place in the minds of the people. The same writers further
estimate that about twenty per cent of the total family income of the people
in the Ramah area is spent for religious purposes. Further data to show
that the Navaho are unparalleled among the North American Indians in
terms of health anxieties seem unnecessary.

If other studies on health anxieties among modern Indian tribes exist, I
have not been able to find them. Turning then from the modern picture

1953} RITZENTHALER. CHIPPEWA HEALTH 235

and to a broader problem we next deal with the possible correlation between
an emphasis on curative rites and type of economic life.

The hypothesis to be tested in the following pages is this: that among
the American Indians north of Mexico there existed by Columbian times a
cultural complex emphasizing hunting, shamans superimportant over priests,
weak development of religious rites, and strong development of curative
practices; that this was a northern tradition emanating from and essentially
limited to the northern area (northern United States and Canada) geo-
graphically; that tribes moving south encountered a different complex pre-

fsumably emanating from Central America; that this Southern Tradition was
based economically on agriculture (particularly the raising of corn, beans,

[and squash) and had a strong priesthood with priests more powerful than
shamans, well-developed religious ceremonies with an accent on fertilit)',
and planting and harv^esting rites (particularly maize ceremonies) rather than
curative. Type tribes for this tradition would be the Hopi in the Southwest,
and any of the Muskogean-speaking peoples of the Southeast. Type tribes
for the Northern Tradition would be such groups as the Chippewa and
Naskapi of the Woodland area and Kutchin and Tanaina in the Mac-
Kenzie area.

The kernel of this complex of interest to us is the hunting economy
associated with an emphasis on curative practices on the one hand as against
the agricultural economy associated with a concentration on planting, harvest-
ing, and fertility rites. If the former correlation can be definitely established
we might seek for the reasons for the greater concern for health among
hunting peoples in terms of the greater physical dangers involved in the hunt
and the great dependence for sustenance and even group survival upon the
physical well-being of the hunter. In the following areal analysis, regions
without hunting or agriculture as dominant economies such as the North-
west Coast, Plateau, and California will not be considered. In this analysis
Wissler's (p. 199) distinction between priest and shaman will be used.
"A large number of tribes have distinct names for each and their cultures
)give them distinct and sometimes antagonistic functions. It is the shaman
/ rather than the priest who is called upon to treat the sick, to foretell the
future, etc. The priest is essentially the keeper and demonstrator of rituals,
his right to do so arising chiefly from his mere knowledge of the subject,
but the native conception of the shaman is one who works directly by virtue

236 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

/ of some extra-human power. Consequently, it is the shaman who goes into
trances and mystifies by jugglery, not the priest."

THE MACKENZIE AREA

While ethnographic information is scanty for this area, that available
definitely places these peoples in the Northern Tradition. Here is a people
with a strong hunting complex and no agriculture. As would be expected,
planting, harvesting, and fertility rites are absent. However, neither are the
religious rites focused on curing. In the first place this is an area in which
religious rites are exceedingly rare. In fact, the only ceremonial recorded is
the potlatch given for prestige purposes among such tribes as the Kutchin
and Tanaina located near the Northwest Coast and an obviously borrowed
trait from them. With the weak development of formal religion, however,
went a strong shamanistic complex with the shamans the most powerful
men in the tribe. As one traveler among the Kutchin described it (Kirby,
p. 419), "Altars, or rites of religion, they had none, and before the traders
went there there was not even an idea of a God to be worshipped. Medicine
men they had, in whose power they placed implicit faith; and whose aid they
they had, in whose powers they placed implicit faith; and whose aid they
dearly purchased in season of sickness or distress." Osgood (1936, p. 156)
points out that "Shamans have both great influence and status among the
Kutchin, a fact with which practically all observers have been impressed.
Tliese medicine men form the dominating group in the economic and in-
tellectual activities of the native world." In summary it may be said that
the MacKenzie region follows the Northern Tradition to the point of being
considered a type area.

THE WOODLAND AREA

The Northern Tradition hypothesis also holds well for the Central
Woodland peoples, for example, the Chippewa. Inasmuch as the culture has
been previously delineated in this report it is sufficient to state that it con-
forms to the Northern Tradition at all points. Turning to the Eastern Wood-
lands, early information on the New England tribes is such that the hy-
pothesis cannot be adequately tested. However, among such eastern Cana-
dian tribes as the Naskopi and Montagnais, the hypothesis holds well. The
only apparent exception to the domination of the Northern Tradition in the

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 237

Woodland area is in the case of the Iroquois. Here was a people with a
strong agricultural complex with an accompanying emphasis on planting,
harvesting, and fertility in their religious ceremonies. While one important
ceremonial. The False-face, had curing as its primary function, the religious
calendar of the Iroquois was essentially focused on a series of what Morgan
terms "thanksgiving festivals." Although a true priesthood did not exist,
there was a class of lay "priests," the "Keepers of the Faith" who conducted
the religious observances. While shamans did exist and practice, they were
not the dominant influence in the tribe. In short, the Iroquois cannot be
considered as at all typical for the Northern Tradition. In fact, there is
much more reason for placing them in the Southern Tradition. The answer
seems to be that the Iroquois, in their relatively late migration from the
Southeast, brought with them the essentials of the Southern Tradition and
modified them to some extent en route or in their northern home.

