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Biography of SanapiaName: SanapiaBirth Date: May 20, 1895 Death Date: January 23, 1979 Place of Birth: Fort Sill, Oklahoma, United States Nationality: American Gender: Female Occupations: medicine woman Sanapia Sanapia (1895-1979) was a Comanche medicine woman whose healing practices were documented by graduate student David E. Jones in the early 1970s. Sanapia did not begin practicing as a doctor until after she reached menopause. She had received her training from her mother and maternal uncle while still a young girl.Powerful ForebearersAlthough it is impossible to trace the origin of the Comanche tribe, there are indications that it first emerged in present-day Wyoming, between the Yellowstone and Platte Rivers. According to legend, two groups of the tribe disagreed about how to divide up a slain animal and decided to separate. One group went north, where it became known as the Shoshone. The other turned east and south and became the Comanche.Sanapia, whose Christian name was Mary Poafpybitty, was born in the spring of 1895 in a tepee pitched near Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Her family had travelled to Fort Sill to …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…entered her mouth while sucking, and red paint for treating ghost sickness.According to the doctoring tradition of her people, the medicine power needed to be transferred to someone willing and worthy of the responsibility. It is unclear whether or not Sanapia forwarded her power to a successor. Perhaps out of a concern that she would be unable to pass her power on to the next generation, Sanapia allowed anthropologist David E. Jones to record the details of her life and the medicine tradition beginning in 1967. The result was several articles and a book (Sanapia, Comanche Medicine Woman). Sanapia died in 1984 in Oklahoma and was buried in the Comanche Indian cemetery near Chandler Creek, Oklahoma. Further Reading Jones, David E., Sanapia, Comanche Medicine Woman, Waveland Press, 1972.Margolis, Simeon, ed., Johns Hopkins Symptoms and Remedies, Rebus, 1995."Artists' Biography: Eleanor McDaniel," Native American Store Online, http://www.nativeamericanstoreonline.com/ab4.html (January 2003). |