Cette image peut avoir des imperfections car il s’agit d’une image historique ou de reportage.
Referred to as healers, Medicine Men, or Medicine Women by their tribes, they have also been called shamans by people of European descent, though this term was not used by the Native Americans. These many healers’ primary role was to secure the help of the spirit world for the benefit of the community or an individual. The Medicine Man was also a priest in addition to being a doctor. Believing that disease could be caused by human, supernatural, or natural causes, the healer was equipped to treat illness in any of these categories. Masks, which were often grotesque and hideous, were worn by healers to frighten away the spirit causing the disease or pain. Beating drums and shaking rattles while dancing around the patient were also used to exorcise the demons. Paul Kane (September 3, 1810 - February 20, 1871) was an Irish-born Canadian painter famous for his paintings of First Nations peoples in the Canadian West and in the Columbia District.