THE PLAINS AREA

While the MacKenzie and Woodland areas fall rather neatly into the
Northern Tradition hypothesis, the situation is not so simple for the Plains
Indians. The Plains, in fact, seems to be the meeting place for the two tra-
ditions, and even with this in mind it is not an easy task to assign tribes to
one of the hypothetical categories. It is apparent that by late prehistoric
times an agricultural complex had already dominated the Plains and was in
the process of being replaced in importance by the development of a new
tradition involving a nomadic type of life based on communal hunting of
the buffalo and encompassing a strong and unique war complex. Some of
the residue agriculturalists like the Arikara and Pawnee can be readily as-
signed to the Southern Tradition. Associated with the Pawnee agricultural
economy were elaborate religious rites involving the fertility theme. "Maize,
which was regarded as a sacred gift, was called 'mother' and religious
ceremonies were connected with its planting, hoeing, and harvesting ... A
series of ceremonies relative to the bringing of life and its increase began
with the first thunder in the spring and culminated at the summer solstice
in human sacrifice, but the series did not close until the maize, called
'mother corn' was harvested." (Fletcher, p. 21?.) An active priesthood ex-
isted. While buffalo hunting was practiced by the Pawnee, and secret soci-
eties performed curative rites, the agricultural fertility complex dominated

238 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

the scene, and in general the Southern Tradition is well represented by
the Pawnee.

On the other hand, in the case of the nomadic hunting tribes among
whom the Northern Tradition would be expected to prevail, the issue is not
particularly clear-cut. For example, coupled with the strong hunting tradition
of these peoples we would expect to find on the basis of our hypothesis a
strong concern for health and an emphasis on curative rites. Such is not the
case. For example (Ackerknecht, p. 557), "the Cheyenne were fatalistic
about disease in a culture where death in war was more likely than death
from disease . . . the relative neglect of medicine is perhaps the most
Cheyenne-like trait among the Cheyenne." Here we have a tribe which
migrated from the Woodlands to the Plains as late as the 18th century and
rapidly and almost completely adopted the culture of the Plains nomads. In
the process they dropped whatever emphasis on curing they may have had
and adopted the Plains war complex in which death in battle was, ". . . be-
sides being glorious, protected one from all the miseries which threaten
later life and are inevitable in old age." (Grinnell, Vol. 2, p. 5.) Nomadic
Plains culture in general is one in which the social cynosure of war was
developed to a point where it could have overshadowed and paled any
strong emphasis on curing which might previously have existed. It must not
be thought, however, that among these people all concern for health was
blacked out. The most important religious ceremonial of the Plains, the Sun
Dance, was pledged for curative purposes by individuals of such tribes as the
Arapaho, Blackfeet, Sarsi, and Plains-Cree. Shamanistic curings were also
performed, but the point to be made is that the curative traditions and rites
among the early historic nomadic Plains tribes were considerably weaker
than in the Woodland or MacKenzie areas. Whether or not this can be
ascribed to a traditional lack of basis on health, or to a conversion of atti-
tude resulting from the interference of a newer cultural cynosure, that ot
war, cannot be determined. Another point at which nomadic Plains culture
does not conform to the Northern Tradition is in terms of the religious
development. While it is not as strong or elaborate as in the Southwest,
neither can it be characterized as weak. It is certainly more developed than
in either the MacKenzie or Woodland areas. Summarizing the case for the
Plains, we can only say that the Southern Tradition is ia evidence among
the agricultural groups, and absent among the nomadic groups. It must also
be conceded that the Northern Tradition is not particularly strong among the
nomadic tribes where we would expect to find it so on the basis of their

1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 239

location. The answer here seems to be that there is actually a third tradition
represented by the Plains nomads and developed on the Plains largely because
of a unique situation in the form of a plentiful, but roving, food supply
which demanded particular cultural adaptations in order for it to be ex-
ploited. This tradition may have been expanded or influenced in some way
by the infiltration of such peoples as the Plains Dakota and Crow from the
Southeast, and by later arrivals such as the Arapaho and Cheyenne migratmg
to the Plains through the Woodland area, and perhaps bringing elements
of the Northern Tradition with them. In summary, the picture for the Plains
is so complex due to cultural change and admixture that one can say only
that while the Southern Tradition is fairly well represented by the remnant
agricultural peoples, the nomads represent not the Northern Tradition (al-
though some elements of it are to be found), but rather a third tradition
based on communal rather than individualistic hunting.

