SANAPIA'S COURAGE MEDICINE is the tale of the childhood, education, joys and struggles and eventual shamanic practice of a woman who carried her people's tradition of eagle Medicine into the twentieth century. Sanapia was born in 1895, a generation after the surrender of the Comanche. Her mother was a puhaket, or eagle doctor. At a young age, Sanapia was chosen by her mother and her maternal uncle to carry on the medicine tradition. During her adolescence, she learned the methods and ethics of a puhaket's practice.
At age seventeen, she was sent on a vision quest, where she was warned that ghosts and demons would attempt to break her. In fear, she was unable to complete her task. Yet, when she returned home to admit her failure, she found she was unable, for her tribe was holding a huge celebration in her honor.
Soon after, Sanapia married, had children, and lived happily until her husband died when she was thirty-five. She then began more than a decade of drinking, gambling and sexual liaisons. Near the age of fifty, she was asked to cure her niece. Despite her self-doubts, Sanapia drew on her Eagle medicine training, along with strong prayer, and was successful in healing the young child. This began her medicine practice, which lasted until her death in 1986, at age ninety-one.
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http://www.waveland.com/Titles/Jones-Sanapia.htm