In March, 1840, Whitman writes[1] of ten deaths among the Indians during the winter and spring, near the station, and after they left for their hunting he heard of five more. He does not state the nature of the epidemic, but adds that they are "attached to their superstitions of jugling. Of late they have shown a wish to receive medicine ... but fear revives all their former prejudices.” The doctor had difficulty from the beginning with the native medical practices, if they can be so called. In the spring of 1837 he writes[2] of the Indians working faithfully to help prepare ground for planting, but "owing to a severe inflammation of the lungs among them they suspended their labor.” He writes: “Their sickness gave me much trouble from their love for their native juglers . . . relying on incantations—giving no medicine.”
It would be of interest to compare Indian medical practices with those of the white man one hundred years ago. According to Dr. A. C. Jones[3] the northwest Indians used various preparations as astringents, ointments, cathartics, etc. The steam bath appears to have been their chief therapeutic measure. A low hut with a pit was built near a stream. Stones were heated in a fire and water was thrown on them to make steam which filled the hut. “The bathers remain in the mud and heat as long as possible, yelling and singing, then dash out to dive into the nearest stream.”
The tewats or medicine men, however, with their sorcery were the chief resource of the Indians when sick. They were called upon to chase out the evil spirits of disease from their patients. If the patient died the tewat might share the same fate at the hands of relatives of the deceased. In his attempts to carry healing to the Indians, Doctor Whitman faced some
of his greatest difficulties, and probably laid the seeds which