THE SOUTHEAST

Turning our attention to the Indians of the Southeast we find a culture
strongly reflecting the Southern Tradition. Wissler (p. 238) selecting the
Muskogeans, Yuchi, and Cherokee as representing the typical culture in this
area enumerates the following traits: "great use of vegetable food and inten-
sive agriculture: raised maize, cane, pumpkins, melons, and tobacco . . . ;
elaborate planting and harvesting rituals, especially an important ceremony
known as the 'busk"; shamanism prominent." The latter trait seems some-
what egregious in terms of our hypothesis, but there is little doubt that the
priests were the powerful members of the tribes over the shamans. "Accord-
ing to Bartram, "besides several juniors or graduates,' there was a high
priest in every Creek town. These were persons of consequence and exer-
cised great influence in the state, particularly in military aff^airs." They
would ". . . foretell rain or drought and pretend to bring rain at pleasure,
cure diseases, and exercise witchcraft, invoke or expell evil spirits, and even
assume the power of directing thunder and lightning."' (Swanton, 1910, p.
523.) Such elements as intensive agriculture coupled with a well-developed
religious complex focusing on planting and harvesting rites, and a powerful
priesthood well represent the Southern Tradition.

THE SOUTHWEST

Perhaps the most typical representatives of the Southern Tradition are the
Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. Associated with the basic

240 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

agricultural economy are a host of elaborate religious rites concentrated on
fertility, planting, and harvesting themes. "The scheme of maize ceremonies
in the Greater Southwest can be stated in very general terms. They celebrate
what we might call the life cycle of Indian corn: its birth, or planting;
maturity, or green corn festivals; and death, or rain, according to the inter-
ests of a group, but the three stages representing the birth, maturity, and
death, or harvesting." (Underhill, p. 15.) Along with this is found what
Swanton (1910, p. 523) calls "the most highly developed priesthood north
of Mexico." Under this cultural landslide such northern traits as potent
shamanism, and emphasis on curing are nearly buried. The Hopi m par-
ticular represent the Southern Tradition at its acme in North America.

On the other hand such Athabascan-speaking peoples of this area as the
Apache and particularly the Navaho reflect to some extent the Northern
Tradition. Both are relatively recent migrants to the Southwest, but what
they brought from the north and what they might have picked up on the
way or in their new locale is difhcult to determine. It is probable that the
Navaho were a hunting people in the north, but today hunting is deempha-
sized in favor of agriculture and herding. Kluckhohn (p. 4) states: "Some
specialists believe that the Apaches and Navahos learned the rudiments ot
agriculture from the Plains Indians on their journey southward, but there
are grounds for believing that they knew little of agriculture before they
reached the Southwest. It seems certain, too, that when the Navahos arrived
in the Southwest they had no ceremonials as complex as those of today."
It is apparent that the Navaho did not take over agriculture with the same
whole-heartedness as did the Pueblos, nor did they take over any of their
ceremonial attitude toward it. Whatever proliferation of their ceremonial
complex was accomplished was done in terms of a preoccupation with curing
suggesting a northern orientation. It is interesting also to note that the
elaborate curative ceremonies are conducted by priests rather than by shamans.
In general, the Navaho, while showing modifications due to contact with
southern culture, still reflect the basic aspects of the Northern Tradition. The
same may be said for the Apache. In fact the Apache show less admixture
from the agriculturists than do the Navaho. One of the interesting interpre-
tations made by them in reflecting the Northern Tradition, but resulting
from culture contact in the Southwest has been the transformation of the
rain-bringing Kachinas of the Pueblos into mountain spirits called to cure
disease (Underhill, p. viii).

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 241

CONCLUSIONS

In summary the hypothesis of a Northern and Southern Tradition seems
to stand up fairly well, although it is least clear in the Plains area. While
there undoubtedly are certain tribes in the areas analyzed that would not be
placed in either of these categories the hypothesis, in general, seems to hold.
The apparent exceptions in the case of the Navaho, Apache, and Iroquois,
however, tend to support rather than deny the hypothesis. The factor of
migration must be considered in such an analysis as must the possibility of
culture change due to influx of new ideas in conflict with the old, as seems
probable in the case of the Plains. In two of the five areas reviewed, both
the Northern and Southern traditions are represented to a greater or lesser
degree. In the Plains area while the hunters dominated the scene by Colum-
bian times (although the Northern Tradition is only weakly represented),
the southern maize complex was still very much in evidence as represented
by such peoples as the Pawnee and Arikara. In fact, this area seems to be
the northernmost extension of the Southern Tradition showing up in any
strength. In the Southwest the majority of cultures are characteristic of the
Southern Tradition, but the Apache and Navaho reflect more of the North-
ern Tradition, with the Apache showing less modifications due to southern
contacts than the Navaho.

The problem of origin and development of the two traditions is an
interesting one. The clue to the origin of the Southern Tradition could
conceivably hinge upon the area in which corn originated. Unfortunately
this problem has not been solved and its origin has been postulated for
various areas from Mexico to Bolivia. It seems certain, however, that no
matter which area maize originated in, it entered the Southwest via Mexico.
Whether it originated, developed, or merely passed through Mexico, the
counterparts of the Southern Tradition are much more apparent south rather
than north of the border. Maize culture was in full swing in Mexico by
conquest times, and well developed maize ceremonies existed in northern
Mexico and extended at least as far as Aztec and Mayan country where
elaborate ceremonials involving maize, fertility Gods and rites have been
recorded. It is logical to suppose that the maize culture was accompanied by
appropriate religious and ceremonial precautions when it entered the South-
west.

