- Sanapia
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Sanapia 
SanapiaBorn Mary Poafpybitty
Spring 1895
Fort Sill, OklahomaDied January 23, 1984 (some sources say 1968 or 1979) Occupation Medicine woman Known for Spiritual healing Sanapia, born Mary Poafpybitty (20 May 1895 [chosen not actual[1]] - January 23, 1984[2]) was a Comanche medicine woman and spiritual healer. She is believed to be the last of the so-called Eagle doctors which believed in the power of the Eagle and spirits to aid them in healing the sick.[3][4] She was heavily influenced by traditional Comanche Indian medicine, incorporating elements of Christianity and Peyotism.[2][5] Her spiritual healing was documented by David E. Jones after 1967, mainly in the early 1970s.
Contents
Early life
Sanapia, was born Mary Poafpybitty in spring 1895 to David Poafpybitty and Chappy Poafpybitty, a native American family near Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Although it has been documented that she was born on May 20, 1895, she was uncertain of her actual birthdate so this date was adopted later on.[1] She was sixth of eleven children but the first girl to be conceived by the Paofpybittys. As a girl, her family struggled to make ends meet and lived in poverty, relying on rations from nearby Fort Sill.[1] She was raised by her maternal grandmother.[6]
Spiritual development
An eagle
Although Sanapia did not begin a career as a doctor until her mid teens, from a very young age she received training from her mother and her maternal uncle, an Arapaho chief, both of which were Comanche shamans or eagle doctors.[4] Although her father, David, was a Christian and indifferent to Comanche cult practices, he did not interfere with the training of his daughter in the supernatural.[1] She attended Cache Creek Mission School in southern Oklahoma from the age of 7 until 14 and during the summer holidays would develop a knowledge of herbal medicines.[1]
Between the ages of 14 and 17 she received full time training from her mother, uncle and paternal grandfather to attain the knowledge, ethics, skills and the supernatural powers (paha[5]) to become a medicine woman.[4][6] The latter, attaining supernatural powers, would be achieved by transferring power through the medium of the hands and mouth, using various methods such as hot coals into her hands, two eagle feathers inserted into her mouth and the egg of an eagle into her stomach.[1] The visionary aspects of the training were achieved through prolonged periods of solitary meditation and spiritual nurturing and intensive reiterating by her mother that evil spirits such as ghosts and demons would harm her which terrified her.[4][7] Her uncle named her "Sanapia", which means "Memory Woman".[4]
"I was sure scared then...almost got up and ran away. I was only a young girl at the time, you know. But, when I took them coals on my hand, inside and outside my hand I felt a chill, maybe. Oh, it was like chills in my hands. That has the meaning that power was in there... working in my hands. Felt like it would go up my arms even."[3] -Sanapia on having hot coals inserted into hands as part of the training process.
Marriages and breakdown
After her training was completed, a marriage was arranged for her. It was an unhappy one, although it bore a one son.[1] She left her first husband and remarried a second time, a marriage which lasted until her husband's death in the 1930s, which produced a son and daughter. Sanapia, now aged 35, broke down after his death, which affected her morals, engaging in heavy drinking, gambling and promiscuous sex.[1][7] Then one day, Sanapia healed the sick child of her sister and this event was a spiritual reawakening and she took it as a sign to denounce her bad ways and became a serious doctor.
