The Medicine Lodge Myth Analysis

The myth starts off during the medicine lodge ceremony and sleight of hand competition season. The wife of the leader of the medicine men wanted her son, now 13, to take part in the events in the medicine lodge, so she advised him to go into the lodge and ask for his father’s acceptance. He did as his mother bid and offered his father his one pony, but he was refused. This repeated a few times, with the mother sending the son back into the medicine lodge only to be rejected each time. Still not understanding the reason for her husband’s rejection of their son, she sent him one last time with boiled coin and dried meat. He was rejected, and the mother resigned herself. However, the mother was a daughter of another leader of the medicine ceremony. She herself had some knowledge of the ceremonies her father would perform and she would make it known to the village and most importantly, her husband. The mother brought out her sacred bundle, and from it, she took out the materials for her ceremony. She covered herself and her son in mud and robes. After she had everything she needed, she tied up the bundle again and put it away. She and her son entered the lodge and took a seat, where the father did not as much as acknowledge their …show more content…
It holds a lot of prestige in the community, and it is no small feat to become a member of the lodge. They are the authority on medicine and each different cult reports to the big “Doctor Lodge” . However, there were conflicting factions within the leadership, something that brought tension to the lodge. These tensions can be seen in the myth between the husband and wife pair who both practice sleight of hand, their euphemism for magic. The wife is the daughter of another medicine man leader, and so she subsequently has more impressive magic than her husband. It inspires a lot of jealousy in him, which leads him to kill his own