While the evidence points to an indigenous origin of the Southern
Tradition on the North American continent, the counterparts of the North-

242 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

ern Tradition are to be found in Asia. While the characteristic complex is
not to be found in toto among any particular group in Asia, some of the
elements are in much evidence in such hunting or herding-hunting peoples
as the Chuckchee and Koryak of Siberia. Particularly impressive is the
strong shamanistic complex with detailed resemblances to North American
shamanism. Here is found the same modus operandi of the shaman in
calling upon the spirits to enter the house and aid in curing or prophecy,
the use of jugglery and techniques such as ventriloquism, communication with
the aiding spirits by means of the drum and song, and other specific ele-
ments which appear in North American shamanism particularly in the
MacKenzie and Woodland areas.

One of the chief purposes of this section of the report has been to
investigate the effects of a type of economy upon the attitudes of a people.
It has been shown, and seems both obvious and logical, that the agricultural
Indians of North America had a tendency to concentrate their religious
attention upon agricultural themes such as planting, harvesting, and fertility.
On the other hand, it has not been too easy to show that hunting peoples
tend to focus their supernatural manipulations and attention upon the prob-
lem of health. In fact, outstanding exceptions to this have been shown to
exist among certain of the Plains tribes. The most that can be said on the
basis of the facts is that in North America, hunting tribes directed more of
their attention and efforts in the realm of the supernatural toward the prob-
lem of maintaining health than did the agricultural tribes.

The possibility of the correlation between type of economy and super-
natural life was first suggested to me in 1946 by Dr. Ruth Underbill who
was then working on that problem for the Southwest, and has since pub-
lished a very stimulating monograph on it (1948). Her thesis is that in
the Southwest, the agricultural tribes have tended to develop communal
ceremonies, and hunters, personal religious participation. She points out
(p. viii) that hunters are by the very nature of their work individualists.
That the hunter most successfully pursues his occupation alone, or at best in
small groups. "His great need is for individual skill and courage — phrased
as luck — and for health to carry on his arduous task. In this solitary strug-
gle with Nature, each man seeks his own contact with the supernatural,
finding his answer in the vision. The vision is sought, with greater or less
effort, by all hunting tribes, not only in the Southwest, but, I think, over
most of North America. In the course of contact and change visions can be

195 3 J RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 243

Standardized into ritual. As a rule, however, their mark is spontaneity and
immediacy . . . One line of development leads from the vision to Shaman-
ism. The shaman among Southwest hunters is simply a vision recipient
whose experiences have been particularly intense and specialized." Further-
more (p. 50), "He flourishes in areas where communal ceremonies are
few and where attention is concentrated on the desire for health. His power
over disease allows him to produce it as well as cure it, so that a suspicion
of sorcery is constantly attached to him. As communal ceremonies arise, if
the shaman retains his function, he is likely to be pushed more and more
into the background. His healing functions are curtailed as more and more
of them are taken over by the ceremonialists, and, finally, he is looked upon
chiefly as a sorcerer." Underbill's analysis of the Southwest is, I believe,
applicable to the rest of North America. In particular, her picture of the
individualistic hunter emphasizing personal rather than group religious
participation, focusing his supernatural attention upon good luck and cura-
tive rites in the light of the rigors and dangers of the hunt, with dependence
on shamans rather than priests is characteristic not only in the Southwest,
but to be found wherever the Northern Tradition holds in North America.
As to how common and widespread is her evolution of the individual
shaman to communal priest and his simple rite into a communal ceremony
is hard to judge, but the Navaho seem to be one instance in which this
development has taken place, and the possibility of this happening in other
cases is certainly worthy of consideration.

In my search through considerable literature dealing with the attitude
of Indians toward disease, I was struck by a rather curious, but recurring,
phenomenon. Namely, that there is a tremendously widespread tendency
j among American Indians to associate animals with disease. Furthermore,
that such associations are as prominent among agricultural tribes as among
hunting tribes. This association was first, but rather casually brought to my
attention in connection with the guardian spirit. This widespread concept
entails the acquiring of a tutelar^' spirit, often by a vision quest. Such spirit
or spirits are animal in the great majority of cases, and serve to aid and
protect the individual the rest of his life. The protection from and cure of
disease is one function. The tie-up between disease and animals is much
more impressive in the case of the shaman. The great forte of the American
Indian shaman is to cure or harm by calling upon the assistance of powerful
spirits which in the majority of cases are animal. Such spirits may be ac-
quired through the vision quest as was usual among the Plains and Wood-

