MEDICINE MAN, Yellowtail carries on tradition of healing Beaverhead Co., MT USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. "List transcribed and organized by Jo Ann Scott, scottj@onyx.xtalwind.net All rights reserved." Copyright, 1998 by Jo Ann Scott. This file may be freely copied for non-profit purposes. All other rights reserved. Billings Gazette, 4/18/88 Reprinted for Internet with the permission of Roger Clawson, author, and the Billings Gazette, Jerry O'Brien Young Tom Yellowtail watched paralyzed with awe, as the Shonshone medicine man called on the power of the little people to heal his sister. The 10 year old Crow couldn't know that a a century later he would become the great healer's protege and successor. Today at 85 his fame as a healer and spiritual leader has spread to a half-dozen countries on two continents. Some white men knew him as a son of Yellowtail, a great Crow wrestler, husband of Suzie Yellowtail, the first American nurse, brother of Robert Yellowtail, Crow political leader, still alive at 100. But among the Crow, for 25 years, he was known as sun dance chief and medicine man. The account of how he obtained his powers is the critical chapter of his life's story. From his home in Wyola, a reservation hamlet on the Little Bighorn River, he recalled his life's quest. "In the old days, many young men went into the mountains to fast and seek visions,"he said, "I sought my medicine instead in the sun dance." It was during these sun dances that Yellowtail came to know the Shoshone John Trejillo. Lightning shattered the air and friends fled when Trejillo received his power from Seven Arrows, king of the little people. The story of Trejillo passing this power to Yellowtail is almost as dramatic. Yellowtail tells it: "John had gone with two friends to fast in a cave in Wyoming. They had just settled in when lightning struck and thunder filled the cave. John's friends ran, but John hunched down and said, "I'll take whatever is coming to me." It was then that Seven Arrows appeared, Yellowtail said. No more than two feet tall, with white hair hanging to the ground and a bear claw necklace about his neck, he was king of the supernatural little people everywhere. Seven Arrows led Trejillo into the heart of the mountain past crowds of gamblers betting on horse races, arrow throwing contests and hand games. "These are not good" the little king said. At last they came to a lodge where a man lay on the ground and another worked to heal him. "This was the power Seven Arrows was to give John Trejillo," Yellowtail said. Trejillo increased his power and his fame leading sun dances for the Crow, The Shonshone, Utes and others for more than 50 years. Many young men begged to be his successor, to be given his medicine objects and taught his ways, "But his medicine fathers (Sever Arrows and other supernatural helpers) told him none were worthy," Yellowtail said. Then, one day in July while Yellowtail danced in the sun lodge with Trejillo and many others, Trejillo heard a whisper, "That young man is the one. He's the one to give your medicine things to." "Tom" said Trejillo, "When you go home, these little feathers (an eagle fan) will go with you." the small fan used in healing ceremonies was the first of the Trejillo's gifts. More were to follow. One night in Yellowtails's house, as Trejillo passed on the right to run sun dances to his student, John ordered the lights dimmed while he sang three songs, "Then he put his fist on my back and blew through it," Yellowtail recalled. "The bugle of a bull elk rang in the room as clear as could be, startling my grandchildren who were watching this," Trejillo put the spirit of the spike bull elk in Yellowtail's body and told him "He will be one of your medicine fathers, " Trejillo said Yellowtail could also call on the power of the eagle, buffalo, otter and white goose from the North. The power come through these helpers, but the ultimate source is Acdadadea, Creator and Maker of All Things, Yellowtail said. Yellowtail would use that power again and again. A Winebago Indian boy on crutches who said gangrene would soon force doctors to amputate his foot came to the Crow healer. Yellowtail applied prayer and ointment. Doctors called the boy's healing a miracle, he said. A woman who niece was dying of kidney failure came to Yellowtail for help. "With incense and smoke and prayer, I called on my medicine fathers and sent them to California with a wave of my eagle feathers. I was certain the girl would recover. The next day the girl's cousin told me her kidney had begun to work." Such stories must be coaxed from Yellowtail. :"There are many stories of healings, but they are not important," he said. Trejillo was past 100 when he turned over his medicine to Yellowtail. The old Shoshone lived to 113 before he died on a cold January day "when the snow was deep". Seven Arrows used to come through concrete walls to visit Treijillo. Yellowtail was told he might hear from the little king but said, "that has not yet occurred." Still, he is confident that Seven Arrows is his helper. "The results of my healing prove it," yellowtail said. Seven Arrows rides the lightning and takes Yellowtail's power to those who need it, thought they may call from half way around the world, the Crow medicine man said. Yellowtail ran sun dances for more than 20 years until one day he was reminded of his own mortality. A heart attack during a healing ceremony prompted him to look for a successor. He found that successor in John Pretty On Top. "Something very valuable would be lost to my people if I died without passing on my things", he said. This summer, Yellowtail and Pretty On Top will carry the power handed down from Trejillo to Europe. Later Yellowtail may accept an invitation to go to Japan. Prophecies common to several Plains Indian tribes say the world will end when too many people fail to follow the way to their Maker. "Imagine that if everyone in the world joined in prayer and followed a religion, then the world would come close to the Creator again" he said. Yellowtail does not prescribe his religion for all. It is simply his way and the way of Indian people who walked this continent for thousands of years. It is important, he said, for each person to seek his Creator in his own way, but following their separate ways, all people trod the same path. "Each person should know that his prayers help, not only himself, but all creation." he said.