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"This is an English cover term, not the name of an office. There is no pan-Indian religious role, and the several hundred distinct nations of North America have distinct traditions, distinct specialists and distinct words for them." Medicine person is formally linked to three "religions" in this atlas, Dine (Navajo) Religion, Lakota Religion and Native American Religion, and this page's own text names exactly why the third is not like the first two.

Two Distinct, Named Offices

"Dine healing is conducted by a hataali, a singer, who has memorised a chantway ceremony, a body of song, prayer and drypainting that may run for several nights and whose transmission takes years. Lakota practice distinguishes the wicasa wakan from the pejuta wicasa, the herbalist, and the two are not interchangeable. These are different offices in different religions and the English phrase covers over the difference."

The Third Category Is the Point, Not a Third Office

Native American Religion is the third of the three religions this page links to, and it is not a third distinct office alongside the first two. The register's own restricted-tradition entry for it makes exactly the same argument this page's own description makes: "Native American religion is a broad category covering hundreds of distinct nations rather than a single tradition. The office of medicine person can be described, but the ceremonies belonging to individual nations are not reproduced here."

What Can Be Said, and What Will Not Be

"Such specialists are trained, usually for years and usually by apprenticeship; the authority is recognised by the community and can be withdrawn by it; and the work is specific, a person qualified in one ceremony is not thereby qualified in another. The contents of these ceremonies are not set out here... The office can be described; the ceremony is not ours to publish." The description also names "the sale of ceremonial services by people claiming to be medicine men, to non-Native customers," opposed by Lakota elders' declarations since 1993, which matches Lakota Religion's own restricted-tradition reason on this atlas word for word. Dine (Navajo) Religion, Lakota Religion and Native American Religion each carry a live restricted-tradition fact, and each permits exactly this office-level description while withholding ceremony content; this essay stays inside that line throughout.

Where To Read More

• Medicine personNative American Religion RolesThe cover term itself; two distinct offices named, the third counted category argued to be a category rather than an office
• Diné (Navajo) ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)The hataali, a singer who memorises a chantway ceremony over years; carries a live restricted-tradition fact limited to ceremony content
• Lakota ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)The wicasa wakan kept distinct from the pejuta wicasa, the herbalist; carries a live restricted-tradition fact limited to ceremony content, citing the same 1993 declaration
• Native American ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)The covering category itself, its own restriction reason arguing it is not a single tradition