244 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

land tribes, or in other ways. Among MacKenzie tribes such as the Kutchin,
shamanistic power is acquired through animal association which may begin
before the birth of a person. Animals direct a future shaman from youth on.
Such a youth will later announce that he has a certain animal as a com-
panion and has become a shaman. The head of an animal is used in his super-
natural functions. Among the Apache there exists the idea of contaminating
animals as causative of disease. Disease can arise from unclean or evil
animals in a variety of ways. "One" (Opler, p. 224) "is by getting scared.
This is typical of owl disease. It is the thrill of terror, the moment of cold
fright, that is really the entrance of the evil influence into your body. . . .
Another way is by smell, odor. Bear and lightning sickness may be spread
in this way. Another is touch. Contact with hides of the evil animals such
as the bear, wolf, and coyote will give you the disease." The animals which
have the most dangerous supernatural power are the bear, coyote, owl, and
snake. The association of specific diseases with specific animals perhaps
reached its apogee in the Southeast. Swanton (pp. 639-49) lists twenty-
four animals causing disease among the Creek. There is a deer disease
(rheumatism), dog disease (stomach cramps), buzzard disease (vomiting),
rabbit disease (stomach disorder), and so on. Even the doctors were spe-
cialized, one curing deer diseases, another, snake. The Papago had a similar
close association between disease and animals, while the Pawnee had animal
lodges from which the shaman received power to cure disease. Many other
examples of this widespread belief in the power of animals to cause or cure
disease could be cited. Our purpose in pointing it out has been in an
effort to determine whether or not it was essentially limited to hunting
peoples. If such could be demonstrated we would have another reason for
the considerable attention paid by hunting tribes to health and curing. Such
a correlation, however, does not exist. The belief seems every bit as strong
among agriculturists, particularly in the Southeast, as among hunters. Judg-
ing from its widespread distribution and counterparts in Asia, this is an
old belief. It is also a field of inquiry which would be an interesting one
for further exploration.

Finally, whatever the cause of the psychological attitude toward disease,
be it rooted in economic reasons or not, it is apparent that the attitude of a
primitive people toward disease influences and conditions human behavior
to a greater extent than does the actual disease itself. This fact has been
implicit in this report thus far, but it seems time to bring it forth as a gener-
alization of some significance to those who attempt the study of man and his

1953] RITZEXTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 245

culture. If a people believes as do the Navaho that the breach of taboo can
throw one out of harmony with the forces of nature and cause disease, that
awareness is bound to influence his behavior throughout his life much more
than the actual advent of the disease. Besides the "shalt nots" are the "thou
shalts" which motivate these people to perform many acts of behavior m
order to prevent disease. As the Leightons have pointed out, subsistence is
actually a more real problem than disease. Yet more of their attention and
concern is directed toward curative problems than the other. If, as in Dobu.
disease is a result of evil magic, the individual must bear this in mind all
during his life and act accordingly, whereas the actual effect of the disease
is, ordinarily, a short-term experience. We have examined the sanctions and
taboos observed by the Chippewa in their attempt to ward off disease. The
advent of disease itself among such a people is, in terms of human behavior,
an anti-climax.

246 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

SUMMARY

This report has attempted to pose and substantiate the following six
points:

1. That there exists among the Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin exag-

gerated health anxieties.

2. That, while a deep concern for health existed as a traditional atti-

tude among the Chippewa, it has been substantially intensified in
modern times as a result of very real and serious health problems.

3. That this attitude seems likely to persist for some time in the light

of the fact that the health problems of the present are, to a consider-
able extent, due to poor economic circumstances, the immediate
improvement of which seems unlikely. While an aggressive health-
education program would be helpful in the present plight of the
American Indian, such a program cannot be of the blanket variety,
but must be geared to the individual tribes in terms of their own
particular psychological and cultural patterns.

4. That health anxieties are present among other North American

Indian tribes, particularly among the Navaho.

5. That health attitudes are correlated to some extent with type of

economy among North American Indians. That the individualistic
hunting tribes tend to concentrate upon individual contact with
the supernatural with considerable attention being paid to health
and healing in contrast to the agricultural tribes emphasizing com-
munal religious ceremonies concentrating on planting, harvesting,
and fertility themes.

6. That such a study as this highlights the fact that in terms of human

behavior the attitude of a primitive people toward disease is more
influential than the disease itself.

19'^3} RITZEXTHALER. CHIPPEWA HEALTH 247

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A
T.B. MORTALITY OF WISCONSIN INDIANS FROM

1932 — 1943

Wis. State Board of Health Report

Year

So. Deatbs

Indian Rate p
100.000 estimated
I at ion

er
popu-

Rate for all
others in U.S.

