.

Perhaps the most remarkable organization ever known among American
Indians, that of the "Grand Medicine Lodge," was apparently an indirect
result of the labors of the early Jesuit missionaries. In it Caucasian
ideas are easily recognizable, and it seems reasonable to suppose that
its founders desired to establish an order that would successfully
resist the encroachments of the "Black Robes." However that may be, it
is an unquestionable fact that the only religious leaders of any note
who have arisen among the native tribes since the advent of the white
man, the "Shawnee Prophet" in 1762, and the half-breed prophet of the
"Ghost Dance" in 1890, both founded their claims or prophecies upon the
Gospel story. Thus in each case an Indian religious revival or craze,
though more or less threatening to the invader, was of distinctively
alien origin.

The Medicine Lodge originated among the Algonquin tribe, and extended
gradually throughout its branches, finally affecting the Sioux of the
Mississippi Valley, and forming a strong bulwark against the work of the
pioneer missionaries, who secured, indeed, scarcely any converts
until after the outbreak of 1862, when subjection, starvation, and
imprisonment turned our broken-hearted people to accept Christianity,
which seemed to offer them the only gleam of kindness or hope.

The order was a secret one, and in some respects not unlike the Free
Masons, being a union or affiliation of a number of lodges, each
with its distinctive songs and medicines. Leadership was in order of
seniority in degrees, which could only be obtained by merit, and women
were admitted to membership upon equal terms, with the possibility of
attaining to the highest honors. No person might become a member unless
his moral standing was excellent, all candidates remained on probation
for one or two years, and murderers and adulterers were expelled. The
commandments promulgated by this order were essentially the same as the
Mosaic Ten, so that it exerted a distinct moral influence, in addition
to its ostensible object, which was instruction in the secrets of
legitimate medicine.

In this society the uses of all curative roots and herbs known to us
were taught exhaustively and practiced mainly by the old, the younger
members being in training to fill the places of those who passed away.
My grandmother was a well-known and successful practitioner, and both my
mother and father were members, but did not practic