[New Haven, CT]: [Kickapoo Indian Medicine Co.], [n.d., ca. 1894–1906]. OCLC records numerous printings, the earliest purported to be 1892 and the latest, 1907. A personal account in the present copy details health developments occurring in the winter of 1894. The presence of the name “Healy” suggests this copy was printed prior to John “Doc” Healy selling his half of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Co. in 1906. Earlier printings featured color wrappers. Small black and white woodcut illustrations throughout. Some foxing to spine and page edges. Mild ink fading on select pages. A very good + copy. Black and white pictorial wrappers, stapled. 5 x 7 in. 32 pp. + [2] publisher’s ad on inner wrappers. Item #18048
“Texas Charlie” Bigelow and John “Doc” Healy were a pair of white entrepreneurs who made a small fortune touring their medicine show across the US. Bigelow claimed to have been rescued from a life-threatening fever while patrolling Indian Country as a U.S. Army scout. The Chief who happened upon him administered “Kickapoo Sagwa” and sent Bigelow back to the Northeast with a convoy of medicine men to reproduce the concoction. This, of course, was an entirely fabricated origin story. Both men had been peddling fake medicines for some time when they joined forces. See “Sugar, a Mild Laxative, and a Dollop of Alcohol” on the historynet website.
Consistent with medicinal pamphlets of the period, the present work blends effusive personal testimonial, sensational advertising copy, as well as more general interest prose. In this instance, the pamphlet is interspersed with rudimentary dream interpretation guides, all ostensibly drawing upon ancient Indian wisdom. With entries such as “If you are ill and dream of washing it is a sign of recovery” and “To stumble in a dream and fall means misfortune and sickness; If you stumble but do not fall it foretells success and recovery from sickness” the advice included herein is as dubious as it is specific.The book explains that "The womb is the seat of all 'Female Weakness'." The cure is the Kickapoo salve, "applied directly to the seat of the trouble.".
Price: $150.00