Native American Legends
Great Walker's Medicine
A Winnebago (Hotcâk) Legend
There was once a man named "Great Walker" who began to
fast for a blessing. One day he finally had a dream in which a Loon
Spirit blessed him, and afterwards said to him, "Great Walker,
I also bless you with this other thing. When I worked for our chief
in Spirit land and swept out his lodge, I removed bad things and
swept them outside -- so too will this medicine sweep bad things
from your body. No matter what bad thing you swallow, it shall not
kill you, for this medicine will sweep it out." Then Great
Walker looked at the Loon Spirit and saw something growing out of
his back. That was the medicine plant. The Loon Spirit continued:
"When you want to use this plant, don't just dig it up, but
first make offerings of a white feather, a white deerskin, and red
feathers. Pour me tobacco and I shall smoke it. Then you may dig
it up -- and when you use it you will not fail in anything. I bless
you alone with this herb." Great Walker performed many cures
with this purgative medicine and passed the knowledge of it on to
his descendants.
In recent times an old man named "Dog Head" followed
the war leader Smoke Walker to Tippecanoe. In that battle Smoke
Walker was killed, but before he died, Dog Head told him that he
would give his son Small Snake a blessing. As they made their escape
from the battlefield, Dog Head told Small Snake, "My son, I
promised your father that I would give you a blessing. It is not
a thing like the Medicine Lodge, for that would not go on after
your death. I shall give you a medicine of great value that first
came to a man named 'Great Walker'." Then he told Small Snake
the story of how Great Walker acquired the medicine from the spirits.
The owner of the medicine kept it hidden in a small hole in the
side of a cliff. When he went to get it, it was gone. He said, "We
should have been more careful where we kept it."
Dog Head spoke the truth, for even to this day the descendant of
Small Snake have benefited people with this medicine.
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