1932

30

256.8

44.9

1933

39

332.2

39.3

1934

37

314.2

36.1

1935

22

186.2

34.1

1936

30

253.4

33.4

1937

35

295.1

31.6

1938

40

376.8

27.8

1939

22

185.2

26.3

1940

29

236.1

25.5

1941

29

236.1

24.6

1942

23

187.3

23.6

1943

17

138.4

25.7

APPENDIX B
SUMMARY FROM
HAYWARD INDIAN HOSPITAL RECORDS

DMe
July 1, 1931

Enrollment
in Hospital

Lire
Births

Still
Births

I.E.
Admitted

T.B.
Deaths

Deaths jr
All Caus

June 1932

484

29

—

31

2

10

June 1933

801

68

2

40

5

12

June 1934

894

74

2

68

2

24

June 1935

894

87

3

69

4

27

June 1936

871

115

2

71

4

29

June 1937

940

102

4

74

8

34

June 1938

714

104

3

74

5

21

June 1939

756

100

0

74

3

24

TOTAL 6,354 679 16 501 33 181

248 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19

APPENDIX C

STATE OF WISCONSIN

BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS

UNDERTAKER'S RECORD OF DEATHS

Taken from Death Certificates

Date

Sex

Age

Cause of Death

% hid } an

Oct.

1931

M

31

T.B.

Ya

Oct.

1931

M

84

Nephritis

Full

Jan.

1932

F

90

O.A. (Single deterioration)

Full

Mar.

1932

M

0

Premature stillborn

Vl

Mar.

1932

M

0

Stillborn

Vl

Mar.

1932

F

4

Pneumonia

Vl

p

1932

M

14

?

Vl

Aug.

1932

F

28

Cholelithiasis

Vl

June

1932

F

9

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vl

Oct.

1932

F

11

T.B.

Va

Oct.

1932

M

0

Stillborn

Vl

Oct.

1932

F

0

Stillborn

Vl

Oct.

1932

F

19

Meningitis

Full

Dec.

1932

M

1

Pneumonia (lobular)

Vl

Dec.

1932

M

60

Brain tumor

Full

Jan.

1933

M

6

Pneumonia (lobular)

Vl

Feb.

1933

F

22

Influenza

Vl

Feb.

1933

F

36

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vl

Mar.

1933

F

6

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vl

Apr.

1933

M

61

Pneumonia (lobar)

Vl

May

1933

F

76

T.B. (pulmonary)

Full

May

1933

M

18

T.B. (pulmonary)

Full

Aug.

1933

F

51

Pneumonia (lobar)

Full

Oct.

1933

F

0

p

Full

Oct.

1933

F

1

p

Full

Oct.

1933

M

65

Carcinoma of stomach

Va

Oct.

1933

F

0

p

Va

Nov.

1933

F

61

Cholociptites

Full

Nov.

1933

F

77

p

Full

Nov.

1933

F

28

T.B. (pulmonary)

Va

Dec.

1933

M

0

Stillborn

Vl

1953}

RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH

249

Dc

ife

5^.v

Age

Cause of Death

% Indian

Dec.

1933

M

1

Pneumonia (lobar)

Full

Feb.

1934

M

35

Heart disease

Vi

Feb.

1934

M

94

Pneumonia (lobar)

Va

Feb.

1934

M

70

>

Va

Mar.

1934

M

57

Pneumonia (lobar)

Full

Mar.

1934

F

0

Pneumonia

Va

Apr.

1934

M

0

Stillborn

Va

Apr.

1934

M

21

Wound-shock

Vi

Apr.

1934

M

1

Pneumonia

Vi

Apr.

1934

M

0

Hemophilia

Vi

May

1934

F

38

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

May

1934

M

44

Pneumonia (lobar)

Vi

May

1934

M

18

Ptomaine poisoning

Vi

June

1934

M

0

(Sepingomeplici)

Vi

June

1934

M

31

T.B. (of kidney)

Vg

July

1934

F

71

>

Full

July

1934

M

29

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Aug.

1934

F

83

Senility

Full

Aug.

1934

M

1

Gastro enteritis

Vi

Aug.

1934

M

0

Stillborn

Vi

Aug.

1934

F

0

Stillborn

Vi

Sept.

1934

F

5

Pneumonia (bronchial)

Vi

Sept.

1934

F

62

Senility

Full

Oct.

1934

M

65

T.B. (pulmonary)

Full

Oct.

1934

F

0

p

Vi

Oct.

1934

F

33

Heart disease

Vi

Oct.

1934

F

0

p

Vi

Nov.

1934

F

21

Heart disease

Vi

Nov.

1934

M

57

Pneumonia (lobar)

Vs

Nov.

1934

M

71

Angina pectoris

Va

Nov.

1934

F

9

p

Va

Dec.

1934

F

0

Stillborn

Full

Dec.

1934

F

48

Carcinoma

Vi

Jan.

1935

M

58

Pneumonia (lobar)

Vi

Feb.

1935

M

0

Premature

Vi

Feb.

1935

F

?

T.B. (meningeal)

Full

Mar.

1935

F

0

Pneumonia

V,

250

BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE

[Vol. 19

Date

Sex

Age

Cause of Death

% Indian

Mar.

1935

M

8

Pneumonia (lobar)

Vi

Apr.

1935

M

55

Cirrhosis of liver

Vz

Apr.

1935

M

39

T.B. of meninges

Vi

Apr.

