THE CHEROKEE PHYSICIAN

Jessica DelBove

Pathology Graduate Student

UNC-Chapel Hill

Warlike Osages in traditional costume (c 1850’s) pose before resuming a war dance. Courtesy: The Chronicles of Oklahoma. (‘Cherokees p53)

Spring Frog, a chief of the Old Settler Cherokees. c1830’s Courtesy Five Civilized Tribes Museum (‘Cherokees’ p52)

A’Yun’ini (or Swimmer), a NC Cherokee, who served as a sergeant in the Confederate army in the Civil War. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society (‘Cherokees’ p.46)

Cherokee Syllabary as invented by Sequayah c1809. As reprinted in Myths of the Cherokees, J Mooney. Washington DC.1900 (Cherokees, p31)

“WE, THE REPRESENTATIVES of the people of the CHEROKEE

NATION in Convention assembled, in order to establish justice, ensure tranquility, promote the common

welfare, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessing of liberty:

acknowledging with humility and gratitude the goodness of the

sovereign Ruler of the Universe, in offering us an opportunity so favorable to the design, and

imploring his aid and direction in its accomplishment, do ordain and

establish this Constitution for the Government of the Cherokee Nation.

1827Title page of the Cherokee Constitution, ‘The Cherokee’ p 46

THE CHEROKEE PHOENIX.

Courtesy of New Echota Foundation, Calhoun, Ga. (‘Cherokees of the Old South: A People in Transition’ p.82)

Cover of the Cherokee Advocate, July-August 2000.

Holiday Issue.

www.cherokee.org

• “Not a medical work decked in flowery drapery of fine and ornamented style and technical lore”

• “Plain, practical sense, rather than with the fascination decorations of high standing, unmeaning names and technical phrases”

• “Medicine should not be merely a study of curious enquiry, but one of the deepest interest to every son of mortality”

The Cherokee Physician or Indian Guide to

Health

The Cherokee Physician or Indian Guide to

Health• Divided into three main parts

AnatomySection on Preventative Medicine

Diseases•Symptoms, Causes, Treatments

Materia Medica•Herbal descriptions and uses

AnatomyOrgans of the Human Body and

Their Uses

• Not great detail- just an outline of the whole human system

– Number of bones in hand, leg, skull etc…

• Meant for heads of families

– sufficient to ascertain the seat of disease, to return a dislocated joint, etc...

• Trachea: ‘wine-pipe’(sic), Lungs: ‘lights’, Esophagus: ‘the swallow’, Spleen: ‘the melt’

The Art of Preserving Health Without the Use

of Medicines

• Religious (Christian) fulfillment– refers to the fall of mankind as told in the Bible

• Air

• Exercise

• Sleep

• Clothing

• Food and Drink

•Cleanliness

•Passions (anger, envy, fear, hatred, hope, joy, love) and their effect on health

Containing a Description of the Symptoms of

Disease, and the Method of Treatment

• Gives only symptoms of specific diseases, and limited treatments, not “long treatise on the doctrines, or pathology of diseases, which would prove both tedious and tiresome”

Diseases discussed: total of 73

• Catarrh or Cold*

• Influenza or Malignant Sore Throat*

• Pleurisy*

• Dropsy*

• Dyspepsy, or Indigestion*

• Flux or Dysentery*

• Diarrhea or Lax*

• Hemorrhoids or Piles*

• Cholera Morbus,or Puking and Purging*

• Scrofula or Kings-evil*

• Ulcers*

• Cancer*

• Pox*

• Clap (Gonorrhea)

• Consumption*

• Rupture or Hernia*

• Rheumatism* (Inflammatory and Chronic)

• Jaundice*

• Diabetes

• Colic* (bilious and nervous)

• Various poisons*

• Scurvy*

• Deafness*

• Phthisic or Asthma*

• Fevers

– Ague or Intermittent*

– Bilious

– Nervous fever or Typhus fever

– Yellow

– Scarlet

• Inflammation (of the Brain, Stomach, Intestines, Kidneys, Bladder, Spleen, Liver)

• Gravel and Stones (kidney stones)*

• Locked Jaw

• Tooth ache*

• Palsy*

• Diseases of the Skin (scald head*, tether-worm, ring-worm, itch*, shingles, St. Anthony’s Fire, Small Pox*, Chicken Pox, Measles, Mumps*, Burns and Scalds*, Fractures and Dislocations*, Wounds and cuts*,

• Whooping Cough

Indian Materia Medica: (Principally Botanical)

• Indian knowledge of botanical cures is extensive, comparatively

• Gives common names, Cherokee names,and Latin names when known– includes a description of the plant, where to

find it, how to prepare it, and its principal uses.

• Antiseptics (Slippery Elm) , Emetics (Ipecacuanha), Ginseng, Chamomile

Questions Raised

• Use of the word vaccination

• Use of the word antiseptic

• Wording of the title

• Did Foreman really write this book- alone?

First Edition of Jenner’s Cow Pox Vaccine Announcement, 1798, in London. From: A Bio-Bibliography of Edward Jenner: 1749-

1823 by WR LeFanu (1951) p. 28 plate V

American Edition of Jenner’s Cow Pox Vaccine Announcement, 1802. From: A Bio-Bibliography of Edward

Jenner: 1749-1823 by WR LeFanu (1951) p. 28 plate V III

Sources Utilized for this Presentation

Perdue, Theda. The Cherokee. Chelse House Pub. NY, NY 1989. Jones, BM; Faulk, OB; Cherokees: An Illustrative History. The Five Civilized Tribes Museum. OK. 1984. LeFanu, WR. A Bio-Bibliography of Edward Jenner: 1749-1823. (1951) http://www.cherokee.org/