medicine man

Probably a calque of Ojibwe mashkikiiwinini (“doctor”), from mashkiki (“medicine”) + inini (“man”).

medicine man (plural medicine men)

1. A Native American shamanistic healer. The term is also used to refer to traditional healers of other indigenous peoples.
   • 1855, Henry Wadworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, XIV,

     And the Jossakeeds, the Prophets,

     The Wabenos, the Magicians,

     And the Medicine-men, the Medas,

     Painted upon bark and deer-skin

     Figures for the songs they chanted

   • 1891, W. Fletcher Johnson, Life of Sitting Bull and History of the Indian War of 1890-’91, Edgewood Publishing Co., p. 41,

     Sitting Bull is commonly thought of as a warrior. In point of fact he was not. He was a “medicine man;” which means that he included within himself the three professions of the priesthood, medicine and law.

   • 1958, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, London: William Heinemann, Chapter 9,

     After the death of Ekwefi's second child, Okonkwo had gone to a medicine man, who was also a diviner of the Afa Oracle, to enquire what was amiss.

• medicine woman