Career as a medicine woman
Peyote, which Sanapia believed was a gift from the Christian God to the Native Indian peopleSanapia remarried around 1945, and after menopause,[8] she began her healing practice. She began to have frequent dreams related to the peyote ritual which she believed was a gift from the Christian God to the Native Indian people.[1] She healed many people using a medical kit of both botanical and non-botanical medicines, such as sneezeweed to treat heart palpitations, low blood pressure and congestion, mescal bean for ear problems, rye grass for the treatment of cataracts, red cedar to ward off ghosts, prickly ash to treat fever; iris for colds, broomweed for dermatological ailments etc.[1] Her most important medicine was peyote.[6] She was only prevailent in using the body parts of dead animals such as beef fat for mouth burns, white otter fur and porcupine quills for children, fossilized bone to treat wounds and infections and even a Bible to pray for power.[1]
During her career she was particularly adept as healing facial paralysis, now known as Bell's palsy which she believed was inflicted upon the victim by an evil ghost.[4] Sanapia believed that the ghost throws a feather into the body of the affected patient and unless it is removed the patient will die. However, she did not believe that the ghost physically placed a feather in a body, but rather placed the essence of it within the individual to inflict pain.[3][9] She would heal the victim by asking them to bathe in a stream, followed by a prayer to the eagle to help heal her patient, and "smoking" the patient with the smoke of a cedar tree. She would then chew on milkweed and place in on the part of the body which was affected by the paralysis and would then suck on the affected part of the patient's face with a cow horn to draw out the sickness.[1][5] During the healing she was often obtain four or so eagle of crow feathers and fan the patient to ward of evil spirits.[5] If the treatment was ineffective, Sanapia would pray apply peyote tea to the patient's face, head, and hands and if the patient needed her deepest powers of healing she would sing a song until she attracted the spririts to help her.[1]
Death and legacy
Sanapia was buried in the Comanche Indian cemetery near Chandler Creek, Oklahoma. Her exploits are documented by David E. Jones in Sanapia, Comanche Medicine Woman, from 1967 with Sanapia's permission.[1] She adopted Jones as her son , otherwise it would be a wrong-doing to pass down information about the traditional healing to an outsider.[10] In doing so, Sanapia's purpose was for the book to serve as a form of autobiography, to pass the knowledge which she had acquired down to the next generation and to encourage others to follow in her footsteps in being a traditional medicine woman and healer.[10] None of her children, however, were interested enough in spiritual healing to follow in her footsteps.[4]
Further reading
- Jones, David E. Sanapia: Comanche Medicine Woman. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974. ISBN 0-03-088456-X.
- Margolis, Simeon, ed., Johns Hopkins Symptoms and Remedies, Rebus, 1995.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n McDaniel, Eleanor (January 2003). "Artists' Biography". Native American Store Online.
- ^ a b Glickman, Simon, Malinowski, Sharon (1996). Native North American Biography: J-Z, Volume 2 (38 ed.). UXL. pp. 326–8. ISBN 0810398176.
- ^ a b c Weigle, Marta (2007). Spiders and Spinsters: Women and Mythology. Sunstone Press. pp. 126–7. ISBN 0865345872. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1aLCcrYU0LwC&pg=PA126&dq=Sanapia&hl=en&ei=0BHLTOO5IM7usgaQ1dSnAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Sanapia&f=false.
- ^ a b c d e f g Sonneborn, Liz (2007). A to Z of American Indian women (2 ed.). Infobase Publishing. pp. 219–221. ISBN 0816066949. http://books.google.com/books?id=N7eiezmLjfEC&pg=PA220&dq=%22Sanapia%22+-inpublisher:icon&as_brr=0&cd=4#v=onepage&q=%22Sanapia%22%20-inpublisher%3Aicon&f=false.
- ^ a b c d Baer, Hans A. (2001). Biomedicine and alternative healing systems in America: issues of class, race, ethnicity, and gender. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 173. ISBN 0299166945. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W57RifZStAsC&pg=PA173&dq=Sanapia&hl=en&ei=2g_LTKXLKI2Sswb5roWpAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Sanapia&f=false.
- ^ a b c Bataille, M. Gretchen M. , Laurie, Lisa (June 2001). Native American Women (2, Volume 1, Part 19 ed.). pp. pages 269–270.
- ^ a b "Sanapia". Mojomamma. http://mojomamma.com/sanapia.html. Retrieved October 29, 2010.
- ^ Jestice, Phyllis G. (2004). "Sanapia". Holy people of the world: a cross-cultural encyclopedia. 3. ABC-CLIO. pp. 765. ISBN 1576073556. http://books.google.com/books?id=H5cQH17-HnMC&pg=PA765.
- ^ ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Women and Religion IN NORTH AMERICA. Indiana University Press. p. 1257. ISBN 0253916879. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=we2KvdT3zOsC&pg=PA1257&dq=Sanapia&hl=en&ei=9Q7LTKqBM8_Gswa_8LmnAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Sanapia&f=false.
- ^ a b Bataille, Gretchen M., Sands, Kathleen M. (1987). American Indian women, telling their lives. Bison Books, U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803260822. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HCOiOOjhwAUC&pg=PA71&dq=Sanapia&hl=en&ei=phXLTOujNcjKswb3gZnSDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=Sanapia&f=false.
Categories:- 1895 births
- 1984 deaths
- People from Oklahoma
- Comanche tribe
- Medicine women
- Herbalists
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