1935

F

0

p

Vi

May

1935

M

78

Myocarditis

Full

June

1935

M

0

p

Vi

June

1935

F

4

p

Full

July

1935

F

2

Pneumonia

Vi

Aug.

1935

F

9

Purpura haemorrhagica

Vi

Aug.

1935

F

0

Premature birth

%

Aug.

1935

F

0

Stillborn

Vi

Aug.

1935

M

15

Pneumonia (lobar)

Va

Sept.

1935

M

86

Myocarditis

Full

Sept.

1935

M

0

Stillborn

Vi

Sept.

1935

F

23

Shock during Caesarian

Vi

Oct.

1935

M

33

>

Va

Oct.

1935

M

24

p

Va

Nov.

1935

F

4

Pneumonia (lobar)

Ya

Dec.

1935

F

p

Pneumonia (lobar)

Full

Dec.

1935

M

28

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Jan.

1936

F

29

Atrophy of liver

Vi

Jan.

1936

F

?

Pneumonia

Vi

Jan.

1936

F

39

Myocarditis

Vi

Jan.

1936

F

60

p

Full

Jan.

1936

F

1

Pneumonia (lobar)

%

Apr.

1936

F

0

Premature birth

Vi

Apr.

1936

M

50

Nephritis

Vi

May

1936

F

24

T.B.

Vi

May

1936

M

8

Appendicitis

Vi

May

1936

F

32

T.B.

Vi

June

1936

F

0

Premature birth

Vi

June

1936

F

19

p

Vi

June

1936

M

0

Premature birth

Vi

July

1936

F

25

Pneumonia

Vi

July

1936

M

0

Premature birth

Vi

July

1936

M

6

Excessive heat

Vi

July

1936

F

p

Diabetes Mellitus

Vi

19'i3] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEVCA HEALTH 251

Date

Sex

Age

Cause of Death

% Indian

July

1936

M

p

Pneumonia (bronchial)

Full

Sept.

1936

M

0

Eclampsia in mother

Vi

Oct.

1936

F

50

-)

Vi

Nov.

1936

M

>

Pneumonia (lobar)

Vi

Dec.

1936

M

18

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Jan.

1937

M

71

Pneumonia (lobar)

Vi

Jan.

1937

F

43

?

Vi

Jan.

1937

F

10

Pneumonia

Vi

Feb.

1937

F

}

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Feb.

1937

M

0

Stillborn

Vi

Feb.

1937

M

p

Pneumonia

Vi

Feb.

1937

M

52

T.B. (pulm.onary)

Vi

Feb.

1937

F

0

Pneumonia (lobar)

Vi

Mar.

1937

M

64

Hemiplegia

Vi

Mar.

1937

F

22

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Apr.

1937

F

38

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Apr.

1937

M

5

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Apr.

1937

M

0

Premature birth

Vi

Apr.

1937

M

0

Stillborn

1/2

May

1937

F

57

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

luly

1937

F

51

Cholecystitis

Vi

July

1937

M

73

Nephritis

Vi

Aug.

1937

M

57

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Aug.

1937

F

1

Enteritis

Vi

Sept.

1937

M

0

Stillborn

Vi

Oct.

1937

F

p

Senility

Vi

Oct.

1937

M

65

Meningitis

Vi

Nov.

1937

M

0

Stillborn

Vi

Nov.

1937

M

6^

Accident — fracture

Vi

Nov.

1937

F

31

Syphilis

Vi

Dec.

1937

F

63

Syphilis

Vi

Dec.

1937

M

28

Pneumonia

Vi

Mar.

1938

F

1

T.B.

Vi

Mar.

1938

M

70

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Apr.

1938

F

18

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vi

Apr.

1938

F

22

Septicemia

Vi

May

1938

F

21

Homicide by firearms

Vi

252

BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE

[Vol. 19

Date

Sex

Age

Ca/ne of Death %

Indit.

June ]

938

M

48

Lobar pneumonia

Vi

June 1

938

F

0

?

Vi

July 1

938

F

68

Loc. of peritoneum

Vi

Aug. 1

938

F

74

Chronic peritoneum

Vi

Aug. 1

938

F

43

Lobar pneumonia

Vi

Aug.

L938

M

11

p

Vi

Sept. ]

938

F

18

T.B.

Vi

Sept.

L938

M

72

?

Vi

Oct. ]

938

F

63'

Pneumonia (cerebral hem.)

Vi

Oct.

L938

M

26

Gunshot wound — left leg

Vi

Nov.

1938

M

74

p

Vi

Dec. ]

938

F

0

Lobar pneumonia

Vi

Dec. ]

938

F

0

Premature birth

Vi

Dec.

L938

M

2

Lobar pneumonia

Vi

Jan. ]

939

F

8

Bronchial pneumonia

Vi

Jan.

1939

F

72

T.B. of Resp. system

Vi

Jan.

1939

M

0

Bronchial pneumonia

Vi

Jan.

L939

M

74

Senility

Vi

Jan.

1939

M

56

Syphilis

Vi

Feb. ]

1939

F

56

Cancer of uterus

Vi

Feb. ]

L939

F

44

Pulmonary T.B.

Vi

Feb. ]

L939

F

50

Lobar pneumonia

Vi

Mar.

1939

M

2

p

Vi

Apr.

1939

M

0

Premature birth

Vi

Apr.

L939

F

21

Pulm. T.B. bronchial pneumonia

Vi

Apr.

1939

M

22

Tetanus (burned)

Vi

May

1939

M

40

Acute nephritis

Vi

May ]

L939

F

70

Multiple fractures (hit by car)

Vi

May ]

1939

F

74

Lobar pneumonia

Vi

May

L939

F

50

Pulmonary T.B.

Vi

May

1939

M

28

Pulmonary T.B. and syphilis

Vi

May

1939

M

77

Chronic bronchitis, enteritis

Vi

May

1939

M

22

Cerebral hemorrhage

Ya

May

1939

M

69

Senility

Vi

June

1939

M

73

Lobar pneumonia

Vi

June ]

1939

F

0

Intestinal obstruction

Vi

July ]

1939

F

18

Acute meningitis

Vi

1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 253

Dale

Sex

Age

Cause of Death

% hidian

July

1939

F

Al

Syphilis

Vi

July

1939

F

73

Myocarditis

Vi

Aug.

1939

F

33

Intestinal obstruction acute

Vi

Aug.

1939

F

12

Chronic nephritis

Vi

Aug.

1939

F

57

Pulmonary T.B.

Vi

Aug.

1939

M

0

Acute bronchitis

Vi

Aug.

1939

F

36

Syphilis (148 I.L.)

Vi

Aug.

1939

F

0

Syphilis (stillborn)

Vi

Sept.

1939

M

11

T.B. of meninges

Vi

Sept.

1939

M

0

Hemophilia

Vi

Sept.

1939

F

-) T

T.B.

Vi

Sept.

1939

M

0

Premature birth

Vi

Sept.

1939

M

100

Anemia, senility

Vi

Sept.

1939

M

22

Myocarditis

Vi

Sept.

1939

M

3

.>

Vi

Oct.

1939

M

36

Acute traumatic nephritis

Vi

Oct.

1939

M

0

Premature birth

v^

Oct.

1939

F

4

Purulent infection septicemia

Vi

Nov.

1939

M

63

p

Vi

Nov.

1939

M

57

>

Vi

Nov.

1939

M

55

Skull fracture (car accident)

Vi

Nov.

1939

M

0

Atelectasis

Vi

Dec.

1939

M

1

Lobar pneumonia

Vi

Dec.

1939

F

18

Pulmonary T.B.

Vi

Jan.

1940

F

10

Bronchial pneumonia

Vi

Jan.

1940

M

0

Premature birth

Vi

Jan.

1940

M

0

Premature birth

Vi

Jan.

1940

F

0

Premature birth

Vi

Jan.

1940

M

20

Pulmonary T.B.

Vi

Jan.

1940

M

65

Coronary thrombosis

Vi

Feb.

1940

M

4

'J

Vi

Mar.

1940

M

0

Bronchial pneumonia

Vi

Mar.

1940

F

54

Chronic chal(t)echystitis

Vi

Mar.

1940

p

0

Premature birth

Vi

Mar.

1940

F

0

Bronchial pneumonia

Vi

Mar.

1940

M

59

Cancer of intest.

Vi

Apr.

1940

M

0

Primary purpuras

Vi

254

BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE

[Vol. 19

Apr. 1940

M

38

T.B. of meninges of central

nervous system

1/2

Apr. ]

940

M

50

Myocarditis

1/2

Apr. 1

940

F

68

Asthma, senility

Vl

Apr. ]

L940

M

39

Myocarditis

Vl

Apr. ]

L940

M

72

T.B. (pulmonary)

Vl

Apr. 1

940

F

30

Puerperal hemorrhage

Vl

May ]

L940

M

75

Lobar pneumonia

Vl

May 1

940

F

82

Lobar pneumonia (senility)

Vl

May ]

1940

F

60

Chronic cholecystitis

Vl

May

L940

M

24

Pulmonary T.B.

Vl

May

1940

M

3

Acute endocarditis

Vl

June

1940

M

67

Cancer of stomach

Vl

July ]

L940

F

62

Pneumonia

Vl

July ]

L940

F

62

p

1/4

July ]

1940

F

92

Senility

Vl

Aug.

1940

M

22

General carcinoma

Vl

Aug.

1940

M

0

Premature birth

Vl

Aug. ]

L940

F

0

Stillborn

Vl

Aug.

1940

M

70

Myocarditis

Vl

Aug.

1940

M

74

Chronic nephritis

Vl

Sept. ]

L940

F

?

Chronic myocarditis

Vl

Nov.

1940

M

48

Myocarditis

Vl

Dec.

1940

M

53

Lobar pneumonia

Vl

Jan.

1941

M

Total . .
Average

0

age at

Syphilis

232 cases

death 30.8

Vl

19?3} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPENXA HEALTH 255

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